Pod Insights Stuff You Should Know Short Stuff: The Voice of God About this episode Today we salute the great Don LaFontaine, aka The Voice of God in movie and TV trailers.
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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1:12 Josh Clark? Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's sitting in for a date. So this is short stuff. Hit it Chuck.
1:20 Speaker 02 In a world where two doofuses podcast.
1:25 Speaker 02 That's my imitation, everybody of Don LaFontaine. And this is a bit of tribute to the man that was known as the voice of God. Don LaFontaine, the movie trailer guy.
1:38 Josh Clark? That's right. That's exactly what a lot of people call him, the movie trailer guy, because he has to his credit Chuck, this eye popping number. I'm going to take this one. Okay.
1:48 Speaker 02 Yeah, let's hear it.
1:49 Josh Clark? Over the course of his career, he recorded more than 5,000 film trailers.
1:57 Speaker 02 Oh, man.
1:58 Josh Clark? Previews, 5,000 previews, 750,000 television spots. Like commercials and promos and all that stuff.
2:07 Speaker 02 I bet Don LaFontaine, when he passed away in.
2:13 Josh Clark? 2008, I think.
2:15 Speaker 02 2008 was a very, very rich man.
2:19 Josh Clark? I would think so. I would think so.
2:22 Speaker 02 And good for him.
2:24 Josh Clark? Sure, I mean, he did it with his own hard work. I mean, by the end of his life, he was working basically till the end.
2:29 Speaker 02 Yeah.
2:30 Josh Clark? And by the end of his life, he um, he had built out a home office and was averaging seven voiceovers a day, which you, if you don't do voiceovers, you're probably like, that doesn't seem like that much. I'd knock that out in like 15 minutes.
2:43 Speaker 02 Yeah.
2:44 Josh Clark? No, you wouldn't, because it's actually surprisingly difficult. And if you're actually working with a professional company, they will make you do that over and over and over again. And it is quite, it's quite awful. I don't recommend it for anybody who doesn't love voiceover.
3:01 Speaker 02 Yeah, we read our audiobook and uh, it was not fun. And this is two guys who talk for a living into a microphone. And it was, it was pretty painstaking.
3:10 Josh Clark? Yeah. And the, the director was even great.
3:13 Speaker 02 Yeah. No, everyone did a great job. Everyone was awesome. It had nothing to do with that. It was just very monotonous. It just wasn't for us, you know, we're very off the cuff, you know, obviously, the way we do our show and did not transfer over to uh, like, the exact readings of things.
3:28 Josh Clark? Yeah, for sure. Like, exact. It has to be exact or you'll get yelled at.
3:33 Speaker 02 All right. So Don LaFontaine was born in Duluth, Minnesota. Um, he served in the military and the, uh, well, he's in the army because he was in the United States Army Band and Chorus, uh, and worked as a recording engineer there. And once he got out, he continued engineering at the National Recording Studios in New York City. And in 1962, he got hooked up with a producer, a radio producer named Floyd Peterson. And Peterson, uh, just happened to be working with Stanley, the great Stanley Kubrick on Doctor Strangelove, was creating these kind of radio promos.
4:07 Josh Clark? Right.
4:07 Speaker 02 And uh, it was like really successful. So he and LaFontaine hooked up and said, all right, we should like be like legit partners from now on.
4:17 Josh Clark? Yeah, they did legitimize it. They formed Floyd L. Peterson, Inc. And I think this is the impression I have is that initially Don LaFontaine just kept doing his engineering thing.
4:29 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah, I think so.
4:31 Josh Clark? It wasn't until 1965, a few years into their partnership, that, that I guess there was some scheduling mix up and a voiceover actor didn't show up on time or for their slot. So Don LaFontaine had to step in and record some radio spots for the gunfighters of Casa Grande for MGM. And MGM said, brother, we are just gonna buy this whole thing outright. This proof of concept is done. You invented the plane with the seat back trays and everything right out of the gate.
5:07 Speaker 02 Yeah, they're like, hey, you with the perfect voice, give this a shot.
