In 2022 I had the good fortune to welcome Ronnie Schell as a guest on this podcast. Schell was a familiar face and voice on TV for decades, most prominently as Jim Nabors’ army pal on Gomer Pyle, USMC. He was also the voice of Hockey Night in Canada‘s animated mascot Peter Puck, did many Disney movies and cartoon voice-overs. Early on, he even snuck in an appearance on You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx.
Schell was 94 when he died last month, just 10 days before Joby Baker passed away at 92. The two starred as New York disc jockeys in a series from the folks behind The Dick Van Dyke Show titled Good Morning World. Wish I had also spoken to Baker, who quit TV cold at 50 and then built a reputation at galleries in California as a well respected painter and sculpter.
Listen as Schell, a spry 90 at the time, reminisces about that series and name drops a ton of other TV stars he worked with as TV went from black and white to colour. To listen to this episode, simply click on the white arrow in the blue dot above.
