Gary Owens

At 80 years old, Gary Owens has this physical status:

Gary Owens (born Gary Bernard Altman) was a disc jockey, radio announcer, and comedian from May 10, 1934 to February 12, 2015.

His polished baritone speaking voice recited complete nonsense, a habit that he often displayed as the announcer on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.

Owens was equally adept at straight or silly jobs, and was often seen on television and radio as well as in commercials. He was best known for providing the voices of the titular superhero on Space Ghost and of Blue Falcon in Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, other than being the announcer on Laugh-In.

In 1998, he appeared on Space Ghost Coast to Coast for the first time.

On the Roger Ramjet cartoons, Owens' first cartoon-voice acting was doing the voice of Roger Ramjet.

He appeared on the over-the-air digital network Antenna TV later in life.

Early life

Owens was born in Mitchell, South Dakota, and the son of Venetta (née Clark), an educator and county auditor, and Bernard Joseph Altman, a county treasurer and sheriff.

Personal life

Owens married Arleta Markell on June 26, 1956, and the couple remained married for almost 60 years until his death in February 2015. Scott and Chris were married together, and they had two sons, Scott and Chris.

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Career

Owens began his radio career in 1952 as a news reporter for KORN, Mitchell, South Dakota, and two years later he was promoted to news director. In 1956, he left KORN for a newscaster job at KMA, Shenandoah, Iowa, before transferring to a disc jockey position at KOIL, Omaha, Nebraska. He served in Dallas, New Orleans, St. Louis, and KIMN in Denver before relocating to California in 1959, where he spent time at KROY in Sacramento and KEWB in Oakland before settling in Los Angeles.

In 1961, Owens moved to KEW's sister station 980 KFWB in Los Angeles. He joined 710 KMPC in 1962, where he remained for the next two decades, replacing previous afternoon host Johnny Grant, who was on the 3 p.m. shift Monday to Friday. Owens, a gifted punster, became known for his humour. "The Story Lady" (played by Joan Gerber); the Rumor of the Day; myriad variations of "The Nurney Song); and the introduction of the word "insegrevious," which was briefly included in the Funk & Wagnalls Dictionary.

"krenellemuffin" was one of his regular on-air radio terms, as in "We'll be back in just a krenellemuffin." At the end of his show, Gary always credited his radio engineer: "I'd like to thank my engineer, Wayne Doo, for creating the turntables," (referring to KMPC engineer Wayne DuBois). "Veister" and "krelb" were two of the former non-existent colors, as well as the previously unobtainable ones.

Gary Owens created a few comic characters of his own in the early 1960s, including punster-TV comedian Ernie Kovacs, Steve Allen, and Jonathan Winters, including gruff old man Earl C. Festoon, the stuffy old businessman Endocrine J. Sternwallow, and goofy good ol's boy Merle Clyde Gumpf. Waisleywillow, a crotchetous old cantankerous Mergenthaler, was another character.

Owens also did amusing radio advertisements, such as sending in "Yours" for "Yours" on the radio station, which turned out to be a postcard from him; autographed photos of the Harbor Freeway in Los Angeles; and his famous "Moo Cow Report," in which Gary and his character Earl C. Festoon would describe where cows were traveling inbound on Los Angeles's jam packed freeways.

Owens was also known as "superbeard" during his time as a radio icon, like his contemporary radio icon Wolfman Jack, baggy Bermuda shorts, and his "1941 wide necktie with a hula girl on it." Often during these comedy sketches on the radio, he'd have the support of others, including Bob Arbogast (known as "Arbo" to his adoring followers), Stan Ross (of "Drowning in the Surf" fame in 1963), and Jim "Weather Eyes" Hawthorne.

Owens appeared on eight episodes of the 1966-67 television series The Green Hornet.

While Owens was on KMPC from 9 p.m. to midnight, he performed his famous "Good Evening Kiss" and "I'll just snuggle up to a nice warm microphone and embrace moi," adding to the sound effect of a gong striking. Owens collaborated with Bob Arbogast, June Foray, Daws Butler, Paul Frees, and others on a comedy parody record album titled Sunday Morning With the Funnies based on Reprise Records.