5:10 Josh Clark? Exactly.
5:11 Speaker 02 This was at a time when film production and promotion were all kind of done in-house. Like you made the movie and then you didn't go to a different company to like cut the trailer or whatever. Like they did it all themselves.
5:23 Josh Clark? Right.
5:24 Speaker 02 And they were like, hey, I think we can disrupt this tradition. And they, I don't know why that was funny. Why was that funny?
5:34 Josh Clark? Disruptors, disruption. It's just such like a 2013 horrible Silicon Valley horror show.
5:42 Speaker 02 Yeah, I wasn't thinking of it in the terms of disruptors, but they literally disrupted. But yeah, you're right.
5:48 Josh Clark? Yeah, but no, no, I mean, I wasn't laughing at you, Chuck.
5:51 Speaker 02 No, no, I know. You're laughing at people that use the word disruptors with a straight face.
5:54 Josh Clark? Yeah, and the disruptors themselves.
5:57 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah, sure. All right, so they were disruptors, straight faced. And they said, they kind of developed the modern movie trailer as we know it together. It was, you know, it was, it was a very creative time for them and they were the first to create these like catchphrases that are now very ubiquitous across the trailer industry. And, you know, this example, I think this came from the New York Times obituary or maybe SAG-AFTRA or DonLaFontaine.com, but they listed some of these sort of catchphrases that are now just all over the place, like a one man army or nowhere to run, nowhere to hide and no way out. But of course, "in a world" was the money slogan.
6:42 Speaker 02 And LaFontaine just, he kind of crystallized it when he was like, it's just a very rapid way to set the scene when you can say, "in a world where violence rules." Like, that kind of says it all in just a handful of words about what kind of movie you're about to see.
6:58 Josh Clark? Yeah, because if a 90-minute movie is ideal to have like a nice, steady, crisp clip.
7:06 Speaker 02 Yeah.
7:06 Josh Clark? A trailer has to be even crisper.
7:09 Speaker 02 Yeah.
7:09 Josh Clark? Even at a steadier clip, you have to be able to, yeah, surmise a bunch of stuff from just a few words. And that was, I mean, that was a great innovation. I saw basically everywhere that he's the one that came up with that. He's certainly credited with it.
7:23 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
7:24 Josh Clark? I get the impression no Hollywood historian has actually gone to the trouble of identifying that, yes, he definitely was the one who pioneered it. Everybody's like, yeah, it was Don LaFontaine.
7:33 Speaker 02 Yeah. All right. Nice caveat, and we'll be back right after this with more on "The Voice of God."
7:55 Speaker 03 First thought is like, wow, how are we going to do all this?
7:57 Josh Clark? Hey, this is Josh and Chuck from Stuff You Should Know.
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8:16 Speaker 03 It was going to rival anything that was already built. And that takes quite a bit of people and different teams to all be on the same page.
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8:39 Speaker 04 To actually see the whole stadium light up and data's flowing is a beautiful thing.
8:44 Speaker 03 What the fans experience is incredible. It gave me a lot of pride.
8:47 Josh Clark? AT&T, connecting fans to what they love.
8:51 Speaker 05 Connecting changes everything. AT&T.
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10:04 Speaker 02 All right. So "In a World" is the kind of thing that has been parodied many, many times over the years. Like, once it became so ubiquitous, every comedian latched on to it. They were in GEICO commercials. The Simpsons movie, like, used Don LaFontaine. And at the end, like, Homer was talking back to Don LaFontaine as the voice of God, and that was kind of fun. So obviously, that's the kind of thing that's going to be parodied. But as far as his real career goes, we can go back to 1976, when he started his own production company, Don LaFontaine Associates. And his first assignment out of the gate was Godfather Part II. And two years later, Paramount Pictures said, "Hey, why don't you just come work for us and run our trailer department?"
10:49 Josh Clark? Yeah. And he said, ka-ching, I'll be right there.
10:53 Speaker 02 Yes.
