RAND UNWRAPPED

Confessions of a ROBOTECH Warrior

by Frank Catalano

Rand Unwrapped – Confessions of a Robotech Warrior Copyright © 2012 Frank Catalano

Copying material from this work in whole or part is strictly forbidden by law without author’s prior written permission.

Author’s Representative:

The Creative Edge

Anthony Carter

The-creative-edge@roadrunner.com

eBook ISBN: 9781625171986

Print ISBN: 1456543652

Print ISBN-13: 9781456543655

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011900925

Cover art by Tommy Yune, provided courtesy of Harmony Gold Inc., USA©1985-2012. All rights reserved.

No creative work happens without the support of family and friends. A special thank you to:

Brenda Catalano

Alexandra Catalano

Francesca Catalano

and

Ronald J. Wong.

Dedicated to the memory of

Carl Macek

(1951 - 2010)

A very special thank you to

Harmony Gold

Frank Agrama – Chairman and CEO

Christy Duran – President and General Counsel

Tommy Yune – Creative Director

and

Robotech series staff and writers

Gregory Snegoff

Robert Barron

Greg Finley

Steve Kramer

Mike Reynolds

Tao Will

Ardwight Chamberlain

Jason Klassi

Jim Wager

Steve Flood

Books by Frank Catalano

Art of the Monologue

Monologues they haven’t heard yet

The Creative Audience

The collaborative role of the audience in the creation of the visual and performing arts

White Knight Black Night

Short monologues for auditions

The Resting Place

a play

Autumn Sweet

a play

Rand Unwrapped

Confessions of a Robotech Warrior

FORWARD

Making Pictures Talk What’s this book about anyway?

Before I set out to do anything, I like to define what it is I am attempting to do before I begin. In this book, I want to explore my internal choices for performing the voice for the animated character of Rand in The New Generation season of the Robotech television series. The creation of this character was the result of an ongoing process of exploration and discovery. I didn’t walk in the door on the first day of recording with all the answers but rather created choices for the character bit by bit as the series progressed. This is a book about my journey as an actor and connection of events from my past experiences (as best as I can remember) in finding the character of Rand in the animated television series Robotech. It is not a book about The New Generation or it’s characters or plot line. I will leave those elements to the Robotech fans to teach me.

CHAPTER 1

Creating a character from a picture

“I wonder what the heck is going on around here?”

- Episode 9 – The Genesis Pits

As an acting teacher, many students have asked me the question. What’s the best way to create a character for an audition or within a play or film? The quick answer is that the clues for any character can be found within the framework of the underlying script provided by the writer. The written script, like a blue print, contains a combination of character traits including action (how the character moves and reacts to a specific environment), a physical description (what does the character look like) and dialogue (how does the character speak, what do they say and how do they say it). An actor uses these elements in making choices to effectively portray a particular character. They can consider what is contained in the script including the writer’s physical description of the character and dialogue components. What does the character say when they talk about themselves and what do other characters within the piece say about the character? In addition, an actor can analyze other characters within the piece as they relate to their character. Actors become investigators making notes of how other characters behave around the character they are playing. Much of the information provided by writers is presented through either visual or oral exposition. Exposition can be in the form of visual flashbacks or dialogue. It allows both the audience and the actor playing the role some understanding about the character’s past. The actor can then assimilate all of these factors and make specific choices about how they will portray the character within a particular moment in a film or play. This process takes place over a given period of time through rehearsals and readings. However, for an audition, the creative dynamic is much different.

In an audition setting, much of the work is done by the actor. They have to read the script or specific sections of the script provided by the producer for the audition. These sections are called sides and can be any number of pages culled from a full script for the purpose of the audition. The actor, when possible, tries to read the entire script to get an idea of the piece in its entirety. It gives the actor a better picture of their character’s role within the story as a whole. If the full script is not available, then the actor usually makes specific choices for the audition based upon the reading of the sides, instructions provided by the casting office or information provided by their agent. These choices might include what to wear for the character, how to move and how to speak the lines. During the audition, the actor may receive additional notes from the casting director to incorporate into the reading. Once the actor is cast in the project they can incorporate those choices into the character. However, the audition process is quite different than the production process, which incorporates the work of other performers and the director.

Once cast in a play or film, the actor’s choices must fit within the creative framework provided by the director and the interpretations of other characters in the project. The meaning here, is that the choices of other actor’s, by their very nature, must be acknowledged and responded to by an actor’s character choices within the framework of the text. This complex creative collaboration is carefully crafted over a period of time and with the guiding hand of a good director, should result in a unified work. In film and theatre, the gestation period for the creation of a character by an actor may take place over several weeks of rehearsal or shooting. In television, there is usually a very short finite period to develop a character from the first read of the script to actual shooting. Often in television series, actors create characters over a period of episodes and seasons. This is often the result in a conscious or unconscious collaboration of the writers, producers who collectively create the character’s core over a period of episodes. They may see certain mannerism or characteristics in an actor’s interpretation of the character. They in turn write these characteristics into the script. Also, during production, the back story of a character can be developed and incorporated into future episodes. Character development also takes place character to character. Often as a television or web series progresses, each actor’s choices for his or her character evolve simultaneously with those of the ensemble as a whole. The process is really never complete and can continue to evolve until the last day of shooting. In theatre, the process may continue until the last performance of the production before an audience. Now while there may be some similarities of character creation with live theatre and film, creating an animated character is a much different process.

The production of an animated film or series is often created piece by piece like a visual artist creates a mosaic. In most cases, actors create their character choices outside of the normal ensemble format. They record their characters voices alone without the face-to-face contact they would have in a play or live action film. While they may have the voices of other characters available to them in their headphones, they often do not have the other actor in the room with them. They don’t have the visual reactions of other characters to play against. The only cue they may have is the vocal tone and emotion that they might be getting in their headphones—if they have it at all and what’s up on the screen. What I’ve described here is trying to voice a character from previously existing footage. This was the case in creating the characters for Robotech. The footage was already created in Japan and all of the actor’s that voiced characters in the series had to work with that footage. That meant, that what was up on the screen was “there” and could not be changed. The vocal read provided by a voice actor for a character had to make sense within that visual footage. An actor can also create a voice for an animated character from a storyboard.

A storyboard is a series of images with dialogue that visually describes what the animated footage will look like before it is produced. It details the dialogue and the physical actions of the characters within each scene. In this case, the actor can work with writers and storyboard artists to create a specific voice for the character before it has been animated. The actor has the benefit of working with a storyboard illustration of the character and a visual detail of the comedic or dramatic situation. Storyboards in many ways read like a comic book version of what the animated product will look like when it is completed. The storyboard might include a detailed description of the character’s appearance or reaction within a particular scene, the lines the character speaks and may even take into consideration the mannerisms of the specific actor creating a voice for the character. This collaborative process between the actor, writer and animator can result in an animated character having many of the same physical and vocal characteristics of the actor playing the role. The final animation of the animated character of the Walt Disney Pictures animated feature Aladdin (1992) incorporated many of the mannerisms and interpretation of Robin Williams in the creation of the Genie character. However, if the Genie character had been voiced by another actor, it might not have been created in quite the same way. When an actor creates a voice from a storyboard there is a lot more flexibility.

When a line is delivered, it is spoken to a specific set of circumstances that are present within the storyline. Why I’m making this distinction is that the process is still piece by piece – almost like creating a visual mosaic of each moment the character experiences within the framework of the work as a whole. But the actor in this case, works with the director, writers and animators to create a voice that works for the character and the particular situation. There are no requirements to sync the vocal interpretation to an already created visual setting or action. The actor can concentrate on the character and make specific choices within that particular scene. Once it is completed, there is a finished vocalized piece of the mosaic and the actor can move on to the next situation in the story. Once, the voice work is completed, the animators create the visual portion of the film around the lines that have been recorded. The actor’s voice and character choices are integrated completely into the fabric of the total work resulting in a seamless connection of voice actor and animation. The creation of a character within the framework of Japanese animae, the second creative process, is quite different.

The second creative process is one in which animated characters are voiced to already existing animated or live action footage. In this case, the footage has been drawn and edited and the actor must fit the character’s voice within this pre-existing framework. In the case of Robotech, the characters had been drawn, edited and put into production long before any of the American voice actors that worked in the show became part of the process. I say this in total admiration of all the voice actors that worked on the project. We all literally, had to hit the ground running and had to make character choices based upon the clues that we could find written in the scripts. But remember, voice actors in Robotech often saw the script for the first time moments before they were to voice the character. In some instances, actors would get into the studio and have a few minutes to glance at their lines a few pages ahead, read the scene and try to (as best they could) to make some meaningful choices for what they were about to do. You only could hope, that the director had an idea of what was going on in the script because they had been recording it all day or better yet that they were also the writer. That was the best combination, if you could get it. Well talk more about Robotech shortly. In animae projects, you might have other factors to consider. Another actor in Japanese or English may have already voiced the character. If that is the case, there could be preconceived parameters that belonged to the character that were put there before you could even voice the first line. In animae, when you enter the project as a voice actor you are arriving late in the creative process. The overall qualities of the character often are already defined for you by the script, edited footage and perhaps a preconceived notion of what had been done before by other actors playing the same role. But this doesn’t mean that the voice actor shouldn’t approach the role creatively. The voice actor can use these parameters to interpret the role from their own point of view. Such already set parameters could include, physical mannerisms, speech patterns and relationships with other characters. Many of these things are already part of the permanent created footage. Also, let’s not forget about lip sync. This is the process by which the actor’s performance of the written lines must match as perfectly as possible to the mouth movements of the character that is seen on the screen. The actor is guided through this process by several means. The first rests in the hands of the sound engineer who cues up one or more lines of dialogue to be voiced. When the footage rolls, the character’s line or reaction is preceded by three beeps and the actor should begin to voice the character on the fourth silent or imaginary beep. Voice actors have learned to love those wonderful beeps. The serve as a helpful guide to know where to start speaking and helps the process move along more quickly. Another tool the voice actor can use is the time code that appears either on the top or bottom of the screen. It is often helpful, when a bit of dialogue or a reaction is in progress. The director might tell you to place a certain line or reaction at a specific time code. The writer/directors do this more often because they wrote the script and have a visual understanding of where the line or reaction specifically fits into the scene. This is not to say, that sometimes even with all the beeps and time codes, that you just don’t do it on the fly by looking up at the screen and saying the lines as the character does them. Also, if you don’t hit the line exactly in sync but the director likes your reading, the sound engineer can often digitally move the line a few frames forward or backward to make it fall into place. You just have to love those guys. They can save a performance by doing their digital magic. Actor’s can also rely on a well-written script to help them create their character. A well-written script means that the dialogue actually fits (is in sync) with the character’s mouth movements and that it contains the appropriate visual directions to help the actor along. It also means that the script has dialogue that fits the action, the situation and the physical gestures of the characters up on the screen. That is not always the case. I’ve been lucky to work with some of the best dubbing writers in the business. When the script is well written, it allows you the freedom to try different things within the framework of the character.

Often in an anime or live action dubbing scripts voice actors will see descriptive terms in parentheses before the spoken line which indicate whether the character’s mouth is visible in frame when the lines are spoken.

They might look like this:

A damaged Alpha Fighter slowly making its way back to Freedom Base.

Angle on Pilot #1 - Interior cockpit of Alpha Fighter

PILOT #1: (MNS) Freedom Base, this is Alpha XFS one… squadron leader. Over… is anybody out there?

This first example is (MNS) which indicates that the character’s mouth is not seen. This tells the actor that his/her character is on screen but that their mouth is not clearly visible. This may be due to any number of reasons which might include the character wearing a helmet obscuring his/her mouth or that their head my be turned away or blocked by the cockpit control panel. Sometimes, within the frame, the character’s body may be visible moving an arm or shoulders but the mouth is covered. The actor or the writer for that matter has no choice. The footage is already shot and edited, so there must be a line written there and the actor has to go with what they have and make it work. Another term is (OFF) which indicates that the character speaking is not in frame. These lines could be from a character voice coming from a speaker or one that is in the scene but is simply not in the frame. Most (MNS) lines do not require sync (unless they are tied to a specific action or reaction to something on screen) so they can be voiced just using the beeps.

INT. FREEDOM BASE CONTROL ROOM - Angle on XFS on radar screen.

CAP COM: (OFF) XFS one – this is Freedom Base, we read you loud and clear!

PILOT #1: (MNS) Looks like I took a few hits… my centurium pod is badly damaged and I’m losing altitude. I need to put this baby down fast.

CAP COM: (OFF) Stand by for landing coordinates.

PILOT #1: (MNS) Roger.

CAP COM’s voice is heard in the scene, but the shot the audience sees is of the radar screen. CAP COM is not seen at all in this example. It’s just a voice within the frame of the scene that is heard only. Lastly, there are those lines which (although) are not usually indicated are deemed to be (ON). This means that the character’s face and facial expressions are in frame and are visible to the audience. The dialogue spoken must be in sync with their lip movements, facial and body gestures. Normally an (ON) line doesn’t have the word (ON) in front of it. If the line is not limited by an (MNS) or an (OFF), the actor assumes that it is (ON).

INT. ALPHA COCKPIT – Angle on Pilot #1 pulling off his mask.

PILOT #1: Sure is good to be home… (MNS) receiving coordinates now. Setting course for sector five.

INT. CONTROL ROOM FREEDOM BASE – Angle on radar screen.

CAP COM: (OFF) Confirm sector five…

SELLACK: (OFF) Is he going to make it?

CAP COM: Yes sir, all coordinates locked in (MNS) guidance now active.

Pull back on control room revealing the face of SELLACK, the Supreme Commander of Freedom Base One. CAP COM activates the control room monitor tracking the damaged Alpha Fighter as it slowly descends and safely touches down.

SELLACK: Welcome home, son.

In this example the existing animation required the actor to perform the lines within three different dynamics – (OFF), (MNS) and (ON). The actor must create a emotional and intellectual reality for the character within preexisting framework of the animation and editing of the film. But there is more to it than that. When a voice actor creates a character within an already existing film, it is not as simple as only considering whether or not the character’s face and mouth are visible to the audience. There’s something else to consider.

When a character’s face and mouth are visible to the audience, the actor must conform his vocal interpretation within the lip shapes and movements of the character. Some animated productions have a simple open and closed mouth pattern when their character speaks or in other instances no mouth at all. I did an animated series in which I played an orphan bumblebee. The character, a little bee, had no mouth. But instead, moved his antennae when he had something to say. This was an easy task from my point of view because there was no actual lip-sync for the character. I only knew that when his little antennae moved, he was speaking. There wasn’t much else to grab onto other than the antennae movement. However, in more complicated animation and live dubbing, the actor must fit the words written within the movement, tempo and shape of the mouth of the character they are dubbing. But there is a step before the moment the actor puts the line in the character’s mouth. Before an actor even shows up to voice a character, a scriptwriter must write lines that are in synchronization with the character’s speech patterns and movements within the film. Often in animation, the writer can write lines that fit nicely into a flapping mouth that just opens and closes. Live action films, which are dubbed into a language other than the one the film was originally shot in, can be a particular challenge. It becomes the writer’s task to create a story and character that must fit within the strict confines of what is already on the screen. I can’t tell you how many times there were lines that I wanted to put in an animated or live action script that were absolutely perfect for the situation at hand which simply did not sync with the character’s mouth movements. I always have been of the school of thought that you should favor content over sync. But, while you might be able to write that perfect line, if it is out of sync it takes the audience and your character out the reality of the scene. This is why it takes a unique breed of writer to be able to be true to the content of the material, be imaginative and still stay within the limitations of what they have to work with in terms of sync.

ADR (Automatic Dialogue Replacement) also called dubbing form of scriptwriting is not for the faint of heart. It takes a healthy combination of creative writing talent and technical knowledge to create a script that contains a believable story and real characters within the constraints of the existing animation or live action footage. It takes an extraordinary writer to be able to get it right. I have had the opportunity to work with some of the best writer/directors in the business. While there are many talented writers/directors that I have worked with who can do this and do it very well, the two that I have worked with the most are Gregory Snegoff and Steve Kramer. I have worked with these guys in Robotech but also on many other projects both live action dubbing and animation. When you go into the studio and they have written the script and are directing, you know it’s going to be where it needs to be. They have the ability to write compelling stories, smart dialogue make it all look the characters are saying it. Both of these guys also have the ability to write on the spot. While this to most may seem like no big deal, it is actually a very fine art. Sometimes in the studio, a line might be too long or short and just not fit. They look down at the script and in a heartbeat will say – just add this or that line and BAM it all fits like a glove. Also, sometimes in the studio you may get a script that is just not written well or is completely out of sync. I may have written a few of those. When that happens, it has to be rewritten as the film is recorded. That’s a slow slog through the mud at best.

There is a Mike Reynolds story that is often told in Robotech circles. I’m not sure if the script was a Robotech script or another show that was being recorded. I am also not sure if he said it to me or it’s been told to me so many times by everyone that I visualize that it happened to me. It really doesn’t matter either way. Mike was working very late one night recording and directing a particularly awful script. He was just having a hell of a time trying to get what was written to fit what was up on the screen He calmly looked down at the pages with pencil in hand and sighed, “Who wrote this piece of shit!” The sound engineer, deadpan, piped in, “You did Mike.” This was of course not the case, but Reynolds just sighed again, looked down at the pages and said, “Okay, let’s see what we can learn from it.” We have all had a laugh over the years recalling that night. But the truth is that Mike is a pro and didn’t get rattled by a bad script. He just fixed it where it needed to be fixed and it got done. If you’re going into a dubbing studio, these are the guys you want to be with. The worst thing that can happen in a dubbing session is to have a poorly written script. When I say poorly, it may not be necessarily a bad story. Poorly in this case, means not in the appropriate sync or no sync at all. When this happens, the script has to be rewritten line by line by the director and voice actor in the studio as part of the dubbing session. These sessions are long and require a lot of patience because the director and the voice actor are now writing the script on the spot. Sometimes writers write acceptable sync but it is created too long or too short. This is more than likely due to the differences in speech patters between the writer and the actor. As script problems go, this is not the worst. Good director/writers like Gregory Snegoff or Steve Kramer, Mike Reynolds and the late Bob Barren always found a creative way to elongate the line by slowing down your delivery or adding a short word if it was too short. This works as long as the added word doesn’t throw off the sync when the line is delivered. Sometimes, even when it’s written correctly, the actor just can’t get it.

One night, while working on an episode of Robotech, Steve Kramer was directing me and I had the simplest line. I think the line was “… the day of oblivion has come for us all!” part of Episode 13 – Sand Storm. It was an “ON” line written correctly, I just couldn’t say it. Maybe I was tired or more than likely I was just goofing around. But, the more I tried to do it, the more I kept missing it. Then, the worst thing happened. I started to laugh and once that got going, Steve started to laugh and then the engineer joined in as well. It was a downward spiral; the more I tried to get the line right, the more I couldn’t do it. At one point I was able to achieve the correct sync but said the wrong line. Instead of “the day of oblivion has come for us all” I said, “the day of Bolivia has come for us all!” To this day, whenever I see Steve, one of us will say to each other “the day of Bolivia has come for us all!” or if we’re short on time, we just say, “Bolivia.” But as someone once said somewhere, “ the show must go on.” That night in the session, Steve brought it all back down to earth and we finally finished the line and the episode. I can’t leave a section on dubbing and sync without mentioning Greg Snegoff. I had the opportunity to work on many post Robotech projects with him and if there is any shred of ability in me to write sync, he put it there. Greg and I worked as writers on a Fox Television series called The Adventures of Dynamo Duck (1990). The series featured a whole collection live action animals including ducks, gerbils, badgers, weasels, frogs and gold fishes dressed in a variety of costumes with bow ties, hats, and vests. Our job was to cut, edit, and create character voices and story lines to this already existing raw footage shot by Jean Tourane. There were hundreds of hours of this material and to say the least, we had our work cut out for us. In addition, to writing and directing, Greg was actually the voice of the series lead character Dynamo Duck. This is a little known fact. For reasons, I can’t remember, Greg’s voice never made it to the final edit of the series. Actually, now as I write this, I do remember but you’re not going to get anything out of me! Let’s just say, that’s another story and Greg, can tell it to you. During the writing process, Greg and I spent long hours sitting in front of television monitors rough cutting over 300 hours of footage, writing story lines and scripts. We cataloged every cut of the raw footage so that we would be able to retrieve it for a particular episode. When the rough cut was done, we had an infinite variety of situations featuring live animals dressed in all sorts of odd costumes trying to do one thing or another. Out of that larger body of material, we edited about eighty episodes. It was a daunting process at best to try to create a set of consistent characters and story lines out of such a large body of previously existing footage. Greg and I (especially Greg) wrote this show to life. He was able to hit every mannerism, syllable and movement of each character whether it was the lead duck (Dynamo) shaking his head between quacks, the wiggling nose to a hamster or bubbles coming out of a goldfish in a bowl. We wrote every gesture, every twitch literally every quack, which ultimately made the animals, come to life. Greg and I became friends of course during the making of Robotech. He was directing me when I improvised the now famous “Get a job!” line. That line actually goes back to my childhood when I used to tell it to my mom when she would get on my case for something or other. She would say something with the word “don’t” in it. Like “don’t scuff your shoes!” or “don’t make so much noise!” I would always snap back, “Get a job!” We continued saying it even when I got older. It was just a something that my mother and I always said to each other. That’s why I thought it was a perfect line to say to Rook’s mom and it was in sync!

