Interview with Michael Haigney
Johto Times is proud to share an interview with Michael Haigney, the original Voice Director for the English-adapted Pokémon anime and movies, who voiced Psyduck, Charmander, Snorlax and more!
Michael Haigney (Mike) was the original Voice Director for the Pokémon anime and the first four movies, responsible for adapting the scripts for an English audience. He is also the voice actor who provided the voices for dozens of Pokémon heard throughout the early Pokémon anime, such as Ash's Charmander and Snorlax, Misty's Psyduck, and James's Koffing and Weezing. Michael's voiced Pokémon can also be heard in several video games, such as Pokémon Puzzle League and the Super Smash Bros. franchise of games. These days, he attends conventions and hosts his own podcast, Original Pokéman. We are excited to share our interview with him for Johto Times!
It’s so good to be hosting this interview with you, Mike! Let’s begin with your very earliest memories of wanting to get into television. What inspired it?
Mike:
I guess all those local TV shows like Soupy Sales, Chuck McCann, Officer Joe Bolton, Sandy Becker, Captain Jack McCarthy, Beachcomber Bill and Zacherley got me interested in television as a kid, and I guess it seemed like an interesting and exciting field. Not like a real job.
What can you tell us about the journey you took that allowed you to get your start in the industry?
Mike:
I went to Fordham University at Lincoln Center and my friend Liz and I wrote for the school newspaper, but she also worked in the student placement office. I told her if she saw any jobs that were glamorous, required very little work and paid a lot, let me know. One day just before the beginning of my senior year, she called and said a listing came up for CBS Pages, which were like ushers.The CBS Broadcast Center was just a few blocks from Fordham. I went in and got the job which, by the way, did not pay a lot. Except for one other courtesy interview many years later, I think that was the only job interview I've ever gone on. Every job I've had since stemmed directly or indirectly from that CBS Page job.
Early in your career, you were involved with a variety of television and film projects as a production coordinator, producer, and voice director, with credits that include The Horror Hall of Fame, Music Scoupe, and Blade Warriors. What was it like to work in television during that era?
Mike:
I worked as a low level assistant (Associate Producer) on a bunch of live specials at CBS and other places for a few years, but after that I mostly worked on kind of fringe syndicated specials and series, so I'm not sure what I can compare my experience to. I liked working around the edges because there wasn’t the kind [of] interference a lot of television people complain about from corporate people giving advice and suggestions and demands. I worked with Marc Juris -- who had also been a page at CBS -- on a bunch of things, and once the shows were decided on, we pretty much created, wrote, and produced them on our own with basically no “corporate” input. Except for budget, of course.
As a script adapter, you contributed to animations such as The Slayers and Here Is Greenwood. This was in the mid-1990s, when Japanimation was starting to take off in the West but wasn’t as mainstream as it is today. What were your first impressions of it?
Mike:
My first impressions of anime were seeing things like Astro Boy, Gigantor, and Tobor the 8th Man on local TV in New York. I think I knew they were all from Japan but I have to say there was something “foreign” about them in the broader sense. Speed Racer particularly was more than vaguely disturbing, not just because of the way the characters looked, which was so different from American animation, but also because of the way they spoke. In the dub, I mean.The dialogue was so fast and jammed in and just…weird. But that's not a criticism. After adapting and directing hundreds of episodes of anime, I have a lot of respect for Peter Fernandez and the job he and the other localizers faced in adapting those early anime series without the help of digital recording and editing equipment.
Because of your experience in adapting anime for an English-speaking audience, you were approached to work on the American version of the Pokémon television series. How did that opportunity come to you?
Mike:
I had worked a bit with Norman Grossfeld at a company called Select Media and Norman became the president of 4Kids which was the company that had the Pokémon license, and they were going to localize the TV series. I’d worked with Norman on some things like Pillow People and Mr. Men and he knew I was localizing Japanese animated series so he called me about doing Pokémon.
What were your feelings on the job offer at the time?
Mike:
Pokémon had been all over the news because of the episode with the rapid, flashing colors that triggered seizures in some kids in Japan, so my memory is that I asked him if that was the series he was talking about and he said, “Yes, but we’re not airing that episode.” I watched the first episode and never thought it would last past 13 episodes.
Thankfully, you accepted the position to adapt the English scripts for Pokémon and to direct the voice actors working on the show. What were your earliest memories of working in the job?
Mike:
Well, thankfully for me, but I’m sure you know a lot of especially hard-core anime fans accused 4Kids of destroying the original. I understood their objections but now I smile when I see fans on social media saying how great the original was. As for working memories, I remember it quickly became overwhelming to adapt, cast, and direct the voice actors. A lot of very late nights.
Many of the original episodes you were working with had aired some months previously in Japan, giving you a bit of buffer time before working on the English adaptation. Were there any challenges working to these timeframes?
Mike:
Oh, yes. After just me basically adapting the scripts and directing the actors and reviewing the mixes, we got Jim Malone to direct and hired writers like John Touhey for the scripts. The scripts were, by far, the toughest part of the job. At the beginning, I was sometimes writing or rewriting just one of the characters’ lines page by page while they were waiting in the recording studio. Larry Juris who owned TAJ which was the production company we were partners in for Pokémon -- would call me at home while I was writing and say, “They’re almost on page 12…fax 13 ASAP!” or something like that.