10:53 Josh Clark? I always loved your mountain logo.
10:56 Speaker 02 Yeah, me too.
10:57 Josh Clark? That was, uh, that was such a great thing at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where it dissolves from the Paramount logo into the actual mountain.
11:05 Speaker 02 I knew you were gonna say that. I just saw Disclosure Day, the new Spielberg, and I highly recommend it.
11:09 Josh Clark? Okay, good. I saw Backrooms in the theater twice within three days.
11:14 Speaker 02 Oh, wow.
11:15 Josh Clark? I really liked it a lot.
11:16 Speaker 02 Yeah, all right. Did you see it twice just because you wanted to, or you're like, oh, I gotta take you and me back and see this?
11:22 Josh Clark? Both of those.
11:22 Speaker 02 Okay, cool.
11:23 Josh Clark? Yeah.
11:24 Speaker 02 That's fun.
11:25 Josh Clark? Yeah. So, but yes, I recommend that as well. I'll go see Disclosure Day.
11:29 Speaker 02 Yeah.
11:29 Josh Clark? You're the second group of people who recommended it.
11:32 Speaker 02 I'm a group?
11:34 Josh Clark? You are.
11:35 Speaker 02 Amazing.
11:35 Josh Clark? That's how important you are.
11:37 Speaker 02 All right. So he worked at Paramount for just a few years, left in 81, moved to LA, which is ironically where Paramount is. And there was an agent named Steve Tisherman who said, hey, you should really like, like, he wasn't the voice of God, the voice of God yet in 1981. He were like, you should really just concentrate on this because you're so good at it.
11:55 Josh Clark? Sure.
11:56 Speaker 02 And that was it. That's when he really cemented his legacy as just the voiceover guy.
12:01 Josh Clark? Yeah. Real quick question, Chuck. Um, why does Steve Tisherman's name sound familiar? I did not get a chance to look him up, but.
12:09 Speaker 02 I don't know.
12:09 Josh Clark? Is he like a legendary agent?
12:11 Speaker 02 I have no idea, actually. It didn't ring familiar to me.
12:14 Josh Clark? Okay, it did for me for some reason. I don't know.
12:16 Speaker 02 Maybe, though, you know?
12:18 Josh Clark? But, yes, Don LaFontaine did become the king of voiceovers, the voice of God after about that time, starting in the eighties. He became the, like, the in-house, I guess, voice for all four of the networks in America, plus the overlooked fifth one, UPN.
12:39 Speaker 02 That's right. And TNT and TBS, Cartoon Network.
12:42 Josh Clark? Yeah.
12:43 Speaker 02 Uh, I mean, you can hardly name a brand without, you know, mentioning Don LaFontaine having voiced for them.
12:50 Josh Clark? You're not gonna say all these brands?
12:53 Speaker 02 That's funny. And then, you know, he was sort of the in-show announcer for award shows for the Academy Awards at times. And just, you know, it was a heck of a career. And I love it when someone can find a niche like that and just like dominate it to that degree. It's really kind of fun.
13:10 Josh Clark? He definitely did dominate. And not just dominate it, but also make fun of yourself, too.
13:14 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah. He had a great sense of humor, I feel like.
13:16 Josh Clark? Yeah, that Geico commercial, I went back and watched it, the one from 2005.
13:20 Speaker 02 Yeah.
13:21 Josh Clark? It is so cute. There's this real Geico customer telling about like this story where they had to like, you know, call Geico and, you know, I guess make a claim. That's the word I'm looking for.
13:33 Speaker 02 Sure.
13:34 Josh Clark? And it was just an average, everyday story. So they hired Don LaFontaine to kind of movie it up. And so he was translating what the woman was saying. It was very cute.
13:48 Speaker 02 Yeah, I bet he made some good scratch from them, too.
13:50 Josh Clark? I hope so, man. He definitely deserved it. And by the way, if you are, if you work in advertising for Geico, you guys have been killing it for the entire century so far.
14:04 Speaker 02 Yeah, I think they always put out a pretty fun spot.
