Stan Freberg

Stan Freberg(bornStanley Friberg; August 7, 1926 – April 7, 2015) was an American actor, author, comedian, musician, radio personality,puppeteerand advertising creative director.
His best-known works include "St. George and the Dragonet",Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, his role on the television seriesTime for Beany, multiple characters in theLooney Tunessuch asPete PumaandBertie, and a number of classic television commercials.
Freberg was born Stanley Fribergon August 7, 1926 inPasadena, California,the son of Evelyn Dorothy (née Conner), a housewife, and Victor Richard Friberg (later Freberg), aBaptistminister.Freberg was of Swedish and Irish descent.
He was drafted in the US Army from 1945 to 1947 where he served inSpecial Servicesattached to the Medical Corps atMcCornack General HospitalinPasadena, California.
Freberg's work reflected both his gentle sensitivity (despite his liberal use of biting satire andparody) and his refusal to accept alcohol and tobacco manufacturers as sponsors—an impediment to his radio career when he took over forJack BennyonCBSradio. As Freberg explained to Rusty Pipes:
Freberg's first wife, Donna, died in 2000. He had two children from that marriage, Donna Jean andDonavan. He married Betty Hunter in 2001.
Freberg began his career doing impersonations onCliffie Stone's radio show in 1943.Freberg was employed as a voice actor in animation shortly after graduating fromAlhambra High School. He began at Warner Brothers in 1944 by getting on a bus and asking the driver to let him off "in Hollywood". As he describes in his autobiography,It Only Hurts When I Laugh, he got off the bus and found a sign that said "talent agency". He walked in, and the agents there arranged for him to audition for Warner Brothers cartoons where he was promptly hired.Thus began Freberg's professional career in entertainment, which lasted for more than 70 years, all the way up to his death.
His first notable cartoon voice work was in a Warner Brothers cartoon calledFor He's a Jolly Good Fala, which was recorded but never filmed (due to the death ofFala's owner, PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt),followed byRoughly Squeaking(1946) as Bertie; and in 1947, he was heard inIt's a Grand Old Nag(Charlie Horse), produced and directed byBob ClampettforRepublic Pictures;The Goofy Gophers(Tosh),andOne Meat Brawl(Grover Groundhog andWalter Winchell).
Freberg voiced the character of Junyer Bear, but the role was actually created by actorKent RogersinBugs Bunny and the Three Bears(1944). After Rogers was killed duringWorld War II, Freberg assumed the role of Junyer Bear inChuck Jones'Looney TunescartoonWhat's Brewin', Bruin?(1948). This featuredJones' version ofThe Three Bears.
He often found himself paired withMel Blancwhile atWarner Bros., where the two men performed such pairs as the miceHubie and Bertie, theGoofy GophersMac and Tosh, andSpike the Bulldog and Chester the Terrier.In 1952, he was the voice ofFriz Freleng's "Dumb Dog" inFoxy by Proxy, who meets up with a disguised Bugs Bunny wearing a fox suit. He was the voice ofPete Pumain the 1952 cartoonRabbit's Kin, in which he did an impression of an earlyFrank Fontainecharacterization (which later became Fontaine's "Crazy Guggenheim" character).
Freberg's work as a voice actor forWalt Disney Productionsincluded the role of Mr. Busy the Beaver inLady and the Tramp(1955), and he did voice work inSusie the Little Blue CoupeandLambert the Sheepish Lion. He received screen credit for his voice work onThree Little Bops(1957), where he voiced all the characters and sang the titular song. Freberg's interpretation of Pete Puma also provided the basis forDaws Butler's voice of Sam, the orange cat paired withSylvesterin the Academy Award-nominated shortMouse and Garden(1960). He voiced Cage E. Coyote, the father ofWile E. Coyote, in the 2000 shortLittle Go Beep.
