If you've ever wondered what impressionist-voice actor Maurice LaMarche looks like, well, look no further than this installment of the NBC game show, Wordplay, hosted by venerable Tom Kennedy. Maurice gets in a plug for what would be Popeye & Son, which bowed the following fall, but not mentioned is the fact he was in his 2nd season on Real Ghostbusters.
However, Maurice misspoke when mentioning he was the 2nd actor to essay the role of Popeye. Jack Mercer wasn't the original voice, either, as that has been documented here and elsewhere. Most folks associate Mercer with Popeye, and that leads to a lot of confusion and misinformation.
Phyllis Diller, of course, had appeared on The New Scooby-Doo Movies, and acted in the movie, "Mad Monster Party".
We'll take a closer look at Wordplay over at The Land of Whatever another time.
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Other notable on-camera appearances from Maurice LaMarche include as Inspector Gadget in the live-action wraparounds of an episode of The Super Mario Brothers Super Show! (this was before LaMarche took over the voice of Gadget after Don Adams' passing), and he can currently be seen in a series of ads for Xbox's Forsa racing game series, ironically playing a voice-over narrator.
Only semi-related, but still noteworthy to mention: LaMarche has recently retired from voicing Warner Bros.' Yosemite Sam, as the voice was taking too much of a toll on his vocal chords (like Mel Blanc before him, LaMarche voiced his Sam lines all at once to get them over with quicker, and after one session of voicing Sam he was unable to speak for days); fellow voice actor Fred Tatasciore (sp?) will be voicing Sam from now on, starting presumably with the new Looney Tunes Cartoons shorts.
I think you've got Tatasciore correct. Anyway, this was a rare treat, and that Maurice was on in front of the camera for a whole week's worth of shows. I'll pull one of those Xbox ads and pop it in here if I can. I've seen them. Four in all, IIRC.
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