Gary Owens (1936–2015) was an announcer, disc jockey, comic actor, and voice actor best remembered as the ear-cupping booth announcer on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, and also the voice of cartoon superheroes ranging from Roger Ramjet to Space Ghost to Powdered Toast Man, among other characters.
In 1969, Owens was cast as The Man from Alphabet in a series of film sketches for Sesame Street. The segments tested poorly and were never aired beyond the test pilots. However, Owens did supply narration and character voices for multiple animated sketches on the series, including "Today's Secret Drawing" segments and the "J commercial."
Owens served as the voice-over announcer for the 1974 special Out to Lunch; four years later, he was seen and heard announcing The Muppets Go Hollywood. On Dinosaurs, he provided mock-serious narration for "Nuts to War," parts 1 and 2, spoofing William Woodson's narration for The Winds of War, and was heard uncredited briefly in other episodes.
Owens also served as on-camera announcer for special episodes of The Rosie O'Donnell Show, including a few with the Sesame Street Muppets, and was heard in Muppets from Space as the announcer for the UFO Channel.
References
- Rowlf the Dog takes on the Gary Owens role of Laugh-In announcer in his 1969 sketch comedy show "Rowlf-In" for IBM.
Muppet/Henson voice credits
- Sesame Street
- "Today's Secret Drawing"
- "Ten Little Greeblies" (First: Episode 0006)
- Story of J" (First: Episode 0009)
- "Story of D" (First: Episode 0016)
- "H-Hello" (First: Episode 0020)
- "I - Impolite"" (First: Episode 0032)
- Tool Quickie: Vacuum Cleaner (First: Episode 0607)
- Dinosaurs
- "Nuts to War" (part 1 and 2): Narrator
- "Network Genius": Announcer for network exec titles
- "License to Parent": Dragnet epilogue announcer
- "Out of the Frying Pan": Pan commercial announcer (dinosaur on-camera)
- "The Clip Show II": Infomercial announcer
- "Working Girl": Exploding Cop/Exploding Cop II trailer announcer
- Muppets from Space: UFO Channel Announcer