'say something like Linus'

Producer Sheldon Leonard - Linus                     Producer Ed Graham, The Mockingbird             

These are the very unusual men who speak for these very unusual characters


 Producer Carl Reiner is Dinny Kangaroo                           Jonathan Winters does The Giant                                         

It isn't every cartoon that has such high-powered "voice" talent as Sheldon Leonard (Danny Thomas's partner in T & L Productions), Carl Reiner (producer of The Dick Van Duke Show) and comedian Jonathan Winters. How come?

"They are friends and work for salary," said Ed Graham, producer of the CBS cartoon Linus the Lionhearted. "I just called them up and they said yes. I think each is very interested in children's programming. And I know that Leonard gets a big kick out of the fact that his grandchildren recognize his voice in Linus."

Aside from that, the recording sessions are a lot of fun, especially those involving Jonathan Winters (he does The Giant, So-hi's mother, and others). When Winters is in the studio, Graham keeps the recording equipment on all the time. He just might catch 10 or 15 minutes of unadulterated Winters, which is better than anything in the script.

There was the time when The Giant (Chinese) swung a club at a little boy and missed, but hit himself in the foot. Winters let go with an Oriental cry of pain that lasted a full 10 seconds. It was so funny Graham asked him to do it again. Winters hopped around for three minutes, screaming foul Oriental epithets like "Jumping Buddha" and "Twisted Sneaker."

"We built a whole cartoon around that scene," Graham recalled, "and it was one of our funniest."

In discussing the other two performers, Graham says Reiner (Sascha Grouse, Dinny Kangaroo, etc.) "makes the lines sound so much better than the script," and Leonard as Linus has a "charmingly sinister quality."

Outside the studio, though, Leonard has a problem. Children keep asking him to "say something like Linus." He says he can never think of anything except "I just had an argument with [agent] Abe Lastfogel at the William Morris office.

Article from TV Guide Magazine, January 15, 1966. (Special Thanks to Gary "Biggy Rat" Rice!)

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