Profile: Janet Waldo

[tv star collector]

Janet Waldo, the voice of the perpetually perky young women of animation--Judy Jetson, Josie of Josie and the Pussycats, and Penelope
Pitstop--was born with the desire to act. However, the actress from Yakama
Valley, Washington, had her heart set on a Broadway theatrical career until it
was diverted to Hollywood instead, by way of Bing Crosby.

An acting prodigy, Waldo worked steadily in local radio until Bing Crosby changed her life. Waldo was hired for her first professional job at ten, when
the local Seattle radio station chose her to do a commercial for a brand of
flour. By the time she was a young teenager, Crosby (who was originally from
Spokane) came back to Washington State on a publicity junket. He saw Waldo
in a comedic play and, impressed with her potential as a comedienne, asked
her back to Hollywood (with her mother and a small group of hopefuls).

Waldo then found her niche with Crosby on the radio, eventually becoming a
household name in the title role of the radio comedy Meet Corliss Archer. But she is also grateful for more personal reasons. While on Archer,
she met her husband, playwright Robert E. Lee (who, before he passed away
in 1994, wrote First Monday in October, Auntie Mame,, and Inherit
the Wind with partner Jerry Lawrence). If not for Crosby bringing her to
California, she noted that she would never have met her husband.

Although Waldo loved the dramatic acting roles--she worked in both drama
and comedy with such legends as Bob Hope and Kirk Douglas--she soon
discovered her talent for voices.

She segued into her animation career at Hanna-Barbera courtesy of her then
agent Jack Wormser. Working on an on-camera series at the time and with a
background in radio, Waldo was mainly called for radio spots. One day,
Wormser casually asked her if she would like to audition for a new cartoon
series called The Jetsons. The naturally youthful-voiced Waldo had fun
auditioning for the part of daughter Judy. "I just did my own voice pretty much in those days and I just exaggerated a little bit. But I did it and I won it
and I couldn't believe it! Of course, in doing The Jetsons I had no idea
they were going to become the national phenomenon because we only did
twenty-four."

Of course, that those same twenty-four episodes of The Jetsons' only
season were so popular for the next fourteen years on three different networks convinced Hanna-Barbera to commission a new series in 1985.
Although Waldo enjoyed working on the series, she questioned some of the
changes, including the addition of an alien character named "Orbity." "I think
that's true because everyone doesn't want anything changed about The
Jetsons. They want it just the way it was."

She attributes the quality of original programs that were "so very, very special" to Joe Barbera's perfectionism; Barbera was directing each one and
insisting upon every sound he wanted. Although she says the cast felt the
pressure of limited rehearsal and production schedules, Barbera's sessions
"sometimes would take as long as six hours."

Of course, no grueling production schedule prepared Waldo for the shock she
would receive on the taping of 1990's The Jetsons movie. After voicing
Judy Jetson for almost two decades, due to a decision by the sponsor MCA,
she was suddenly replaced by the fleeting teenage pop star of the time--
Tiffany. When the news broke, Waldo was incensed to the the only one
missing from the original surviving cast.

Waldo recalled the reaction as swift and widespread--letters immediately
poured into Hanna-Barbera. But Hanna-Barbera tried to smooth the relationship by offering a part on The Smurfs. Ever the professional,
Waldo took the job and accepted an apology from Joe Barbera for the
circumstances beyond their control.

[Excerpted from The Magic Behind the Voices, by Tim Lawson & Alisa
Persons (2004)]

[OH Nuts!]

She was also in quite a few episodes of The Adv. of Ozzie and Harriet!

[comedyfreak]

I remember seeing her in an episode of I Love Lucy where she has a big crush on Ricky.

[Zoneboy]

She was in The Andy Griffith Show episode "A Wife for Andy" and her Josie and the Pussycats costar Jackie Joseph who was the voice of Melody played Ramona 'Romeena' Ankrum in the episode "My Fair Ernest T. Bass".