HENRY SILVA DEAD AT 95

 

You can read the full story here.

Primarily an on-screen actor, he did voice the villain Bane in Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series.

TODAY IN SEPTEMBER 2002

   It's September, so that means new television season! These are the Saturday Morning schedules that debuted today in 2002.

TODAY IN SEPTEMBER 1992

  It's September, so that means new television season! These are the Saturday Morning schedules that debuted today in 1992.

ZAZOO U

 

ZAZOO U
(FOX, September 8, 1990-January 19, 1991)
 
Film Roman, Fox Children’s Productions

 

 

MAIN CAST:

Michael Horton – Boink

Jerry Houser – Grizzle

Brian Cummings – Bully, various

Susan Silo – Tess, various

Tress MacNeille – Ms. Devine, various

Neil Ross – Logan Bonito, Chomper

S. Scott Bullock – Slogo Bonito

Stu Rosen – Dr. Russell

Danny Mann – Rarf

Lee Thomas – Mr. Seymour

Dorian Harewood – Buck, Rawld-O, Poem Reader

 

            Created by and based on the writings of children’s author Shane DeRolf, Zazoo U was one of the launch programs for the new Fox Kids Network programming block in 1990. The series followed the adventures of a group of anthropomorphic animals (or “Americanimals”) as they attended Umatta University (nicknamed “Zazoo U”) and received life lessons along with their education.

Some of the occupants of Umatta: Slogo, Logan, Bully, Dr. Russell, Boink, Tess, Grizzle and Ms. Devine with Rarf.

            The main students of the show were friends Boink (Michael Horton, doing a bit of a Jack Nicholson impression following the first episode), who had a laid-back approach to life and seemed capable of pulling almost anything out of his carrying case or locker; Grizzle (Jerry Houser), a pig that prided himself on his stench and always had his drumsticks handy; Bully (Brian Cummings, impersonating Richard Nixon), a wooly mammoth seen constantly dragging around a piano (that tended to get destroyed); and tomboy Tess (Susan Silo) who generally tried to give Grizzle a wide berth. Occasionally they would be joined by Slogo Bonito (S. Scott Bullock) and Logan Bonito (Neil Ross), two acrobat brothers who lived at the circus with their parents, and Chomper, a small yellow creature with a voracious appetite.

Boink and his bottomless case.

            As colorful as the student body was, the faculty was as colorful in their own right. Dr. Russell (Stu Rosen, who also served as voice director) was a walrus whose verboseness often left his students more clueless than when they started. Contrasting him was the mute Professor Zork, the penguin music teacher who preferred to let his baton do the talking. Ms. Devine (Tress MacNeille) was a high-class, self-absorbed fashionista who “taught” (in very loose terms) various subjects and constantly carried around her furry pet, Rarf (Danny Mann), with whom Grizzle had an antagonistic rivalry with. Mr. Seymour (Lee Thomas) was the geography teacher that got himself stuck inside a television set and now taught from there; often interacting with the videos inserted for the lesson. Additionally, two rapping buzzards named Rawld-O and Buck (both Dorian Harewood) served as kind of the Greek chorus for the show; commenting on the episodes and the plot and sometimes carrying in the setting (as limited as they were) for the next scene. Rawld-O did all the talking for the pair while Buck beat-boxed.

Professor Zork and Dr. Russell relaxing in the teacher's lounge.

            Zazoo U debuted on FOX on September 8, 1990. Unlike other programs with a message, the series approached topics with a surreal absurdism and parodies as the characters went from one silly situation to another and broke the fourth wall constantly. For instance, they used a box of sentient crayons that believed each of them was better than the other to showcase the value of working together, or a nine-mile-high pile of garbage to show how pollution can start and spiral out of control. The moral of the tale was ultimately conveyed in a poem written by DeRolf and recited by Harewood over a montage of accompanying images. A running gag on the show involved footage of the feet of live-action kids (which is exactly what the characters referred to them as) running down a hallway and trampling whatever characters were seen immediately before.

Buck and Rawld-O carrying in the major prop for the next scene.

