Hey everyone, if you notice in the original interview, most of the intro was cut out that I think is really interesting, due to space limitation. I am posting the original interview with spelling mistakes and all down below! Please enjoy and stay SGC2C fans forever!!!! And please follow my writing on COED! http://coedmagazine.com/author/elinanulman/
I received the opportunity to interview one my favorite voice over actors, C. Martin Croker, who used to play both Zorak and Moltar on the 90′s animated parody talk show, Space Ghost Coast to Coast. I was really interested in what he was up to, what future animated shows he may be working on, where George Lowe is today (Space Ghost’s voice over actor) and whether or not he enjoys showering with his helmet on. Please make sure you catch Croker at the Big Apple Comic Con hosted by Wizard World this May. For details on tickets, please visit: http://www.wizardworld.com/
COED: How did you land the gig as the voice over for Moltar and Zorak?
Croker: Well- That’s a long one.
Cartoon Network went on the air in October of 1992. By the next year they started thinking about doing new programming and checked into the characters at their disposal in the recently acquired Hanna-Barbera library. While owned by the same parent company (Turner) they found that HB was only confident enough in the new network to okay their second-tier “B” characters for new productions (So Yogi Bear and the Flintstones were off the table but stuff like Wacky Races and Space Ghost were not.) Exec-Producer Mike Lazzo along with Andy Merrill and Kahki Jones came up with the idea and model for Space Ghost:Coast to Coast.
Andy cobbled together 5 min idea reel and they shopped it around to several production houses including Crawford Design efx in Atlanta where I was working at the time. Once it was determined I was the only one who was familiar with old Space Ghost it fell in my lap. By this point another house had done a slicker treatment which Cartoon Network wasn’t smitten with. They showed it to us and I could see why. In it SG seemed to just be on the set of the tonight show… all by himself.
My first thought was… if he’s Space Ghost… why ain’t he in Space?
You put any Superhero – Batman for example – in this same situation and you take away everything that makes the character interesting. And to me, what made Space Ghost cartoons interesting were the caliber of the villians. So in my proposal I set the show in Space and had Zorak and Moltar in there as sort of prison furloughed stage hands for conflict.
Anyway, getting to the voices…
Since Gary Owens – Space Ghost’s 1960s voice – had voiced him for the “Tonight Show” type pitch we saw, I figured he would be doing SG for our show… Just as I figured Don Messick (Boo-Boo) would reprise his role as Zorak. When I found out their inclusion was cost-prohibitive I was crushed. They had an idea for who would be Space Ghost’s voice for the new show at that point, but as I sat in a meeting the question came up “who are we gonna get to do Zorak’s voice?”. I literally held up my hand and said “I can do that voice”. I had done some voices already – also to my own animation – a few years earlier when had I worked at the Lasershow at Stone Mountain park. I was also a big enough nerd to have actually put a Zorak message on my answering machine in high school. I proceeded to regurgitate a mantisy line from a ’60s cartoon. THey all looked around and Mike said “Okay then – You’re Zorak. Don’t try to get out of it”. And that was that. Moltar was a different story. Andy (Merrill) was going to voice him as kind of a Hillbilly version of what became the Brak voice. Literally a week or two before air I got a call from Keith Crofford (Producer) and he asked if I could do Ted Cassidy. I gave it a shot and he said “Close enough… c’mon down and let’s record it”.
So that’s the long and short of it. I never thought when I wrote Zorak and Molar into the proposal that I’d wind up voicing ‘em too, but I can’t say I’m not happy it worked out that way!
COED: When did you first realize you had the magical superpower of controlling your voice?
Croker: In elementary school. I used to do various cartoon characters and imitations the school staff to entertain my friends and annoy my teachers. Looking back on it I was way too into using Dennis the Menace as a role model. I studied (Hank) Ketcham’s teachings and excelled in early 1960s Menacery.The Little Rascals and Jonny Quest were an influence too, but in my book Dennis was KING! THe first voice over stuff I did professionally was at the Lasershow in 1986. I voiced a possum in a civil war cap that I also designed and animated for the show.
COED: Did you ever receive professional voice over training?
Croker: Nope. Some acting classes, but mostly just a goofball and mimic.
COED: What have you been working on recently?
Croker: A lot of bats and Vampires for a new Aqua Teen, designing characters for other people, working on a couple of my own cartoon pilots, plus a comic book and T-Shirt line. That’s most of it.
COED: Have you ever thought about starting your own animation/TV show?
Croker: Who me? Ohhh yeah. Picking which pony to bet on is always the rub.
COED: How was your experience working with George Lowe? What is he up to today?
Croker: Love George. George and I actually seldom worked together. Lately he’s relocated to The Florida panhandle where he, his Mom and a crazy pet bird have unlikely and preposterous adventures every day. So weird they’ll be on Aqua Teen this season, so watch for ‘em!
COED: Did you always know you would end up on a TV show where a cartoon host was interviewing celebrities?
Croker: One can only aspire. It is weird to me that the original Space Ghost might have been the first Saturday Morning show (that wasn’t Bugs Bunny) I made a point of watching. I was 4 and a half when it premiered in the 1966 TV season (along with Star Trek, Super 6 and Adam West Batman).
COED: What was the first job you’ve ever had?
Croker: I was an… indentured servant at my Dad’s Italian restaurant during my teen years. The first job I got myself was airbrushing T-Shirts at Six Flags in 1978.
COED: Do you shower with your helmet on?
Croker: Only if I’m not showering alone.
COED: What were some of the creepiest/strangest requests you’ve ever received regarding your voice over work?
Croker: Someone wanted Space Ghost and Zorak doin’ it on their answering machine. Someone really strange. (It didn’t happen.)
COED: Harley Quinn, Gravity Girl, and Wonder Woman: which would you marry, which would you kill and which would you make sweet love to?
Croker: My first cartoon crushes were Briar Rose from Sleeping Beauty and Teen-Age Pebbles (voiced by Sally Struthers) My first sex dream was of Morticia Addams (but I was just kissing her arm, so does that even count?) Does this matter? I don’t know!
Uhm.. Offhand Marry Wonder Woman, Kill Gravity Girl and put some lovin’ on Harley (you know what they say about crazy girls)
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