SPIRAL ZONE - Earth's Most Powerful Soldiers!

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I recently had the good fortune of getting in touch with Denny Delk , the voice actor of Reaper and General McFarland! Here's what he had to say about his memories of working on the SPIRAL ZONE animated series:

How did you get involved in voice acting?
I had always fooled around with sound. My mom used to read story books to us and do all the voices and fill in the sound effects. When I was in Junior High, a buddy and I used to make up radio shows with his dad’s tape recorder. When I was a DJ, I used to concoct all sorts of satirical spots and things to drop into the show, and it was always a big hit with listeners. When I got to San Francisco, I was finally in a town that would support someone as a voice actor, so I started pushing myself in front of employers and agents, and finally started making a living doing what I love.

How did you get involved specifically with SPIRAL ZONE?
I had just finished doing the Ewoks cartoons for LucasArts (I played Wicket). We’d had a great season. I got a call from the folks at the production company (Brave Little Company, I think) and they asked if I’d like to be part of the show. They were very pleasant to work with. They scheduled the sessions on the same day every week so I could fly into Los Angeles (a flight from SFO to Burbank in those days was as low as $29.00) and do my work and be back in San Francisco by 6:00 PM.

Tell me some fond memories you have of working on SPIRAL ZONE.
The whole experience was a treat. Working with all the great talent made the recording sessions a breeze. We all knew what was required and we all performed very well together. And in between, we shared stories and jokes and generally enjoyed each others company. A friend of mine in the VO biz many years ago said of our business, “If you work with someone a lot in this business, you see them once a week. If you like them, you look forward to seeing them, hearing what they’ve been up to and so on. If you really hate their guts, you only have to see them once a week.” I liked this bunch, and really looked forward to seeing them.

I also remember the company was trying to save some money, and they wanted to take some already drawn sequences, and match new dialogue to the action, thus creating some new episodes. Normally we record the audio first, and the animators draw to our sounds. Well, the mouth motions of the characters were not synched to the script or vice versa. I think we all went a little crazy trying to make the words fit the mouth moves, so it didn’t look like one of those 1960’s Italian gladiator movies that were badly dubbed into English. “Look, Hercules (flap, flap, flap), the Gorgon!”

Do you have a favorite episode?
I am bad with the names, but I recollect one that was set in Mexico or another Hispanic country. I got a real work out on that one. I think I may have done as many as five voices. Kept me on my toes.

Why do you think SPIRAL ZONE wasn't a huge success, financially?
As I recollect, it was syndicated. I do know that it did not have a very good time slot in San Francisco. That may have been part of the problem. And that was a period of time when some folks were starting to complain about violence in children’s entertainment. Heck, it wasn’t as violent as Popeye.

Even though SPIRAL ZONE wasn't a financial success, do you personally regard the experience as successful and satisfying?
Oh, I had a great time. I enjoyed working with a great cast a couple of whom I am still in touch with occasionally. I have a bunch of action figures of my characters on my “Shelf of Fame”, and a couple of cells hanging on the wall. If they suddenly wanted to do a bunch of new episodes, I’d be there in a heartbeat. Its nice to know that there are people who still remember and enjoyed our efforts.

I'd like to personally thank Denny Delk for taking the time to answer these questions. Visit Denny's web site at www.ddelk.com.