            The series was produced by Film Roman and distributed by Saban Entertainment. It was written by Pamela Hickey, Dennys McCoy, Alicia Marie Schudt, Pat Allee, Ben Hurst and Larry Parr, with McCoy and Hickey serving as story editors with DeRolf. Jim Covell provided the show’s music while the theme was composed by Richard Carson Morton and DeRolf and performed by Morton. Animation duties were handled by Wang Film Production Co., Ltd. and Cuckoo’s Nest Studio, however the intro was animated by Bill Littlejohn and directed by John Sparey. The intro ended with the globe on top of the school’s entrance saying “Thank you very much, you’re a beautiful audience” in a manner reminiscent of Elvis Presley.

One of the Zazoo U DVDs.

            Despite receiving critical acclaim and praise, Zazoo U didn’t find its audience—especially in light of it being up against shows like Muppet Babies and The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Additionally, many of FOX’s affiliates chose not to carry the show. It became the first Fox Kids series to be cancelled, with the final two episodes not even being allowed to air before it was removed from the schedule and replaced by Peter Pan and the Pirates. Despite its short run, Zazoo U received some merchandising in the form of a t-shirt and a lunchbox by Aladdin. To date, only 6 episodes have seen release across 3 DVDs by Jetix in the United Kingdom; with online availability limited only to several episodes uploaded to YouTube. As for DeRolf, he was asked to develop the early branding effort for Fox Kids before writing six children’s books and having a successful career starting companies in children’s media, toys and games, as well as developing award-winning children’s programming and PSA’s for the Ad Council. 

 

 

EPISODE GUIDE:

“The Nine Mile Pile” (9/8/90) – The students of Umatta file in for the new school year as an errant wad of bubblegum causes a pile of junk to grow outside.

 

“The Crayon Box That Talked” (9/15/90) – Rarf’s Fairy Rarfmother brings a box of crayons to life that pair up with each of the students in order to prove which is the best color.

 

“The Search for the Meaning of Life” (9/29/90) – Tess goes on a relentless search for the meaning of life.

 

“Yesterday’s Zoo” (10/6/90) – A hunt for the school’s janitor leads to the discovery of many hidden relics.

 

“Is Bigger Better?” (10/20/90) – An argument about bigger meaning better gets bigger but decidedly not better.

 

“Har V and Sue” (11/3/90) – When Tess and Grizzle stop being friends, both compete to win Boink’s friendship.

 

“Bully Loses His Temper” (11/17/90) – When Bully gets angry, he literally loses his temper which runs amok around the school.

 

“Share a Chair” (12/1/90) – A dejected Grizzle wanders off when he doesn’t get a special chair like everyone else.

 

“Ms. Devine’s Blues” (12/15/90) – Rarf attempts to prove to Ms. Devine that he’s special and not worthless.

 

“No Strings Attached” (1/5/91) – Boink’s imagination allows him to discover invisible strings that end up altering the laws of physics.

 

“Money for Music” (1/19/91) – The class tries to earn money in different ways for new musical instruments.

 

“One Single Seed” (N/A) – An alien talent agent lands at the school searching for the galaxy’s next big star.

 

“Boink’s Rap” (N/A) – The others must help Boink overcome his stage fright in time for the school talent show.

TODAY IN SEPTEMBER 1972

 It's September, so that means new television season! These are the Saturday Morning schedules that debuted today in 1972.

FLYING RHINO JUNIOR HIGH

 

FLYING RHINO JUNIOR HIGH
(Teletoon, CBS, October 3, 1998-January 22, 2000)
 
Big Daddy Productions, Flying Rhinoceros, Inc., Neurones France S.A.R.L., Scottish Television Enterprises, Nelvana Limited, TPS Jeunesse, CBS Productions

 

 

MAIN CAST:
Ashley Brown – Billy O’Toole
Tracey Moore – Marcus Snarkis
Tracy Ryan – Ruby Snarkis
Terri Hawkes – Lydia Lopez
Richard Binsley – Earl P. Sidebottom/The Phantom
Ron Rubin – Raticus, Rod Hargrove
Eddie Glen – Fred Spurtz, Johnny Descunk
Lindsay Leese – Mrs. Snodgrass
Len Carlson – Principal Buzz Mulligan
Paul Haddad – Buford, Mr. Needlenose
Catherine Gallant (season 1) & Julie Lemieux (season 2) – Nurse Cutlip
 

 