I always felt comfortable working with Greg in the studio on any level. He is intelligent, quick on his feet and funny as hell. And when you work with him, you know you’re going to push the envelope. It is out of that spirit that, once in a while, all right more than once in a while, I would improvise a line or two during one of the takes. The “get a job” line was one of those lines. On one of the takes, I said it and we all had a laugh (pretty good sync too) and then we moved on and did the correct line. Which to this day, I don’t remember. Somehow, (nobody really knows) how the “get a job” line made it to the final network cut. The rest is as they say “history.” Greg and I subsequently developed many other projects together and working with him was some of most fun I’ve ever had while getting paid for it! Greg now lives in sunny Italy but has a nasty habit of showing up in Los Angeles from time to time. Despite the distance we now live from each other, we will work on some wonderfully creative and hopefully silly project again in the future. That is a given. And then there is the late Carl Macek.

I had the privilege of working with Carl on projects including of course Robotech, Captain Harlock and Queen of a Thousand Years and later on Computer Warriors. Carl Macek was a one of kind creative genius that was extremely talented in taking the existing footage a creating a story line around it. Carl was a master at putting a creative frame around everything we did. In one instance, he single handedly created one series out of two already existing animae series Captain Harlock and Queen Millennia. Carl created 65 episodes with a connected story out of two different series, with different characters and storyline. He did the same thing with Robotech. I remember him one day sitting in a tiny studio at Intersound in front of a monitor while eating a sandwich going over diverse pieces of animated footage and effortlessly blending them together into one concise story. Only Carl could do that. But Carl was much more than a super talented writer. He was the glue that held us all together. He could remember all of the details from episode to episode and never forget the big picture. Often, when the members of the Robotech cast were on conference panels fielding questions, fans would ask specific things about the storyline and characters in the story. Only Carl could put the elements of the show together in a way that we all understood it. I worked with Carl on a several post Robotech projects. One of which Computer Warriors, which was based around a line of toys made by Mattel in the early nineties. The project, co written and produced by Carl and Bill Kroyer, was truly ahead of its time. It involved a top-secret government mega computer that unleashed an evil army of viruses. The fun part of the project was that the virus villains made their way into everyday common household items like diet soda cans, lamps and computers. Of course, the goal of these nasty viruses was to be very bad and dominate the world. Thanks to Carl, I was able to create a character with an English dialect that was one of the good guys sent to battle the bad virus army. Unfortunately the Computer Warriors did not get produced beyond a pilot episode. But it was fun to get to do an English dialect. This is something I rarely (no never) get to do. I’m usually cast as the “streetwise” wise cracking tough guy. It was great to get a chance to stretch a bit. Over the years, Carl and I talked about doing several other projects together. One of the projects he was interested in doing was to publish a collection of old 1930’s movie treatments and scripts that I own the rights to and perhaps develop several of them into actual projects. We always talked about doing it but never did because we were too busy. We always believed that we would get to it later and that we had all the time in the world. We actually spent one summer afternoon sitting in a café in Studio City figuring out how we would put the whole thing together. But, we both got busy on other projects and never did. I regret that deeply. Carl had a wonderfully unique and creative way at looking at the world and was truly a master at seeing what we all could not see and we will all miss him.

It was the ADR or dubbing writer’s job to take Carl’s creative idea and connect the dialogue and action. As I have said, along with Steve Kramer and Greg Snegoff, there were a lot of wonderful talented people connected at every level of the production including the late Bob Barren and Mike Reynolds. However, it was Greg Snegoff and Steve Kramer that I worked with the most. They taught me the most about “how to do it.” They had a sense of the project as a whole, knew how to interpret Carl’s vision, knew what they’re doing and more importantly, always made it fun during the creative process.

I have been luckier than most to get to work with a group of talent people who would always be there to catch you if you fell. I know the old saying that you “learn by doing.” But what a great way to learn! I often see advertisements for many different types of voice over classes promising guaranteed employment. But really, there is no way in a classroom setting to prepare an actor for a dubbing experience. Over the years, some of the camera classes I have taught have had voice acting components. I have had some very talented students who possess that uncanny ability to make a character come to life by creating a compelling voice. You can get a sense of what voice acting is like in a class but the best way to learn is to just do it. This is the only way to become accustomed to the many variables one might encounter when creating a character within an animated or live action setting. In addition, when you’re in the studio, the script and the quality of the writing becomes crucial. For actors that are new to dubbing, I think the best way to learn is to sit in a walla session. I will talk more about that later in this book. But you can also work as a voice actor on student films and independent productions. However, I want to tell you up front, that a lot of them are not very good. They are not very good because most of the people working on them really don’t know how to write, direct or perform dubbed projects. The result is they produce work of inferior quality.

If the writer of a particular project falls short in this task, it can result in long laborious recording sessions where the director and actor have to rewrite the script line for line as they record it. I will say, that I have done my fair share of what we voice over folks call schlock which literally translated from Yiddish slang means “goods produced of cheap or inferior quality.” These projects, which are written and edited poorly, are the kind that you get hired to do and you just go in and do them. When it’s done you fill out the paperwork and go home. But even doing what we would call schlock is a way to learn. Yes, to quote Mike Reynolds, you can always learn something from a bad experience. You can learn what not to do and what doesn’t work. You take that knowledge with you to the next session and it makes you a better voice actor. As far as learning how to sync to animation or live action, there’s no school for that as well. I guess, you could turn the sound off on your television and try to capture the lip movements of the characters that are up on the screen. But that’s not the way you’re going to get it in a darkened studio with a time code running. The ability to do effective sync when voicing a character takes into consideration that the actor is able to capture the essence of the character and have the ability to place the voice within the framework of what ‘s up on the screen. It’s something you just learn to do after doing it for a long time. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can read your character’s lines like you’re reading a book and hope that they fit. You have literally, got to scoop up and capture the lines and retain the essence of what’s going on up there on the screen. You literally become one with the character. It’s a very Zen experience and there’s no school for that. You just learn it as you go. But when creating a character in an animated series such as Robotech, you have got to literally bring something to the party. What you bring with you is a wealth of all your experiences literally everything that has ever touched your life physically, intellectually and emotionally. Whether you know it or not, it’s all there, every experience of your life, is in the studio with you. And you, without you even knowing it, use these experiences, which become part of your character. At least that’s the way it was for me and this is my story in creating the character of Rand.

CHAPTER 2

Everybody’s Got to Start Somewhere

“A man’s gotta do – what a man’s gotta do…”

- Episode 24 – Dark Finale

In my case, my professional career as a voice artist began when I was living in Hawaii attending graduate school. I was cast to create a voice for the title character in a live action series called Ultra 7. I voiced the character, who by day was Dan Moroboshi - Planet Man Dan and by night the super hero Ultra 7. The series was originally created and successfully broadcast in Japan in 1967 as Urutora Sebun. My girlfriend at the time got me the job because she knew the producer’s daughter. They asked me to go in and read a few lines and then told me I got the job. I had never dubbed before but figured how hard could it be? I accepted the offer and became involved in the dubbing of this series into English while I was a graduate student at the University of Hawaii studying Kabuki, Peking Opera as well as acting. The program at the university seemed to me to be more academic than artistic for my liking but I did have a significant financial package at the school, so I stayed. And I’m so glad I did! I had the opportunity to study acting with some of the best teachers I’ve ever had. The first is Glenn Cannon and despite his Hawaiian address, Glenn was a very east coast actor/director rooted in a no nonsense approach to creating a character and putting it up on stage or film. You would think to study acting of this professional caliber; one would have to go to Los Angeles or New York City. But Glenn taught be how to find a character within a script, interpret it and then put it up on stage. I went through the script page by page, and looked for clues. What did the playwright say about my character? What did my character say about himself and lastly what did other characters say about my character? Within that matrix, the truth could be found. This was a great lesson for me. Glenn cast me in a production of Moliere’s Scapin to play the title role. It was a fast paced farcical romp that toured most of the island of Oahu in parks, schools and theatres. Glenn allowed me to fully explore the character and put a lot of myself into the role. My character, Scapino, opened the play each performance eating a two-foot long hero sandwich while talking directly to the audience. It was fun and built upon my improvisational skills and most importantly I couldn’t make a bad choice because I was so totally connected to the character. Glenn was then and is now a professional actor, director and teacher. At that time, he was a reoccurring character on the Hawaii 5-0 television series. He also performed and directed professionally for the stage. He brought a lot of what I will call “reality” to the craft of acting. He told it like it was and was great to work with as a director. My other acting teacher at the University of Hawaii, Terence Knapp was trained in England, and taught me about what he often called “leaping into the darkness” when creating a character. From him, I learned to take risks in the creation of a character rather than just create a stereotype rendition of what was in the script. At the time, I studied with Knapp; I didn’t always appreciate the “leap in the darkness” idea of creating a character. I was more about getting it done point-to-point and wanted to leave the leaping to someone else. I wanted to do the things that I knew would be audience pleasers rather than try to explore the inner workings of the character. However, it was in this inner exploration that Terrence Knapp taught me that the true core of a character lived. At the time, I hated this creative process, but over the years, and with decades of teaching acting behind me I now can see clearly that he was right on the mark. I got to work with Terence Knapp on a project called the Mysteries and the Passion which was a medieval cycle play made up of several smaller stories centered around the Bible. I opened this show as well playing Adam in the Garden of Eden. There was a lot of talk around town that the Adam and Eve Garden of Eden scene was going to be performed in the nude. In the final production, this did not happen and I was extremely glad about that. Instead, Knapp put us in anatomically correct tights and we played the Garden of Eden as more of a dance piece than a scene. It was beautifully done as a metaphor of the loss of innocence rather than a scene about the original sin. It was very powerful and really set up the rest of the production quite well. After Adam, I played other roles in the same production – The Second Shepard in the Second Shepard’s Play and finally Pontius Pilot in the Crucifixion. In this part of the play, Knapp had me enter the scene slowly from a sub stage below with a mask over my face wearing an ancient Greek style Chiton (long flowing robe), holding a large hand held mirror and sporting cothurni (enormously tall wooden shoes). The cothurni were over a foot high and were like wearing a combination of Frankenstein boots and spiked heals. It was those large wooden shoes that gave me the most trouble. Once I put them on, I was almost seven feet tall. They were extremely heavy which made walking with them on a chore. For my big entrance, I had to walk up a narrow stairway from the stage below, (wearing the cumbersome costume and mask) enter up stage center to face an angry mob. My line went something like, “Whom do you choose? Jesus or Barabbas?” The crowd chanted “Barabbas” and then I let Barabbas free and condemned Jesus to be crucified. After that, I washed my hands in a bowl of water and then exited back down those narrow stairs as they took Jesus away. There must have been bad karma playing the Pontius Pilot character. One night, during a performance, I was trying to exit by slowly descending the dark narrow stairway to the stage area below. But that night, I just couldn’t make it down that narrow stairway wearing those cothurni and fell down the entire flight of stairs to the stage below and broke my foot. I am thankful the audience didn’t see it. I finished the show that night with the broken foot and then was taken to the hospital where they put a full leg cast on me. I thought I would have to leave the show, but Knapp would have none of it and had me complete the run of the show on crutches. After the run of Mysteries and Passion, and falling down the stairs, I truly felt that I had learned to leap into the darkness. Both Glenn Cannon and Terence Knapp are great directors and acting coaches and I was extremely fortunate to study and work on several projects with them.

While living in Hawaii, I also learned how to dub both animated and live action characters. I needed money to pay my education expenses just like any other student so I started looking for a job. At first I did the usual type of college jobs working at the school and then later at one of the Waikiki hotels. As you could imagine, there weren’t very many acting jobs in Hawaii that one could be hired in exchange for acting services. So landing an acting job like this was not easy. My girlfriend at the time and fellow graduate student was part of a women’s group of writers and heard about the dubbing of a live action Japanese show Ultra 7 into English. She got me an audition and I got the part. While I had no actual experience in ever voicing a character in a live action or animated film, I did have some experience in performing Japanese Kabuki and Peking Opera on stage in New York. I thought at the time, (wrongly so) that I could utilize Asian theatre acting techniques to create the characters in this Japanese show. The show featured a lot of action martial arts sequences so I figured I had it covered. I quickly learned that live stage acting techniques for Kabuki or Peking Opera were of little use in this early dubbing session. Though years later, I would rely on some of my knowledge of Kabuki in getting cast in an ABC Television pilot called Camp Grizzly (1980). I played a riding instructor from New York City who knew nothing about horses or riding. You would think that would be funny enough on its own. But I added a sort of Kabuki dance when I auditioned. The producer and network liked it at first, then changed their minds and recast the entire show. I also used Kabuki in creating Rand for Robotech but will talk more about that later. But at that moment in time, when I showed up the first day to voice the Ultra 7 series, I knew in my heart that it was going to be a learn as you go experience for me. But I thought to myself, “Everybody’s got to start somewhere!”

The cast of Ultra 7 collectively had little or no experience in voice acting, dubbing or writing ADR. Some of us, (including me) were graduate students at the Drama School at the university, others were well known local actors that were mainstays within the Honolulu theatre scene. These were the actors that got all the lead roles anytime a local theatre company produced a play there. They were, by no means, well known outside of that universe. But within, the Hawaiian universe, they were well known and respected. We were all learning as we went along which made the Ultra 7 dubbing process challenging. The producer assured us that all would go smoothly and that the production company had all the scripts written in English and ready to record. All the voice actors had to do was use those English translations and create individual voices for each character in the series. However, once we started recording, we all learned that that was not the case. The English language scripts we worked from were all written in Japan and were literal translations from the original Japanese dialogue. We found out very quickly that literal translations, although perhaps accurate, were often not written in sync or conversational. For example, in one scene, a truck driver trying to cross a bridge blocked by another car wanted the driver to move out of the way so he could pass. The trucker’s line read something like, “You better move your car pal! Or I’ll beat you to many pulps!” Not only was this line not in sync, it was also not conversational. When we came upon these literal lines (and there were many) we had to stop the recording and re-write the script to sync. Back in those pre Robotech days, none of us had any idea of what kinds of sounds fit specific types of lip movements. So we kind of eye balled it the best we could. Steve Kramer in later years would teach me about fricatives and plosives. There were also the cultural challenges of creating a conversational dialogue that would be believable to an American audience within the framework of what was already shot live in Japanese. Whenever my character Planet Man Dan would answer a ringing phone, the English translation, in order to be in sync with picture, would always say, “Hello, Hello!” The reason for this is purely cultural. The original Japanese dialogue spoken by Planet Man Dan when a phone was picked up was “mushi mushi” or “moshi moshi” which means hello. However, to get the original Japanese dialogue to match the lip movements when converted to English, we would have to say “Hello, Hello” quickly (one Hello following the other) in order to get the sync right. As I recall, my character spoke on the phone often and I got very good at saying “hello hello” to fit “mushi mushi” in sync and making it look like that was a normal thing to do for an American audience. Years later, I used this same “mushi mushi” skill in a movie called Godzilla 1985.

In Godzilla 1985, one of the characters that I voiced was a solitary solider on guard duty standing on a coastal bridge outside of Tokyo. In the distance, coming out the ocean, Godzilla approaches. Without warning, the monster’s head rises ominously out of the ocean then the full body until the soldier spots Godzilla coming out of the water. He runs into his guard shack, cranks up his phone and holding the receiver with two hands, puts it up to his mouth as he cringes in horror:

GUARD: (cranking phone and gasp REAX)

GODZILLA: (roars at the top of his lungs)

GUARD: (on Phone) Hello Hello. Godzilla is now approaching Tokyo!

The hard part about this little piece of dialogue was that the “mushi mushi/hello hello had to be in perfect sync. Then, it was followed by the word Godzilla that was actually spoken by the guard (well almost) as “Gojira” which in Japanese is a cross between a Gorilla (gorira) and a whale (kujira). The line had to be right on the mark and match the lip movements of the guard. Then, as if that weren’t enough, the Japanese guard also says the word “Tokyo” in Japanese that had to be hit right on the mark as well. A moment later, Godzilla spots the little guy and before the guard can say another word, he’s vaporized. But, not before letting out one very loud death scream. You might be thinking that’s a lot of effort to voice a frantic bridge guard who has one line and a death scream. But the truth is, that each one of these little scenes is part of a larger mosaic and must be done as realistically as possible. When we did Godzilla 1985, we tried to make what we all thought was a boring script, funny whenever possible. I think I improvised one or two takes of my bridge guard and made him say something like, “Hello Hello – Godzilla’s here and he refuses to pay toll,” something like that.

And as the guard is vaporized, I said something like, “Didn’t say may I!” But the producer wanted a true to life depiction of the monster gone wild as a result of the world’s use of nuclear weapons. So, we just voiced the lines that were in the script. But I digress, back to Ultra 7.

The majority of the scripts for Ultra 7 that were sent from the producer in Tokyo (although in English) made no sense within the scene or had no sync. When this happened in the studio, the lines had to be rewritten on the spot and I had to come up with lines that made sense and were in sync. It was truly trial by fire. You might come up with a great line that would work well within the context of the scene but was slightly out of sync. With that said, remember that old cliché’ “almost only counts in horse shoes and the hand grenades.” When it’s out of sync, even if it’s a flap, it’s out of sync which undermines the reality of the scene. Instead of being into the reality of the characters and situation, the audience is reminded that the work is dubbed. This is not a good thing. When Ultra 7 was recorded into English, it was done in an ensemble format. All of the actors sat on tall stools in a circle. At the head of the circle was a large screen with time codes running on the top or bottom spaces. Each actor had his or her own microphone and marked script. During the recording process, the actors performed single lines or an exchange of several lines of dialogue with multiple characters within a scene. The entire episode was done in chronological order from first page to last. I’d like to note that the Robotech series was not done this way. Usually, the principle actors in Robotech would perform their lines alone within a particular session working with one script at a time. We might work on several episodes but only one voice and character at a time. When I completed the lines of my character in one episode, we would then move on to another episode. More than often, we would never see the other actors within the series who voiced the characters we were talking to. During the Robotech series, I came into the studio just to voice my own character and didn’t see any other actors unless they were just leaving or just arriving. Also, if you were early on in the recording process, you might not have a line of dialogue or a cue to listen to when recording your lines. All this meant was that lines were not yet recorded. In other instances, there were lines already recorded by other actors that could act as an auditory cue for the line that I had to say. Having the line there that was before yours was also helpful to set the tone, tempo and volume of your response. The Robotech experience was built more upon the relationship of the writer, director and voice artist. The Ultra 7 process was more of a collective ensemble experience. It was a different process all together.

During the recording of Ultra 7, it was an ensemble effort and when we got to a section of the script in which a given line or section didn’t make sense or not in sync, everything stopped. The actors either took a break while the line was rewritten or collectively the line was rewritten on the spot with everyone’s input. This ensemble process was great because you were able to get a collective energy for the characters and episode but it was also very slow. To try to address the issue of slowness, the producers decided that the Japanese translations of the scripts should be reviewed and rewritten (where needed) before the voice actors went into the studio. The idea was to make the scripts more conversational than the literally translated versions they were getting from Japan and make sure the individual character lines were all in proper sync. I was asked to become part of this pre-record process and reviewed scripts for sync, sense of lines and conversational quality. I did rewrites on many of the scripts and it was a great way to learn how to write sync. The truth of it was, I had no interest in sync and was more focused on character and story. But, I did rewrite many of the scripts for appropriate sync even though I hated doing it. Once this new procedure was put in place, the recording sessions went faster and drastically reduced those instances where we had to rewrite dialogue in the studio during recording. I realized then how writing a dubbed script, as tedious as it was, could positively influence my ability to create character voices on future projects. If you want to learn how to create a voice, in sync within a dubbed format, writing scripts really gives you a sense of how everything fits together. But just when things started to fall nicely in place during recording each episode, the producers of Ultra 7 had a new challenge for the voice actors to overcome. They asked us if we could voice characters during a live stage presentation.

When Ultra 7 was aired in Hawaii, it was an immediate hit. To capitalize on this success and to raise ratings, the producers wanted to develop a live action show based upon the series that was to be presented at the historic Waikiki Shell. The idea was to use live action costumed character actors (from Japan) to physicalize the characters on the stage while the (English speaking) voice actors did the dialogue. The producers felt that the audience was familiar with our voices and could connect more readily with the action on the stage. When the Ultra 7 live shows premiered at the Waikiki Shell, they were an immediate sell out. The Ultra 7 fans filled the 2,400 seat open air Waikiki Shell and the adjacent Kapiolani park. We were happy we had such a large turn out but really weren’t sure if dubbing a live show would work. On the surface it was simple. Our job was to provide character voices during the live action sequences that took place on the stage. Actors dressed in show character and monster costumes performed vigorous combat sequences with martial arts and acrobatics. The voice actors sat in a sound booth above the stage and later on the side of the stage and provided the dialogue and reactions as the actors performed on the stage. The idea and its ultimate execution were quite different. The problem was that the Japanese actors playing the characters didn’t speak English and had no idea what was being said as they jumped around the stage. So, in no time at all, no matter how much rehearsal we had, the scenes started to drift and the action on the stage had no connection to the dialogue that was being spoken. The scenarios that the producers had created of what was supposed to take place on the stage went out the window almost immediately. We spoke most of the dialogue while the Japanese actors pantomimed action. So it had to be improvised on the spot. In that situation, I did what I thought might be funny to the thousands of mostly young children in the audience. I also, whenever possible, went for the comedy in each situation by adding local Hawaiian references. When these lines landed with the audience and connected with the physical action, there were lots of laughs. The actors playing the action characters where in full body costumes which more than often covered their heads and mouths so there was no sync to worry about. We used the same voices for each character that we used in the series on television but the live scenarios were always different for each show. We would base what we said upon the physical actions of the actors on the stage. The Japanese actors, who did not speak English, were not aware of what we were saying. But somehow, to our surprise, it all worked out. To say the least, it was an interesting collaboration between a voice actor and a truly “live” action character. Because the live shows were never the same from performance to performance, it forced the voice actors to really hone their improvisational skills. However, I think the audience liked it that way. Whatever we said (no matter how absurd) accompanied by the action on stage was always met with a tremendous applause and the live show was a complete success. Little did I know that these improvisational and technical skills acquired in Hawaii, would be used later Robotech. But I had a few more stops to make first.