Freberg was cast to sing the part of the Jabberwock in the song "Beware the Jabberwock" for Disney'sAlice in Wonderland, with the Rhythmaires andDaws Butler. Written byDon RayeandGene de Paul, the song was a musical rendering of the poem "Jabberwocky" from Lewis Carroll'sThrough the Looking-Glass. The song was not included in the final film, but a demo recording was included in the 2004 and 2010 DVD releases of the film.
Freberg made his film debut in the comedyCallaway Went Thataway(1951), a satirical spoof on the marketing of Western stars (apparently inspired by the TV success ofHopalong Cassidy). Freberg costarred withMala PowersinGeraldine(1954) as sobbing singer Billy Weber, enabling him to reprise his satire on vocalistJohnnie Ray(see below).In 1963'sIt's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Freberg appeared in a non-speaking role as the Deputy Sheriff and acted as the voice of a dispatcher.
Contrary to popular belief,George Lucascalled upon Freberg, notMel Blanc, to audition for the voice of the characterC-3POfor the 1977 filmStar Wars. After he and many others auditioned for the part, Freberg suggested that Lucas use mime actorAnthony Daniels' voice.
Freberg was one of the talents recruited byCapitol Recordswhen it launched its spoken-word division.He began on February 10, 1951, and produced satirical recordings aboutpopular culture.One of his most notable releases was "John and Marsha", a soap opera parody that consisted of the title characters (both played by Freberg) doing nothing but repeating each other's names (with intonations to match the moods).Some radio stations refused to play "John & Marsha", believing it to be an actual romantic conversation between two real people. In a 1954 follow-up, he usedpedal steel guitaristSpeedy Westto satirize the 1953Ferlin Huskycountry hit, "A Dear John Letter", as "A Dear John and Marsha Letter" (Capitol 2677). West had played on the Husky hit recording.A seasonal recording, "The Night Before Christmas"/"Nuttin' for Christmas", made in 1955, still remains a cult classic.
Another hit to receive the Freberg treatment was Johnnie Ray's weepy "Cry", which Freberg rendered as "Try", exaggerating Ray's histrionic vocal style.Johnnie Ray was furious until he realized the success of Freberg's 1952 parody was actually increasing sales andairplayof his own record.Freberg reported getting more angry feedback for this than from any of his other parodies.
WithDaws ButlerandJune Foray, Freberg produced his 1953Dragnetparody, "St. George and the Dragonet", aNo. 1 hitfor four weeks in October 1953. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc.
After "I've Got You Under My Skin" (1951), he followed with more popular musical satires, such as "Sh-Boom" (1954), a parody of the song recorded byThe Chords. At the end, he yells "STELLA!" at a woman, imitatingMarlon BrandoinA Streetcar Named Desire. The B side was a parody of theEartha Kittrecord "C'est si bon", broadcast in 1955 on the TV showSam and Friends.Other songs include "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (1955),where a "Yankee" snare drummer gets out of hand on the recording; "Rock AroundStephen Foster", a parody of recordings byBill Haleyand others in which a music arranger (Freberg) tries with mixed results to get a chorus to perform a medley of Foster's standards in rock and roll style at one point adding Foster's lyrics to Haley's arrangement of "Shake, Rattle and Roll"; "Rock Island Line", based on the 1955Lonnie Doneganskiffle version, with interruptions byPeter Leeds; and a spoof ofThe Platters' hit "The Great Pretender" (1956).
He recorded a parody ofElvis Presley's first chart record, "Heartbreak Hotel".  In Freberg's version, theecho effectgoes out of control, and "Elvis" eventually rips his tight jeans during the performance.
With Foray, he recorded "The Quest for Bridey Hammerschlaugen", a spoof ofThe Search forBridey Murphyby Morey Bernstein, a 1956 book onhypnotic regression to a past life, and an LP of the first actual hypnosis session.