            In 1993, Ray Nelson, Jr., Mike McLane, Douglas Kelly and Jeff Nuss decided to create a company that would develop entertaining educational content for children. They formed Flying Rhinoceros and published a variety of books featuring colorful characters—yes, even a rhinoceros. Each book tackled a different subject both tangible and conceptual, such as insects, dinosaurs, U.S. Presidents, creativity, drawing, self-esteem and more. Flying Rhinoceros attempted to recruit an expert on each subject to oversee their work for accuracy as well as write introductions for the books. Among them was Smithsonian Institution bug expert Sally Love; Raymond T. Rye of the National Museum of Natural History; astronaut Buzz Aldrin; NBA player Clyde Drexler; Sydney Butler, Executive Director of The American Zoo and Aquarium Association; former President Gerald Ford; and former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley.

Principal Buzz Mulligan.

            In addition to a series of educational shorts that were distributed directly to schools, an opportunity arose to adapt the books into a television series that exhibited the same sense of education through fun. Created by Nelson, Flying Rhino Junior High was set in the eponymous school whose principal, Buzz Mulligan (Len Carlson), happened to be an anthropomorphic rhinoceros. Inside the school was a statue of himself piloting an airplane, reminiscent of Flying Rhinoceros’ company logo. Mulligan was a well-meaning and jovial fellow that cared about his students and their education, but he was completely oblivious to a lot of the goings on in the school.

The Phantom and Raticus.

            Those goings on in question were the chaos perpetrated by former student Earl P. Sidebottom, aka The Phantom (Richard Binsley). Earl was a genius with the grade point average to match—until the one fateful day he was given a “D” in shop class, ruining his perfect record.  Shamed, he descended to the depths of the school’s boiler room only to reinvent himself as The Phantom (a pastiche of The Phantom of the Opera, complete with a ready organ) to seek revenge on the school. He did so by developing a supercomputer capable of altering the fabric of reality itself, usually taking inspirations from the day’s lessons. The students are learning about ancient Egypt? He’ll bring the pyramids complete with mummies and curses. The prehistoric age? A jungle and dinosaurs to roam the halls freely and destroy the school. Aiding him in his schemes (however ineptly) was Ratticus (Ron Rubin), a rat that Earl bestowed upon (so-called) intelligence.

Billy, Lydia, Marcus and Ruby.

            Standing against The Phantom was one particular group of classmates: Billy O’Toole (Ashley Brown), a mechanically inclined athlete with an aversion to bathing; Marcus Snarkis (Tracey Moore), a hyper-intelligent boy that skipped a few grades and was Billy’s best friend; Ruby Snarkis (Tracy Ryan), Marcus’ older sister that was a bit of a diva with acting ambitions; and Lydia Lopez (Terri Hawkes), the smartest girl in the class. They often must work together with their various skills and quirks to save the school and throw a wrench into The Phantom’s plans; occasionally learning a life lesson along the way.

Mrs. Snodgrass looking on at Fred's..."presentation".

            Other characters included Mrs. Snodgrass (Lindsay Leese), the class’s teacher that remained unphased by The Phantom’s shenanigans and often used them to aid in her lesson; Fred Spurtz (Eddie Glen), a slovenly classmate that enjoyed eating bugs and fish; Johnny Descunk (also Glen), a troublemaker that often wound up in detention; Nurse Cutlip (Catherine Gallant & Julie Lemieux), the school nurse; Mr. Needlenose (Paul Haddad), the former shop teacher that failed Earl and now teaches drama; and Buford (also Haddad), the school janitor and the only other anthropomorphic animal, being a pig, who claimed to have once been a secret agent.

Messing with gravity.

            Flying Rhino Junior High aired simultaneously on Teletoon in Canada and CBS in the United States, debuting on October 3, 1998. As the show was produced by Nelvana Limited, it aired as part of the CBS Kidshow programming block that the studio programmed for the network. Through another deal with Nelvana, it was co-produced and distributed in the United Kingdom by Scottish Television Enterprises (now STV Studios). The series was written by David Finley, Joseph Mallozzi, J.D. Smith, Gary Wheeler, Brent Piaskoski, Erika Strobel, Paul Mullie, Ian James Corlett, John Pellatt, Kenn Scott, Kathy Slevin, Michael Leo Donovan, Shelley Hoffman, John Mein and Robert Pincombe, with Finley and Mallozzi serving as story editors. The theme was composed by Alex Khaskin, George Axon and Ed Roth, with the rest of the series’ music done by Pure West.