After the live Ultra 7 shows at the Waikiki Shell, I auditioned for and was asked to join an improvisation group called The Construction Crew produced by the Hawaii Performing Arts Company (HPAC). The director, Lewis Stout, was an extremely creative guy and worked hard to get all of the actors in this project to totally commit to the characters they created. He wanted real characters in real situation rather than just one liner situations that get a laugh then fade away. The Construction Crew was as much about creating a real story than performing funny characters. This was a great opportunity to hone my improvisational skills and yes, another paying acting job in Hawaii. As I recall the, Construction Crew was actually a project funded by a grant to take the performing arts into public and private schools in Hawaii. It was a small group of five or six actors that toured the schools throughout the island of Oahu. We literally went school to school, using the student audience to help us create stories from scratch. We would open by setting the ground rules and defined what a character was, a place, a time and a situation. For younger audiences, we would set it up with a narrator starting with, “Once upon a time in the land of? At that point the audience would provide the place. Then the narrator would follow up with, “And in the land of whatever they called it, who do you think came along? Then the audience would shout out a character. Using audience suggestion, we created a place, characters and situation that we then played out upon the stage for the audience. It was a tremendously successful program and provided me with an opportunity to get intensive improvisational training. I was able to create stories from a word or phrase at the drop of a hat for any age group or situation. We also got to play at many diverse locations throughout the island from small little villages to large military bases. But I wasn’t done working on animated projects. I think all voice actors must possess a talent to improvise within the characters they create. Not every action in animation can be scripted. Sometimes, the actor is in the situation within the animated sequence and must rely on their moment-to-moment skills to create the reality of what will ultimately end up on the screen. When playing Rand, I often found myself in certain situations that required moment-to-moment reactions to the situation at hand. This could have all to do with a particular line reading that was before or after the existing animation, the situation or mine Rand found himself within the story.

After Ultra 7, and while still basking in the Hawaiian sun and graduate school, I was cast in two new animated series. These two projects were my first crack at doing animated characters in a series. The first series was called Mazinger Z, which was about a gigantic super robot made of super alloy metal called Super – Alloy Z. This super alloy that could only be found at a very secret location within Japan’s Mount Fuji made this secret weapon virtually indestructible. This was my first experience using a mecha to fight evil. My character was the shy grandson of the robot’s designer Professor Juzo Kabuto. At the start of the series, the professor is murdered in cold blood by evil forces of Dr. Hell. As the good professor takes his dying breath, he tells his grandson Kouji about the robot and its immense power to fight evil. Kouji, my character, became Mazinger Z’s pilot, and for the rest of the series was locked in a continual battle with the evil mecha and sinister villains sent by Doctor Hell. The voice I used for the character was for all intents and purposes my own. I think I voiced him a little higher than my normal voice to make him sound younger. But it was really just my voice and, if heard today, might sound like Rand would have sounded when he was a young boy. Kouji was not in any way a scrappy fighter like Rand but they young boy did have a slight undertone of a New York street character. I tried to stay away from this, but it was there underneath. Once again, I found myself voicing a character that was a rather reserved in one aspect and then a super hero who through no special calling finds themselves in the role of saving the world from evil.

After, Mazinger Z, I went in an entirely different direction playing the lead role in a very sentimental animated series called Haichi Bee the Orphan Bumble Bee. I voiced the title character, using a very high “cartoon type” voice. He was a cute little bumblebee who, through misfortune, had become separated from his bumblebee parents. The entire series was a quest, following the little bumblebee’s journey to find his true mother and father. I had a great time doing this production, and would have never believed you if you told me I would in the future get to do the entire series again. Yes, it’s true. Many years later, the series was given a new title, re-recorded and redistributed by Saban Entertainment under the name of Honey Bee Hutch. In Honey Bee Hutch, the original Haichi Bee was renamed Hutch. In this new version, I played Hutch’s evil twin brother. The animation for both bees was exactly the same, except that the evil twin brother (which I voiced) had a black stinger. During the series, my character the evil twin did all sorts of terrible things to everyone that in turn were blamed on poor innocent Hutch. It was the classic case of mistaken identity. The suspense was kept going until the very last episode of the series in which the two bees are revealed to one another. Back to Hawaii. Haichi Bee the Orphan Bumble Bee was my last show in Hawaii. After that, I graduated from the University of Hawaii and moved to Los Angeles. At that point in my life, I stopped doing animation for almost eight years. But once you do it, it’s something you never forget. It’s part of you and it comes to you in the most unusual places.

Almost eight years after I had performed in any kind of animated project, I was at a barbeque on a Sunday afternoon with at my wife’s best friend Barbara’s house. It was kind of a group thing, where there were several gatherings of people having drinks and eating all sorts of unhealthy food. I was in an out of several conversations when there sitting on this swing chair piece of patio furniture was this sort of disheveled artistic looking fellow named Greg Snegoff. He introduced himself as the nephew of Barbara’s then boyfriend George Duchin. That Sunday afternoon, we talked a bit about theatre and acting. He told me he was in a play. I think it was a Russian play. We chatted a bit more and then he had to leave to perform in the show. I wished him well and thought he was a nice guy and that was that. Little did I know that he would become one of my best friends.

Several weeks or months later, I saw a casting call for a new animated series called Robotech in the casting newspaper, called The Dramalogue. Dramalogue was a weekly casting paper and the forerunner of what today is called Backstage. It contained all the casting notices for plays, movies and television. I decided to submit myself for the project and was called in for an audition. When I got there, Greg Snegoff (we now know him as Khyron) was there as part of the group handling the audition. I’m not even sure if he remembered that we had met before but I read and about a week later I was called to work on the series. As I stated earlier, there is no school you can go to or degree you can earn that will even begin to prepare you for what you will encounter in a recording session. You just learn as you go and you hope you have the best and most patient creative people to work with. I did and I am thankful for that. By the time I arrived at Robotech as a voice actor, I had a fair amount of experience in dubbing and writing animated and live action characters. However, with that said, Robotech, was not just another animated show. It was something quite different than anything I had ever done before. What made it different was that the creative force behind the production was not someone far off in Japan who just sent written notes. Robotech was created within a very unique framework under the creative vision of Carl Macek.

Carl Macek was the creative engine behind Robotech. He knew more about what mattered in the show to the fans (the stories, the characters, the idea) than any of us. In many ways, he put together a creative box for all of us to play. We could be as wild and innovative as we wanted but he always kept us true to what the series was about. Carl had the unique talent of being able to see the big picture and remember all the details as well. At the drop of a hat, he would be able to tell you the backstory of any character, where they were in the present and where they would be at the end of their journey. Because of the abbreviated nature of film writing and the constraints of run time, the backstory of many characters is reduced to a few lines of description. It’s up to the writers and actors, to take that brief description and create a full bodied flesh and blood character. This will seem glib, but animated characters are people too. They have hopes, aspirations, grievances with the world and fears. When characters are voiced, not every quality must be exhibited, but it is important that these qualities be known and drawn upon when necessary. That’s were Carl was a master, he knew these characters inside out and could tell you anything about them at a moment’s notice. He really proved his creative genius when he combined three previously existing animated series into one continuous program called Robotech. He did it again when he combined Captain Harlock with another series called Queen of a Thousand Years. As I recall, it wasn’t the most exciting animated footage to start with and Carl used his masterful ability to make something out of nothing to weave the two separate productions into one series. Many of the Robotech crew including myself wrote several of those Harlock episodes. I think Greg or Bob Barren used to called the show “Captain Harschlock…” But as bad as the animation was, Carl Macek made it work masterfully. It was amazing how it all fit together. But really, only Carl Macek could make something like that happen. So, there I was cast in a new series called Robotech and for me, the journey was just about to begin.

CHAPTER 3

Arriving at Robotech

“Hey would somebody pinch me so I know I haven’t died and gone to heaven”

- Episode 19 – Frost Bite

By the time I attended the first audition for the Robotech series, I hadn’t done an animated project in over eight years. That meant I hadn’t been in front of a microphone, in a darkened studio or been asked to sync to a character’s movements in a very long time. After graduate school, I had moved from Hawaii and settled in Los Angeles. As an actor, I was cast in several small roles on television and performed lots of live theatre. My acting career was just sputtering along at best. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t busy. During the interval after getting a masters degree in Drama from the University of Hawaii, moving to Los Angeles and Robotech, I was accepted in the Doctoral Drama program at the University of Southern California. As a PHD candidate, I was required to teach theatre classes and started out teaching a very cool class called Theatre on Film. Its scope was to compare and analyze a significant play or musical that was produced as a motion picture. I liked teaching very much but hated academic research. After several semesters as a PHD, I learned that USC was phasing out the degree and I decided to get a second masters degree in writing. I truly loved the Master of Professional Writing Program at USC. It was and still is everything you would ever want to learn about writing taught by working professional in the industry. In addition, I started to use some of my writing skills to write grants in the arts. I became one of the founders and the Executive Director of Southern California Center for the Arts. This was a multi faceted organization that had an annual budget of over four million dollars per year; produced theatre productions, visual arts exhibitions, festivals and had an artist employment program. During that period, I produced and directed many live theatrical productions, visual arts presentations and festivals. SCCA had several theatres and galleries and was housed in four redwood green houses adjacent to the Pasadena Rose Bowl. The job as Executive Director of this large monster with a staff of over a hundred artists and administrators was all consuming.

Several years later, I moved the organization main offices to Hollywood on Melrose Avenue. At that time this was creative hub within the City of Los Angeles that housed an array of antique stores, small theatres and galleries. Personally, I wanted to focus my energies as a writer and a performer and began taking acting classes with Milton Katselas at the Beverly Hills Playhouse. I also produced plays out of my own small theatre space, which was part of the Melrose Avenue Theatre Row. My space was called the Front Row Theatre because it was so small that there was only one row on each of the four sides of the stage. My goal was to create a simple space that could produce a wide variety of productions inexpensively in a small space. The idea was just like a Volkswagen “Think small…” I did several shows out of that space which had mediocre success until I produced a production of Jules Feiffer’s Hold Me! (with the help of my extremely talented friend Mary Olsen) whom I knew from University of Hawaii). She studied puppetry at the University and was then and still is a marvelous director, actor and writer. When I was first pitched about the show, I really didn’t want to do it. I didn’t think it would play well in such a small space. However, what made this production different was that it had life size puppets! Goes to show you what I knew? The show was a tremendous hit and ran for almost two years at that space. With Hold Me! At the Front Row, I found myself needing another space. I went on to produce several other shows at nearby theatres including Six Rooms Riv Vu and an original play that I wrote called Saturday Nights at the Zephyr Theatre and the musical Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris at the Matrix theatre. Both theatres were a block away on either side of the Front Row. During the same period, at the Pasadena Arts Center Theatre I produced and directed award winning productions of Jean Genet’s The Maids with a male and female cast and produced Fefu and Her Friends (Padua Writer’s workshop) and a bilingual production of Garcia Lorca’s Butterfly’s Evil Spell (El maleficio de la mariposa) that was funded by I grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. That was the fun part of the job, but being the Executive Director of SCCA was also an administrative one. As the organization struggled for funding in the early nineteen eighties (I also wrote all the grants) there were constant audits by the funding sources and more and more administrative requirements needed for the organization function. The grind of maintaining a funding, administering over one hundred employees and have a personal life started to get to me. By 1982, I wanted to try to get back to a more creative less administrative role and left SCCA and started to teach acting.

In 1984, I had been teaching at University of Southern California s School of Theatre already for eight years. I was also teaching acting and some other theatre courses at Pierce College and the Theatre Academy at City College. My classes were a combination of Beginning and Advanced Acting, Improvisation and Theatre History. I hated teaching Theatre History. Not because I didn’t like the subject. It just reminded me too much of having to sit through classes like that in graduate school. But the acting classes were fun and I got to teach a wide variety of students at all levels. During this period, I also auditioned and got a part in a new Broadway bound musical called Those Ringlings. It was a biographical musical extravaganza about the famous Ringling Brothers Circus. I played a sort of pocket picking slime ball grafter and had to sing some of the worst songs in the show. It premiered at a small theatre for backers (which I don’t remember the name) in Hollywood, which is now a car dealership. The producer promised us that the show’s backers were planning to send the production to New York. But, the two leads in the show constantly sang out of tune and after a run of several weeks, the show thankfully closed. I was also taking acting classes with Milton Katselas first at the Zephyr Theatre on Melrose and later at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.

Milton’s scene study class was a non-nonsense dedicated group made up of mostly of working actors, well known celebrities, writers and directors. The only way you could get into this group was through recommendation. I was directing a trio of Pirandello one acts at the Front Row Theatre. Leo Rossi, who played the lead in one of the plays Che Che, was student of Milton Katselas. Leo was a wonderful actor who would have the audience in the palm of his hand whenever he was on the stage. His performance as Che Che in the play was a showstopper and we became friends. He suggested that he would recommend me for Milton’s class. I accepted his offer to help me and joined the class. It was a great experience to work with such of varied group of talented actors, writer’s and directors. I with several of my classmates from Milton’s Katselas’s group became part of an ensemble production of Lyle Kessler’s play Orphans. This production, a workshop only, with a cast of three (Dennis Holahan, Jerry Rand and myself) directed by Joseph Mascolo of Jaws 2 (1978) and Days of our Life was never presented to a civilian audience. Only industry insiders, friends, fellow classmates and family saw this workshop production of Orphans. It was a great opportunity for me to work with top-notch people and work on a play from the ground level. A subsequent production of the play went on a year later directed by Gary Sinise and opened at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre before starting its successful Broadway run with Albert Finney. I never made it to the Broadway production but was grateful for the opportunity to be in this production. It was during this period of my life that I submitted my picture and resume to Harmony Gold and their production of the new animated series Robotech.

I don’t remember actually what was said to me when I got the call for the Robotech audition, but the next thing I knew (well several days later) I was tooling down Sunset Boulevard looking for this odd named place called Intersound. Intersound was located in that wonderfully amorphous part of the Sunset strip between the “snazzy” Sunset Plaza clothing shops and cafes and the more artistic section where you could find a more creative clientele at Tower Records, the Old World Restaurant and Spagos. All of these places including Intersound are now gone. At that time, of my audition, finding a parking space in that part of town was often harder to do than the audition itself. But that day, I drove around several times and was able to snag a coveted space to park my car without having to walk several miles.

Intersound, seemed an unlikely place to discover the likes of the Zentradi, Robotech Masters or the Invid. If you didn’t know exactly where you were going while walking down Sunset you could easily pass it. It was an unassuming small stucco building that looked as though it were dropped there by Dorothy Gale and a twister. It might have been a house in its past and looked quite uncomfortable surrounded on each side by larger buildings. When you stood directly in front of it, there was a downward sloping driveway on the left that took you to a very small parking lot in the rear. The front door as I remember was made of a dark brown heavy wood and had an almost medieval feel to it. On that audition day I slowly opened it to reveal inside a large group of actors filling every inch of the space. This wasn’t as they say in the business a cattle call but it was crowded and filled with anticipation. There wasn’t a lot of room for sitting, so after you signed in, you sort of crashed wherever you could find a place to land. There was a wooden front desk with lots of scattered papers and message pads that looked like more like a debris field than a place where someone sat. On that day, I don’t remember anyone sitting at that desk. The walls were wood paneled with the same material that the door was made of and beyond the front desk there was a studio door on the right and a hallway, which lead to additional studios. But that day, my focus was on the first door on the right, that’s where all the actors were going in and then, of course coming out.

Now I want to stop for a moment and just fill in a bit. Most auditions, I’ve attended, for animated projects usually have a some sort of story board or illustrations of characters to be voiced, short descriptions of each character and of course sides containing the lines to be spoken during the audition. The term “sides” refers to several pages or dialogue selections from the full script. Each character had individual line selections or pages from the script that are used in the audition. By reading the actual lines of a character the producer or director can have a clear cut idea of how that character will actually sound in the full production. Now that day, at the Robotech audition, I don’t remember seeing any storyboards or pictures of any kind. There may have been all of these materials available, but I just don’t remember ever seeing them. They might have been part of what was scattered all over the wooden desk or on a wall in the lobby area. But, I don’t remember ever seeing or using them. However, it doesn’t mean that they weren’t there. I want to make this distinction because I want you to know that I had no idea of what kind of project Robotech was and what kinds of characters were part of it. As I sat there that day, wondering about the audition, I thought to myself, “I haven’t done animation or lip sync this for a long while and a really haven’t a clue of what’s going on.” But then I thought, “what the hell, voice over is just like riding a bike. Once you do it, it stays with you for life. So, I should be fine.”

The wait to get into the audition room with the door on the right seemed to take forever. Some actors went in and then came right out and then there were others that seemed like they were in there for an hour. Finally, my name was called and I approached the door on the right that I think said simply Studio A. When I got inside the room was dark, (much darker than the room I was waiting in) with the exception of a small stand with a script on it and in front of it all a rather small television monitor. Behind me, was a glass wall that housed the engineer’s booth. It was a friendly atmosphere and I put on the headphones and was told to check out and voice a character. It was not one of the major characters that we have all come to know. It might have been a pilot or someone like that saying something like, “Yes, sir!” I had to match the line on the page to the character’s lip movements and what was physically happening on the screen. No problem. Right? Well, not so easy. The first thing you do at a voice over audition is slate your name. That means when you are cued to do so, you simply state your name into the microphone. After you do that, you are cued to begin. I was cued and then slated and then cued to begin. The images on the small television monitor moved by quickly and then I quickly looked down at the line on the script, as I had done thousands of times before, but just couldn’t remember it as I looked up at the screen. I tried again and the results weren’t much better. So much for riding a bike. I thought to myself, “When I did this in Hawaii, the screen was much larger. I wasn’t used to such a small television monitor.” In the studio, there was silence and then in an instant it all started to come back to me. I did one last take and that one was a keeper with perfect sync. And that was it. Before I knew it, I was going out the Studio A door and another actor was coming in. It all happened so fast and I suddenly found myself walking out the front door and walking back to my car. When I made it back to my car and noticed that the meter had run out but I hadn’t gotten a ticket. This is a small miracle in West Hollywood. I thought to myself, “No ticket! This is a miracle! This Robotech audition was a disaster but at least I didn’t get a parking ticket. I’m really thankful for that.” It was late afternoon and as I drove home I turned off Sunset Boulevard on to Laurel Canyon toward Studio City, I started thinking about a whole lot of “woulda shoulda’s couldas” that I might have done at the audition but now it was too late. I sucked and there was nothing at this point I could do about it. Robotech, whatever it was, was something I wouldn’t be a part of.

Several days went by when I received a call from Intersound to show up for a session several days later. It wasn’t one of those “congratulations! You got the part calls.” The person on the phone routinely asked if I was available to work at a certain day and time. Of course I said yes and that was it. It didn’t feel like I was offered a job. It rather felt like I was being invited to a party. My Robotech adventure was about to begin.

In a traditional setting, when you are cast in a project you usually are cast to play one role or if the roles are small, you play several roles within a total production. Robotech was different in the sense that (especially for me in the beginning) I never had an idea of what I would be doing until I arrived at the studio. I usually was called for “bits and walla.” When I showed up and looked down at the script, I would find out right there on the spot. That was not the case, of course in the third season, when I knew I was playing Rand. But even within that framework, I never really had an understanding of where my character was going within the storyline and how that storyline would influence my characters relationship with everyone else. One thing I wish we did in those early days was as an ensemble meeting to get a sense of the Robotech series as a whole. There was only one person who knew that, Carl Macek.

Carl Macek, like Da Vinci or Michelangelo always had an extremely clear idea of the total canvass he was working on. The Robotech television series was assembled from three diverse sources including The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimenson Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada and only Carl Macek really had a concept of how it would all fit together. As an actor in the show, I never really had a sense of what that picture was. I wish that we could have all gotten together as a group and told the story so that we would all know what are part was in the whole piece. The very nature of the way animation is done, is compartmental. You have individual writers writing scripts and then actors coming in at various points separately to voice only the parts of the script that their character appears in. While it is nobody’s fault, the problem with this process is you don’t have a sense of the whole as would with a painting, a play or film. Each person, works on his or her own part of the mosaic and then it is put together. Let’s not romanticize filmmaking. It too is a compartmentalized process. I can’t tell you how many times actors will show up the first day of shooting to learn that they are filming the their character’s death scene at the end of the film. It would be like shooting Romeo and Juliet beginning with the death scene on the first day of filming. But I guess I’m really thinking like a theatre person. In the theatre, usually at the first rehearsal, you would meet the entire cast and read the work in its totality aloud. At some point the director would discuss a point of view that they would take in the presentation of the production. If communicated effectively, everyone in the cast would at least have a general idea of the how the director chose to present the work, the storyline and how their character would fit within that structure. It would still leave room for creative interpretation but everyone (at least theoretically) would be going in the same direction. I would have loved a group Robotech meeting to meet and work with all of the actors at least once or twice so that I could get a feel for their character interpretations or even better to work on one episode at a time in an ensemble. Depending when I recorded, I rarely saw the other actors in the series unless they recorded either before or after me.

The truth was though, that the show as one conceptual idea was being created on the spot by all of us within the framework of Carl’s imagination. Carl Macek was the glue that held us all together and could, at the drop of a hat, tell you in great detail all of the nuances of the story line and its characters. He was a great storyteller and had a keen sense of how it all should fit together.