Owens' time as the voice of the eponymous television cartoon characters in Roger Ramjet and Space Ghost; the enthusiastic narrator/announcer from Penelope Pitstop; and perhaps most well-known as the hands-on-the-ear announcer in the booth on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In; and perhaps most well-known, as the hand-on-the-ear announcer; and, of course, continuing his work on KMPC During its brief run in 1969, he also hosted Letters to Laugh-In, the show's daily game show spin-off.

Mel Blanc AudioMedia, a Beverly Hills, California audio production firm, developed and sold The Gary Owens Special Report, a 260-episode box of syndicated radio comedy shows, capitalizing on Owens' Laugh-In fame.

Gary Owens appeared in the Sesame Street pilots as the title character, a young paperboy wearing a trench coat who, with the assistance of a young paperboy named H.B., attempted to locate Digby Dropout and his henchman Dunce. The "Alphabet Book" is the book on the front page. The Man was supposed to have had a name, "Teacher." The segments were produced by Sesame Street executive producer David Connell and referenced such tongue-in-cheek spy series as Get Smart and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. "The Man from Alphabet" was a failure with test audiences despite advance notice and Connell's investment in the series. The Man from Alphabet's constant bungling and problem solving attempts confused students, and the lessons were never taught. H.B.'s mother is a student at the University of On Friday, a blond seemed to be a fan of the film. The role of the true problem solver was not clearly understood, which was exacerbated by the child actor's stilted delivery and poor diction. "The amount of truly valuable educational content relative to our objectives is virtually null," Edward L. Palmer said. The Man from Alphabet also walked through the window of his door to enter his cubicle, a violent act that may have been imitable. After reviewing the test findings, producer Connell suggested that the segments be shelved, referring to them as "Connell's Folly." The segments never aired on Sesame Street.

He appeared in several Walt Disney films as a scriptwriter, as well as over 30,000 commercials. He appeared on The Munsters, I Dream of Jeannie, and McHale's Navy.

Owens narrated phonograph records containing sound clips from the films in the late 1960s, when 1930s comedies such as the Marx Brothers, W. C. Fields, and Mae West were gaining a new audience.

Owens appeared in Disney's The Love Bug (1968) as the racing reporter.

He debuted Put Your Head On Your Finger for the MGM-Pride brand in 1972.

Owens wrote The (What to Do When You're Holding the) Phone Book in 1973, a comedic glimpse at the telephone's history.

Gary Owens appeared in the first season of Barnaby Jones in 1973; an episode titled "Twenty Million Alibis" was released on May 6, 1973). Gary Michaels appeared in Gary Michaels' role.

Owens can be heard on the first track introducing the band on the live album Uptown Rulers by the funk band The Meters. On March 24, 1975, the live recording took place at Paul and Linda McCartney's launch party for the Venus and Mars album on RMS Queen Mary.

Owens appeared in the amusing news blurbs that were interspersed throughout the 1975 film The Prisoner of Second Avenue. He appeared on the first season of the nighttime version of The Gong Show from 1976-77; Chuck Barris, the show's creator, was fired. Owens made his debut in the year as the voice of a new cartoon character, the Blue Falcon, who faced murder in fictional Big City with the "assistance" of his clumsy sidekick, Dynomutt, also known as Dynomutt, Dog Wonder. The film was a parody of Batman, specifically the live-action version starring Adam West. It was not unprecedented to see the Blue Falcon use several "falcon accessories," much like Batman used several "Bat-Equipment" items. The falcon belt was used in a similar way to Batman's utility belt, with an endless supply of arms and other equipment. In 20 half-hour episodes, Owens would be the voice of the Blue Falcon from 1976 to 1977. In 1976 and 1977, the 1977 episodes were divided into two parts that ran 11 minutes each — 16 episodes in 1976 and 4 episodes in 1977. In addition, he narrated Yogi's Space Race in 1978 and announced for Disney's Wonderful World, beginning in 1979.