The Phantom in disguise falling prey to his own schemes.

            Flying Rhino ran for a total of two seasons. The series was cancelled in early 2000 along with the rest of Nelvana’s shows. CBS had opted not to renew Nelvana’s contract, instead turning to then-sister network Nickelodeon to take over programming. Teletoon continued to air the series in syndication until 2007, and then YTV began reruns in 2011. In 1999, Alliance Atlantis released several episodes to VHS, and in 2000 Hardee’s included four toys based on the show in their kids’ meals. Nelvana has the entire series available to view on their YouTube Keep it Weird channel, and in 2022 the series began streaming on Tubi. Although the Flying Rhino series has long been discontinued, the various books are still available directly from the company and the characters continued to be used by Nelson across various educational platforms through his Really Big Creative studio.

 

 

EPISODE GUIDE:

Season 1:

“Prehysterical” (10/3/98) – Earl ends up turning the school into a prehistoric jungle after answering Mrs. Snodgrass’ dinosaur questions.

 

“Phantu’s Curse” (10/10/98) – When Earl transforms the school into a pyramid, Lydia takes a golden scarab as the others escape and unleashes the mummy’s curse.

 

“Underwaterworld” (10/17/98) – Mrs. Snodgrass’ lesson on underwater environments leads Earl to transform the school into an ocean.

 

“Solar Flexus” (10/24/98) – After Earl turns the school into the solar system, the others must correct the planets’ orbits before Earth falls into the sun.

 

“Frankensidebottom” (10/31/98) – A lesson on Frankenstein leads Earl to creating his own monster, and transforming the school into a horror movie town to go along with him.

 

“Comic Book Chaos” (11/7/98) – Earl unleashes four comic book villains on the school, and Lydia leads the others in stopping them.

 

“A Star is Boring” (11/14/98) – Ruby gets lost in a sea of Rubies after Earl turns her into hundreds of self-multiplying clones.

 

“Inverted and Unglued” (11/21/98) – Earl changes the school to a Victorian stamp factory to get a collectible stamp from the source when Ratticus fails to steal it from Marcus.

 

“The Game” (11/28/98) – Marcus losing his computer to Billy and unable to finish his video game leads Earl to reminisce about losing his and changes the school into Marcus’ game.

 

“Quit Buggin’ Me” (12/5/98) – Showing off bugs in school causes Earl to remember when his was crushed by a bully and inspires him to enlarge all of the bugs into giants.

 

“Phantom Christmas” (12/12/98) – When Earl refuses the Christmas spirit, Ratticus confronts him as The Phantom and forces him to relive all the chaos he’s caused at the school.

 

“Weather Waterloo” (12/19/98) – When Earl’s weather project is rejected by the class, he activates it and belts the school with a combination of bad weather.

 

“Pal 9000” (12/26/98) – Earl gets jealous of the AI friends Marcus created and implants a virus in Pal 9000 to turn him against Marcus and his friends.

 

Season 2:

“Live and Let Spy” (10/2/99) – Earl is determined to get his hands on his classmates’ journals to find out if they’ve been gossiping about him.

 

“Wag the Rat” (10/9/99) – Earl decides to have the school shut down during class elections as retaliation for having lost his,

 

“It’s Greek to Me” (10/16/99) – Earl changes the school to ancient Greece and the students must compete against the gods for their freedom.

 

“Yo Ho Ho and the Phantom’s a Bum” (10/23/99) – Earl transforms the school into a pirate galleon where the other kids have to figure out how to escape the pirates’ clutches.

 

“Junior High Noon” (10/30/99) – Earl turns the school into the Wild West just as Lydia is made a prefect, which turns her into a mega control freak Sheriff that jails everyone for anything.

 

“Out of Time” (11/6/99) – Earl uses his time machine to send Lydia, Marcus Ruby and Billy back to prehistoric times, but instead sends them back 20 years to when he was a student.

 

“Career Day” (11/20/99) – After Ruby insults Earl during career day, he turns the school into a dangerous sewer complex.

 

“Daredevil O’Toole and the Amazon Adventure” (11/27/99) – Earl ends up trapped in the school disguised as a girl when Ratticus turns the school into an Amazon jungle.