Freberg used abeatnikmusician theme in his 1956 parody of "The Great Pretender", the hit byThe Platters—who, like Ray (see above) and Belafonte and Welk (see both below), were not pleased.At that time, when it was still hoped that musical standards might be preserved, it was quite permissible to ridicule the ludicrous, as Freberg had obviously thought when he parodied Presley. The pianist in Freberg's parody, a devotee ofErroll Garnerand George Shearing, rebels against playing a single-chord accompaniment, retorting, "I'm not playing that 'clink-clink-clink jazz'!" But Freberg is adamant about the pianist's sticking to The Platters' style: "You play that 'clink-clink-clink jazz', or you won't get paid tonight!" The pianist relents—sort of.The pianist even quotes the first six notes from Shearing's classic piece "Lullaby of Birdland", before returning to the song.The song concludes with the pianist taking a liking to the arrangement only after he gets into an uncontrollably accelerating groove, despite the histrionic singer's pleas to keep tempo; the singer has to escape the studio.
Freberg's "Banana Boat (Day-O)" (1957) satirizedHarry Belafonte's popular recording of "Banana Boat Song". In Freberg's version, the lead singer is forced to run down the hall and close the door after him to muffle the sound of his "Day-O!" because the beatnik bongo drummer, voiced by Leeds, complains, "It's too shrill, man. It's too piercing!" When he gets to the lyric about "A beautiful buncha ripe banana/Hide the deadly black tarantula", the drummer protests, "I don't dig spiders!"The flip is "Tele-Vee-Shun", an anti-TV song about what television has done to his family, sung in a heavy faux-Trinidadianaccent and set to aCalypsotune.Freberg first recorded the song in 1952, but the 1957 version is the most well known, which lampoonsElvis Presleyin one verse: "I turn on Elvis Presley and my daughter scream. / I fear she have a nervous breakdown cos of heem. / I wonder why he wiggle-waggle to de beat. / As a boy he must have had a loose bicycle seat."
Freberg's musical parodies were a product of his collaborations withBilly May, a veteranbig band musicianandjazzarranger, and his Capitol Records producer, Ken Nelson.. In late 1957, as TV "champagne music" masterLawrence Welk'sABCTV show gained popularity nationwide, Freberg released "Wun'erful, Wun'erful! (Sides uh-one & uh-two)", a freewheeling mockery of the show, Welk's stilted, cornball delivery and the questionable musicianship of some of Welk's sidemen. To faithfully replicate Welk's sound, May and some of Hollywood's fineststudio musiciansand vocalists worked to clone Welk's live on-air style, carefully incorporating bad notes and mistimed cues.Billy Liebert, a first-rate accordionist, copied Welk'saccordionplaying. In the parody, the orchestra is overwhelmed by the malfunctioning bubble machine and the entire Aragon Ballroom eventually floats out to sea. When he met Freberg, Welk denied he had ever said "Wunnerful, Wunnerful!" and objected to the ending, futilely asking to have the orchestra rescued.But despite his denial of the phrase, Welk made it the title of his autobiography (Prentice Hall, 1971), and he never publicly stated his exact reasons.Among the regulars on Welk's show who were lampooned were "Champagne Lady"Alice Lon, who became "Alice Lean",Larry Hooperbecame "Larry Looper", trumpeter-novelty singer Rocky Rockwell became "Stony Stonedwell" and theLennon Sistersbecame the "Lemon Sisters."Freberg had performed a lengthier version of the sketch on the August 11, 1957 episode ofThe Stan Freberg Show.
Freberg also tackled political issues of the day. On his radio show, an extended sketch paralleled theCold Warbrinkmanshipbetween the U.S. and theSoviet Unionby portraying an ever-escalatingpublic relationsbattle between theEl Sodom and the Rancho Gomorrah, twocasinosin the city of Los Voraces (Spanish for "The Greedy Ones"—a thinly disguisedLas Vegas). The sketch ends with the ultimatetourist attraction, theHydrogen Bomb, which turns Los Voraces into a vast, barren wasteland. Network pressure forced Freberg to remove the reference to the hydrogen bomb and had the two cities being destroyed by an earthquake instead.The version of "Incident at Los Voraces", released later on Capitol Records, contains the original ending.