And it was hard to find writers. We went through a bunch. Some who tried were really good and smart and witty but trying to fit lines into the mouths of the characters to match the flaps– it drove them nuts. And I was really rough on their first drafts, which I know a lot of them felt would be their only draft. Ask John Touhey. He did a lot of them and we worked on other series after Pokémon, too. And because of the air dates, I frequently wound up rewriting them myself. It was a lot.
What was the dubbing process like during your time working on the show?
Mike:
At the beginning, we were casting a lot, too, but once we had the main cast, we would schedule them based on the number of lines they had in each episode, their availability, and how fast we came to know how each actor and character would take, more or less. We always did one actor, one character at a time, and almost always one episode at a time. Once in a while somebody would plan to be out of town or on vacation so I’d have to go into the next episode and write at least their lines to record before they left so we could stay on schedule.
You had the opportunity to step into the recording booth yourself a few times in order to record many of the Pokémon we hear in the English adaptation. Most notably, you were the voice of Charmander, Psyduck, and Snorlax. One takeaway from your podcast (Original Pokéman) that I loved was your explanation about how you came up with the voice of Koffing while working as a page at CBS. What other anecdotes do you have for some of the other Pokémon or characters you voiced?
Mike:
I wish I had more but we always had the Japanese track to copy. In our version, the names of the Pokémon were mostly different from their Japanese names, but I usually tried to have our Pokémon sound like the originals. But somebody at a convention recently told me how some of our Pokémon sounded substantially different than the originals which I hadn’t remembered. Not sure how true that is.
What was it like to work with the other voice actors on Pokémon?
Mike:
Mostly good. Just about everybody I worked with was experienced. But not everybody. But I rarely had significant trouble with actors. And if I did, I doubt I’d say who.
Which Pokémon characters were the most taxing on your voice?
Mike:
It wasn’t so much the character but how many extreme reacts (which is what we called their sounds in the scripts) a character might have in a script. But because I was directing, I could do reacts over several days, recording them when somebody finished early, mostly. And after a while we had a library of reacts for some Pokémon which Ron London and the other engineers could drop in where appropriate, but we usually wound up recording new ones to fit very specific attack reacts or emotional ones anyway.
What did you have to do to deliver those performances effectively?
Mike:
Just tap into my huge reservoir of raw talent. (Really raw.)
Did the creators in Japan give specific guidelines or requirements for storylines that certain episodes and movies had to meet? Or did you have complete and free control to edit and change episodes as you saw fit to appeal to the West?
Mike:
Somebody from Nintendo would review the episodes, I think, but I don’t particularly remember a lot of notes from Nintendo on either the shows or the movies. At least the ones I worked on. Most of the things we changed – besides gags – were because of the stations’ broadcast standards and practices. We knew guns and easily replicable violence – punches, slaps – had to go.
Several Pokémon episodes which originally aired in Japan didn’t make it to our screens for a variety of reasons, such as the infamous Porygon episode. To your recollection, were there any episodes that aired in English that almost didn’t make it? (If so, do you recall why?)
Mike:
I think the ones that didn’t make it to air were not close calls. We would always try to re-edit and change dialogue because we never wanted to lose an episode. A few times that wasn’t possible. That’s my memory.
In addition to the TV series, you worked on the English adaptations of the first four Pokémon movies. Can you give us an insight into what it was like to work on each of the movies?
Mike:
More time, more money, bigger mix studios, at least for the first two. Can’t remember beyond that.
How did the work adapting a movie compare to the Pokémon anime?
Mike:
Norman was more involved in the scripts and I guess there was more Nintendo scrutiny but I don’t remember anything specific.
Did you have any idea the Pokémon anime and movies would become as huge of a hit here as they were in Japan?
Mike:
Assuming they were, no, not for the series at the beginning. I guess we knew the movie would attract a lot of fans, but you can never know beforehand, really.
Do you own any figurines or other merchandise of the characters you voiced? If so, which ones do you have?
Mike:
I have some Funko pops and lots of things fans have given me at conventions, things they’ve either made or bought. Really nice people at the conventions.
In 2001 you produced the Pokémon Christmas Bash album, along with Larry Juris, featuring the voice cast of Pokémon. How did that idea for an album involving all the cast come to be?
Mike:
I’ve heard others with different memories, but my idea was to write a Christmas musical around the Pokémon characters. I think at first I was hoping they might actually animate a Christmas special, because I loved Christmas specials and would’ve loved to have created one. Not sure I ever voiced that at the time, though. But at least I was thinking of the old Hanna-Barbera records – Yogi Bear Meets Frankenstein, holiday stuff like that. I brought the idea for a Christmas album to Norman which he approved. I think he had a deal with Koch, a record label 4Kids had already worked with on some Pokémon record, I don’t really remember.