At that point in the series, I didn’t have one of the major roles in the show. During those early days, I did mostly what they called “bits and walla.” Bits are of course all the smaller character parts that serve the main story line. These parts included characters such as pilots or civilians with names like “Dan,” “Bobby,” or “First Lieutenant.” The lines these bit part characters delivered served to further the plot by providing exposition or to be available to be blown to bits by the Zentrade or Robotech Masters. The group sessions were called walla.

The term walla originated back during the golden age of radio (1930’s and 1940’s) that was all performed live. It certain live radio scenes when the sound of a crowd was needed, the actors softly murmured the sound “walla, walla walla” to create the auditory illusion that it was a crowd of people talking. To the radio audiences of the day, it sounded like the mumbling of a crowd. In animation, wallas are those group scenes where several characters are making sounds all at once. It can be a simple crowd sounds observing an event, animals stampeding through a forest or a group of bumble bees flying out of a hive. Whatever the sound, it is recorded as a group sound and often needs no sync other than a beginning and ending time code. In such group settings, if one character’s physical actions pop out from the rest of the group, that character is usually done separately from the rest. It could be a character waving and calling out, jumping up and down or just doing something different than the group as a whole. Those character tracks are treated as a bit, are recorded separately and then blended together with the rest in the mix later on. Other times, a director may ask that a character who pops out be hit “on the fly” within the general walla take. They might say, “When the group of school kids gets off the bus, there is one in the center waving his hand. Put something specific there.” What the director wants is a line to cover a specific action within the take as a whole. When the character is seen within the take, I yell out “Hey, wait for me!” The action is covered. However, most of the time these types of actions are covered as separate bits. Also, it should be noted, that the voice actor improvises most of these types of walla bits. A director may give you a specific line to say, but most of the time you just make it up on the spot.

So, my first season of Robotech was doing many of these bit characters and walla scenes. One character that stands out in my mind from Season #2 was an episode called False Start, I played one of the Robotech officers. I had a few bit lines and a few walla scenes in that episode but really was just a background character within the framework of the episode that dealt with Dana having us do all sorts of military drills. So my Robotech adventure started slowly playing smaller bit characters and walla. But that all was about to change.

CHAPTER 4

Playing Admiral Rick Hunter (Well… not really)

“We musta missed a turn somewhere?”

- Episode 9 – The Genesis Pit

Performing voices for an animated series is not the same in any way shape or form to a regular job. With a regular job, you go to the same place every day at the same time and leave usually at the same time. In the past, most of the animated projects I worked on were in one to three hour segments mostly during the day. In addition, you often work alone with the director and sound engineer without the other actors. Robotech was the same as any other project except that it worked almost around the clock. This was due to the delivery requirements of the series and that Intersound had other projects in production at the same time. I was often was called in to work at night and more often than not had a start time of midnight or later. I used to make myself a large chrome thermos of chamomile tea with a screw top for a cup to get me through those night sessions. It was weird getting up and going to do voice work at that time of night. As I drove there, it seemed as if the whole world was either asleep or ending the day as I was just beginning mine. That sensation changed, as I would turn onto Sunset Boulevard. Now, the Sunset Strip, which I had to drive on to get to Intersound, was a much different story. The street was filled with cars, neon billboards and people walking. There was a kind of trendy nightclub disco right next to Intersound called Nicky Blairs. It was actually owned by an actor named Nicky Blair who, back then, referred to himself as “the most well-known unknown” because he had been in over eighty or so movies and about a hundred television shows but the only thing he was really well known for was owning a string of restaurants where the rich and famous hung out. As I walked up toward the front door of the Intersound, I could see the limos dropping off celebrities and paparazzi taking their pictures. The only thing that separated Nicky Blairs from Intersound was that one slim driveway that sloped downward toward the parking lot at the back of the studio. One night as I walked by, the veteran actor Tony Curtis came running out to a to a limousine and a flurry of camera flashes and on another evening a guy that looked a lot like Mick Jagger stumbled into a waiting car. But don’t take my word, it was late at night and it could have been anyone. Case in point, one night about 2:00 AM, I also saw a guy that looked a lot like Elvis swagger out the front door. You know the older Elvis, with the rhinestone jumpsuit and I thought to myself, I must really be tired because at that time Elvis had been dead for almost a decade. What would have been really funny or strange is if I saw a Yellow Dancer come running out the door into a waiting limousine. Then I would know I’d have to stop drinking that Chamomile tea and get more sleep. Today, Nicky Blairs is just a faded memory of the wild and tumultuous eighties. I think that building is now an office building on Sunset Boulevard and may still have a restaurant on the site. But it is a far cry from that way it was then when it was one of those “A” list Hollywood spots that was one driveway and a universe away from Robotech.

This intense production schedule applied to everyone involved in the series including the writers, directors, post-production folks as well as the voice actors. When you’re working under such boiler room conditions there were often times when, shall I say, tempers flared a bit in the studio. These flare ups would happen for lots of reasons mostly though because we were all very tired. However with that said, I am a firm believer in the creative process and that artists in a collaborative effort should be courteous with one another. But no matter how tired we were we always found time to find a bit of joy in the work. As I said before, working with Steve Kramer and Greg Snegoff, I never worked so hard at getting it right but also had a great time doing it. The creative process in any artistic endeavor is a complicated one of the inspiration, trial and error in order to achieve a desired creative goal. To further complicate the matter, film and television are collaborative ventures that rely on the creative contribution of many people. Often you have many diverse points of view coming together along with fair amount of fatigue and frustration. When that happens, the only thing you have is your craft as an artist and civility toward on another. You have to believe that everyone is trying to do the best they can and get the best possible result. However, when all that goes out the window and you are not treated with a fair amount of respect that would be due another person, then you have to as I think Rocky Balboa once said, “You gotta do what you gotta do…” And so anyone that has ever worked with me, (in and out of Robotech) got to know if they treated me badly or in a way that one human being should not treat another, I was not going to accept it. You might be thinking what does that mean?

I have been privileged to work with talented directors the likes of Greg Snegoff, Bob Barren, Steve Kramer and Mike Reynolds and many others during the run of the series. However, there were some (a few) directors who worked on the show, that were not as committed to the series or creative process. Either they just were not into it or had other psychological or physical issues going on in their lives at the time we made the series. I will leave them nameless. However, one night around 2:00 AM, I was working with one of those directors. The session (as it always was with this person) was difficult. He was usually wired, edgy, ill tempered and often screamed at the top of his voice and threw things around in the studio. During recording sessions, he often took breaks in the men’s bathroom and returned to the studio more “wired” and “edgy” than when he left. To say, I didn’t like working with him was an understatement. On this night, he was extremely erratic and when he returned from one of his many bathroom breaks, he began to get physically violent. He threw something across the studio then slammed his fist down on wooden stand that held the script because the sound engineer didn’t cue up the portion of the script he wanted. Then, he turned his anger toward me and got real close to my face yelled at the top of his lungs and slammed his fist again on the stand which held the script. I had enough ranting from him for one night. I quietly told him that he was “done” for the evening then extracted him from the studio. I finished my lines with the engineer (without incident) and went home. I wish I could remember which episode we were recording. I don’t regret my actions that night and if we went back in time, I would do it all over again only I would add the Thomas Paine quote “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.” to whatever explicative phrases I may have shared with him on the way out the door. In his case, he needed to get out of the way so we could finish what we were trying to do.

I want to confess that I had then and still have now within my genetic makeup a propensity to be a scrapper. I grew up in an Italian family was from New York. Two strikes against me and really the scrapper part of me I get from my mom. She was the type of person who would not be afraid to tell you what she thought and would defend herself and family if anyone tried to hurt them. I had that instilled in me as a young New York Italian child. I will talk about this in more detail later but I will tell you a short story of something that happened to me as a young Italian child of about seven. Every Sunday, my uncle would take my cousins and me to church and after Mass I was required to attend Sunday Catechism. These Catechism classes were taught by the nuns at Saint Catherine’s of Siena Church in Franklin Square, the Long Island town I grew up in. These nuns were a tough bunch to say the least dressed in black and white habits, which covered their bodies completely except for a small hole in the front where their face popped out. They were strict and had little patience for any form of human expression. The way they saw it, you were just supposed to sit there, not move and do whatever they told you to do without question. I didn’t go to Catholic School during the week so I wasn’t accustomed to that sort of military discipline. I went to a public school and it was a lot more civil. But I figured, I’d try my best not to get into trouble because Catechism was only once a week. One Sunday, in Catechism class, I think her name was Sister Mary Catherine (who was from Ireland) was asking us individually to recite a portion of a little brown missile book that the class all held in their hands. The recital went something like “God and the Virgin Mary are really your mother and father and your parents (the ones at home) are just guardians while you’re here on earth.” Don’t hold me to the exact wording because it was a long time ago. I had a problem just repeating that statement and raised my hand to ask a question. Sister Mary Catherine barked at me, “no questions just repeat it.” I refused to just repeat something I didn’t understand and she promptly slapped me across the ear and face. The class giggled and I started to cry from the pain. But then something came over me; I stopped crying, sucked it up and as she stooped down and yelled at me again in her Irish accent, “Repeat it!” Before she could slap me again, I cocked my arm back and socked Sister Mary Catherine right across the jaw causing her to fall backward onto the floor. The only thing I can remember about it was her laced black boots flying up in front of my face as she fell backward onto the shiny linoleum. That got a gasp out of the class. Sister Mary Catherine mumbled from the floor in an Irish brogue something that sounded like, “You’re going to hell for that one you little fucker…” and I whispered back, “See ya there Sista!” At that moment I thought to myself, there’s only one thing to do now… Scram! That’s New York slang for leave the scene at once! I took off out of the room and ran all the way home without stopping. I might have broken a speed record for the half-mile. Later that day, at home the doorbell rang and a priest came to my house and spoke to my mom. I was hiding under my bed so I really couldn’t hear what they were saying. At that point I thought my life was over and that I truly would go to Hell but after I told my mother what had happened, she let me off the hook. But sternly warned me not to hit anyone ever again (especially nuns) because fighting would never solve a problem. I knew in my heart that she was just telling me that but really didn’t believe it. My father took me aside and said, “Don’t be afraid to fight for what you believe in… even if they’re bigger than you. But whatever you do, don’t hit any more nuns. Especially when a lot a people are looking at ya!” I thought that was useful information for a seven year old but never got to apply it until I started fighting Invid.

One morning, after working on Robotech until the wee hours the previous night, I got an unusual call from the Harmony Gold offices stating that they wanted me to come in that morning. I of course agreed and found myself driving down Sunset Boulevard but this time going to the Harmony Gold offices rather than the recording studio. The Harmony Gold offices were about a half a mile from Intersound just about the same distance that I lived from the Saint Catherine of Sienna church where I hit the nun. I thought I must have really done something bad this time. I didn’t know what else to think. My acting teacher Milton Katselas once told me, “Never agree to go to a meeting unless you know what it’s about.” I always thought that bit of advice made a lot of sense but somehow that morning it was of no comfort to me. When I arrived, I took an elevator up to the Harmony Gold offices I was met by the then marketing director – I think his first name was Stuart. We sat in his office a while and we just talked generally about the show. I still thought I might have been in some sort of trouble. I mean I really had no reason to believe I was in trouble but as I sat there and talked to him all sorts of things kept running through my mind. I thought, did I use foul language during one of the sessions and was it recorded? I often improvised my lines between takes and sometimes they were recorded. Maybe this was why I was there? Then I thought about a host of other things that I might have done wrong and when I couldn’t think of any, I started imagining things that I might have done. It was a downward spiral of self imposed guilt and I would have confessed to anything at that point. I would have said, “Yes! Yes! I did it! I couldn’t help myself but I did it!” When about half way through the conversation, Stuart mentioned something about going to New York City attending some sort of toy convention and playing Rick Hunter. What? Rick who?

Now you fans will hate me for this, but I want to tell the truth. At that point in my life I only had a vague idea of who Rick Hunter was? Remember I went into the studio and just did my bits and walla. Rick Hunter to me was just another one of the many animated characters that were moving about on the screen. Most of the time, I was focused on the characters I was voicing. At other times, there were no tracks recorded for the other characters in the scene, so I would lay down my tracks without hearing them. But I had the feeling that I was going to learn who Rick Hunter was very quickly. After I met with Stuart I was taken into this larger office and had the opportunity to have a brief meeting with Frank Agrama the President and owner of Harmony Gold. I was led down what seemed to me a very long hallway, which ended with a set of oversized double doors. When they opened the large doors to his office I felt like Dorothy the first time she met the Wizard in Emerald City. I mean there was no fire and brim stone but this office was the Reflex Point of Harmony Gold and the driving force behind Robotech. There could be no television series without Frank Agrama. He was really nice and when we shook hands and told me that I would be playing the character of Rick Hunter in New York, I felt at that moment that everything was going to be all right. Over the next few days, I had several meetings with Bonnie (actually Carl Macek’s sister in law and Svea Macek’s sister) the costume designer for the show. She took lots of measurement and before I knew it, I was fit into the uniform that was worn by Rick Hunter in the series. I asked if a helmet and a cyclone went with the costume. It was really a joke, but no one laughed. I also asked, and was granted the ability to see some of Rick Hunter’s episodes so that I could get an idea of what he sounded like and how the character moved. Tony Oliver nailed the character and really captured the relationship with Minmei. I never really knew why Tony Oliver (maybe he was not available) couldn’t do the New York trip but after watching a few episodes, I realized that our voices had a similar quality. Of course, no matter how hard I tried, I still had a bit of a New York accent and attitude. But I tried as best as I could to capture the spirit that Tony had instilled in the character. As I understood it, my job was to greet the fans in New York City as Rick Hunter. This seemed easy enough at the time. But Harmony Gold had one more surprise for me.

I had the opportunity to meet for the first time the talented Rebecca Forstadt aka Reba West who of course played Lynn Minmei. Rebecca was also asked by Harmony Gold to do the New York City trip and attend the toy convention dressed as Minmei. She, unlike me, knew what she was doing and really helped me get through the trip. Rebecca is a very talented performer who really captured the spirit of Minmei. Playing off her made it so much easier to get into the Rick Hunter character.

I don’t remember much about our flight to JFK, but when we finally landed it was cold and cloudy which it often is in New York City. I do remember having fears about being put up in some small Motel Six type of flea trap on the edge of nowhere or even worse 8th Avenue. I had no reason to believe this but it was just my nature to think that way. My fears were allayed when we arrived at a very large and very “grand” Grand Hyatt Hotel. We entered through the street level but the actual lobby for the hotel is on the seventh floor. I thought that a lobby on the seventh floor was strange. But what the hell, it was in no way less than any other large hotel lobby with a large atrium and elevators made of glass. I thought to myself that this was a cool hotel and that I would like hanging out here. But, the funny part about it was that I never spent much time actually staying in the hotel. As soon as I got there I was right back out the door sucking up New York City nightlife and seeing some old friends. There was a married couple that lived in Manhattan named Gina and Paris. They were actually old friends of my wife. Paris was a tall handsome working New York actor and Gina was a flight attendant on one of the big international airlines. Paris did lots of New York theatre and commercials and was very interested in learning about Robotech. They met me in the hotel lobby. We hung out for a while talking about Robotech and then they took me out to dinner in a restaurant not far away from the hotel. All I can remember about the place was that it was a small store front unassuming little place that served Cuban Chinese cuisine. I had never had Cuban Chinese cuisine ever before and actually ever since. The place was dimly lit and I kept thinking to myself that I’d better order carefully or that I would get sick. But the food was outstanding. I ordered some sort of combination Cuban Chinese dish called Platano Maduro Kung Pau, which was fried bananas, fried rice, and Kung Pau chicken. As I think about it now, that was quite a bit of starch. But I wasn’t thinking of starch on that night. I was thinking about eating something not too spicy so that I would not be sick as Rick Hunter the following day. After we at, we walked around a while and then we went to one of my favorite places, Café Un, Deux, Trois for dessert and coffee. Of course I had to have a soufflé and an espresso. You got to love New York City because there’s so much to do and so much always available any time of day. Café Un Deux Trois is still there today on 44th Street and is a great place to eat if you are in that part of town. Paris and Gina walked me back to the hotel lobby and were off. I invited them to the Robotech event the next day, but they couldn’t make it. We said our goodbyes and as I watched them walk through the lobby and down the elevator, I thought they were a perfect couple and wonder where they are today. You’re probably wondering why I spent this time writing about my Cuban Chinese dinner with Paris and Gina and what does it have to do with Robotech. Paris and Gina wanted to know about the show, it’s characters and story and I (at that point in time) really had not a clue about the show, it’s characters or the people who watched it. Little did I know all of that was about to dramatically change?

The next morning we were up early and hit the ground running. Both Rebecca and I put on our costumes and were escorted to a Matchbox / Robotech booth. The event, which is kind of vague in my memory, featured many kinds of toy manufacturers. I say vague because since that time, I have attended many so Robotech, Sci Fi and Animae events that I want to be careful not to mix them up. I do remember lots of people dressed in all sorts of wild and wonderful costumes that ranged from animae, Star Trek and Star Wars. I couldn’t believe the detail that many of the fans achieved in creating a realist look for their costumes. One guy, kept trying to shoot me with a Star Trek hand phaser weapon. I kept dodging him because I was afraid that the weapon he was pointing at me as actually a Taser. I didn’t want to be knocked unconscious on my first day of the event. What was special about this New York City event for me was that it was my first and I was learning as I went along. One of our first functions was to be at or near the Robotech booth at all times and be available for photographs and autographs with fans. One question I had to answer for myself was what would I sign when I was asked for an autograph? Should I sign my real name or should I sign Tony Oliver’s name or should I just sign Rick Hunter? I decided to sign Rick Hunter. That seemed like a safe choice but it also had its own set of problems.

What happened during that first day was an amazing experience for me. For the very first time I had the opportunity to meet the people who watched the show and learn about Robotech from them. There would be fans that asked for a picture together and that was pretty easy. I got into trouble when fans asked me questions about specific episodes that Rick Hunter was part of. At first I thought I could just give general responses, but I learned quickly that you could not get away with a generic answer with a Robotech fan. They knew the stories and characters inside out. Another small bump in the road for me personally, that the fans quickly recognized that I was not the voice of Rick Hunter. Some of them also elaborated more fully, “You’re not the voice of Rick Hunter at all you’re the voice of Lieutenant Dennis Brown or Bobby and you said this line in this particular episode.” So, my signing autographs, as Rick Hunter didn’t work for many people. They just asked me to sign my own name, which I gladly did but I knew in my heart that they were disappointed. I thought to myself, “No one and I mean no one should ever try to fool with Robotech fans because it’s a battle they will never win.” Robotech fans knew these characters too well for anyone to try to impersonate them. I decided the best course of action was to just come clean and tell them the truth. Once, I did that, all the doors opened up for me. The fans were great and along with the help of Rebecca, I got through the day without causing any major catastrophes. I actually had a great time.

I had the opportunity on the first day to meet some very cool and interesting people dressed in all sorts of costumes. I loved the costumes, but the real gift for me was learning who these people were and how far they travelled to attend the event. I was amazed that there were literally people at the event from all over the world. They were musicians, actors, scientists, teachers, students, dog lovers, cat lovers etc. You name it they were there. I remember seeing this one very cute girl dressed as Sailor Moon who smiled at and said something like, “Hey, Rick Hunter… you’re cute!” Against orders, I abandoned my post and tried to follow her but I lost her in the crowd. When I finally got back to the Robotech booth, I was reminded that I should never leave my post. After all, I was Rick Hunter and should be by Minmei’s side not chasing Sailor Moon. I guess it was bad for business. But you got to admit, there’s something very nice about Sailor Moon!

I also got to meet lots of the younger fans that loved the show. There was this one little boy who was about eye level with the table at the booth who kept staring at this huge model of what I think was the SDF #1. It stood on a stand on the table next to what looked like a smaller version of the same toy. This little boy just stood there for about a half an hour just staring at the larger toy like he was in a trance. I could see in eyes that he was no longer in the room but somewhere up in space flying one of those babies and taking down a Zentradi battleship or fighter. He just didn’t move. Finally, I broke in and said something really dumb like, “pretty nice toy, huh?” He looked at me briefly and said, “Who the hell are you? You’re not Rick Hunter!” then turned back to eye balling the toy. I replied, “Yeah, kid, you got me on that one… I’m not Rick Hunter” and reached down and pulled the smaller toy off the table and gave it to him. “Here kid, you can fly this baby home.” But he didn’t take it. He kept his eyes fixed directly upon the larger more expensive version of the toy and said in a heavy New York accent; “My Motha says I can’t have that big one cause we’re poor and we ain’t got any money for toys.” I replied, “What about your father, can’t he buy it for you?” He looked up at me and this killed me, “I don’t have any father.” When he said that I couldn’t take it. I pulled the large toy off the table and handed it to him. He took it that time, smiled and looked at it in amazement and said, “Get outta here!” and I said, “Yeah, get outta here… now… before we get caught.” He smiled at me ear to ear, “Thanks Rick! Or what ever your name is…” and then vanished into the crowd. I never got to ask him his name. He’s probably in his late twenties or thirties by now. I hope he’s still into Robotech where ever he his. One thing I discovered was that I was falling in love with the Robotech fans and that they were the most important thing about the show. I think there could not be a Robotech without them. I remember telling Carl Macek about giving the kid the toy and he laughed out loud “Don’t let Matchbox find out, they will take it out of your pay check.” I never said a word, but I think if Rick Hunter was there that day and met that little kid, he would have done the same thing. Rand would definitely have done it because it was the right thing to do.

Robotech was never the same for me after the New York City trip. I didn’t know much about the series from the perspective of what I was doing but I saw for the first time the spirit of what Robotech truly was through its fans. As we approached the third season called The New Generation, I figured I would continue play smaller bit parts and walla as I had done before. But I was very wrong. Robotech had yet another new adventure awaiting me.