Freberg had poked fun atMcCarthyismin passing in "Little Blue Riding Hood" with the line, "Only the color has been changed to prevent an investigation." Later, he blatantly parodied SenatorJoseph McCarthywith "Point of Order" (taken from his frequent objection). The "suspect" being investigated was the black sheep from the nursery rhyme, "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep". (Butler: "I would be suspicious of anyone who tried to rhymedamewithlane.") Capitol's legal department was very nervous. Freberg describes being called in for a chat with Robert Karp, the department head, and being asked whether he had ever belonged to any group that might get attention from McCarthy. He replied, "I am, and have been for a long time, a card-carrying member of... "—the executive went pale—"... the Little Orphan Annie Fan Club of America." The executive retorted, "No, this is serious; this is not funny, Freberg. Stop making jokes!"A watered-down version of the parody was eventually aired.
On two occasions, Capitol refused to release Freberg's records."That's Right, Arthur" was a barbed parody of controversial 1950s radio/TV personalityArthur Godfrey, who expected his stable of performers—known as "little Godfreys"—to toady to him endlessly. The dialogue included Freberg's "Godfrey" monologue, punctuated by Butler imitating Godfrey announcerTony Marvin, repeatedly interjecting, "That's right, Arthur!" between Godfrey's comments.Capitol feared Godfrey might takelegal actionand sent a copy of Freberg's record to Godfrey's legal department for permission, which was denied. Capitol also rejected the equally acerbic "Most of the Town", a spoof ofEd Sullivan's"The Toast of the Town", under similar circumstances. Both recordings were eventually issued in abox-setFreberg retrospective issued byRhino Records.
Freberg continued to skewer the advertising industry after the demise of his show, producing and recording "Green Chri$tma$" in 1958, a scathing indictment of the over-commercialization of the holiday, in which Butler soberly hoped instead that we'd remember "Whosebirthday we're celebrating". The satire ended abruptly with a rendition of "Jingle Bells" punctuated by cash register sounds. The original version was somewhat longer when it was first released in 1958, but in later years Capitol did not reissue the full recording.Freberg also revisited the "Dragnet" theme, with "Yulenet", also known as "Christmas Dragnet", in which the strait-laced detective convinces a character named "Grudge" that Santa Claus really exists (and Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and the Easter Bunny, but Grudge still hadn't made up his mind yet about Toledo). Butler does several voices on the record.
In 1958, theOregon CentennialCommission, under the sponsorship ofBlitz-Weinhard Brewing Company, hired Freberg to create a musical to celebrate Oregon's one-hundredth birthday.The result wasOregon! Oregon! A Centennial Fable in Three Acts.Recorded at Capitol in Hollywood, it was released during the Oregon Centennial in 1959 as a 12″ vinyl LP album. Side one featured two versions of an introduction by Freberg (billed as "Stan Freberg, Matinee Idol"), with the second version including a few words from the president of Blitz-Weinhard Co. This was followed by the show itself, which runs for 21 minutes. Side two includes separate individual versions of each of the featured songs, including several variations on the title piece,Oregon! Oregon!
Fifty years later, as Oregon approached its Sesquicentennial, an updated version was prepared by Freberg and the Portland bandPink Martinias part of a signature series of performances throughout the state.Pink Martini toured the state and performed four regional performances in the northern, southern and central areas of Oregon in August and September 2009. This was made possible by a grant from the Kinsman Foundation for a $40,000 launch of Pink Martini'sOregon! Oregon! 2009with Freberg.
In 1960, in the light of thepayolascandal, Freberg made a two-sided single titled "The Old Payola Roll Blues", which tells the story of a corrupt recording studio promoter (voiced byJesse White)who finds "Clyde Ankle" (a play on the name of singerPaul Anka, with a storyline paralleling that ofBob Marcucci's discovery ofFabian), a teenager who cannot sing. Clyde records a song called "High School OO OO", which lasted only a few seconds. (Noting the brevity, Ankle asks, "Isn't that kind of a short song?" to which the producer answers, "Yeah, it gets more plays that way.") "I Was on My Way to High School" (complete with fake audience noise from a "scream machine") is the corresponding flip side.
