Behind the scenes of the Great Wishy Woz
By Marigold Substance |
Features
Reporter
The Great Wishy Woz aired the last two weeks
on Kid's Radio and is getting many "thumbs up" reviews form listeners. But
how did this program come about. The Odyssey Times talked to Mandy
Straussberg-the show's writer, director, and star-to get the full scoop.
The initiative for the show came from Mandy
herself. She was a colossal fan of musicals and says she always wanted to
produce one. Mandy says, "I really love to sing and act and after I wrote a
couple of plays for the Little Theatre, I wanted to write something longer
and bigger." Initially, Mandy wrote the production to be another Little
Theatre play, but soon found that it wasn't working. "I found that the sets
and costumes were going to be very costly and expensive. So, after talking
with Mr. Whittaker, we changed it to a Kids' Radio production. I think it
turned out much better that way."
The story, eventually titled "The Great Wishy Woz" was a two-part adventure
about a little girl named Dotty who found herself lost in another world. She
tried to find her way home with the help of the Fairy Oddmother, who sent
her to see the Great Wishy Woz. Along the way, she met up with Manny Kin,
Metal Guy, and Mystic Mountain Lion. Together they went to the Wishy Woz,
who sent them off on a quest to get various items.
After the script was finished, the next job was finding the actors. "For
some of the parts, I had a particular person in mind," says Mandy. "For
others, whenever I found someone who wanted to act, their character seemed
to fit into place."
Mandy's first choice for the part of Manny Kin, a department store
mannequin, was Harlow Doyle. "He seemed right for the part since he's always
looking for something, just like Manny," says Mandy. "Unfortunately he was
unavailable because he was too busy with a case involving a Wilson family
member."
Mr. Whittaker suggested that Tom Riley play the part. "Tom loves acting and
he's so good at it," says Whit. "And to top it all off, he has a great radio
voice. We've used him before in Kid's Radio shows."
For the part of the Metal Guy, who is always making wisecracks and has
somewhat of a jaded view of the world, Mandy looked no further than Bernard
Walton. "I had him in mind when I wrote the part," says Mandy. "He was just
perfect for the part and I'm glad he was so interested in helping us out."
But what about Mystic Mountain Lion, the backwards talking cat looking for
power? "That was the hardest part to cast just because he had a very
particular way he spoke and I couldn't think of anyone who talked like
that," says Mandy. The question was solved, however, when Jack Allen
volunteered for the part. "Mr. Allen was such a great actor. I'm glad we
found him," says Mandy.
With the actors cast, it was on to the recording session. "The recording
sessions in the Kid's Radio studio are a lot of fun, but also a lot of
work," says Mandy. "Thankfully, I had a lot of help."
The most difficult part of the sessions was working with Maximilian, the dog
who played Nono. "I wouldn't call him temperamental, but he was a bit
difficult to work with," says Mandy. "Most of the scenes with Nono in them
had to be recorded quite a few times just to get the right barks."
Another difficult part of the recordings was the voice for the Great Wishy
Woz. "The person who plays the Wishy Woz (and Mr. Iam) was a great actor,
but he had the very difficult job of pretending all these sound effects were
happening to his voice. He would often start making his own sound effects
for the Wishy Woz. He would be talking and start making 'whoosh' and 'boom'
sounds. Eugene had to do quite a bit of work to take those out," says Mandy.
"After it was all over, I was very tired, but I was also very glad that I
got to do such a fun program for everybody," says Mandy. When asked if she
would do another show anytime soon, she said, "If I ever recover from this
one, I just might."
Kid's Radio will be re-airing its popular
program, "A Thanksgiving Carol" this Thanksgiving at its traditional time of
8:00 p.m. The show has become a Thanksgiving tradition for many families.
An Interview with the Production Engineer
Eugene Meltsner served as the production
engineer and sound designer for the show. The Times recently conducted this
exclusive interview with him.
What was the most difficult scene to get sound effects for?
Well, you just ended your sentence with a preposition. But I think the
most challenging scene was the one where Metal Guy gets into the Jacuzzi. To
get the necessary sounds for that scene, Mr. Whittaker and I went to a
nearby apartment complex that had a rather large hot tub. I dressed up in
the Metal Guy suit and Mr. Whittaker recorded the sound as I stepped into
and out of the tub. One of the most interesting parts about it was the
perplexed look on the faces of the people we saw near the tub.
Unfortunately, to get the sound of the joints freezing up, I had to stay in
the hot tub for quite some time to get the metal to rust.
Are there any hidden jokes we should watch for in the show?
Well, if you listen quite closely when Dotty is leaving Little Land, you
may notice that some of the Littles are saying, "See ya! Wouldn't wanna be
ya!" And when the Wishy Woz gives the travelers only a period of a day to
find their goals, Manny Kin says, "One day, that's only 22 hours."
Additionally, and this is probably the most interesting in-joke of all, if
you listen closely when Leopold the Librarian, played by Mr. Whittaker, is
giving Manny Kin the Complete Encyclopedia of Human Knowledge in 52 volumes,
you'll hear that we actually used the Universal Encyclopedia to make the
sound effects.
Which objects were used for the sound effects of the quest items?
Like I said before the books from Great Library were the Universal
Encyclopedia. The greeting card was a large year calendar, the flame thrower
was, ironically enough, two fire extinguishers and the compass was a small
toy car.
This
article originally appeared in "The Odyssey Times," a
special fictional newspaper produced by Focus on the Family to promote
Adventures in Odyssey.
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