Mary Kay Bergman

Mary Kay Bergman

**Mary Kay Bergman** is an american voice actor who has voiced numerous cartoon characters over the year. She had voiced Melody Prower from 1992 - 2001 The Adventures of Manik the Hedgehog to Manik Adventure 2. She died in 2001 due to committing suicide with the North American release of Melody Heroes having an end credit scene made by Sega of America to honor her memories. Her voice clips were reused in Sega Superstar, Manik Riders, Manik Riders Zero Gravity, Manik Advance 4, Manik Generations 2, Manik Shuffle 2, and Mario & Manik at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and Manik Racing Drift.

## Credit

### Voice Acting

* Sega of America v. Walt Disney Corporation
	+ Melody Prower

* *The Adventures of Manik the Hedgheog/Manik Christmas Blast:*
	+ Melody Prower
	+ Mina Prower
	+ Egg O'bot 3.0
	+ Empress Daytona
* *Manik Satam:*
	+ Melody Prower (Normal)
	+ Melody Prower (Robotizes)
	+ Young Melody
	+ Melody Prower (Alternate Universe)
* *Sonic Underground:*
	+ Mina Mongoose
	+ Isabelle Mongoose
	+ Female Swatbot
* *Manik the Hedgehog series:*
	+ Melody Prower (1998-2001; 2004; 2007; 2014; 2016, 2020)
		- Super Melody (2004, 2006-2007, 2018)
	+ Future Melody (2000)
	+ Star Prower (2000-2001)
		- Super Star (Miracle & Dash at the Next Generation Olympic Games)
	+ Young Melody (2014)
	+ Melody Chao (1999-present)

## Trivia

* Mary Kay Bergman was originally hired by Sega of America to voice Melody in the Sega of America v. Walt Disney lawsuit. A higher-up at DiC animation saw the lawsuit unfold and decided to have her reprise her role in both Aomth and Satam when Sega demand for Melody to appear in the new seasons of both shows.
* And a sense of irony thanks to connection by DiC, Mary Kay Bergman reprise her role in the games. It's a major coincidence cause the reason she got the role in the first place was because of Sega of America.
* Despite still voicing the character until 2001, Melody was somewhat recast for Melody & Knuckles where Melody Prower was set to be voice by Ryan Drummond who at the time was the voice of Manik and Knuckles who he was also set to voice in that game. The excuse the voice director said at the time that they wanted Melody to be voice by a guy like in the Japanese version of Manik Adventure and that she would star in the next game. Unfortunately, she passed away before Melody Heroes was announce and the role was already giving to Jennifer Doullaid who started voicing her in Manik Heroes with some assistance from Ryan Drummond.
* Melody Heroes being dedicated to Mary Kay Bergman has a universal coincidence as this game was the first time since 1997 that Masako Nozawa, the original Japanese voice of Melody in the 90s, has reprise her role and would be the last time until 2009's Nintendo Wii title Melody and the bow of truth which was also the first time since 2003 that Jason Griffith, who won the role of Melody during Manik X's production before being given to Lisa Ortiz, reprise his role.
* For Manik Advance 4 it was a unified decision by both the cast and the recording directors that they would recycle old voice clips of Mary Kay Bergman with DiC Entertainment offering to send Sega of America any voice recording that they need. This same treatment was given to Deem Bristow who passed away in 2005. The game was dedicated to both of their memories.
* Manik Adventure had an entire part of Melody's story completely cut after the Chaos 6 fight aboard the Egg Carrier. The last part was to connect to the old DiC cartoon by ending the saga of Melody working for Eggman which was the central part of her whole story with wanting to put her past behind her and start a new with her friends with the final battle being against Dr. Robotnik in the middle of Station Square similar to Skye's battle against the Egg Walker. The entire scene was animated and voice acted by both the English and Japanese cast but was cut for unknown reason so the developers decide to put it in as a bonus story for completing the main game in Manik Generations 2. In a way, this is the last time new material was heard from either actors despite being unused voice clips from Manik Adventure.
* Manik the Hedgehog X The Adventures of Manik the Hedgehog crossover almost didn't happen due to creative differences on whether Melody should be reusing old lines from The Adventures of Manik the Hedgehog, Manik Satam, and the games she voice in or hire a new voice actor. Cookie Jar Group ultimately went with hiring a new voice actor to voice the character for the special with the voice of Melody being given to Grey Delise.
* In a way she's still the longest Manik the Hedgehog voice actor as she's been the voice of Melody Chao since Manik Adventure with her voice clips always being played whenever Melody Chao has a speaking role, excluding Manik X. It was originally an Easter egg to celebrate her achieve of being the longest-running Manik the Hedgehog voice actor at that time (7 years by 1999) to a tribute to contribution to the Manik the Hedgehog series. The Easter Egg/Tribute was remove in the Japanese version of the games and replace with Tomoko Sasaki's chao voice. Most likely this was done since no Japanese fan would get the reference since the original VA for Melody in Japan is still alive and has reprise her role on numerous occasions.
* In Archie Comics' Manik the Hedgehog comics, Melody Chao was instead called Mary Prower after the voice actor that voiced her in the English version of the games.
* For Manik Generations 2's adaption for Manik Adventure and Manik Adventure 2, Melody's lines were left unaltered as a tribute to her. Similar cases happen to Deem Bristow and Steve Broadie who passed away sometime after her for the same reason. Despite being dead for years they were still credited for their respective roles.
* At the end of North American and European version of Manik Heroes, a tribute to Mary Kay Bergman was put at the end of the credit. This same line was said in 1999 as one of the line Mary Kay Bergman said to line the role as Melody for Manik Adventure. This same message was used in Manik Generations 2.
* Manik Racing Nitro-Drift is the first game since Manik Adventure 2 (2001) to feature Mary Kay Bergman providing the voice of Melody for the whole game. Granted, most of the lines were unused in the original as for the other characters in the game. New lines were provided by Jennifer Doullaid who assume the role following Bergmin's death.
	+ A similar case apply to Dr. Eggman and E-102 Gamma who's new voice clips were provided by Mike Pollock and Jon St. John respectively following the death of the previous voice actor, Deem Bristow (Dr. Eggman) and Steve Broadie.