# Worst Voice in Saturday Morning Cartoons **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** cartoons-animation\ **Created:** [April 6, 2026, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065 "2026-04-06T13:41:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2026, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065/1 "2026-04-06T13:41:58Z")
Some legendary voice actors provided the voices for cartoon characters. Some were great (Mel Blanc, Daws Butler) and some not so great. I was watching an old Archie cartoon on YouTube, and I’d forgotten how horrible the voice for Veronica was. It was provided by Jane Webb, who had a long and fairly distinguished career. She also provided other female voices for the show, and they were serviceable. Why did no one say, “hey Jane; Miss Grundy, Betty, and Big Ethel are solid, but Veronica sounds like an eight year old boy trying to mimic a girl’s voice. We know you can do better than that”? ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2026, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065/2 "2026-04-06T13:47:16Z")
I didn’t like the first guy to voice Dr. Benton Quest. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2026, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065/3 "2026-04-06T14:18:41Z")
Desirée Goyette’s voice for Nermal on _Garfield and Friends_, if only because Nermal was canonically male. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2026, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065/4 "2026-04-06T14:25:46Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > I’d forgotten how horrible the voice for Veronica was. It was provided by Jane Webb, who had a long and fairly distinguished career. She also provided other female voices for the show, and they were serviceable. Why did no one say, “hey Jane; Miss Grundy, Betty, and Big Ethel are solid, but Veronica sounds like an eight year old boy trying to mimic a girl’s voice. We know you can do better than that”? I just looked up the cartoon on YouTube out of curiosity. It sounds like the Veronica voice was supposed to be a stereotypical upper crust ‘[Southern Belle](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SouthernBelle)’ voice, a Southern accent that’s all breathy and baby-doll sounding, with maybe a few "Ah DO declah"s thrown in; which was a fairly popular voice trope of the time. The Scarlett O’Hara character was probably the origin of the trope. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2026, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065/5 "2026-04-06T15:10:18Z")
I can hear that, but it’s a pretty piss-poor southern belle voice. It also doesn’t fit the character very well. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2026, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065/6 "2026-04-06T15:16:55Z")
Well, back then if you needed a cartoon voice for ‘upper class, privileged woman’ you pretty much had two choices-- an exaggerated version of the [Mid-Atlantic accent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent) or ‘Southern Belle’. ‘Mid-Atlantic’ probably would have been a better choice for Veronica, but ‘Southern Belle’ was probably easier to pull off. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2026, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065/7 "2026-04-06T15:22:25Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > I can hear that, but it’s a pretty piss-poor southern belle voice. Ten-year-olds in the late '60s probably didn’t care. The intent was undoubtedly to have Veronica sound like a stereotypical Southern belle, and Ms. Webb was the only female voice actress working on the show, so it was probably “give us your best try at this,” for a vocal style that might not have been in her wheelhouse. Speaking from personal experience: going back to watch old kids’ TV shows that I liked 50+ years ago is nearly always disappointing at best. Almost all of them were fungible, formulaic, and made with low budgets; it’s not surprising in the least that some of the voiceover work was, in retrospect, terrible to an adult’s ear. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065/8 "2026-04-07T00:06:40Z")
I think Paul Winchell only had one voice and it was always Tigger. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065/9 "2026-04-07T05:24:20Z")
Lou Scheimer is to blame for providing the voice for Dumb Donald in the Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids Show. Gerry Bascombe is the guilty party for voicing Newton the Centaur in the execrable “The Mighty Hercules”. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065/10 "2026-04-07T08:07:56Z")
That was definitely a major voice acting problem I saw all the time in kids shows, giving a younger non-human boy character clearly a woman’s voice which leads to all sorts of weird “Wait that’s supposed to be a BOY?!” I understand young boys can sound like women, but for the audience sake just make it sound somewhat distinguishable. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065/11 "2026-04-07T11:13:01Z")
I remember as a very young lad being appalled that Barney Rubble’s voice had unexpectedly and dramatically changed. Why is this in my head 60 years later? mmm ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065/12 "2026-04-07T12:05:20Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Gerry Bascombe is the guilty party for voicing Newton the Centaur in the execrable “The Mighty Hercules”. You beat me to the punch! Note that he was also the voice of Daedalus (which was a pretty good cartoon evil-guy voice). ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065/13 "2026-04-07T19:41:14Z")
I literally was going to post about when they changed voice actors for Barney and he sounded nothing like the original one. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065/14 "2026-04-07T20:02:46Z")
I remember Barney having different voices, but I didn’t know the details until I looked it up. - Mel Blanc was the primary voice actor for Barney, though the way he did Barney’s voice changed over the course of Season 1, initially using a higher-pitched New Jersey accent, but switching to a deeper, less smart-alec-y voice later on. - When Blanc was recovering from a near-fatal car crash, Daws Butler stepped into the role for several episodes in Season 2. - Blanc returned to the role once he recovered, but his Barney voice wound up being once again different upon his return. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065/15 "2026-04-07T20:14:20Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > I think Paul Winchell only had one voice and it was always Tigger. Likewise for Sterling Holloway and Pooh. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065/16 "2026-04-07T20:15:57Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > I think Paul Winchell only had one voice and it was always Tigger. I don’t know about that. I don’t think Dick Dastardly sounds all that much like Tigger. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065/17 "2026-04-07T20:21:50Z")
And John Fiedler and Piglet. (I kept waiting for Juror #2 to say “Oh, d-d-d-dear.”) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065/18 "2026-04-07T20:23:58Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > > [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > > > I think Paul Winchell only had one voice and it was always Tigger. > > I don’t know about that. I don’t think Dick Dastardly sounds all that much like Tigger. Pretty sure that’s Tigger attempting a [Terry-Thomas](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/TerryThomas) imitation. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065/19 "2026-04-07T20:24:37Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > And John Fiedler and Piglet. Which makes it amusing to watch the Star Trek episode “A Wolf in the Fold,” in which Fiedler plays a man who is possessed by the same murderous spirit which once possessed Jack the Ripper, and is on a killing spree. [![](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOTk1ODM2MDQtOWIyMi00MTQ5LTgwNzItNjFjY2RlNmJhNzk4XkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpg) ](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOTk1ODM2MDQtOWIyMi00MTQ5LTgwNzItNjFjY2RlNmJhNzk4XkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2026, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065/20 "2026-04-07T20:46:55Z")
Even better is Fiedler in the original **True Grit**. Shows up at the very end and single-handedly saves the flick. Peterson’s a twerp. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-voice-in-saturday-morning-cartoons/1029065.md?page=2)