BECOMING RAND

PUTTING MY SELF IN THE PICTURE

Young Italian child, (from left) - My older brother, myself and my dad - Franklin Square, New York

Playing “Guns,” Franklin Square, New York

As Rick Hunter in 1986, New York City - Photo courtesy of Harmony Gold USA

Program cover – “Ultra 7” live at the Waikiki Shell – Honolulu, Hawaii

Playing Adam in “Mysteries and the Passion” – directed by Terence Knapp at the Kennedy Theatre, Honolulu, Hawaii

Recording session – Los Angeles, California

In the control room, directing a three camera scene – Los Angeles, California

Interview at Harmony Gold – Los Angeles, California

Da Bugga’ Scapin! based on Moliere’s “That Scoundrel Scapin” – directed by Glenn Cannon at Kennedy Theatre, Honolulu Hawaii

Advanced Scene Study class – Los Angeles, California – Photo courtesy of Santiago Valencia

At Harmony Gold with Tommy Yune

Robotech Event dressed as Rick Hunter 1986

Robotech Interview

Playing guitar

CHAPTER 5

Becoming Rand

“Do me a favor will ya – and keep the showboating to a minimum… All right?”

- The Fortress – Episode 12

As I discussed earlier in this book, my approach to any character whether live action or animated considers three basic elements – emotional, intellectual and physical. How do they feel, what do they think and how do they move about the universe that’s been created around them? Can you imagine if Rand lived in late 19th century England in the world of Sherlock Holmes? His physicality would be totally different than his own time. This change in physicality would be influenced by several factors. The actual environment or space that the character must move in and the social mores of the period. What kinds of clothes would he wear? They would certainly be wool or cotton and depending upon his social class it would be formal or informal. His environment in Victorian London would be a city lit by gas with cobble stone streets and horse carriages for mecha. Also, Rand in order to be believable within that specific 19th century time frame would behave in a certain manner. Would he have a certain social status? Was he educated and was he wealthy or poor? All of these questions should be answered in order to determine the appropriate choices for the character. When this research is done and applied to performance, the character has a certain credibility within the universe the writer has created for them. When it all comes together it’s seamless and the audience can just sit back and get into the story. That’s why the Harry Potter series works so well. It’s an incredible story spun in a very credible way. On the other hand, when it’s wrong, it’s devastating. The audience is taken away from what is important in the story and characters and lead to a state of disbelief. How many times how you seen something done live action in a period and the characters all look, feel and act contemporary? When this happens you are thrown out of the storyline because you are constantly reminded that what you are seeing is not real and being acted (probably poorly) by a modern day actor. When it comes to developing a character that is real, animation is not any different. As a voice actor, your first step is work with what the animators have drawn.

When I am presented with a new animated character that has already been created and is up on the screen, it is as much about how they move within the universe that is created for them than the lines they speak. When I research a new character that has already been drawn I want to see how they move within the space. Do they move slowly, do they swagger or do they stay confined within their own personal space? Think about people you may know in life. Do they often take up more space than they really should by spreading themselves out be extending outward in every thing they do. They talk loud, place their belongings all over the place and often literally spread themselves outward by literally opening their legs or arms. Then, you may know another person in life who barely makes a dent in their space. Their arms are folded inward so that they can take up as little space as possible when they enter a room. Think about this the next time you’re on an elevator. How do the people around you take that space? The normal physical reaction in an elevator is to close inward as the space diminishes. The more crowded the elevator becomes the more you pull inward. As the personal space around us gets smaller we pull inward and compensate. With that said, have you ever had someone violate your personal space without warrant? I was on line at a Thrifty one time and the person at the cash register was extremely slow. There was nothing that could be done about it. However, there was this guy behind me, who kept getting more frustrated as each minute went by. As his frustration increased, he kept moving closer and closer to me until finally his body started brushing up against my butt and breathing down my neck. It was a clear-cut brush of the butt. I guess the thinking behind it was a gentle nudge against my butt was going to make the line move more quickly. He pushed up against my butt, once, then twice and on number three I turned to him told him to back off and that brushing up against my butt wouldn’t make the line move any faster. I might have said something a little more explicative but you get the point. Characters like people have a specific relationship to the space they move in. In my case, Rand took a lot of space and wasn’t afraid to get into with it with any Invid that stepped into it.

This may seem a bit too complicated to create an animated character. However in a series such as Robotech we were playing real people not cartoony voiced grasshoppers and ants. It was important to me to capture how the character filled the space that was created. Also, how the other characters responded to my character. I remember voicing the first episode of The New Generation when Rand meets Scott Bernard. There was a competitive spirit set up in those first few scenes on the mecha. When they drive, their mecha are close to one another competing for the same space and who will take the lead. That’s how it was in the beginning but then the relationship between Rand and Scott Bernard would evolve into something much more complicated. Scott Bernard would go on to teach Rand to be a true Robotech warrior but at the first moment they see each other, their relationship starts off as competitive. While their relationship evolved, that competitive spirit was still evident throughout the rest of The New Generation. That evolutionary change in the relationship of these two characters and every character in the series had to be reflected in the voice characterization. Now I will confess that when you’re in the studio you don’t have any time to contemplate these character choices. You have only to rely on your individual talent and the choices that come from your true intuition. If you have lines to respond to in your head set then you have that hook to work with. If you don’t, you have got to make the choice based upon your observation of what’s up on the screen and what if anything the director in the room can tell you. This is how I approached creating Rand. But there is more to it than that.

The creation of just the right voice for an already drawn character is a best like a sonar reading on a submarine. You never get the whole picture. You have the visual animation and if you’re lucky a voice to respond to in your head set and hopefully a good director. But then you have to connect those character choices to something inside of you. This is not to say that every experience Rand had I had myself. But it was important for me to connect the core of who Rand was and what he did to something that I could understand and relate to creatively. While I’ve never had to take out an Invid, I have socked a nun. If needed, I could have used this frightening experience to help me to connect emotionally, intellectually and physically to the Rand character. In many ways to “act” a particular character you must connect to your self. You may be thinking, am I a method actor? The answer is no.

Method acting attempts to create character choices by connection to the actor’s own emotional history and experience. While I have done this and it is an effective way to find the core of a character in a film or play, it doesn’t fully address the challenges of creating a voice for an animated character. While I value the method acting technique and the work of Stanislavski, much of my training as an actor was in Asian Theatre. Specifically the performance of Peking Opera and Japanese Kabuki. The character approach in these forms of theatre is primarily external in that the actor absorbs the external qualities of the character. The technique is more about the appearance of the character quality than the actor actually making an internal connection. For example, if the character feels grief, the actor does not necessarily have to feel grief. The importance is to create the physical qualities to create the illusion of grief within the reality of the character and have the audience believe it. I’m sure there are many volumes written on Chinese and Japanese theatre but my relationship to these art forms was not academic. It was primarily first hand experience.

I had the opportunity of working off Broadway in two Peking Opera styled productions Shang Hai Lil and another called Double Five Flower Grotto both directed by the experimental artist Ching Yeh. Double Five Flower Grotto was performed in Chinese Mandarin language, which was a real challenge for me to learn. A dialogue coach worked with me for weeks to learn the appropriate physicality and dialect for each character. In addition, I spent hours with head set glued to my ears listening and trying to repeat the Chinese dialogue with just the right inflection. I never really got it and I think the person who was my dialogue coach hated me. I played a clown character called a Chou, which was physically demanding role because it required comic acting, acrobatics and a strong voice. I had to spend the entire play in a crouched position. I had to crouch even when I moved around the stage. Not much fun then and probably not physically possible for me to do now without a cracking sound coming out of my knees. In the Peking Opera form, the approach to the role is almost entirely based upon technique and physicality so it didn’t matter if I knew exactly what I was speaking as long as I moved just the right way. I’m sure Ching Yeh and the dialogue coach did not share this belief but that was my hook. The moving around part, believe it or not was much easier for me to remember, so I was able to get away with it. Besides, when we performed in New York City, there weren’t very many, if any, members of the audience who spoke fluent Chinese. So, I was okay. When I got a full scholarship to attend graduate school at The University of Hawaii, I grabbed it. It gave me the opportunity to learn more about Peking Opera, Japanese Kabuki and Noh Drama.

When I finally got to Hawaii, I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was and how lucky I was to be there. My first experience there was studying Japanese Noh drama. I quickly came to the conclusion that Noh drama bored the hell out me. While it was intriguing to watch, it didn’t have the physical connection that I found in Kabuki. However, the approach to a role for a Kabuki actor was very interesting to me because although it too was an external approach, it managed to achieve a highly emotional audience response in performance. I hope my drama teachers in University of Hawaii never read this book, because I will attempt here to feebly to describe the creation of a character in the Kabuki style.

Kabuki costumes and make up are extremely elaborate and can take a considerable amount of time to assemble and put on before a show. However, once the costume was completed, there was a total transformation from actor to character. The actor was totally transformed into the character. This can really be illustrated by looking at the onnagata character. The onnagata is a female character type in the Kabuki played solely by male actors. These male actors study for a lifetime to create the illusion that they are women down to the most intricate detail. In order for this illusion to be accomplished, there must be a total transformation physically, emotionally and intellectually. Once this occurs, the audience accepts this reality and can then get into the plot and characters of the play. One thing that has stuck in my memory was a Kabuki character’s initial entrance onto the stage in a play.

The traditional Kabuki staging is set in the proscenium format, like the conventional type of seating you would experience in a western playhouse or movie theatre. However, there is one additional piece of staging called a hanamichi which is a runway that passes from the rear of the theatre to stage right at the level of the spectators’ heads. The hanamichi was used mostly for spectacular entrances, exits, processions, and battles. Just before one of these spectacular entrances, the Kabuki actors still backstage in full costume and makeup would look at themselves in a full-length mirror and absorb their character visually before their entrance. A moment later, the sound of a loud bamboo curtain opening signaled their entrance to the audience. The character would then proceed down the hanamichi ramp, which ran through the audience area and eventually step onto the stage. These characters were created totally through tradition, an intense understanding of their physicality and technique. The creation of a vocal characterization for an already drawn animated character uses many of the same principals.

Robotech was not a Peking Opera or Kabuki performance but it required an internal as well as an external physical approach to the character. To create the character of Rand, I also had to incorporate an internal technique and rely on experiences from my past. I needed both an external and internal approach to make specific choices to create the right voice. In these next chapters, I will try to detail that exploration and reveal the connections from my past that I used in the creation of the character of Rand in The New Generation.

In Loving Memory of a True Hero

Marcello Joseph Lamberti

(1917 – 2012)

CHAPTER 6

Heroes

“When I was a kid, I saw a movie that was just like this. The good guys and the bad guys each waiting for each other to make the first move.

- Lonely Soldier Boy - Episode 13

Many actors often rely on specific memories or images from their past when trying to connect with and portray a character in a play or film. The connections could be to specific events, experiences or just general characteristics of a given person, place or thing. Within the study of method acting, these memories are referred to as affective memory or emotional memory. Actors rely on personal memories of situations similar to those of the character they are trying to portray. They connect these memories to the situation that their characters face within a given script. In addition, sense memory is also used to recall physical sensations surrounding emotional events rather than the emotions themselves. There are many schools of thought as to whether there is any value in approaching a character role in this manner. It works for some actors and characters more than others. The type and style of the piece they are working on also comes into play. If the presentation framed in a highly stylized setting, much of the internal work gets lost in the design of the production. If the work being presented requires a strong emotional base framed within a realistic setting, such internal work can be very valuable in creating a character. So, the answer is that both internal and external methods can be very helpful in creating a specific character. In my case, along with the physical approach that I acquired from Peking Opera and Kabuki, I wanted to create a more in depth portrayal to Rand by connecting what he was going through to my own experiences. While I was not Rand and he was not me, there were areas of our collective experience that could be tapped into We were both guided by role models that showed us the right path. These were individuals who were not afraid to stand up and fight for what they believed in. For Rand, the role model was clearly Scott Bernard. Scott Bernard taught Rand how to be a soldier and fight for a cause that was larger than himself. In Rand’s eyes, Scott Bernard was more than just his role model. He was his hero. To find my heroes, I took another path.

When I was small New York Italian child between the ages of four and seven, I would spend part of my week at my aunt Virginia and uncle Marty’s house. My uncle Marty was my mom’s oldest brother. My parents owned a produce business that required them to work long hours on the weekends. They didn’t have anyone to watch me. So, they shipped me off to aunt Virginia and uncle Marty’s house in Queens, New York until my dad was able to pick me up on Sunday mornings and take me up on Sunday mornings and take me back home. My uncle’s house was a huge two-story colonial located in a charming area of Queens called Cambria Heights. The house was an elegant older home probably built in the nineteen thirties and held it’s own on the beautiful tree lined street where they lived. My aunt Virginia, a tall thin woman with curly hair spent a good deal of her time in the kitchen. She was a sweet soul who took great care of me. One thing I remember most about here is that she made the best vanilla malted milk shakes on a huge blender in the kitchen. She taught me to be kind and giving. There were other people that lived there as well including my aunt Virginia’s brother (Uncle Anthony), her father (Michael), her aunt (Aunt Lucy), my uncle Marty and my two cousins (Johnny and Juliana) along with a large Collie named Rinty (short for Rin Tin Tin). The household had lots of people energy like an Italian version of a Chekov play. It was a kind and loving place and I am glad that I was part of it. Aunt Lucy used to bake me coconut cakes and fresh apple pies. My cousin, Johnny (who was about seven years older than I was) introduced me to Doo Wop music and Elvis Presley on his 45 rpm Victrola. I still think of him today whenever I hear Elvis Presley sing “Love Me Tender.” My Aunt Virginia’s brother, who I called Uncle Anthony, was a tall lanky sort of guy who always wore his paints up high on his waist, sported a white shirt and tie all the time. As I think of him now, he looked a lot like the actor Christopher Walken. Uncle Anthony was a devoted New York Yankees fan who watched baseball games on a small black and white television up in his bedroom on the second floor of the house. Sometimes, I’d sit with him there in front of the television and watch the games. As the game progressed, he would impart little bits of baseball philosophy to me. “Ya got all of life down there on that field. The game teaches to be part of a team something bigger than you are. It teaches you to use your head in tight situations, how to be a winner and most important of all, how to lose with dignity.” He tried to teach me all he could about baseball game and get me interested in actually playing the sport. But, although I liked baseball it never really stuck to me. I was really never one of those sports type kids. I guess I was destined to be a theatre major although I didn’t know it when I was five. But Uncle Anthony’s baseball analogies taught me that it was important to be part of a team. That “no man is an island” (I actually think John Donne said that) but that value that Uncle Anthony imparted stuck with me the rest of my life.

My aunt Virginia’s father Michael (I called him Pop) an older man from Italy. He spoke mostly Italian, which meant that I really couldn’t have a long conversation with him. But I did manage to have a great time with him sitting on the side porch of the house. He would sit out there in a chair in a long knit cardigan sweater he wore neatly over a plaid shirt that was buttoned to the top. Pop sometimes smoked a pipe or short little Italian cigars called stogies. I can still remember the stogies now because they had a really distinct smell when they were lit. Sort or a cross between dirty socks and Limburger cheese. Most days, Rinty (the collie), Pop and I sat out there on the porch steps for hours and watched the world go by. We had long conversations about life even though we didn’t always understand each other. Pop mostly spoke Italian and well, Rinty was a dog and I spoke English. Although the language was different we somehow all understood each other. One of my favorite things to do with Pop was to learn Italian. He taught me lots of cool Italian curse words and accompanying hand gestures that I used on my classmates when I was at school. However, when I think about it now, the most important thing that Pop taught me was to open my eyes and observe the world around me. He would notice details in almost anything he saw. There was a large willow tree across the porch where we sat. Most people, as they walked by, only saw a tree or perhaps didn’t notice it was there at all. Pop, on the other hand, would make that tree a metaphor about almost anything you wanted to know about life. He would compare its leaves to a person’s life. Things like that. We would sit out there day after day and even though we didn’t speak the same language Pop taught me how to “see.” In later years, as an actor and a writer, this skill was essential in creating a character. Now, my uncle Marty, on the other hand, wasn’t always thrilled to have me bobbing around the place. I was always “under foot” doing some sort of mischief. He was always patient with me and sometimes he even let me help him.

My Uncle Marty always had been a very creative type guy who was a painter, (the canvass kind) window decorator and inventor. He often would spend hours in his workshop working on all sorts of inventions. I think the one he was most proud of was a portable toothbrush that had toothpaste already in it. It was about the size of a pen and you could put it in your jacket pocket and (if you wanted) brush your teeth almost anywhere. There is a family story that as a young man in the 1930’s, my uncle received a letter from a young filmmaker in Hollywood. This filmmaker had seen his drawings and invited him to move out to the west coast to become part of a new film company. The letter was from Walt Disney and my uncle wanted to go but couldn’t because he had to work to help support the family during the Great Depression. The last time I visited him, over twenty-five years ago, he still had the letter framed on the wall in his kitchen. For my Uncle Marty, this wonderful story remained a dream deferred. He did manage to utilize his talent by becoming a window design decorator by trade. He would work freelance and decorate the display windows of clothing stores all over New York City. Saying he was creative was a sort of understatement. Once, I saw him take a large wooden packing crate sitting in the garbage on a New York City street and several minutes later (with a little paint added to it) put it in the store window of a high-end boutique and magically made it all work. I thought to myself, that he was able to take a piece of garbage and turn it into a work or art. I never forgot that. He was also an enthusiastic movie fan who collected full-length movies, animation and cinema memorabilia. He was so enamored by movies and Hollywood that he built an actual movie theatre called the Bijou in his basement. The theatre that was modeled after the original Bijou in New York City was a much smaller version of the original. It was designed in a refined Louis XVI style inside, featuring color scheme of blue, ivory and gold. But, in the eyes of a five year old, it was much more than that.

Now when I say movie theatre, I mean the works. The theatre had a marquee, a colorful lobby and real velvet theatre seating and a large white movie screen framed by a crimson velvet curtain. The walls were lined with vintage movie posters and one wall, as I remember, (in the Cambria Heights house) had two stuffed alligators mounted on it. I never figured out why there were stuffed alligators in a movie theatre but I remember being concerned that at one point when the lights went off that those two alligators would wake up and start chasing me. In another corner, there was a pool table and an old style neon lit jukebox that played all sorts of big band music from the 1930’s and 1940s. You could just press a button and the whole thing lit up with a bright neon glow. I remember looking on in amazement through the small glass window as a 78rpm record dropped onto the turntable and the needle arm miraculously lifted and gently placed itself at the start of the record. There was the familiar scratching sound of the needle on the record, then the music of Glenn Miller’s Moonlight Serenade, Artie Shaw’s, Dancing in the Dark or Harry James and Frank Sinatra singing All or Nothing at All. My uncle would play this music and I was usually nearby or underneath the pool table playing with my toys.

As if that weren’t enough, when I sat in one of those velvet movie chairs to watch a movie at this Bijou, I had a big bowl of popcorn all to myself. Suddenly, the lights went down and an overture began to play as a large crystal mirrored ball glowed and spun slowly making the room look like it was filled with shooting starts. A moment later, the lights came up on the stage and out of the orchestra pit, an orchestra of animated musicians playing all sorts of instruments, rose from beneath the stage. As the overture ended, the musicians were lowered back down beneath the stage, the crimson curtain slowly parted and the movie began. The Bijou was truly a magical place but what I would learn there had just begun.

I will freely admit that I was kind of, what can I say pain in the ass when I was a young Italian child. I loved to be busy playing or doing something. I wasn’t much for just moping around. I also admit that I used to bug my uncle a lot when he was trying to do something in his workshop. In order to get me out of his hair, he would put me in the theatre by myself and put a movie on for me. Sometimes I sat there in dark all alone and watched the same movie over and over. This was not like watching television, the images in front of me were larger than life and there weren’t any commercials. Remember, back at that time, there were no DVD players or satellite television. The only way you could see a movie, on a big screen, would be in a movie theatre.

I watched full-length animated movies like Snow White, Peter Pan and Sleeping Beauty. But my favorites were the wise cracking short subject cartoons like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and of course Donald Duck. My uncle would put on a whole reel of them at once. These short subject cartoons, when viewed today, still hold our attention because they are smartly written and funny. I got a lot of my wise quacking kind of attitude from these animated characters. Of course Bugs Bunny cannot be mentioned without his famous line, “Eh… what’s up doc?” Usually spoken while eating a carrot to Elmer Fudd. Not to pick on Elmer Fudd, but I always thought he was more a stereotype version of a gullible sort of nitwit rather than a realistic character. But now that I’m older I think Elmer was right on the mark. Don’t we all have Elmer Fudds in our lives? Those kind of boring people that we just want to let have it. I will never forget Daffy Duck’s crazy laugh and his famous line after holding a stick of dynamite given to him by Bugs. It explodes and he then stands there motionless fried to the crisp and says to Bugs, “You’re despicable…” Bugs responds with, “I’m a such stinker ain’t I?” These characters possessed an almost irreverent quality toward their adversaries. Their adversaries are usually authority figures whom they challenge and effortlessly overcome. Robotech has some parallels, when Rand is being pummeled by Invid crossfire in Episode 1 – The Invid Invasion, most characters would say something like. “These Invid are on my tale, I’ve got to get out of here!” But Rand, after taking some incoming fire snaps back at them, “I’ll be submitting a bill for damages!” and later “All right, you’ll be hearing from my lawyer.” – Episode #1 – The Invid Invasion. This could have well been Bugs Bunny snapping back at Elmer Fud. Now the Invid are not totally bumbling idiots but what Rand is really saying is that these out of space invaders are not worthy of his respect and that he will play with them a bit more before he destroys them. And what about Donald Duck?