 

“Raging Rubbish” (12/4/99) – A lesson in environmental preservation inspires Earl to create a monster out of a mound of garbage.

 

“Better Safe than Silly” (12/11/99) – Earl is determined to ensure the school fails its fire safety inspection.

 

“Phantomatic Voyage” (12/18/99) – Lessons about the body and proper diets come in handy when Earl transports the school into his own body.

 

“All Green Thumbs” (1/15/00) – Earl has Ratticus dump plant-mutating fertilizer on the grounds’ greenery, causing them to grow fast and gigantic.

 

“Seeing Double” (1/22/00) – Tired of failing, Earl sends Billy, Marcus, Lydia and Ruby to a parallel dimension while their counterparts cause havoc in this one.

BACK TO SCHOOL MONTH

         September was always a mixed bag as a kid. On the one hand, it meant the end of summer vacation and going back to the drudgery of school. On the other hand, it meant that the new television season was about to start, and that meant new Saturday morning shows! So this month, we're gonna be focusing on a few shows that at least took place partly within a school setting. What better way to ring in the fall season as we prepare for the spooky season?

SATURDAY MORNING MASTERS: DWAYNE McDUFFIE

 

DWAYNE McDUFFIE

(February 20, 1962-February 21, 2011)

 

Notable Roles: Producer, writer, editor

  

A Michigan native, McDuffie graduated the Roeper School and the University of Michigan before moving to New York to attend New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. After working as a copy editor at Investment Dealer’s Digest, McDuffie went on to work for Marvel Comics as assistant to editor Bob Budiansky. There, he helped develop the company’s first superhero trading cards set before getting his first major writing work published in the pages of Damage Control. After becoming an editor, he submitted a spoof proposal for a series called Teenage Negro Ninja Thrashers after becoming dissatisfied with the number and treatment of Marvel’s Black characters. Going freelance in 1990, McDuffie continued to write for Marvel alongside DC Comics, Archie Comics and Harvey Comics, where he wrote the comic spin-off of the Back to the Future cartoon. Along with Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, Derek T. Dingle and Christopher Priest (who left in the early planning stages for personal reasons), he founded Milestone Media to bring the multicultural sensibility they felt missing from comic books. They debuted Milestone Comics in 1993, published through DC Comics, that introduced the interconnected “Dakotaverse”, named for the fictional city of Dakota where most of their stories were set. Populating it were the African-American Static, Icon and Hardware; the Asian-American Xombi; and the group Blood Syndicate comprised of various ethnicities. A victim of both the comic bust and near-sighted retailer perception, Milestone ceased operations in 1997 and became primarily a licensing company. Static was adapted into the animated series Static Shock, on which McDuffie served as story editor and wrote 11 episodes. He also wrote for Teen Titans and What’s New, Scooby-Doo? while serving as a staff writer on Justice League; where he was later promoted to story editor and producer when the series became Justice League Unlimited. Additionally, he wrote the story for the video game Justice League Heroes and several direct-to-DVD DC animated movies. Along with returning to comic work with Beyond!, Fantastic Four vol. 1, and Justice League of America vol. 2, McDuffie was hired to revamp and story edit the Ben 10 franchise for Cartoon Network, resulting in Alien Force and Ultimate Alien. During his career, he was nominated for several Eisner Awards, Daytime Emmy Awards, and won a Golden Apple Award, The Humanitas Prize, an Inkpot Award, and a Writers Guild of America Award, as well as voted Favorite Breakout Talent in Wizard Magazine’s Fan Awards. In 2011, McDuffie died of complications from emergency heart surgery. Several tributes came after his death: Justice League: Doom, Ultimate Alien’s final episode and the spin-off video game were dedicated to his memory; a diner named “McDuffie’s” appeared in Green Lantern: The Animated Series; Ultimate Spider-Man introduced the new CEO of Damage Control named “Mac” with a dedication in the same episode; the 2011 Static Shock comic reboot had the titular character attending a high school named for McDuffie; new DC Comics character and brief TV star Naomi was given the last name “McDuffie”; and the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity and Comics and The Dwayne McDuffie Award for Kids’ Comics were started in his honor.

