(reposting with permission)
I believe the show aired on "The WB," our Warner Bros. network, last year. Yes, it is marketed VERY poorly. Several times over the years I went directly to Nippon Television and asked if I could help in any way. But at least it's out on video.
Somewhere here there is some "making of" video footage that we had shot, in case it got big. I have lots of photos from back then, our cast t-shirt, every script -- everything; of all associated with the show, I was the one who really thought we were doing something significant (probably because I'm also a cartoonist), and I wanted to retain everything.
Hey, I've been waiting since before the internet for "crazy" fans to recognize Astro!
Yes, feel free to post any- and everything I write to you. I'm a huge fan of ABC's "The Games," incidentally, which aired here too-briefly. I keep hoping it will come out in a format we can play in the U.S.
I did meet some of the Japanese folks, including the translator, if that was Kenji Kitatani. The cast's private view was that the U.S. distributor they had cut a deal with was -- well, not a crook, but pretty worthless. I still wish our Cartoon Network would pick up the series.
Thanks for your kind words on the dubbing; matching the mouths was a real pain, and it turned out to be a skill that you had to learn, and get better with over time. We called it "falafeling," a made-up verb based on the food. I don't know why we thought of that, but it seemed like a suitable nonsense word to describe how you'd have to alternately draw out and condense lines to fit shots. Some of us who had a background in music seemed to be better at it -- people with voice-training tend to do better with audio acting, anyway -- but we were also used to watching a conductor out of the corner of our eye.
I have no scanner, but let me pull some photos and I can send them off to you. Or -- just thinking out loud, since you suggest a "fan package" -- I wonder if a small book couldn't be made out of all this? I don't think there would be copyright troubles with anything but the scripts themselves. (Which I have resisted selling on eBay -- good thing!Just an idea.
Oh -- some of us did a follow-up pilot for Nippon TV called "Video Kid." It went nowhere. We weren't big fans of it, anyway. But we knew all about Tezuka, and admired his creative talent.
The "making of" video would be awesome to see. B) I haven't heard back from Jay for a while, so I don't know if he's got the suff out of storage yet. Maybe I'm too much of a crazy Internet fan and scared him off.
I've done a bit of Internet research on the other actors.
Richard Ganoung appeared in the movies Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss [1998] as Perry, True Identity [1991] as Roderigo, and in Parting Glances [1986] as Michael. (pic)
Patricia Kugler Whitely is an actress at the Madison Family Theatre Company, and played Mrs Breckler in the movie Red Betsy [2003].
Becke Wilenski possibly performed in a New York stage performance called The Promethius Project in December 1985, and in the off-broadway production of Hamlet in June 1999 with the East Coast Artists. I'm guessing it's the same Becke Wilenski.
Greg Zerkle has made tons of guest appearances in big shows (ER, The District, Frasier, The Bernie Mac Show, Ally McBeal, Judging Amy, Law & Order, Malcolm in the Middle, Reese's Apartment, Where There's Smoke, A Simple Twist of Fate, Grounded for Life, Mr Roboto, To Thine Old Self Be True, Diagnosis Murder, Man Overboard, Grief, Trinity, It's All Relative, Philly, That's My Bush!, Ripley Believe It Or Not, Trial By Jury) and a variety of LA Theatre and Broadway productions. He is also in the upcoming movie Elizabethtown [2005] (check out the cast list!
. (pic)Del Lewis directed Diamonds Studs at the University of Wisconsin Summer Theatre in 1985.
Carl Battaglia (the other director) directed a video magazine called The New Tech Times in Madison, Wisconsin from 1983-1984. Later earned a Ph.D. masters at the University of Wisconsin in Madison where he then lectured in Humanistic Studies/Composition. He also earned a BA from Canisius College in Buffalo. He now teaches writing.
Jay Rath appeared as Mr Averson in Spaceman [1997] and has written sever books on the paranormal. He also worked for The Onion, and I think he wrote The Drifter. (pic)
I asked Patricia Kugler Whitely for an interview back when the DVDs were being produced, but I never heard back. She did say she had recently bought the series from Amazon, and was surprised they were available at all. She thought the entire series had been lost.