You might think that Donald Duck is an unlikely choice for a hero. He doesn’t always win in the end. He’s a selfish, ill-tempered angry white duck who probably curses under his breath when he does those unintelligible crumbles. But at other times, he’s a kind, just and loving Duck who wants to do the right thing but often doesn’t quite get it right. Isn’t that just like us? Don’t we all try to get out there with the best of plans only to learn later that we were wrong? We just like Donald, screw up sometimes. When we do, we get angry about it, often blame others and might even lose our temper. Think about Rand, doesn’t he have some of these qualities? I used a little bit of Donald’s temper to connect with the situation in Episode 10 – Enter Marlene -when Rand has had it with the Invids and vents, “enough is enough!” Although the characters in The New Generation were more realistic and human, using sources like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Donald Duck was a great way to connect to them. However, I also watched a lot of live action films at the Bijou.

I didn’t only watch cartoons. As I said, my uncle Marty was a film collector of vintage Hollywood films that went back to the silent era. I can recall silent films like The Mark of Zorro (1920) and The Gaucho (1927) starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr. You didn’t need sound to follow these swashbuckling high adventures of swordplay and acrobatics. He also collected lots of silent comedies with Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy. However, above all, he was a fan of the late film actor Errol Flynn and collected almost all of his films. I remember sitting in the Bijou watching Errol Flynn on many afternoons playing a pirate or a rogue in Captain Blood (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) or The Sea Hawk (1940). These were swashbuckling adventures where Flynn, no matter what his past, was on the always on side of good. Despite the odds against him he always used cunning and bravery and triumphed at the end of the film. His sidekicks played wonderfully by Alan Hale Sr. and Guinn “Big Boy” Williams usually flanked Flynn. No matter what type of characters they played, they were always willing to follow Flynn into hell if they had to. Flynn also did a string of Westerns including Dodge City (1939), Virginia City (1940), Santa Fe Trail (1940) and my favorite They Died with Their Boots On (1941). They Died with their Boots On is the very loosely adapted story of the rise of George Armstrong Custer and his ultimate demise by the Sioux Indians at the massacre at Little Big Horn. Now I do not want to go off track here too far but just enough for you to understand the connection to Rand.

One common thread in all of the Flynn movies of the late 1930’s and 1940’s was that they were all centered around a hero who stood up against overwhelming odds (often reluctantly) for right over wrong. The challenges they faced were larger than life and stood for a cause or greater purpose. As a pirate or a cowboy, Flynn’s characters stood against evil, tyranny and greed. Flynn was always the leader and would do anything for his loyal men even if it meant his own death. He always had a band of men who were also dedicated to the cause and always loyal to him. They would fight any fight, take on any cause and even die if they had to for the honor of serving with him. I knew then as a small New York Italian child that no matter what, that is how I wanted to be when I grew up. I dreamed of growing up and being part of something good that had a greater purpose.

As I sat in the darkness in my velvet seat at the Bijou, I saw a universe larger than life played out before my eyes. You’re probably thinking, that this universe was not real. It was a reality manufactured by a Hollywood studio designed for a mass-market audience. That’s the adult in us speaking. I want to go beyond the literal reference to what was on the screen to the metaphor. Those old black and white adventures taught me something I have never forgotten. That we must all believe in something greater than ourselves and approach our lives with honor and integrity. In the film They Died With Their Boots On, Errol Flynn as George Custer chooses to die with his men in honor and glory. Just before he rides off with the 7th Calvary, he holds his wife (Olivia de Havilland) for the last time to what he knows will be his death. In the scene, they both know what is really going to happen but treat his goodbye to her as if it were just another mission. That is until he hands her the locket that contains their pictures. He pretends that it is broken but they both know that it means he would not be coming back. He simply says to her, “Walking through life with you, ma’am, has been a very gracious thing.”

By today’s standards, Custer’s line seems corny, but the truth in it is universal, that this man had a sense of honor and duty that transcended his own personal need. The same honor and duty is evident when he addresses his men: “I needn’t tell most of you that a regiment is something more than just six hundred disciplined fighting men. Men die. But a regiment lives on; because a regiment has an immortal soul of its own. Well, the way to begin is to find it. To find something that belongs to us alone. Something to give us that pride in ourselves that’ll make men endure - and, if necessary, die… with their boots on. As for the rest it’s easy: since it’s no more than hard work, hard riding and hard fighting.” It’s true that this is a line from a movie made over seventy years ago but it has a ring of truth to it. Ask a veteran of any war who has experienced combat how they felt about the individuals that fought beside them. No matter what the conflict or the mission, those individuals fighting developed a core belief in themselves, their country and our value system. Just like the small rag tag band of reluctant freedom fighters that faced the Invid invaders. They are no different. Rand, “I’m not exactly your basic hero type. But if there’s anyone I can’t stand it’s someone who’s willing to sell his neighbors down the river just to save his own miserable skin.” – Episode 2 – The Lost City

When I think of my Uncle Marty today, he was a cross between Michelangelo and Doc Brown from the movie Back to the Future (1985). He was a complicated man who was constant state of motion creating new things. He was a master at taking “A” and combining it with “B” to make something entirely new “C.” I guess from my spot underneath the pool table that quality rubbed off on me. Those years I spent as a child at my Aunt Virginia and Uncle Marty’s house were happy ones and I am glad that I was there.

When this book was first published in December of 2011, I hadn’t seen or spoken to anyone in my extended family in over twenty-five years. My mother was the only connection to this part of the family and when she passed away in 2010, the last thread of communication that was left was severed. I was aware that my aunt Virginia had passed away many years ago and that the house that she lived in with my uncle in Cambria Heights was sold. At first, I wasn’t even sure if my Uncle Marty was still living. At the time of this book’s first publishing in 2011, he would be at least ninety-five. However, after a bit of searching, I was able to locate him living in a retirement home in Long Island. I sent him a galley proof of this book and highlighted the chapter on heroes and the parts in it that were about him. I attached a small yellow post-it note that read something like: “Uncle Marty, hope you’re doing well. I’ve written this book and some parts in it are about you. It’s been a very long time. Please let me know if I got it all right.” I signed the note “Neal.” Now you’re probably wondering why I would sign a note “Neal” when my name is Frank? Well, that’s what he always called me. He called me “Neal” and I really don’t remember why.

About ten days after I mailed him the galley proof, the phone rang and I saw that it was a an incoming call with a Long Island area code. When I picked it up I heard his voice and it took me right back to when I was a child. “Neal!” It was the same voice as I remembered it; alive and full of possibility. We talked for a while and he told me he read the book and thought I got it all right. Also, that Uncle Anthony was alive and well and living in Florida. I thought to myself, “I wonder if he is still a Yankee fan?” Uncle Marty had not changed a bit. He was still painting and writing. He seemed so full of life and I was happy about that. We talked on the phone a few times after that. He insisted on calling me because he told me he a special deal with the phone company. I was always glad to hear from him and in many ways we were trying to make up for lost time. Then, after several weeks, the calls stopped. At first I thought nothing of it, then I finally called his number and found out that he was in the hospital after suffering from a heart attack. I did speak to him one last time from the hospital. He told me he was anxious to go back home because he had so many things he wanted to do. He never made it though. Within a day of that conversation he passed away. So far away so long, then together and then in what seemed a moment, gone again. It all makes me very sad. But, I do feel very fortunate that I was able to talk with him after all those years if even for a brief period of time.

One wonderful thing that has come out this sadness is that I have reconnected with my cousin Juliana and her husband Jay who live in Florida. As I said, it has been decades and she is a wonderful combination of both my aunt and uncle. She has the kindness and patience of my Aunt Virginia and the creativity of my Uncle Marty. An awesome combination for sure. And it is in her, that I still can see them. She sent me dozens of old photographs of my time in Cambria Heights which have taken me back to this happy time and made me remember. I am truly grateful to her for that. Also, it’s great to have her back in my life.

My parents were also a source for my creativity and value system. But they influenced me in an entirely different way. They taught me to stand up and fight for what I believed in, to work hard and to be fair and honest in my dealings. This is something that I have kept with me in every thing I do. I thank them for that every day of my life. We all find our heroes in the most unusual places and for me it was not any different.

Before I leave this chapter, I want to mention several heroes that I got to know while watching television most early afternoons and evenings. Many of you have told me that you often ran home from school in order to catch the next episode of Robotech. For me, it was much the same way. If I didn’t go out to play after school, there was a golden time in the late afternoon just before dinner. I remember stretching out in front of my Sylvania black and white television set watching the likes of Superman, Three Stooges and Zorro. After dinner, there was another golden period that lasted from the end of dinner to about 7:30 PM when I had to go to bed. Now I didn’t get to watch television all the time. Sometimes, I had to do homework for the next day at school. As I remember, my mom and dad really never checked if I had homework or not. I was self disciplined which meant if I had homework, then I did it. When it was done (if there was time) I watched television. No one ever checked to see if what I did was correct or not. I was pretty much on my own. In the late afternoons, my favorite show was The Adventures of Superman.

Now I realize now, that Superman was not a new super hero. He existed in the imaginations of children since the 1940’s in comic books and radio serials. However the Superman that I knew was the one portrayed by the actor George Reeves in the half hour television series The Adventures of Superman. Each episode always opened with the following narration accompanied by a visual montage sequence:

Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! (“Look! Up in the sky!” “It’s a bird!” “It’s a plane!” “It’s Superman!”)… Yes, it’s Superman … strange visitor from another planet, who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men! Superman … who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way!

Each line of the narration was underscored with a picture. When they said “speeding bullet” there was a gun shooting and when they got to the locomotive line you would see a locomotive careening down the track. It was all very visual. I always took to heart that last line that featured Superman standing tall and ready for action with an American flag waving behind him “fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way!” While I knew I wasn’t the “man of steel,” I believed that one had to be good and stand up against anyone or anything that was bad. At some point in my childhood years, I even had an authentic Superman suit. It was blue and red with a large “S” on the chest. I remember jumping up and down on my bed to simulate flying. My older brother did the same thing and on one really high jump he fell and hit his head on the bed board. But, I was careful when I flew and made sure I always landed on two feet. Superman was strong, wasn’t afraid to take on anyone, but used his power wisely for good. It was a very cool show. I especially liked it when he took a pistol from a bad guy and bent it in his bare hands. I still wish I could do that today. I also still wish I could fly although I don’t jump up and down on my bed anymore. Superman went on about 5:00 PM in the afternoon and after the super hero dispatched whatever villainous plot there was, the credits would roll and the world was safe for another day. The next show that followed took the idea of a hero in a totally different direction.

At 5:30 PM on channel 11 (WPIX) in New York there was only one show on television that was of any interest to me and that was The Three Stooges Funhouse hosted by a veteran actor Joseph Bolton. Joe Bolton appeared as a New York City policeman named Officer Joe Bolton whose beat was the entrance of a mythical funhouse. Each afternoon, Bolton would introduce each episode with a little story. A moment later, a very old (circa 1930’s) emblem of Columbia Pictures appeared on the screen with the faces of the three stooges below it. The stooges’ films were never intended to be a children’s program. They were actually short subject films that were produced in the 1930’s by the then fledgling Columbia Pictures to be presented in movie theatres. Short subject films were often inserted along with movie trailers, newsreels and cartoon between feature films. During that period, it was the practice to show two films in one sitting. These shorts subjects would be presented between them. The stooges had been part of a vaudeville act known as Ted Healy’s Stooges before converting what they did on stage on to film.

The stooges appeared in many guises and time periods. One common theme in many of the films was when the stooges found themselves (through their own sense of what was right) defending someone who was less fortunate than they were. This often was an orphan child, a widowed mother and more than a few times a damsel in distress. I loved the running about, hard hitting, hair pulling and eye gouging sound effects. I was smart enough to know that you couldn’t do these things to people in real life. But there was another message here for me. It was that heroes didn’t always have to be perfect in every way or good looking. A hero could be just an ordinary person and more importantly could be funny. Heroes then for me could be just “regular people” who for reasons beyond their own comprehension, found themselves doing extraordinary things. Superman came from the planet Krypton and had extraordinary abilities. He was really handsome in his suit and could fly. But Moe, Larry and Curly (Shemp too) were just regular guys who weren’t very handsome and couldn’t fly (unless they were shot out of a cannon). They could take on almost anything and overcome any obstacle. Watching the Stooges made me believe that I could be a hero too. Also, that it was okay to have a sense of humor. I can still remember the hospital loud speaker in their film “Men in Black” calling out to them: “Calling Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine” a moment later they are in a football huddle and then come out on a tricycle and then later driving miniature race cars. Later in the same film, a doctor chides them for not knowing how to administer a “proper” anesthetic. They comply by hitting him twice on the head with a mallet. Each time they do a loud circus bell rings. The bit is finally capped with the last bell and the patient (who is in a coma) rises up, hands them a cigar and says, “a winner every time! No Blanks!” It is the absurdity of it all that made me realize that heroes could be funny and do almost anything. I tried to put a lot of that humor into my interpretation of Rand. Especially when he looks at Rook’s mother and says, “Get a job!” That’s right out of the Three Stooges. But sometimes heroes can be mysterious and very difficult to read. They can appear to be one thing and actually be quite another like the fictional character Zorro.

The last television hero I will mention was more a weekend warrior than a get in your face hero. At least that’s what the majority of the world he lived in thought of him. He was the foppish Don Diego de la Vega by day and the dazzling dark horseman called “Zorro” by night. Again, Zorro was a not a new character to audiences. He had been introduced to the American public through both pulp magazines and silent films. However, the Zorro that I knew was the one that appeared on network television with Guy Williams playing the title role. I have since learned that Guy William’s real name was Armand Joseph Catalano. His family, which has the same last name that I do, emigrated to the United States from almost the same region in Sicily that my father’s family came from. I will someday explore whether or not I am actually related to him. It would be very cool to be able to say to everyone that I am related to the actor who played Zorro. But that’s a project for another day. What I think was singularly important about the character of Zorro in the television series was that he did it all alone. Yes, Don Diego (as Zorro) did have his trusted servant Bernardo and his valiant steed but he faced most threatening dangers alone. Zorro would often take on a whole garrison of soldiers alone and beat them using wit, intelligence, cunning and skill. When it was all over, he would carve out a “Z” on someone’s chest or on a wall. The mark he left would tell everyone that he alone had been there. Sort of like a dog pissing on a tree, he was marking his territory. I’m not suggesting that heroes need to mark all of their deeds for the world to know. But, it was a great public relations tool for the masked man and it always kept his foes wondering where he would appear next. Although he was only a single force, Zorro seemed to appear almost everywhere and always at just the right time. How did he do it? Well, the easy answer is that he was a fictional character and was written that way. But the existential answer was that he embodied the spirit of the triumph of goodness over evil. He was almost magical as a single force. Watching Zorro on my black and white television became a lot more to me than a television show. It made me realize that sometimes heroes have to stand-alone against evil. They can’t expect everyone to know what they do and stand behind them. Rand was a team player most of the time but Scott Bernard kept him steady. Scott Bernard would have gone to Reflex Point alone if he had to do it. There was nothing (short of death) that would have stopped him from accomplishing his goal. This is why Rand looked up to him and learned through him how to be a true Robotech warrior.

By the time I had completed several episodes of The New Generation, I had a sense that the Robotech characters were in a way very similar to the characters I had come to know as a child at the Bijou and on television. They were fighting an almost impossible battle against overwhelming odds. But yet they still fought on knowing that they might not succeed. The rag tag band of freedom fighters facing the Invid kept on. What common quality did they possess? Rand at several points in the story, along with Rook, thought about leaving the group and going on their own journey. However, no matter how far any of them ventured either by choice or circumstance, something always pulled them back. They had pride in themselves that made them endure. Robotech taught us all this lesson whether we were the voice actor playing the role or at home watching the show on a television screen. Many fans shared with me stories about running home after school to watch the next episode of Robotech when it was on television. It wasn’t only because the series had cool toys, it was the enduring characters and their sense of a cause driven by their destiny. When I began work on the Robotech series, I couldn’t help but remember the lessons I had learned from my darkened seat at the Bijou and in front of my black and white television set. Many years had passed but I was still very much at home.

CHAPTER 7

Bullies

“The creeps are coming out of the woodwork. I’m surrounded!”

The Invid Invasion - Episode 1

One thing I can’t stand is a bully. Bullying is abusive treatment by another person that can be through physical force, verbal abuse or both. While I worked on The New Generation, I couldn’t help but think of the Invid as a bunch of bullies. They almost always attacked in numbers, were large in size and formidable but could easily be dispatched when challenged. The Invid, to me, were a despicable bunch that reminded of many people that I had met in my past.

When I was a small Italian child growing up in Long Island, New York there were plenty of bullies to go around. Bullies back then, appeared in all the usual places including the playground at school, when you were hanging out around your neighborhood or at your neighborhood public pool. Back then there was no internet, satellite television or computer games. When I got home from school, I usually did some homework, then hopped on my bike, out the front driveway and was off to play with whoever else might be out there. Social activities were not structured in any way. You just went out, looked around and kind of made it up as you went along. All I knew was at a certain time I had to be home for dinner. That was it. This was my understanding of how children met and played until I had children of my own. I remember, the first time I got a call for my daughter, who was five or six at the time, from a parent regarding her availability for what was called a play date. The mom on the line said something like, “Chloe would like to know if your daughter is available for a play date?” When the mom said this to me, two things went through my mind. First I wish my wife had picked up the phone instead of me and secondly, what the hell was a play date? Well, my wife later informed me that a play date was supervised play. What that meant was that your kid went to some other kid’s house or visa versa and played under the watchful eye of a parent or baby sitter. Everything was planned including what the children would do, what they would eat if snacks were included and when the play period would begin and end. The end of a play date was usually when one of the parents arrived and picked the visiting child up. During the pick up period the hosting parent would be required to carry on some form of inane small talk with the “picking up parent” as they would sporadically call out, “Time to go home now Chloe… time for your ballet lessons.” or something like that. As a parent, I hated to do play dates, because of the pick up and drop off banter. I never felt comfortable with the conversations which ranged from what lessons their child was taking to where they would attend college. Now remember, that these children were not even five years old and their parents were talking about what college they would attend. So, whenever I could, I skipped the play date thing and left it to my wife. I never could get wrapped around the idea of having to arrange and supervise every minute of a child’s play. I thought that there were some things they had to learn on their own. I felt then and now, that such supervised activities would result in the raising a generation of social misfits incapable of human contact.

When I was the age my daughter was when she got the play date call, I was out playing on the streets without the constant supervision of my parents. We can debate whether or not this was wise parenting but that’s the way it was. Out of that unsupervised play environment I learned how to communicate with other children and more importantly how to problem solve without constant parent supervision. I made and ended my own play dates. I had to be able to think quickly on my feet and not wait around for someone to make the decisions for me. Back then, when it came to bullies, you weren’t abused on the internet or by cell phone texts. When you were bullied back then, you were usually on your own and all of it was done to you face to face. It was often like the wild west and at any moment you could find yourself surrounded by a whole posse of bullies.

Now, even as a child, I had never been one to walk away from a confrontation. My parents were both from the Little Italy section of New York City. This was the lower East Side of Manhattan, a rough and tumble place to grow up and whatever they learned, they acquired from the streets and even though I grew up in Long Island a lot of the New York street thing rubbed off. They taught me always to be respectful to others and to honor my commitments. That’s something that’s always stayed with me over the years. But, they also taught me not to be afraid to stand up for what I believed in and not to let anyone, especially a bully, push me around. Now I didn’t go around looking for fights but I always figured that the best defense was a good offense. This meant that if I found myself in a tight situation, I had to act rather than react. I wanted the bully to be thinking about what I was going to do rather than what they were going to do to me.

I put this into practice one summer afternoon when I was eight or nine years old at the public pool. My mom always bought me a pool pass for the public pool every summer. It wasn’t near my house but close enough to get there by bike. I rode my bike there and then chained it near the front entrance on a bike rack. The public pool was actually a combination of three pools including a diving pool which was really deep with boards, a swimming pool that had a three-foot shallow end and a deep end and a shallow small pool which we all called the “baby pool” for the young kids. They should have called it the “piss pool” because all the little ones went to the bathroom in it. The public pool was a cool place to hang out in the summer and see all the kids that you would see in school during the school term. It also had a very symbolic meaning for me. It was the place that I learned how to swim for the first time. Now, I don’t want you to think that I had a pretty college girl swim instructor who took me into the deep water a little at a time. It just wasn’t that way. I learned to swim all by myself and I did it the hard way. There was always that peer pressure from my friends to do things I really didn’t want to do. They were constantly challenging me to climb the highest of the three diving boards that were part of the diving pool. They all said I was afraid to climb up the ladder and dive. But the truth was, I didn’t mind going up the very tall ladder. The problem was I couldn’t really swim. No, the truth was that I couldn’t swim at all. I was able to fake it in the other pool because the water wasn’t too deep. I could hop along with my feet on the bottom or cling along the side. But the diving pool was another story. You just climbed up there and dove in. It was really deep and you couldn’t put your feet on the bottom to hold you up. So, they kept on pressuring me to go up to the top of the diving board and cannon ball off the top. One summer afternoon I found myself climbing up the chrome ladder and standing on the top of the tallest diving board looking down at what seemed like a thousand people all staring at me. I was frozen with fear but I knew I couldn’t go back down that ladder without getting a whole lot of crap for it. I walked slowly toward the edge of the diving board and stepped off. A second later I splashed down and felt myself sinking deeper than I wanted to. But the bubbles that surrounded me kind of pushed me back up toward the surface. Before I knew it, I was on the top and not very far from the chrome ladder that you grabbed to get out of the pool. A few pumps of my arms and legs and was climbing up that ladder. My heart was pounding like crazy but I never let anyone know it. It wasn’t beating because I was scared. It was beating because I was so excited that I had learned how to swim. I wanted to shout it out to the world, but I couldn’t. I just walked away from the pool and quietly sat down on my towel. It was one of the most exciting days of my life. Another day, wasn’t so exciting.