14:07 Josh Clark? Remember the Geico cavemen?
14:09 Speaker 02 That's great.
14:11 Josh Clark? Did you know that there was a short-lived TV show featuring them? Do you remember that?
14:16 Speaker 02 Yeah. Did it actually come out? I remember it was a thing. Okay. Yeah, I didn't know if they actually made it to air, but I knew it was a thing.
14:23 Josh Clark? It was rough.
14:24 Speaker 02 Yeah. I mean, that probably wasn't. Some things are best left as 30-minute or 30-second ads.
14:28 Josh Clark? Right.
14:30 Speaker 02 Like most things, probably.
14:31 Josh Clark? Yeah. America's very fickle.
14:33 Speaker 02 So this is, well, I don't know if it's surprising or not, because he kind of had that deep bear tone. But he was an on and off smoker for a lot of his life. And he had quit, though, for two solid decades. He did the right thing before he was admitted to Cedar Sinai, very sadly, in 2008, with a pulmonary embolism, was in critical condition the week after that. And his family was like, let's pray for Don, like he needs to hear from everybody. And on September 1, 2008, he passed at the age of 68, about 10 days into his hospitalization. And he is interned at the fantastic, legendary Hollywood Forever Cemetery, which is great.
15:15 Josh Clark? Which we did a whole short stuff on itself.
15:17 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah, that's right.
15:19 Josh Clark? Yeah. Apparently, his last final performance was in a Phineas and Ferb episode. I'm pretty sure, and I know it's a cartoon, I'm pretty sure it's Nickelodeon cartoon. The episode is The Chronicles of Meep, if you want to go hear him. His final line was, "In a world..." There, I said it. Happy?
15:37 Speaker 02 That's funny.
15:37 Josh Clark? Which is a great final line. And they put a little short tribute to him at the end of the episode, so good for them.
15:44 Speaker 02 I wonder if he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, because he totally should.
15:48 Josh Clark? If he doesn't, then the Walk of Fame needs to get their act together.
15:52 Speaker 02 Yeah, I'm looking that up real quick, because that was something that I meant to look up earlier.
15:57 Josh Clark? Well, hold on, while you're looking that up, let me mention, there's a 2013 movie, written and directed by Lake Bell.
16:05 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
16:05 Josh Clark? Called In a World, and it's about like the voiceover world, I guess.
16:11 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah, she's great.
16:12 Josh Clark? Yeah, I haven't seen it. Have you seen it?
16:15 Speaker 02 I have not seen that movie, but I'm a fan of Lake Bell from Children's Hospital. And I've just learned, and of course,
16:25 Speaker 02 I don't know if this is right or not, the AI overviews are so bad, it's hysterical sometimes.
16:30 Josh Clark? Let me just make something up.
16:31 Speaker 02 Because that says no, but then I'm seeing a picture of him with a star, so maybe yes. Yesterday, I asked whatever the stupid assistant in my house is, because I wasn't sure if Ireland had made the World Cup this year, and I said, "Is Ireland in the World Cup?" And it said, "No, Ireland is in Ireland."
16:52 Josh Clark? Oh, my God. Wow.
16:54 Speaker 02 Yeah, not a joke.
16:56 Josh Clark? Wow.
16:56 Speaker 02 Pretty unbelievable.
16:58 Josh Clark? At least it acknowledged that Ireland exists.
17:00 Speaker 02 Yeah, I mean, it's making everything better, right?
17:04 Josh Clark? Sure, yeah, but like by the second.
17:07 Speaker 02 All right, so I'll do some real research and see if he has that star on the Walk of Fame, and I'll report back later.
17:12 Josh Clark? Yeah, because ironically, the AI assistant could be right, because another AI program created a fake picture of him on the, with the star.
17:20 Speaker 02 Yeah.
17:21 Josh Clark? What a time to be alive.
17:22 Speaker 02 I know.
17:24 Josh Clark? That's it, I guess. Short stuff's out, right?
17:27 Speaker 02 Short stuff's out.
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