Anyway, I wrote a few songs but never came up [with] an overall story. Pretty quickly Norman told me Jim Malone and Eric Stuart who were both music guys wanted to write songs too, so that’s how it came out the way it did. I wish I had had the time and talent to write an overall story, dialogue and songs. Carter Cathcart who was a friend of Larry’s and who also voiced Gary and other characters on the show and later went on to write a ton of scripts after I left, wrote and performed the music for my songs based on the way I hummed/sung them.
During your time working on the show, what were some of the challenges you and the team faced and overcame?
Mike:
Just getting studio time, occasional equipment failure, scheduling and mostly keeping up with the scripts.
What were some of your happiest and most memorable moments working on Pokémon that you can share with us?
Mike:
Sorry…I have to save SOMETHING for my podcast!
After working on hundreds of episodes, you left Pokémon to work on other projects, such as Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, Sonic X, and F-Zero: GP Legend. What was the reason for departing the show?
Mike:
Pokémon was up and running and 4Kids wanted to expand.
What lessons did you learn from Pokémon that were helpful in the projects that followed?
Mike:
Maybe how important it is to pick the things that are most important – in scripting, performance, mixing – and let the other things go a bit. I never successfully or consistently did that, but it’s a lesson, I guess.
If you could go back in time and correct something related to your time working on Pokémon, what would it be?
Mike:
That’s [a] tough one. I’m tempted to say the infamous “jelly donut” lines but it’s something people always ask me about and I’m not actually sorry I did it. I don’t think I would do it now, though.
What do you consider to be your proudest achievement(s) on Pokémon?
Mike:
Pride isn’t exactly a feeling I have or deserve about Pokémon. The Japanese creators deserve the credit or criticism for the series, not me. I guess the fact that a lot of the fans remember specific gags I wrote is a nice feeling.
These days, you spend time attending conventions and meeting fans who watched the show and movies. What have these experiences been like for you?
Mike:
All great. Everybody likes what they like, but I really think Pokémon had something special, something kids and even adults really connected and still connect to. I’m lucky to have been a little part of that. All these years later, to have people come to the conventions and say such beautiful, touching things about the show and me, it’s really great. I really enjoy meeting everybody at the conventions, even if they don’t buy autographs. So if you see me at a show, please come up and say hello.
As you mentioned, you also host your own podcast called Original Pokéman, where you share memories and personal stories from the making of the anime dub. What prompted you to make it?
Mike:
I heard someone connected with the show say something on social media about the series which I know to be untrue. So I thought it might be fun to at least record my memories about my time with the show. I’m very clear though: Original Pokéman is about my memories, not facts. And memories differ, which is understandable. Having said that, some stuff is just wrong. I also talk about stuff I’m still learning about Pokémon.
At the time of writing this interview, you have released eight episodes. What are your plans for the future of the podcast?
Mike:
To record more. But I’m a world-class procrastinator and I’m told I have ADD. So I can always find something else to do and other things seem to find me.
After twenty-five years since the original Pokémon episodes began their adaptation to English, Ash Ketchum’s story recently came to a close. Given the fact you were so heavily involved in it from the beginning, do you have any thoughts to share on this?
Mike:
I have mixed feelings. I’ve never watched any of the “new” episodes with the new cast, although many of them have been doing the voices much longer than the original actors, I’m sure. That’s not because I have anything against the newer cast, but I spent a lot of time with the original characters and their voices. I don’t need to alter or add to that. But I’m curious about the final episode to see how the Japanese handled the end of Ash’s journey. Maybe I’ll find the original Japanese version online and watch the subbed version. I don’t know. Someday.
In the Pokémon 4Ever Audio Commentary, Producer Norman Grossfeld described the voice cast of Pokémon as a family. Would you say this accurately describes your relationship with the other voice actors and people on the team at the time?
Mike:
Not really.
Do you still keep in touch with them outside of conventions and other events?
Mike:
I keep in touch with Ron London who recorded and mixed Pokémon and other series I worked on. He was the person I really spent the most time with. The actors were one group and the 4Kids employees were another group. Nothing against the actors. It was a job for us all. A few of the actors became friends with each other, but they never spent a lot of time together at the studio. And they all worked other jobs, too, so they didn’t have that day-to-day contact which is a big factor in developing most friendships. And a lot of friendships are site specific.
Mike, as someone who grew up with the early Pokémon episodes you were involved in, I want to personally thank you for the work you and your team did, and for bringing life to some of my favourite Pokémon characters by lending your voice to them. Do you have any closing words you would like to share with our readers and other Pokémon fans?
Mike:
Just thank you for all the years of watching and listening. And if you have nothing else to do, listen to Original Pokéman (with a “man” at the end) and email me your thoughts. But if you have something else to do, don’t listen because you might get distracted. “CHAR CHAR and PSY-YI-YII!?”
We would like to thank Mike for taking the time to speak with me and share so much information on his time with Pokémon and his career in television. If you want to hear more about the original episodes of Pokémon that Mike worked on, I urge you to check out his podcast Original Pokéman on iTunes, Spotify, and many other podcasting platforms.
Interview conducted on October 25th 2023
Interview published on December 21st 2023