The promoter then tries to bribe a disc jockey at a jazz station to play the song on the air, which he flatly refuses, suspecting that the promoter was never in the music business in the first place. Afterward, a song in the big band style heralds the end of rock and roll and a resurgence of swing and jazz. Freberg's record was on the Hot 100 only the week of Leap Day 1960, at #99, about three and a half months afterTommy Facenda's multi-versioned "High School U.S.A." peaked at #28.Alan Freed, whose career fell prey to charges of payola, reportedly laughed at Freberg's interpretation of the scandal.
Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Volume One: The Early Years(1961) combined dialogue and song in a musical theater format. The originalalbum musical, released on Capitol, parodies the history of the United States from 1492 until the end of theRevolutionary Warin 1783. In it, Freberg parodied both large and small aspects of history. For instance, in the Colonial era, it was common to use thelong s, which resembles a lowercase f, in the middle of words; thus, as Ben Franklin is reading theDeclaration of Independence, he questions the passage, "Life, liberty, and thepurfuit of happineff?!?" Most of that particular sketch is a satire of McCarthyism. For example, Franklin remarks, "You...sign a harmless petition, and forget all about it. Ten years later, you get hauled up before a committee."
The album also featured the following exchange, where Freberg'sChristopher Columbusis "discovered on beach here" by aNative Americanplayed byMarvin Miller. Skeptical of the Natives' diet of corn and "other organically grown vegetables", Columbus wants to open "America's first Italian restaurant" and needs to cash a check to get started:
In 2019,Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Volume One: The Early Yearswas selected by theLibrary of Congressfor preservation in theNational Recording Registryfor being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America, Volume Twowas planned for release during America'sBicentennialin 1976, but did not emerge until 1996.
Freberg's early parodies revealed his obvious love of jazz. His portrayals of jazz musicians were usually stereotypical "beatnik" types, but jazz was always portrayed as preferable topop,calypso, and particularly the then-new form of music,rock and roll. He whopped doo-wop in his version of "Sh-Boom" and lampoonedElvis Presleywith an echo/reverb rendition of "Heartbreak Hotel".The United States of Americaincludes a sketch involving the musicians in the paintingThe Spirit of '76. The terribly hip fife player ("Bix", played by Freberg) and the younger drummer (played byWalter Tetley) argue with the older, impossibly square drummer ("Doodle", also voiced by Freberg) over how "Yankee Doodle" should be performed.
The popularity of Freberg's recordings landed him his own radio program, the situation comedyThat's Rich. Freberg portrayed bumbling but cynical Richard E. Wilt, a resident of Hope Springs, where he worked for B.B. Hackett's Consolidated Paper Products Company. Freberg suggested the addition of dream sequences, which made it possible for him to perform his more popular Capitol Records satires before a live studio audience. The series was broadcast over theCBS Radio Networkfrom January 8 to September 23, 1954.
The Stan Freberg Showwas a 1957 replacement for Jack Benny on CBS radio. The satirical show, produced by Pete Barnum, featured elaborate production, and included most of the team he used on his Capitol recordings, including Foray, Leeds, and Butler. Billy May arranged and conducted the music. The Jud Conlon Singers, who had also appeared on Freberg recordings, were regulars, as was singer Peggy Taylor, who later that year participated in his "Wun'erful, Wun'erful!" two-sided 45, recorded to capitalize on the response it received on the show.
The show failed to attract a sponsor after Freberg decided he did not want to be associated with the tobacco companies that had sponsored Benny. In lieu of actual commercials, Freberg mocked advertising by touting such products as "Puffed Grass" ("It's good for Bossie, it's good for me and you!"), "Food" ("Put some food in your tummy-tum-tum!"), and himself ("Stan Freberg—the foaming comedian! Bobba-bobba-bom-bom-bom"), a parody of the well-knownAjax cleansercommercial.