There were also days, that I went to the community pool alone. It was on a late summer afternoon after a day of swimming and I was on my way home. I had just finished wrapping the chain around the seat of my bike. I was getting ready to take off when I was approached by what we used to call big kids. I didn’t know who they were which meant that they didn’t go to my school. There were three of them and they were taking a very long look at me and more importantly my bike. Now, my bike wasn’t fancy with bells and streamers. It was a simple smaller two-wheeler with no fenders with a chain and lock wrapped underneath the seat. The handlebars had grips that you could take off and then hide stuff inside the chrome bar. It was not a fancy bike but it was my cyclone and no one was going to mess with it. On that day, these three big kids approached me – two in front and one in back of me. I remember thinking, there’s always one in the back of you and that’s the one you’ve got to watch out for. The other two in front were just window dressing. It was the one in the back that was going to jump me. I also remember thinking, where the hell is a cop when you need one? Just then, the tallest of the two in front got in my face, “Hey punk, you got any money on you? I got right back in his face and said, “No… and even if I did, I wouldn’t give it to a stupid prick like you.” That wise-ass reply was more about getting myself psyched than pissing them off. I was scared but I figured if I could piss them off, that was a good thing because it would throw them off their game. The downside of that was that if they really got pissed off and caught me, they would beat the crap out of me for sure. But everything’s got its good and bad points. Am I right? The truth was I had a dollar stuffed inside my handle bar and there was no way I was going to give it to those three ass holes. Then the tallest one in front of me got up even closer and grabbed my handle bar with one hand while the one in the back of me closed in. He said, “Then I’m takin your piece of shit bike!” Before he could make good on that promise, I pushed my bike backward really hard and sprang loose of his grip and as an added bonus, my rear tire got the kid in back of me square in the balls. He crunched over in agony. I figured forget about him, he’s done all I had to do was deal with the two in front of me. That was a spring forward, right through the two of them. The big tall kid grabbed my shirt and ripped it, but it was too late. I was gone. I never felt my little legs pump so fast. The big kid screamed after me something like “Wait till I find you – you little ass hole!” Speeding away, I screamed something back like, “You know where I’ll be dickless – at your house fucking your mother!” Please don’t think ill of me. I know those were harsh words for an eight year old but I remembered my older brother saying that once and thought it was a good comeback. Maybe Errol Flynn wouldn’t have said anything like that but I wanted those big kids to know if they tried to take my bike again I was going to make them work for it. I didn’t go back to the pool for a few days and figured I’d let things cool off and when I finally did return, I didn’t go alone because I was really worried about them catching up with me and really letting me have it. But after a few days, I did go back with a few of my cousins and my older friend Ray. The three bullies were nowhere to be found. The rest of the summer went by without incident and I was really happy about that. If you three big kids that were there at the pool that day (now adults) read this book and remember the incident, I was the little Italian kid with the bike. Sorry for what I said about your mother. I was really scared and it just blurted out. And if you were that big kid in back of me, sorry about the wiener slam with my bike tire but you were sneaking up behind me. It was kind of your fault. I also learned a lesson that day, that’s it’s okay to run away when the odds are mounted against you. You can always come back and fight another day.

Episode #4 – “Survival” of The New Generation is a case in point. The characters were grossly outnumbered and the Invid had the tactical advantage. The script rightly had our characters retreat into the woods to safety with the understanding that when the situation improved that they would return to the fight. What I used to connect to these scenes where the Invid were closing in from all directions and the idea that the odds weren’t with me at that moment. The right decision was to run, get out of danger, regroup and then fight them again. This was a clear case of the bullies having the upper hand and sometimes they do. By walking away, you can perhaps learn something more that will help you the next time around. In Survival the group learns tactical information that the Invid can track them by sensing their power cells when they are turn powered on. By the end of the episode, the Invid of course are dispatched and the group survives. My disdain for bullies continued through childhood, into my college years. However, sometimes the universe takes care of bullies on its own.

I remember the first few months of graduate school when I first moved to Hawaii. I was truly a fish out of water moving from New York, an urban environment to Hawaii, which was a tropical wonderland. The rules that applied in New York seemed out of step with the low-key island life style. For example, taking your shoes off when you entered someone’s house. That was something I never did in New York especially in the summer time. That was something you wouldn’t do in back east. You just wipe your feet if you can and walk in. Not so in Hawaii, at the front of most doors in Hawaii homes you will see shoes (really sandals) all lined up at the front door. This simple practice highlighted the disconnect between the two places. Hawaii also had a mellow laid back life style, which was the exact opposite of New York that was very driven. To add to the mix, I too was very driven in those days and wanted to “get it done” whatever it was as fast and as simple as possible. Maybe too fast which is one reason that many locals were not too crazy about people from the mainland. They felt that we were rude and lacked the civility of island life. In many ways they were right. A lot of tourists that came to the islands were on vacation and sometimes behaved badly. Locals are called kama’aina, which meant that you were a long time resident. I on the other hand, was thought of as a haole, a foreigner and Caucasian. I think the fact that I wasn’t a tourist made it worse because I didn’t go back home after ten days. I lived there and was thought of as a reason why the island was getting more commercialized and overcrowded. It was actually a learning experience for me to be considered a minority. I learned what it was like to be on the downside of prejudice. You learn that some people buy into it and treat you poorly and then there are others that are just wonderful to be around. I truly did understand the source of this prejudice and really made an effort to be a good citizen in the island community. However, even if your intentions are well placed, not everyone is going to give you a break.

After several months of living in Hawaii, I bought a used VW Beetle for about $500. It was white with a red interior with a sunroof and as you can imagine, for that price, it was not in pristine condition and had a stick shift. I had driven a stick before but at that point in my life, it wasn’t by best skill. My shifting was often accompanied with grinding and a popping the clutch. I figured I would get better at it as time went on. Also, if I hit anything, the car already had a collection of dents on both sides and back. The only part of the car that was without a dent or scratch was the front. I bought a parking pass from the university that entitled me to park in a specific lot on the campus. One morning I drove onto the campus with my sunroof open and up to a parking lot entrance manned by an attendant in a small booth. He controlled a small up and down gate with stripes on it that provided entrance into the parking lot. The gate attendant was having a long conversation with the person driving the car in front of me. I decided to patiently wait while the conversation took its course. However, as it went on longer and longer I was worried about getting to class late. As I recall, the class was Theories of European Theatre and I just couldn’t get to that class late without it influencing my grade. I casually waved to the attendant to let him know that I was still waiting, he smiled and went right back to talking to the driver in the car in front of me. They were laughing it up and having a good time. I gave my VW horn a short beep that if it were New York would mean a gentle nudge. Nothing more. The gate attendant looked up again and went back to the conversation. I responded with one long extended VW beep which in New York meant, “let’s move it!”

The gate attendant finally opened the gate and the driver in front of me went through. As I pulled up the little striped gate went back down. I apologized to the attendant but told him I had to get to class. He then coldly said to me that I couldn’t park in the lot and that I would have to park on the street. I showed him the sticker on my front windshield that matched the name of the lot. He told me I was wrong. When I pressed it, he said, “No haoli’s in this lot period!” When I heard that, I knew what was really happening and said something sarcastically like, “I’m very sorry I didn’t know that this was a No Haoli lot. I’ll remember that next time.” I figured I’d let it pass because I didn’t want to get to class late. I popped my car in reverse, at least that’s what I thought I did. It always grinded a bit when it did that and then hit the gas. Instead of going backward, the car sped forward crashing right through the little striped up and down crossing gate. I stopped the car, got out and picked up the broken piece of gate. I was going to hand it to the attendant but when he saw me coming toward him with the gate in my hands he took off. He left me just standing there all by myself holding this striped piece of parking gate. I didn’t know what else to do and leaned the piece of gate against his little booth and drove away. I was pissed off, because I now had a dent in the front of the car. Needless to say, I was late for class that day. The next day I drove up to the same parking lot. The same gate attendant was there and the little striped gate had been taped back together with gray packing tape. When he looked at me square in the eye and smiled. A second later, the little striped gate limped upward to an open position. I looked at him right back, smiled and waved back as I drove through. Chalk up one bully for the universe!

As I recorded the first few episodes of a The New Generation, it became clear to me that the Invid were really a bunch of bullies trying to suck the life out of our planet. They attempted to appear as we were but only as a means to destroy us. Once I had that image clearly in my mind, that’s how I responded to anything they would throw my way. A choice I made early on in the recording of the Robotech series was that Rand also hated bullies and prejudice. In a larger sense, all of us making the series became, in our own way, part of a force that was greater than just an animated television series.

CHAPTER 8

Rook, Dante Alighieri and Caitlin Burkowitz

“Hey for being such a tough girl… you’re pretty good at kissing!”

Hard Times - Episode 6

Rand fell head over heals for Rook the first moment he saw her even though he didn’t show it in the conventional sense. Think about it, in Episode 3 – Lonely Soldier Boy, when Rand first arrives, Rook is in the middle of drop kicking a thug in the bar where Yellow Dancer is singing. As she dispatches the knife-wheeling thug with one kick, Rand just simply says, “Wow…” Then he in turn saves her from the knife of one of the other thugs. When she’s finally free, Rand awkwardly smiles at her and says, “Hi…” This first meeting is a far cry from meeting someone at the mall, a club or on a blind date. Like most people meant for each other, their shared destiny was not readily apparent to them. Rook snaps at him when they first meet “Why’d you have to butt in?” Rand snaps back, “I guess there’s no pleasing some people.” Rook walks off and doesn’t even say thank you and that is the way they started out. After that scene, one would think these two, as a relationship, were going nowhere fast. However, by the last episode of The New Generation, the two characters had a deep admiration and respect for on another and yes, they were in love. Maybe not a Romeo and Julie type of love but they were going to be together.

The love that Rand and Rook had for one another was not the result of just a superficial attraction. It was in many ways very much a first love which took on a deeper significance. What is a first love? You can definite it literally by stating that it is the first person that you personally have had a deep, tender, indescribable feeling of affection toward another person. I want you to think a minute right here and to close your eyes, think back and visualize the person that you would consider your first love. Okay, do you see them? Now remember the first time you saw them and knew that you were attracted to them. At that point, you probably didn’t know why. Maybe it was the way they looked, acted or talked to you. Once you made that connection that you were attracted to them, what did you do next? Did you reach out and try to tell them how you felt or know them better or did you do the opposite? There’s no one answer for this, it’s truly personal. Last question about your first love. Did you ever get to have a relationship with them or was it something that eluded you for the rest of your life. Whatever, your answers are to these questions are, they all boil down to one idea that the loving of someone is a journey. We don’t always get to be with the person we love. It’s just the way it is. The characters of Rook and Rand are no different than us. Their relationship started out as a journey and by the conclusion of The New Generation, these two characters did it all. They argued with one another, fought off the Invid together, successfully completed their epic journey to Reflex Point and by extension saved the world. Their love for one another was the result of a unique trust that grew over the length of the series rather all at once. By the last episode, when thinking about the future, Rand kicks back and says, “I figure I’d go back to my home town and maybe start writing my memoirs” – Episode 25 – Symphony of Light. Really, I don’t think so. We all can sense that whatever he chooses to do, Rook will be right there with him.

Much of this energy between the two animated characters can be attributed to the wonderful voice characterization of Rook created by Susie London. Her choices for the voice of Rook were dead on and made it really easy for me to connect with her character when I was able to hear Susie’s voice in the headset. However, I wasn’t always lucky enough to have her lines already recorded when I had recorded Rand. In those instances, I had to develop an internal hook that connected me to the Rook character. When I voiced those sections of The New Generation that contained dialogue and action with Rook, I used two hooks. One was a bit of poetry I once read by Dante Alighieri and the other was my memory of my first love. Now, I don’t want to you to think I’m going academic on you but you will see why I chose the writing of Dante as a means to understand the connection of Rand and Rook.

Dante Alighieri is probably best known for his work The Divine Comedy (1308 – 1321) that chronicles Dante’s mythical journey through the Catholic afterlife. While I could draw a comparison of The New Generation’s journey to Reflex Point as a similar journey, I will leave that to scholarly Robotech fans. But the hook I used in Robotech comes from an older lesser-known work called La Vita Nuova (1292-1293) meaning a new life that recounts the influence on Dante’s life made by his first love – a young girl named Beatrice. It recounts Dante’s first sight of Beatrice when he was nine and she was eight. At that moment, his instantly fell in love with her but could not express it because he felt he was not worthy of her perfection. It’s also probably because he was only a kid but he carried within him a deep admiration that stayed with him for nine years when he saw Beatrice again. The second time he saw her, she was more beautiful than the first, dressed all in white she walked down the street between to older female chaper-ones. Without warning, Beatrice turned and smiled at Dante, who was still in the belief that he was not worthy of her gaze. His response was to look away from her toward another girl. Beatrice probably thought to herself, “what a jerk” and then went on her way. The next time Dante would see the love of his life would be on her wedding day in 1288. He crashed her wedding reception and stared at Beatrice endlessly until he was forcibly removed from the affair. It should also be mentioned that Dante was already married to a rich banking heiress by that time. The next time Dante would hear of Beatrice was when he learned of her death in 1290. The loss of Beatrice drove him into a deep uncontrollable depression in which he could do nothing. However, after a period of time, he vowed to achieve moral and spiritual perfection by studying philosophy. He believed that by doing so that he would ascend to heaven where he might once again gaze upon his beloved Beatrice. In 1292 he wrote of her in La Vita Nuova and vowed he would write about her what had never been written about any woman. It is not my intention to leave you in suspense because Dante did in fact make good on his promise. In his Divine Comedy (1308 -1321), he is lead from Purgatory to the gates of Heaven by the shade of the Roman orator Virgil and there waiting for him beneath the golden gates of paradise is none other than his beloved Beatrice. I sometimes can’t believe that I have all of this stuff in my head but I digress. What does this have remotely to do with Rand and Rook in Robotech? The answer is that their love was a spiritual as well as physical one just like Dante and Beatrice.

When I thought about Rand’s relationship to Rook, I felt it would be appropriate that they would have to become friends before the could be lovers. We treat our friends different than our lovers. We relate to them with less reverence which reminds me of the line from the movie When Harry Met Sally (1989). Harry says, “…men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way. Because no man can be friends with a woman that he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her.” When Harry Met Sally is a perfect model for Rook and Rand. I don’t know if you have ever seen this film but it plays a lot on television and can be downloaded easily. It’s the story of two people, Harry and Sally who have a plutonic relationship over a long period of time. At first, they don’t like each other, then gradually over the years become friends and then become best friends until they have sex. It is at that point that there friendship ends and their true relationship begins. The fact that Rook is extremely attractive to Rand from the first moment, would set the two of them on a course that would only doom any hope of a relationship. However, the Invid and to a certain extent the driven nature of Scott Bernard come to the rescue here. The overwhelming sense of their mission prevents Rand and Rook from having a traditional type of relationship. The circumstances they find themselves in force them to relate to one another in a way that they would not have done in a normal situation. They simply had no time because they were busy trying to save the world. Any time they might even think of something outside of their mission, Scott Bernard was always there to put them back on track. Their friendship would evolve along with the progress of the mission to find Reflex Point. And within that journey they would constantly be thrown together in ways they could not imagine. What was at first a cold, almost hostile beginning slowly evolved into a mutual respect and admiration. You might be asking, did Rand and Rook ever have a physical relationship? From my perspective, not during the episodes of The New Generation because it just wasn’t there. However, the physical love, might have taken place sometime after. With that said, it would have been a part of the character’s lives that would be purely personal and private. While the personal side of their relationship was not fully explored in the episodes of The New Generation, I did use one personal connection in Rand’s relationship with Rook. The choice I made was that she was Rand’s first love and that took me back to someone I knew named Caitlin Burkowitz.

Well, I will confess here, that’s not her real name. I’m withholding that to protect her privacy and to avoid her getting pissed at me for writing about her. But like Rook, I saw Caitlin for the first time at dance at my elementary school gymnasium at a school dance. She was a ten year-old Norman Rockwell portrait with blonde, hair pinned by a butterfly clip and glasses awkwardly standing alone in a yellow satin dress. Caitlin Burkowitz was in fifth and I was in fourth grade and the difference between those two grades could have very well been a universe apart. The record player cranked out a slow song (Bryan Hyland’s Sealed with a Kiss) and I wanted to ask her dance. I walked toward her slowly and actually got right up to her. Just as I did, she turned toward me and smiled. But I just couldn’t get the courage up to ask her to dance. I just pretended she wasn’t there and walked right past her. That’s the kind of thing you did when you were in fourth grade. But one thing I did know that I was in love with her. Pure first love just like Dante felt for Beatrice except I didn’t know anything about Dante yet because I was only in fourth grade. It was the kind of first love you feel only once in your life. But I just couldn’t do it.

I tried to make up for it though by making sure I was always at the same places at the same time she was. Now I’m not talking about stalking her, but it was pretty close. I would see her walking to school, on the lunch line, at assemblies, at the playground and of course after school. I also tried to show off anytime I could when she was around. One time I got behind her in line at the water fountain and watched her drink. She looked just like a fawn drinking water by a brook. Another time, I was trying to show off that I could throw a snowball the farthest than anyone else. I accidently hit her in the head when I tried to hit another kid. This did not didn’t go over too well with her and I think she started hating me after that. The next time I saw her was when I volunteered to bring a note from my teacher to Caitlin’s teacher. This was a golden opportunity for me to see her again and show her that I was a responsible person entrusted with a teacher-to-teacher note. I walked in her classroom, and there she was sitting front row center by the teacher’s desk looking like a little angel perfect in every way. I dropped the note off on her teacher’s desk and was heading out the door when Caitlin gave me the googley eye. A googley eye is a combination smile and eyebrow raise. This meant that I was off the hook for the snowball in the head thing and was back in the game! Well, I gave her the googley eye right back and that’s where it all went bad. Instead of walking out the classroom door, I walked right into a supply closet and closed the door behind me. Suddenly I looked up and found myself in a room full of textbooks and mimeograph ink and that’s where I stayed until the class left for the recess. She was the only one who saw me walk in there and kept smiling at me as I looked out through the crack in the door. What can I say? She was perfect in every way and I continued to love her until the day I moved away about a year later. I never got a chance to say goodbye her. I have no idea where she is now or what she became? She only exists as a memory of a child’s first love.

When I recorded the last episode of The New Generation, there was that second to last scene when Rand tells Rook that he going back home to write his memoirs. She snaps at him, “Give me a break, you’re just at the beginning of your life not the end of it” – Episode 25 – Symphony of Light. When she speaks to Rand that way, it’s as his friend and you know they’re going to be together no matter what.

True first love goes beyond the pretty ribbons and rainbows. It goes to the heart of why two people come together and that they will endure all of the things life has for them. The romantic times and the trials they must face together. That’s the kind of love that Rand had for Rook. And I want to think that somewhere, they are still together. At the end of the episode – Symphony of Light – Episode #25, as they ride off on their mechas, Rook says to Rand, “Ready?” and he quickly responds “Yeah!” Then both, “Let’s go!” Together, they are off to a new adventure. That’s the way I like to think of them.

CHAPTER 9

Playing Guns

“Shoot me… go ahead traitor - just like you would a dog on the street.”

Eulogy – Episode 8

One afternoon in the recording studio, while working on The New Generation, I had the strangest thought. The New Generation story line and characters had a familiar feeling to me. I felt as though I had done it all before but I couldn’t remember when. Several days later, when I was driving down Sunset Boulevard and trying to find a parking space on one of the side streets, it hit me. The story line of The New Generation reminded me of my childhood pass time, playing guns. When I was a young New York Italian child, playing guns was something that all kids did in various forms. The first thing it required was having a toy gun. This could be anything including as simple as a wooden stick, a toilet paper holder, your hand folded in the shape of a gun or an actual toy gun. During that period, there was no political correctness and I like most kids in my neighborhood had lots of toy guns that my parents willingly bought me. This was a time when buying your child a toy gun wasn’t the same as it is now. Back then, all kids, especially little boys had toy guns. I was no different and had actually a small arsenal of weaponry that I could rely on for a game of guns. The type of weapon you chose to play with was really set by the actual game itself. For example, if we were playing an army version of guns I could rely on a pump action air rifle or machine gun. The air rifles were cool because they had a pump action handle so that you could simulate a gun shot each time you pulled the trigger. Many of the kids would put the nozzle of the air rifle into the dirt, plugging up the barrel. When the trigger was pulled, the dirt would spew out the barrel making a nice mark on anyone or anything you were trying to hit. I also had a very cool Tommy Burst tommy gun that was all black with a pull back handle on the side. When you pulled the handle back it made a clicking sound then cranked off like a real machine gun “rat tat tat tat tat” when you pressed the trigger. This was one of my favorite toys and I took it with me everywhere I went until I’m sorry to say that I lost it (actually forgot it) when we were on vacation in the Catskills. It started to thunder and rain. I remember putting it under an umbrella because I didn’t want it to get wet. We ran to our car and took off when I realized that I had left it behind. We had driven only a minute or two when I, called out from the back seat of my parent’s car, that I forgotten it. But they wouldn’t go back. The loss of my Tommy Burst tommy gun didn’t mean anything to them but it was devastating to me and I never forgot it. Many years later as a parent, if my anyone of my daughters ever forgot or lost a toy, I would always go back an get it for them. No matter how small or insignificant it may have seemed to me, I knew it was important to them, so I always went back and got it. Another favorite gun of mine was a Colt 45 Hubbley with a white handle and chrome gun barrel.

