William Woodson

**William T. Woodson** (July 16, 1917 – February 22, 2017) was an American voice actor, best known for his narration of the radio series *This is Your FBI* and the animated series *Super Friends* and all its spin-offs. Woodson had a small live-action appearance in the 1953 sci-fi film *The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms*, as a newscaster. Another on-screen role was as Sergeant Ed Blankey on the drama television series *This Man Dawson*. He also did some of the voice-over work on the 1960s series *The Invaders*. In 1963-1964, he portrayed the ringmaster on the ABC drama *The Greatest Show on Earth*.[4]:415 He also narrated for NFL Films.

In the 1970s, Woodson's television work included the opening narrative of *The Odd Couple*, the narration for the pilot of *The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams*, and a brief appearance on one episode of *The Mary Tyler Moore Show*. In 1977-1978, he was the voice of the sheriff on *CB Bears* on NBC.[4]

He was also a featured but un-credited voice-over announcer for *WKRP In Cincinnati*. It was his voice, inviting the audience to stay tuned for the epilogue for each episode. He also did a number of voice roles in several episodes, including the pre-recorded announcer of the intro to Les Nessman's newscasts.

In 1983, the actor served as the narrator for the miniseries adaptation of Herman Wouk's novel, *The Winds of War*, and its sequel miniseries, *War and Remembrance*. In this capacity, he would explain to the television audience the large-scale historical events that provide the context for the storylines of the two miniseries.

William Woodson's legacy will be his long association with the *Super Friends* series, where he served as narrator and sometimes voiced additional characters. He took over the role from Ted Knight, who coincidentally had played Ted Baxter, the man Woodson's character hoped to replace during his appearance on *The Mary Tyler Moore Show*.

Woodson narrated each subsequent *Super Friends* episode, narrating over 100 episodes, including the 7-minute short subject episodes produced from 1980 to 1983. Perhaps his most memorable line from the series was the often-used phrase that accompanied a transition to scenes at the Super Friends' headquarters: *"Later, at the Hall of Justice..."*

In a 2011 interview, he explained that his pronunciation of the word *super* as "syuper" rather than "sooper", which is more usual in the U.S., was due to the criticism of his speech he had received in high school. Wishing to sound more sophisticated, he patterned his speech after that of Ronald Colman.[1]

In addition, he also supplied the opening narration and voice for several characters on *Battle of the Planets*, as well as playing the sinister tanner in Walt Disney's *The Small One*. In 1981, he did the voice of J. Jonah Jameson in *Spider-Man* and that same year, he reprised the character on *Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends*, where he also played Namor the Submariner and Dr. Strange in the episode "7 Little Superheroes".

Woodson later guest-starred on *Garfield and Friends*, *The Jetsons*, *Tiny Toon Adventures* and *Duckman* and other shows.

In 1966, he played the Secretary of War in 3 episodes of *F-Troop*.

He played the reporter in Stan Freberg's parody advertisement of Jacobsen Mowers, which were in actuality sheep grazing. In the satirical ad, he announced: "Jacobsen Mowers. Faster...than sheep!".

Bill Woodson was also the narrator of NFL Films' official films of Super Bowl II and he also narrated the 1967 NFL Championship Game, better known as the "Ice Bowl". The longtime voice of NFL Films, John Facenda, had been unavailable.

In 1994 Woodson was the voice of a television and radio advertising campaign celebrating the 30th anniversary of Pennsylvania-based Wawa convenience stores. The commercials humorously referenced 1964 events such as The Beatles' appearances on *The Ed Sullivan Show* and the introduction of the Ford Mustang. They were produced by Philadelphia ad agency Earle Palmer Brown & Spiro.

From 2004-2010, Woodson, a California resident, lent his austere deep voice to a series of humorous commercials promoting the Minnesota Twins. The ads had titles such as "The Minnesota Twins - Get to Know 'Em", "Every Fan Counts", and "This is Twins Territory". His voice can also be heard narrating in many Disney read-alongs.