 

 

Saturday Credits:
Back to the Future (comic)
Back to the Future: Forward to the Future (comic)
Static Shock
What’s New, Scooby-Doo?
Ben 10: Omniverse

SATURDAY MORNING MASTERS: SCOTT MENVILLE

 

SCOTT MENVILLE 

(February 12, 1971- ) 

 

Notable Roles: Spanky, Bingo Beaver, Thaddeus Micawb, Jonny Quest, Prince Dexter, Freddy Flintstone, Ralph Gumer, Captain Cortex, Wonder Kid, Red Herring, Ma-Ti, Joe McIntyre, Slightly, Hayato, Duane, Toby Danger, Ira Melman, Trouble/Kenny Braverman, Goro/Shoichi, Zack, Fraz Flub, Kevin French/C-Dog, Tubute, Robin/Tim Drake, Red X, Nightwing/Dick Grayson, Shaggy Rogers, Metamorpho/Rex Mason, Quicksilver/Pietro Maximoff, Jimmy Jones, Bucky/James Barnes, Salad lad, Chrono Spanner/Ken Tennyson, Bucky Hensletter, Arthur, Sneezy, Crankshaw, Stretch/Jake Armstrong, Scott Dingleman, Dr. Octopus/Superior Spider-Man/Otto Octavius, Grady Scraps

 

The son of animator and writer Chuck Menville, Scott Menville went into the “family business” by becoming a voice actor; with his first credit being a 1979 episode of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo. His first starring role came as Spanky in The Little Rascals animated series in 1982, followed by Bingo Beaver in The Get Along Gang. He proceeded to have a series of starring, minor or guest-starring roles for Hanna-Barbera Productions, Ruby-Spears Productions, Bagdasarian Productions and DiC Entertainment, while branching out into live-action acting with a guest appearance on One Big Family in 1987. That led to his having recurring roles on The Wonder Years, Full House (reprised on its sequel spin-off Fuller House), The Parent ‘Hood and others. Interestingly, he performed on both the live-action Punky Brewster and its animated spin-off. He has maintained a steady career as both a live and voice actor, doing cartoons, anime dubs and video games. Most frequently, his voice allows him to be cast in the roles of young boys like Robin in the Teen Titans franchise and Scott Dingleman in Bunnicula. Along with acting, Menville is a musician. He played bass guitar for the band Boy Hits Car from their founding in 1993 until 2006. The band released three albums with Menville as a member, and their song “LoveFuryPassionEnergy” was used as the theme song for WWE wrestler Lita. Menville has been nominated for a Young Artists Award and a Behind the Voice Actors Award, winning several of the latter.

 

 

Saturday Credits: 

Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo (1979) 

The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show

The Gary Coleman Show 

The Dukes 

The Little Rascals 

Alvin & the Chipmunks (1983) 

The Get Along Gang 

It’s Punky Brewster 

Challenge of the GoBots 

The Little Wizards 

The Real Ghostbusters 

Popeye and Son 

The Flintstone Kids 

A Pup Named Scooby-Doo 

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures

New Kids on the Block 

Peter Pan and the Pirates 

Captain Planet and the Planeteers

The Little Mermaid: The Animated Series 

Beethoven: The Animated Series

Freakazoid! 

Superman: The Animated Series 

Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? 

All Grown Up! 

Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue! 

DC Nation: New Teen Titans 

Star vs. the Forces of Evil 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) 

Teen Titans Go! 

Ben 10: Omniverse 

Bunnicula 

Marvel’s Spider-Man 

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 

Young Justice 

Big City Greens 

SATURDAY MORNING MASTERS: TARA STRONG

 

TARA STRONG

(February 12, 1973- )

 