The lack of sponsorship was not the only problem, and Freberg also complained of radio network interference, factors which forced the cancellation of the show after a run of only 15 episodes. One sketch, "Elderly Man River", parodied the interference, as well as anticipating thepolitical correctnessmovement by decades. Butler played "Mr. Tweedly", a representative of a fictional citizens' radio review board, who constantly interrupts Freberg with a loud buzzer as Freberg attempts to sing "Old Man River". Tweedly first objects to the word "old", "which some of our moreelderlycitizens find distasteful". As a result of Tweedly's interventions, the song's lyrics are progressively and painfully distorted, as Freberg struggles to sing the classic song in a form that Tweedly says must be acceptable "to the tiny tots" listening at home: "He don't, er,doesn'tplant 'taters, er,potatoes, he doesn't plant cotton, er,cotting, andthem-these-thosethat plants them are soonforgotting", was a lyric of which Freberg was particularly proud. Even when the censor finds Freberg's rendition acceptable, the constant interruptions ultimately bring the song to a grinding halt just before Freberg would have had to edit the line "You gets a little drunk and you lands in jail". Freberg concedes, "Take your finger off the button, Mr. Tweedly—we know when we're licked", furnishing both the moral and the punch line of the sketch.
In 1966, he recorded an album,Freberg Underground, in a format similar to his radio show, using the same cast and orchestra. He called it "pay radio", a parody of the termpay TV, the nickname at the time for subscription-based television, "... because you have to go into the record store and buy it". The album is notable for giving Dr.Edward TellertheFather of the Yearaward for being "father of thehydrogen bomb" ("Use it in good health!"); for lampooning all-digit dialing ("They Took Away Our Murray Hills"); and for "The Flak-man and Reagan", a combined satire of theBatmantelevision series featuring Robin, and the 1966 California Governor's race betweenEdmund G. "Pat" BrownandRonald Reagan, in which the idea of Reagan in the future running for U.S. president and winning, was used in song as a final, over-the-top gag.
With the use of sound effects in an imaginary sequence for a promotional announcement for radio, Freberg drained Lake Michigan and filled it with hot chocolate, then cued a 700-foot mountain of whipped cream to roll into it, after which the Royal Canadian Air Force towed a 10-ton maraschino cherry overhead and dropped it on top. Some 25,000 imaginary extras cheered.
Freberg returned to radio in several episodes ofThe Twilight Zoneradio dramasin the early 2000s, including "The Brain Center at Whipple's", "Four O'Clock", "The Fugitive", "Gentlemen, Be Seated", "Kick the Can", "The Masks", and "Static".
Beginning in 1949, Freberg and Butler provided voices and were thepuppeteersforBob Clampett'spuppetseries,Time for Beany, a tripleEmmy Awardwinner (1950, 1951, 1953).which was broadcast live onKTLAin Los Angeles, and distributed nationwide via kinescope by theParamount Television Network, the pioneering children's TV show garnered considerable acclaim.Among its fans wasAlbert Einstein, who once reportedly interrupted a high-level conference by announcing, "You will have to excuse me, gentlemen. It is time for Beany."
Freberg made television guest appearances onThe Ed Sullivan Showand other TV variety shows, usually with Orville the Moon Man, his puppet from outer space; he reached through the bottom of Orville'sflying saucerto control the puppet's movements and turned away from thecamerawhen he delivered Orville's lines.Freberg had his ownABCspecial,Stan Freberg Presents theChun KingChow Mein Hour: Salute to the Chinese New Year(February 4, 1962),but he garnered more laughs when he was a guest on late night talk shows.
