Pac-Man on TV

This article was originally published in issue 17 of Hot dog!, a children's magazine published by Scholastic. The article was republished on the now-defunct fan site The Pac-Page.

TV Welcomes Pac-Man!

When Pac-Man popped up on TV last fall, a lot of people thought it was a weird idea. Who ever heard of turning a video game into a cartoon? Well, actually, it's the other way around. The Pac-Man video game was designed to be a lot like some Japanese cartoons!

Here's the story. Many video games were invented in Japan. For a long time, space war games were very popular there. But when people got sick of fighting in video space, something had to be done.

The Namco Company came up with the answer. They came up with a game that was like a cartoon. It looked just like the cartoons on Japanese TV. And it even had an "opening" like a TV show. The Japanese people loved it!

In Japan, though Pac-Man had a different name. He was called Puc-Man, the Japanese sound for munch. But Munch-Man didn't sound too exciting for Americans. So Namco changed the name to Pac-Man when they brought the game here!

Saturday Morning Stardom

It took years for Pac-Man to make it to the TV screen. Why? For one thing, it's against the law to show the Pac-Man game on TV! They can't even use the sound effects from the game. It would be too much like a free advertisement for the game every Saturday morning.

Another problem had to do with Pac-Man's looks. Namco wasn't sure they wanted their Pac-Man character changed. But TV producers though that Pac-Man had to look more like a person than a pie!

A third reason it took so long for Pac-Man to come to TV was that it takes six months just to draw, paint, and produce a 10-minute animated cartoon. And there was one more problem. The producers couldn't find anyone to be Pac-Man's voice!

Pac-Man Speaks

Squeaky-voiced Marty is the voice of Pac-Man

There was a big talent search in Hollywood. More than 225 people tried out for the part. No one seemed to fit this cute little character!

Then one day, Marty Ingels was dialing his phone. He dialed the wrong number and got the Pac-Man producers by mistake! They said, "Marty! You would be a perfect Pac-Man!" They asked him to come down and audition. But Marty said no! He said he didn't want to do cartoon voices anymore.

The producers were very sneaky, though. They tape-recorded his voice over the phone! Three days later they told Marty he had the job. And they sent a huge crate to his house. It had an arcade version of the Pac-Man game inside . . . the real thing!

The Man Behind Pac-Man

"I always talked like this," Marty Ingels told HOT DOG about his scratchy voice -- Pac-Man's voice. "Even when I was a little kid! My parents were always hauling me to the doctors. They wanted to see if there was something growing in my throat! I thought they were disappointed because there was nothing there! I wanted to plant something down there for them.

"My voice has a strange effect on animals," Marty says. "It infuriates them! I've been bitten by everything except a praying mantis!"

So we asked Marty what would happen if he ever got a cold. And we should have guessed the answer: "A cold makes my voice clear up!"

The Show Behind the Scenes

What is the best part about working on the Pac-Man show? According to Marty, it's all the talented voice people he works with. One actor plays three of the ghosts. And whenever the script call for a squeaky door, one of the actresses does it!

When they're recording the Pac-Man scripts, Marty and the other voices are encouraged to play around. If they add something funny, the artists just add it to the picture. Of course if they ad-lib too much, it gets cut out.

Once Marty was recording a script and he decided to say, "Packa-Packa-Wowee!"

Suddenly the director's voice came down from the control room. "Cut! What was that?"

So Marty repeated, "Packa-Packa-Wowee!"

"Hmmm. Hold on a second," the director said. Pretty soon, the control room was buzzing. A major conference was held. The producers even called ABC-TV in New York!

Half an hour later, the director came back to Marty. "Uh . . . we're going to pass on the packa-packa-wowee. New York said no," the director told him.

"Maybe they would like picky-picky-woo-ee better!" Marty joked.

Here's the ending to that story. Someone finally decided that Pac-Man should say something when he eats the power pellets. The magic words are "Wacka-Wacka!" So they paid Marty to come in one day and say "wacka-wacka" 60 or 70 times!

Back to the Game

What in the Pac-world is coming out next? Marty Ingels told us that a Baby Pac-Man game is not far off. It will be easier than Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man. And that's good news for Marty. So far, his high score is only 29,000! Did we say only 29,000?? Wacka-Wacka-Zoweeee!

Article by Megan Stine