Notable Roles: Hello Kitty, Patty Putty, Carly Cuts, Still Jill, Young Celeste, Hip Koopa, Hop Koopa, Yumi Francois, Agent Heather, Paige Guthrie, Skids, Illyana Rasputin, Kyle Griffin, Spot, Two-Tone, Vendela, Batgril/Barbara Gordon, Dil Pickles, Timmy McNulty, Teddy McNulty, Shareena, Tara Byron, Tutu, Nice Cindy, Ingrid Third, Traplev, Ariella Third, Bubbles, Bebe Proud, Cece Proud, Puff, Blink/Clarice Ferguson, Vicky Vale, Raven/Rachel Roth, Omi, Mercy Graves, Supergirl/Kara Danvers, Timmy Turner, Ben Tennyson, Toot Braunstein, Princess Clara, Maguro, Marrow/Sarah, X-23/Laura Kinney, Sierra McCool, Sky Blossoms, Sari Sumdac, Slipstream, Strika, Invisible Woman/Susan Richards, Daizy, Billy Batson, Mary Marvel/Mary Batson, Huntress/Helena Bertinelli, Ilana, Rogue, Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff, American Dream/Shannon Carter, H.E.R.B.I.E., Harley Quinn/Harleen Quinzel, Iolande, Cheetah/Barbara Ann Minerva, Princess Selfrespectra, Stella’s Guardian of Sirenix, Twilight Sparkle, Penny Gadget, Black Cat/Felicia Hardy, Jessica Jones, Spider-Woman/Mary Jane Watson, Thundra, Lois Lane, Rocket J. Squirrel, Typhoid Mary/Mary Walker, Nova Prime, Terra/Tara Markov, Unikitty, Tiggy Sullivan, Miss Minutes

 

 

Born and credited as Tara Charendoff until her marriage, Strong became interested in acting at age 4 when she volunteered to perform in a school production. She worked with the Yiddish Theater and Toronto Jewish Theater and was featured in a recording of “Lay Down Your Arms” with the Habonim Youth Choir, singing the song in both English and Hebrew. Her professional debut was at the age of 13 when she starred as Gracie in Limelight Theater’s production of The Music Man. Along with a guest-spot on the show T. and T., she landed her first animated lead role in Hello Kitty’s Furry Tale Theater. By the time she moved to Los Angeles, she had already amassed an impressive resume; a trend that would continue well into her career. Largely, her work has been in animation, but Strong has made frequent on-camera appearances, most recently in 2021 as Tiggy Sullivan on Pretty Hard Cases, as well as done video games, such as playing the protagonist of Lollipop Chainsaw, Juliette. Often, Strong gets called on to play young boy characters like 10-year-old Ben Tennyson in the Ben 10 franchise, Dil Pickles in the Rugrats franchise (excluding the Paramount+ reboot) or Timmy Turner in The Fairly Oddparents.  She inherited the role as the regular voice of DC Comics’ Harley Quinn from Arleen Sorkin (in addition to already playing Batgirl), and became part of the phenomenon that was My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic as lead character Twilight Sparkle. She often uses her fame and social media presence to promote animal rescue groups, raise money for charities, decry bullying and promote Veganism. Throughout her career, she has been nominated for numerous awards including Action on Film International Film Festival, Annie Awards, Behind the Voice Actors Awards, Daytime Emmy Awards, Kids’ Choice Awards, NAVGTR Awards, Online Film & Television Association, Spike Video Game Awards, a Hollywood Gold Award, and an Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Award; winning several of them.

 

 

Saturday Credits:
Hello Kitty’s Furry Tale Theater
Care Bears
The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3
Piggsburg Pigs!
The Raccoons
Beetlejuice
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures
Little Shop
Wish Kid
Super Mario World
X-Men: The Animated Series
Tales from the Cryptkeeper
Gadget Boy and Heather
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat
Gadget Boy’s Adventures in History
101 Dalmatians: The Series
The New Batman Adventures
Recess
Detention
Pepper Ann
Teacher’s Pet
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command
The Zeta Project
The Weekenders
Ozzy & Drix
Lloyd in Space
Fillmore!
What’s New, Scooby-Doo?
Duck Dodgers
Xiaolin Showdown
Lilo & Stitch: The Series
Ben 10
Legion of Super Heroes
The Penguins of Madagascar
Sushi Pack
All Grown Up!
Transformers: Animated
Wolverine and the X-Men
Pound Puppies (2010)
Green Lantern: The Animated Series
DC Nation: Super Best Friends Forever
DC Nation: New Teen Titans
DC Nation: Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld
Winx Club
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Young Justice
Ben 10: Omniverse
Beware the Batman
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls
Teen Titans Go!
DC Nation: Shazam!
Xiaolin Chronicles
Bunsen is a Beast
Justice League Action
Ben 10 (2016)
DC Super Hero Girls (2019)
My Little Pony: Pony Life