Monday, December 20, 2010

Steve Landesberg


Actor Steve Landesberg passed away on Dec 17th at age 65. Why do I post that information here on the official Sam & Max blog? Because Mr. Landesberg was my original casting choice to play Sam in LucasArts adventure game "Sam & Max Hit the Road". While casting the characters in the game, Steve Landesberg occurred to me because of his ultra dry delivery and his easy way of firing off chains of obscure facts. LucasArts put in the call but we never made it past his agent. And that was that.

I subsequently sifted through a flood of tapes from various actors and landed upon the great Bill Farmer who took the character of Sam in a direction that I loved, so I certainly have no complaints about where we ended up.

Steve Landesberg left a lot of fine work behind. Here's a short clip of his character, Dietrich from the Barney Miller show.

11 comments:

  1. One time Tom was asked the weird interview question of who he'd want to play him in the movie about his life. Tom said, "Steve Landesberg." without hesitation. Landesberg would have made a great Sam.

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  2. Wow, a purple striped tie... I don't think Sam's ever worn a purple one before, right?

    Anyway, it's still good that Bill Farmer became the original Sam voice... so that way, he'll be known for something other than being just the current voice of Goofy!

    Steve, you have got to pitch the idea of a Sam and Max cartoon to Adult Swim now that they're extending its time slot to 9:00 PM starting in 2011... Bill would be PERFECT for Sam! I'm pretty sure he's voiced characters on Adult Swim shows before, like Robot Chicken and Harvey Birdman!

    Anyone else agree with me on this?

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  3. Landesberg will be missed, and yeah, it would have been a great choice!

    Does anyone know what color are the pads on Max's feet? I have always seen them as black, but I had the idea they could be gray or dark grey. I'm making a plush toy and I want it to be as faithful as possible.

    I have noticed the Telltale version has the pink "toes" but not the dark part.

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  4. maritzac--
    When in color I tend to lean toward a tan or brown "sole" for Max's feet with pink pads. In black and white it gradates darker toward the toes.

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  5. Awesome, Steve, thank you! :D Tan it will be, then...

    If anyone's interested, here's a sneak peek:

    http://www.crfh.net/other/peek.jpg

    Working on the legs now... it has to be ready for Xmas ;)

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  6. Mr. Purcell:

    I also have a slightly off topic question. I noticed you repsonded to the "Sam and Max in Japan" thread on Telltale's forums with a link to "Aiee Robot".

    Was this in response to just anything having to do with Sam and Max and Japan or specifically my post asking for links and suggestions of Sam and Max related stuff to translate into Japanese? Either way, I'd be more than happy to do it for you if you like. I've already got my college campus in Tokyo interested in Sam and Max.

    http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/9720/dsc00320ws.jpg

    You'll probably need to view that at full size.

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  7. ichinenkan -- Maybe I missed the intent of the post. I thought it was "What would it be like to see Sam & Max in Japan?" so I added that episode. I don't need anything translated right now but will definitely keep it in mind for the future. Thanks!

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  8. Steve, as long as you're answering questions, I was wondering... what did you think of my suggestion to pitch Sam and Max to Adult Swim?

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  9. waitohooru--
    I'm too busy to go looking for extra work right now so pitching TV shows is not in my immediate plan. Thanks for asking.

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  10. Who is your favorite Sam voice actor?

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  11. Yeah, who is it? I really want to know!

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