The Colt 45 Hubbley was an extremely realistic version of a western pistol which had six bullets which you could load small round caps on the ends so that I would make a shooting sound when you pressed the trigger. This pistol had the weight and feel of a real gun and was entirely metal excluding the white pearl handle. It had six bullets that fit into the barrel and shells, which could hold small round caps. It was really heavy for me to carry around so I didn’t play with it that much. I tried putting it in a holster once and it was so heavy that it made me fall over sideways so I only used this gun for very special occasions like Fourth of July. On that day, I’d load it with caps and shoot it off to celebrate. I am happy to say that I still have it today safely tucked away in a box. Even now, if you smell the barrel, it still smells of spent caps from the last time I shot it. Lastly, I had a array of other fire arms including a snub nose Shootin Shell 38 that actually shot projectiles.

The Shootin Shell 38 was a cool weapon for a kid but a major lawsuit if you hit anyone in the eye with one of its projectile bullets. It came with a shoulder holster like the one the cops and private eyes wore on television. I used it mostly for cops and robbers types games of guns and rarely used the shooting shells. I wasn’t really concerned about hitting anyone in the eye or anything like that. I was worried more about losing the shells when you shot them. Those suckers could go really far and were easy to lose. The Shootin Shell 38, like the Colt 45 Hubbley was a specialized weapon and didn’t see a lot of action. It spent most of its life in the box it came in under my bed. I never knew what happened to it. For the day-to-day game of guns, I owned an array of everyday handguns and rifles that could be used for almost any occasion.

These everyday weapons included a wide variety of guns including western type six shooters, military pistols, machine guns, rifles and a shotgun. These guns were heavily used, scuffed and worn. I didn’t mind if they fell on the floor or got dirty. Especially if someone got the jump on you and you had to drop your weapon. There was no way I would ever drop my Colt 45 Hubbley or Shootin Shell 38 and get them dirty or scratched. So as a general rule, I used the every day guns and had a great time. The actual gun that I would bring out to play the game depended on what exactly you were playing. If it were cowboys it was a western six-shooter. If it was army, then I went with the military rifles or handguns. If it were cops and robbers, then a small snub nose .38 was the weapon of choice. I also had a red, white and blue wooden baton that I used as a sword if we were playing pirates or knights in shining armor. What the game was determined the weapon. However, no matter what we called it, it always was a version of playing guns.

The framework for playing guns was really pretty simple. We would usually divide up into two groups that would then battle one another. We usually used the entire block where we lived as the playing field. This would ensure lots of places to hide and lots territory to attack. The rules were pretty simple, each side would try to physically capture a specific target or attempt to kill (shoot) all of the members of the opposing team. The kill all scenario was a lot like the rules of dodge ball. You kept playing until one side or another was totally annihilated. This often got a little sticky toward the end of the game, when one player would shoot another and yell something like, “Got ya! You’re dead!” The other player would quickly scream back, “Did not!” and then shoot back at them. We didn’t have paint balls to mark when a person was truly hit. It was purely the honor system. If you cheated a lot, and never said you were dead when you really were dead, the kids in the neighborhood would know it after a while. In short, your guns reputation would be shot. So, you had to play by the rules and that meant when you were dead, you were dead. This was a great life lesson. How many times have you witnessed someone that has lost a game who shouts out, “That’s not fair!” In the game of guns, at least the one I played, there were both winners and losers. We all knew if you lost, it wasn’t permanent and that it was just a game. You would play again and then have a shot at being the winner. Knowing that, kind of made it okay when you got shot or captured. Although, guns was primarily a boys game, we let girls play once in a while.

Girls were allowed to play, but really in a subordinate role. They would usually be nurses on the field of battle. I know this sounds sexist, but that’s what the girls did. In those cases, when someone got the drop on you and shot you, they would say, “Got you! You’re dead!” You could say, “No way, you only got me in the arm! I’m wounded!” That’s where the girls would come in. They would patch you up with a piece of cloth and if you were lucky give you a drink of Kool Aid from a cup out of their tea set. Under their watchful care, you would live to fight another day. Sometime playing guns took on more epic qualities.

On some days, we would not pick teams, but instead set upon some journey to find some sort of treasure. In these quest type games, we would all be on the same team and use our backyards and the block we lived on to create mythical places. Our journey of course would be filled with obstacles that we as a group (using our weapons and imagination) had to overcome. I remember one game we played where we used our entire block to create a prehistoric island that was filled with ferocious dinosaurs. At various point in our journey we encountered these monsters and had to dispatch them with our weapons. The actual dinosaurs could be totally imagined, a truck passing by or a neighborhood dog barking at us from behind a fence. When they appeared real or imagined, we would all take aim at these dinosaurs and kill them off. Every once in a while someone in the group would say something like, “bullets can’t kill them!” In those cases, we would make some sort of bomb or super weapon that could do the job. I remember making an atomic bomb out of an empty shoebox for this purpose. We filled it with all sorts of radioactive rocks (actually from someone’s garden) and pretended to blow up a giant dinosaur. Sometimes the game of guns started out one way and then morphed into something else. We may have started out as pirates looking for treasure and then the game morphed into pirates fighting off dinosaurs and looking for treasure. The game of guns was over when we reached our mythical destination, we got tired or our parents would call us in for dinner. A variation on this quest, was when we expanded the mythical land to include an area much larger than our own block. For these games we would use our bikes to transport us to any place our imagination and two wheels would transport us. This was the game of guns.

You may think that comparing The New Generation to a childhood game of guns is a stretch. However, the similarities are there if you know where to look. The New Generation characters were on an extended mission to find Reflex Point. This mission involved many different physical environments that ranged from ghost towns, a forgotten city under the ice, the forest, a subway, and a small village in an orchard as well as Reflex Point itself. In each case, each physical environment had its own set of features that had to be addressed by the characters on their journey. The New Generation characters also head choice of weapons that they used on this quest including laser pistols, rocket cannons and rocket launchers. The weapons that they used were dependent on what was available and the situation at hand. The New Generation characters also had to improvise and create weapons along the way some of which used protoculture and others that did not. Episode 4 – Survival reminded me of a classic game of guns mixed with a traditional game of hide and seek. The team is forced to hide in a forest to avoid detection from the Invid. However, when the Invid discovers the team, they have no choice but to fight. No matter how hard the team tries, the Invid seem to be on their trail. Later in the episode, Rand discovers that the Invid had been tracking their movements by honing in on their power cells. Once Rand discovers this, the team changes strategy and is able to avoid detection. In Episode 5 – Curtain Call, the characters in their quest to steal some protoculture become trapped in an underground structure. They wind there way through a maze of tunnels that eventually takes them underneath the stadium where Yellow Dancer is singing. I can remember creating my own set of mazes by running through shrubbery and backyard playing guns within both of these scenarios. The only difference was our game of guns might have been built around a playing army, cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians scenario. If Robotech were available when I was a small New York Italian child, we might have been chasing Invid as well.

A game of guns also had a social aspect to it. All the kids in the neighborhood both boys and girls played and there were no exclusions. The actual make up and gender of the children that played the game depended on who was outside playing and who wanted to be part of the game. Someone would say, “Hey, you wanna play guns?” If there was agreement, the game was on. Everyone had a chance to play even if they didn’t have a toy gun. As I said, a stick or folded hand would work just as well. Just like the characters in The New Generation, the neighborhood kids got to know one another through the adventures they shared playing guns. There was a core group of us that hung out together more than others. This was probably because our houses, in Franklin Square, Long Island, shared one block between First and Second Avenue. When I think of it now, this block was probably not the safest place for a young child to play. It was near a very busy street called Franklin Avenue. But it also had several vacant lots and a back area of a nightclub called Casa Seville that faced Franklin Avenue. The Casa Seville was sort of a mob hang out which was really busy at night and on the weekends. However, during the daytime, it was pretty quiet. But there still were all sorts of shady characters in shiny suits hanging around the front entrance. We sometimes would play in back of it, which was a service area for the kitchen and bar. But mostly we used the empty lots as our battlefields. Our favorite was a run down piece of property, we called the old man’s lot. It was just around the corner from my house and was bordered by an old rusty fence and grape vine. In one corner of it there was a small abandoned bungalow that had been boarded up and forgotten by time. We all believed that an “old man” lived in the bungalow at one time and then died. So, we called it the old man’s lot. The grape vines were an added feature when grapes were in season. The green grapes were a great source of ammo to throw at one another. Also, when the grapes ripened, they made a nice stain on your clothes if one hit you. We liked it because it looked just like you were shot. Our parents hated it, because the grape juice stains were almost impossible to get off of your clothes. However, the Casa Seville offered more variety. We often played in the service area behind the kitchen and bar where there was a labyrinth of walls, tunnels and stacks of wooden boxes. We also liked it because we often found lots of interesting things that one might find in the back of a nightclub including half full bottles of scotch whiskey, stacks of Playboy magazines and one time a box of .22 caliber bullets. However, the best thing that we ever found there was on a New Years Day afternoon. We were playing in the snow in back of the club and there in a frozen metal bucket was an unopened solid gold bottle of champagne! We promptly popped it open and drank it. I don’t remember much else about that day. In addition to the vacant lots, there was what seemed to be an endless number of rolling lawns and backyards that we ran through. There were also lots of trees and bushes to hide behind and an occasional barking dog that would give away our hiding place. This was our immediate universe.

While the players in any game of guns could come from anywhere in the neighborhood at large, there were the regulars. The first was a kid name Donnie short for Dominic. Remember, this was an Italian neighborhood so most of the kids no matter where they lived, all had the same names Joey, Donny, Frankie, Tony, Guido like that.

Donnie was a lot like Lunk. He was larger than the rest of us but didn’t really take his space as a leader. He was a follower who always went along with whatever we wanted to do. The only thing that would get him to break ranks was food. He was always hungry. Sound familiar? We’d be out there playing and then in the distance he’d hear the ringing bells of the Good Humor ice cream truck and before we knew he was gone. I don’t know how he heard it when it was so far away, it was almost like he had ESP, but he would take off, get his parents to give him money and be back in enough time to catch the truck as it turned the corner. That was Donnie but our neighborhood group also had some girls in it and there was one (believe it or not) named Annie.

Annie was a six-year old girl and when you’re a boy about eight years old that’s a very big thing. Most girls, did not play with boys and if they did they were relegated to be the nurses, the teachers and the moms within a game of guns. Annie was different, and she like Annie Mint LaBelle was talkative and outgoing. Don’t get me wrong, she was still a girl and played with girls most of the time. If there was any one of the girls that was a bit younger, that crossed the gender line, it was Annie. She played guns with us some of the time in a traditional way and then other times was part of the girl group of nurses. The sad part about Annie was that she moved away before we got to be better friends. If Annie broke the traditional mold of what a girl should be when you’re in elementary school, Bobby Kulpepper (not his real name) broke the rules for the boys. Bobby was in the same grade as I was but for some reason was a lot taller than the rest of the boys in the class. I am not sure if he was from another country or not but he also dressed differently the rest of the kids. Now when you stick out from the rest and dress different, you’re setting yourself up for bullies and the like. In Bobby’s case, he might have been from Germany or Switzerland because his mom always made him come to school wearing a Bavarian outfit with suspenders and lederhosen. He would show up to school in the morning in longer shorts, suspenders with his socks pulled up really high. To make matters worse, his mom sent him to school wearing cologne prompting certain kids to call Bobby “Bobby PU.” You know “Pee Yew” like your holding your nose and saying something smells really bad. Bobby used to sing and dance at show and tell, so this poor kid was really on the hit list for all of the bullies in elementary school. They would always laugh and shoot spit balls at him when he sang musical theatre songs at Show and Tell. I really don’t know why our teacher allowed them to do that. But they did.

One day in the playground, these bullies kept pushing Bobby Kulpepper around while saying he dressed and smelled like a girl. They kept pushing him until Bobby’s back was up against the cyclone fence near the baseball diamond. At that very second, when there was nowhere else to go, Bobby Kulpepper pushed back. Once he did that, something happened inside of him. It was like all the abuse that was pent up inside of him made him snap. He proceeded to take on about four bullies and dispatched them all in short order. When it was all over, he just walked away without saying a word. The following day, for Show and Tell, Bobby sang a song from The Sound of Music. You know the one that goes, “Doe a deer a female deer…” except he sang it with a German accent. On that day, when Bobby finished his song, no one laughed. Everybody cheered because he had such a beautiful voice and no one ever called Bobby Kulpepper “Bobby PU” again. He was just Bobby just another one of the group of kids we played with. When I did Robotech, and saw Lance Lancer Belmont for the first time, it was Bobby Kulpepper all over again.

While our group had no official leader who told us where we were going and what we would do. There were older kids from the block that hung around with us and just by their sheer size and age we let them call a lot of the shots. There was one pair of brothers named Ray and Joey that lived most of the time in a house on Second Avenue. I say most of the time, because they also had a place in Queens (that’s a borough of New York City). They were a real pair of New York City street kids about three years older than we were. Ray was the older of the two and had a very cool green Schwinn Hornet Cruiser that was the fastest bike in the neighborhood. Joey also had a Schwinn cruiser. It was a Red Panther but he never was able to get the speed that his older brother had achieved. Ray had the fastest bike, was at least three years older than the rest of us and also came from Queens. So, when he was around, he called the shots. That meant that Ray could call the game of guns and decide whether or not it was cowboys and Indians or army. He could also choose when we were going to the pool or playing dodge ball. One thing I forgot to mention, because Ray was older he was larger than all of us except Donnie. This meant he was the toughest and could take any of us in a fight. But he never was a bully to any of us. He made the decisions and if we didn’t want to follow him, we could go our own way without a problem. There was one little tricky little situation, if you were playing guns against Ray and you shot him, would he accept the hit? There was always this question in all of us as to whether he would ever allow one of us younger kids to shoot him “dead” in guns. I mean what if you shot him, “Bang!” “I shot you Ray, you’re dead!” What if Ray said, “No, I don’t wanna be dead.” What would you do then? I never shot Ray so I never got an answer. If we played guns with Ray, we just assumed he would always be the last one standing because none of us would ever shoot him dead. But on the other hand, Ray was always good to have around if you had a problem. He would always back you up. I remember asking him to come to the neighborhood pool with me when I had the problem with the three bullies. He was glad to do it and was there for me if anything came down. Ray was our Scott Bernard, he set the agenda and once he made up his mind, he would never change it. I remember playing softball with him once and it started to get dark. Ray didn’t care and made us play all nine innings in the dark before he would call it quits. He was a driven kid with a vision that meant we didn’t do very much hanging around when Ray was present. If Ray were there, he would come up with something and we would be off and running. I will always think of him riding on his Green Hornet with all of us following in tow. Now, I don’t want you to think it was one happy universe because our neighborhood also had Invid like inhabitants. For us, this came in the form of Drac and his two friends Lenny the Leach and Moose.

Drac was a much older kid that lived over on Third Avenue. He was probably in High School or at least old enough to get his learner’s permit to drive. So that made him pretty old. He lived over on Third Avenue which was an area we rarely played. It was just outside of the universe that we created for ourselves. I don’t actually know what Drac’s real name was. We just called him Drac because it was a short for Count Dracula the vampire. He looked He looked just like Christopher Lee, the British actor who played Count Dracula in all the horror films we saw on Saturday afternoons at the movies. He was extremely tall, at least to us, with slicked back hair back and wore a black leather jacket even when it was really hot in the summer. He had really large fangs that protruded outward from his mouth even when he wasn’t smiling. You could spot him a block away walking down the street with his two sidekicks in tow. The smaller one was Lenny the Leach and the larger one was Moose who both did whatever Drac told them to do. Lenny the Leach, who looked a lot like Joe Pesci in Leathal Weapon IV, got his nickname because he was truly up Drac’s butt and would follow right behind him always muttering, “What we gonna do now Drac? What we gonna do now?” Drac would always snap back at him, “Shut the hell up will ya Lenny! and back off, you’re breathin right down my neck!” Moose (we never really knew his real name either) looked like one of those stuffed animal heads that hunters would hang on the walls of their log cabins. He just looked forward with penetrating dark eyes and never spoke. He just did whatever Drac told him to do. One time Drac told him to hold a kid upside down to empty the change out his pockets. Moose, didn’t say a work and just picked the kid up with one hand and held him upside down until all the loose change was on the floor beneath him. These three goons never came your way to wish you well. If they were walking toward you it was to do something bad to you. You either ran or hid in the bushes until they walked by. These goons were truly Invid annihilators looking for something to destroy if they didn’t get their way. When we saw them walking down the street toward us, we simply headed in the opposite direction. Drac and his friends were simply too old and too big to mess with in conventional hand-to-hand combat. But, that didn’t stop us from screwing with them once in a while. At one point, we resorted to a time tested method of long-range battle known as shit on a stick. Shit on a stick was simply what it describes. Usually a large (preferably moist) sample of dog or cat turd placed upon the top end of a medium size branch or bamboo. Once placed in such a manner, the stick could be pulled backward and then released at the appropriate moment; propelling the turd with amazing accuracy toward a stationary or moving target. The shit on a stick method of combat allowed us to hide ourselves, hit targets accurately from very far distance and quickly withdraw without being caught. Another advantage was that there was an endless supply of ammo turds available on nearby lawns and empty lots. When we saw Drac and his goons coming toward Second Avenue we would hide in the bushes until they were in range. As they crossed the street in front of us, we let them have it. By the time they knew what hit them we were gone. Like the Invid, Drac and his goons kept returning in new and different ways. However, each time they returned they were met by a small but determined group of freedom fighters armed only with sticks, toy guns, bikes and a few dog turds. This rag tag group saved Second Avenue for future generations.

CHAPTER 10

We are all Robotech Warriors

“Hear me mister and hear me good! We’re giving the orders around here and not you!”

Paper Hero – Episode 7

I am a Robotech fan just as much as anyone who watched the show when it first was released on television. I will admit that my experiences with Robotech might be different because I had the opportunity to become involved in the production of the television series. But anyone who has become intimately involved in the Robotech story and characters in any way shape or form has no choice but to become a fan. I am not just talking about The New Generation. I am talking about the entire series. We have all had the Robotech experience and then have somehow found ourselves drawn to the characters and story. Yes it is true that the Robotech was put together by an amazing group of creative talent including its writers and voice talent. Also, Carl Macek was an integral part of the creative force that made the series come to life. There would not be a Robotech without the creative talent of Carl Macek. He had the creative vision to be able to imagine what we all could not readily see when we were working on the production of the series. Frank Agrama’s creative vision and the Harmony Gold company were also catalysts in creating the framework and resources so the series could come into existence. The coming together of this diverse group of imaginative, talented people and perhaps timing, resulted in a ground breaking series that set the standard for all the animated shows that would follow. But, there was something else at play that we should never forget. Robotech has an equally diverse and talented audience.

There would be no Robotech (as we have come to know and love it) without its audience. This is a simple truth that sounds more like the cliché hypothetical question, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” If there were no audience would Robotech the series ever achieve its unique place in animation? Of course, anyone will tell you, if a television show has no audience, it gets cancelled. However, that’s not what I’m getting at. Robotech has always had a unique audience that has stayed with it beyond television syndication. No matter what trials and tribulations Robotech has been through both on and off the screen, the audience has been there with us. No matter what new turn the Robotech saga takes, the audience has always been there to support the show. In many ways we have all become Robotech warriors.

When we view Macross, Robotech Masters or The New Generation, we witness the characters at their own peril, stand up and fight for what is right. We find ourselves compelled to follow their story because we see ourselves in them. They are heroes but not so different from us that we could not be there with them doing what they do. I have always admired the ability of the Robotech characters to do extraordinary things even though they were just ordinary people forced into extreme circumstances. But the quality that makes them just like us, is that they are flawed characters that possess an intellectual, emotional as well as physical reaction to the world around them. They fall in love, they get jealous, and they experience grief, are often afraid and sometime do things that are wrong. But they are also loving, just and brave. This is the reason we are drawn to them because they are a mirror of our own aspirations and fears. You may be thinking, you are totally out of it, there are no Invid in my life. I would agree with you if you were making a literal comparison. But are there any individuals that function in your life just like the Invid did to The New Generation? Do you have any one around you that wants to control everything you do? Suck the very life out of you? Who wants to draw the very life force out of your universe? Think about that for a minute. What about the person sitting next to you right now? If the answer is yes, then you are face to face with your own version of the Invid. What has Robotech taught us? One thing that you don’t run away from the forces that are against you. You hold your ground and stand up for what you believe in. Your Invid, can be a boss, a friend or a even a purported love one. I’m not suggesting that you should quit your job, have no friends, break up with girlfriend/boyfriend or get a divorce. But ask yourself this question. What if your life was an episode in the Robotech story and you were a character in it? What would you do? Would you just sit idly let your universe be destroyed? Would you run away and hope that everything would be better someplace else? Or, would you stand and fight for your own freedom, your planet and what is right? Now think about your life right now? If you had a challenge like this, what would you do? If you’re a Robotech fan (at least the ones I know), I think you would stand and fight. Robotech has taught all of us to take our space, do what is right and be counted. Ultimately, we are all Robotech warriors fighting the fight. Let’s not ever forget that.

Rand’s Creed

1. Never start a fight you can’t finish.

2. Keep your friends close.

3. Take care of your ride… especially your cyclone.

4. There’s nothing like a good wisecrack in a tense situation.

5. Get a Job! No really… always have something to do.

6. Don’t be afraid to ask what you don’t know.

7. Never hit on your best friend’s girlfriend.

8. Life is full of little surprises… enjoy them.

9. When you’re in a new town… always find a good deli.

10. If it’s big, looks like a crab and moving toward you… shoot it.