A piece from Freberg's show was used frequently on Offshore Radio in the UK in the ’60s: "You may not find us on your TV".Other on-screen television roles includedThe Monkees(1966)andThe Girl from U.N.C.L.E.(1967).Federal Budget Reviewwas a 1982(copyright 1980)PBStelevision special lampooning thefederal government. In 1996, he portrayed the continuing character of Mr. Parkin onRoseanne,and both Freberg and his son had roles in the short-livedWeird Al Showin 1997.
Freberg founded the Los Angeles-based advertising agency Freberg Limited, which produced radio and television commercials.Two of his largest clients wereGeneral MotorsandMellon Bank.He is noted for introducing satire to the field of advertising and revolutionized the industry by influencing staid ad agencies to imitate his style into their previously dead-serious commercials. Freberg had an affinity with the radio platform, stating that it is a special medium capable of stretching the imagination more than television.
Freberg's long list of successful ad campaigns includes:
Freberg was also very popular in Australia, visiting there several times in the 1950s as a performer in a number of "Big Show" concerts. In 1959 he wrote and voiced an animated TV commercial in Sydney for Sunshine Powdered Milk, which won a TV "Logie" as one of the most popular TV commercials of the year in an annual awards ceremony.
Today, these advertisements are considered classics by many critics.ThoughBob & Rayhad pioneered intentionally comic advertisements (stemming from a hugely successful campaign for Piels beer), Stan Freberg is usually credited as being the first person to introduce humor into television advertising with memorable campaigns. He felt a truly funny commercial would cause consumers to request a product, as was the case with his elaborate ad campaign that prompted stores to stock Salada tea.Jeno Paulucci, then the owner of Chun King, had to pay off a bet over the success of Freberg's first commercial by pulling Freberg in arickshawon Hollywood's La Cienega Boulevard.Freberg won 21Clio awardsfor his commercials.Many of those spots were included in the Freberg four-CDbox setTip of the Freberg.
Following his success in comedy records and television, Freberg was often invited to appear as a featured guest at various events, such as his skit at the 1978 Science Fiction Film Awards, again playing straight man to Orville in hisUFO. He innocently asks why there is a hole in the end of the spacecraft, only to be told, "That's where the swamp gas comes out."
In his autobiography,It Only Hurts When I Laugh, Freberg recounts much of his life and early career, including his encounters with such show business legends asMilton Berle,Frank SinatraandEd Sullivan, and the struggles he endured to get his material on the air.
He had brief sketches onKNX (AM)radio in the mid-1990s, beginning each with "Freberg here!"In one sketch, Freberg mentioned that the band played "Inhale to the Chief" atBill Clinton's inauguration.
He guest starred multiple times onThe Garfield Showwhere he provided the voice of Dr. Whipple, and as the studio chairman on an episode ofTaz-Mania.
Freberg was inducted into theNational Radio Hall of Famein 1995. From 1995 until October 6, 2006, Freberg hostedWhen Radio Was, asyndicatedanthology of vintage radio shows.The release of the 1996 Rhino CDThe United States of America Volume 1 (the Early Years)andVolume 2 (the Middle Years)suggested a possible third volume (which never happened). This set includes some parts written but cut because they would not fit on a record album.
He appeared on"Weird Al" Yankovic'sThe Weird Al Show, playing both the J.B. Toppersmith character and the voice of the puppet Papa Boolie. Yankovic has acknowledged Freberg as one of his greatest influences.Freberg is among the commentators in the special features on the multiple-volume DVD sets of theLooney Tunes Golden Collectionand narrates the documentary "Irreverent Imagination" on Volume 1.
Freberg was the announcer for the boat race in the film adaptation ofStuart Little, and in 2008 he guest starred asSherlock Holmesin two episodes ofThe Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd.From 2008 onwards, Freberg voiced numerous characters, including Doctor Whipple and Fluffykins, onThe Garfield Show. He recorded his last voice-over role as the Mole for the episode "Rodent Rebellion" in 2014.
Freberg died on April 7, 2015, aged 88, atUCLA Medical Center, Santa MonicainSanta Monica, Californiafrompneumonia.
Films
Recordings
Television