# The Ubiquity of John Ratzenberger **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 10, 2009, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ubiquity-of-john-ratzenberger/488955 "2009-03-10T14:17:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ubiquity-of-john-ratzenberger/488955/21 "2009-03-10T23:25:51Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > What’s the reason for his appearances in all the Pixar movies? Was it simply that he was in Toy Story initially, and they chose to cast him again? (Now, of course, it’s something people expect.) Yes. And after the fourth film he was in, _Monsters Inc_ as the Agreeable Snowman, they realised he was a tradition and a good luck charm, so they’ve never faltered in including him in every one of their films since. Brad Bird was reluctant to have him in _The Incredibles_, because he thinks that kind of superstition is silly, but then the role of the Underminer came up, he got cold feet on his doubts, and cast John again. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ubiquity-of-john-ratzenberger/488955/22 "2009-03-10T23:39:23Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > Having seen Empire at least a dozen times like any good little Gen Xer, while I do recall hearing a completely different voice saying they have to close the shield doors, I’m pretty sure they use his real voice after Leia dismisses the pilots following her evacuation instructions. He says something like “Ok, get to your stations! Let’s go!” or whatever. Is it possible he wasn’t the actor delivering the shield door lines? I can hear the voice, but I can’t picture the scene. Otherwise, why would they dub only half his scenes? I think you’re right and that is does sound more like his real voice in the Leia scene. The only thing I can think of is that his line reading may have betrayed a more distinct or distracting accent or inflection in the first scene, while simply shouting some instructions amidst the bustle (plus hangar noise and music) was not as conspicuous. Also, part of the first scene (about closing the shield doors) has his back facing the camera (it’s an over-the-shoulder shot of Leia), so it’s possible there was a change in the script for his character and they needed someone onhand after-the-fact (in post-production) to say the new lines, so they ADR’d that entire sequence with a new voice. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ubiquity-of-john-ratzenberger/488955/23 "2009-03-10T23:49:25Z")
I am not particularly sheltered, and I just came into this thread to say this is the first I’ve heard of this John Ratzenberger person. ---
**Author:** ![DaphneBlack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daphneblack/32/5389_2.png) [@DaphneBlack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaphneBlack)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ubiquity-of-john-ratzenberger/488955/24 "2009-03-11T01:06:56Z")
Hilarity, you’ve never seen _Cheers_? ---
**Author:** ![zeno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zeno/32/15040_2.png) [@zeno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zeno)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ubiquity-of-john-ratzenberger/488955/25 "2009-03-12T04:29:28Z")
John Ratzinger was already ‘famous’ as a character actor before he was on Cheers. He was one of those guys whom you knew by face but rarely by name. I recognized him the first time I saw him on Cheers. I guess there are no character actors any more. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ubiquity-of-john-ratzenberger/488955/26 "2009-03-12T05:11:59Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > In _Superman_, IIRC, he’s one of the military guys in the missile convoy that gets reprogrammed during the Luthor diversion. I think his big line is “Function negative, sir!” when they try, and fail, to trigger the missiles’ self-destruct. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ubiquity-of-john-ratzenberger/488955/27 "2009-03-12T05:14:49Z")
> [@DaphneBlack](#): > > Hilarity, you’ve never seen _Cheers_? Okay, maybe I am sheltered. When I was a kid my mother had the tv on constantly. All. The. Time. I hated it. As an adult, I owned a TV my mother (ha!) bought me from 1977-1988, then didn’t have another TV until 2001. So I missed a lot of popular culture. One thing that I noticed was that when I wasn’t watching TV regularly and then did, at somebody’s house, it mostly really sucked. Very bad stuff. Which my friends seemed to think was _good_ stuff. _Cheers_ was one of those things. So maybe I saw an off episode, or maybe it was an acquired taste, or maybe in order to appreciate it you had to know who the characters were. Okay. I was not impressed. (Same thing with _Seinfeld_.) So I have this big TV gap. I never saw _Laugh-In_ or _All in the Family_–or probably, more accurately, I saw a couple of episodes, or maybe just a scene. Even now I mostly use my TV to watch movies, when my son isn’t using it to play Mario Kart. Oddly enough I have seen most of the movies people are mentioning, but without having noticed this Ratzinger guy. Well, he’s ubiquitous, I’m clueless, what can I say. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ubiquity-of-john-ratzenberger/488955/28 "2009-03-12T06:25:32Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > One thing that I noticed was that when I wasn’t watching TV regularly and then did, at somebody’s house, it mostly really sucked. Very bad stuff. Which my friends seemed to think was _good_ stuff. _Cheers_ was one of those things. So maybe I saw an off episode, or maybe it was an acquired taste, or maybe in order to appreciate it you had to know who the characters were. Okay. I was not impressed. **Hilarity** , you owe it to yourself to rent season 8 of Cheers and watch the episode called “What is … Cliff Clavin?” This is the episode in which Cliffy the mailman, who considers himself one of the greatest living trivia experts appears on the game show “Jeopardy.” Not to spoil it, but Cliff makes a name for himself, only not in the way he envisioned. To this day, Alex Trebek still talks about that one. Even if that is the only episode you watch, it is still considered one of the all time classics of comedy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ubiquity-of-john-ratzenberger/488955.md?page=1)