In 1980, Owens was named in a Hollywood Walk of Fame, and Betty White was in between Walt Disney and Betty White. Owens emceed the naming ceremony for The Three Stooges on August 30, 1983. Owens, a long-time Stooges fan, had been a key factor in the Stooges winning the Star. On Entertainment Tonight, the ceremony was broadcast.

He appeared on jazz radio station KKJZ (then KKGO-FM) in Long Beach, California, in the 1980s.

Owens was substituted by his old KEWB station partner Casey Kasem on American Top 40 over the weekend. This was his first appearance on radio's first nationally syndicated countdown show. Watermark Inc. selected Owens to replace Murray "The K" Kaufman as permanent host of Soundtrack Of The Sixties, an oldies retrospective exhibition that ran in syndication until 1984. Gary Owens, the host of Creative Radio's Supertracks, an oldies retrospective exhibition similar to Soundtrack Of The Sixties, but it was held in the fifties, sixties, and seventies.

He was the narrator of Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center pavilion, World of Motion, from 1982 to 1996. "The Roots of Goofy," his television show "The Roots of Goofy" aired from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s.

Owens went from KMPC to another Los Angeles station, 1150 KPRZ, in 1982, where he was hosted mornings at the "Music of Your Life" adult standards station. Owens in the morning and Dick Whittinghill in the afternoon was an inversion of Owens' KMPC years.

Owens briefly joined Roger Barkley on KFI in Los Angeles when he surprisingly walked out of the long-running Lohman and Barkley Exhibition. Jeff Gehringer was hired as a producer. After the station changed its look to all-talk, the service was discontinued.

Owens appeared on "Pimp of the Year," a dream scene from 1988 comedy I'm Gonna Git You Sucka.

Owens appeared in a number of documentaries about dinosaurs in the 1980s, as well as Chicago's Eric Boardman. These documentaries were distributed by the Midwich Entertainment company for the Disney Channel before it went from being a premium pay channel on cable to a standard channel.

Owens appeared on one episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!

Owens was the voice of Lt. Dirk Niblick Of The Math Brigade, the protagonist of an animated series that appeared on PBS' Square One TV from 1987 to 1992.

In 1984, Owens appeared as the voice narrator on ABC's Saturday morning animated series Mighty Orbots.

In 1989 Owens appeared in Night Court, season 7 episode 7, titled Auntie Maim. Owens starred in DeeJay Bobby Bumgartner on DeeJay.

Owens appeared on the Music of Your Life radio network in the early 1990s, where he later had the evening shift and produced a weekend afternoon show until 2006. He also revealed pre-recorded station IDs for Parksville, British Columbia radio station CHPQ-FM (The Lounge), and humorist Gary Burbank's long-running afternoon show on WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio (Burbank changed his stage name from Owens). Owens appeared on America's Funniest Home Videos from 1995 to 1997, Bob Saget's hosting tenure, excepting Ernie Anderson.

Owens appeared in SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron, a police chief who was constantly butting heads with the two main protagonists.

Owens guest appeared on The Ren & Stimpy Show as the voice of Powdered Toast Man.

He lent his voice to the Sierra On-Line's Space Quest IV's 1992 spoken CD-ROM version. In the series's final installment, 1995's Space Quest 6, he reprised his role.

Owens will narrate the opening and interstitial bumpers of Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad in 1996.

He appeared on "Good Will Haunting" (season 3, Episode 6) as "Guy Who Thinks He's Gary Owens" on Sabrina in 1998.

Owens co-wrote a book titled How to Make a Million Dollars With Your Voice (Or Lose Your Tonsils Trying). Owens was the commercial announcing voice for Antenna TV, an over-the-air digital network dedicated to classic shows of the past, including Three's Company, The Monkees, Adam-12, and Gidget.

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