Talk:Rodger Bumpass

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This article was nominated for deletion on 15 June 2009. The result of the discussion was keep.

Bumpass is a funny name. Especially combined with Rodger.

He recently got married to his high-school crush, Angela Anne VanZandt in August 2019.(https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/aug/04/angela-ann-vanzandt-rodger-dale-bumpass/?features-profiles)

He also mentioned that he has a son and a grandson during a 2013 panel at DragonCon, although there is no reference to them anywhere online. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.75.192.171 (talk) 14:03, 11 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Context

The reference to Rodger's 1960s voice work on The Jetsons could be clarified. IMDb, which recently revamped its list format, credits him on that show as "Additional voices" from 1968, which would yield a low age figure of 17. As for the hiatus, it's entirely possible that from then til 1978 he finished high school, attended college, and then attempted another line of work before re-entering show business. Just my 2¢. knoodelhed 21:26, 2 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Funny how every Google search references "The Jetsons" as his earliest work. I bet he was a kid that they used once or twice and he got back in the biz as an adult. Just a thought. I'll try to poke around some more.Schmiteye 05:44, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hanna-Barbera was not hiring 11-year-olds to do voice work on "The Jetsons" in 1962 when Dickie Beals, Don Messick, Daws Butler, Lucille Bliss, and June Foray were readily available. He probably worked on the mid-80s version. SomeRandomGuy;I'mSureThisWillBeDeleted 07:41, 8 May 2013 (Arugula) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2602:306:BD1C:5F40:FA1E:DFFF:FEEB:1DFC (talk)

Rodger Bumpass is an accomplished and very interesting voice actor, born in Jonesboro, AR. It seems his actual age is a subject of some controversy. He is variously depicted as having been born in 1938, 1942, and at other times. Though I suppose it's not impossible that he was born in 1938, it is rather hard to believe, as this would put him at 68 years of age in 2006! I have seen him recently in some behind-the-scenes footage from Nicktoons Network; if he actually is that age, I must say that he is remarkably youthful-looking. There has been much mention of his surname. "Bumpass" is not, in actuality, an extremely unusual name; I've come across it any number of times. In the very popular movie "A Christmas Story", for example, Ralphie's next door neighbors - the ones with the dogs - seem to be called Bumpass. With regard to the pronunciation, I would presume it is spoken as if saying "bump-us."

--Gersen77 16:26, 29 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Like I said there could be two Bumpass' I could be wrong though.

Looks like I was right after all there are two Bumpass' (except the other one's just called "Roger"). Now if only we could find out how old "Bumpy" really is.

The IMDB now says that Bumpass was born in 1951. Maybe it could be a sign (even though they are wrong sometimes).

Looks like someone changed it to 1951. Now we know he *is* younger (not that young, but pretty close given the circumstances).

BTW was there a credit for Rodger during the 80's era on the Jetsons ? I dont remember either, but if there was, I think thats what the IMDB originally meant.

What is the "1987 Bumpass scandal"??? I can find no reference to it with regular internet searches and it's a dead link on wikipedia... Why shouldn't we remove this? The Bob Talbot 05:19, 2 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The 1987 Bumpass scandal was removed because the user who first put it in has been putting in nonsense about Rodger Bumpass in two different articles, and has been told not to put in nonsense, his edits have been removed from history. If you see past edits in history, you will see that we believed this user, Me and another user, Until I saw that he put that Rodger Bumpass was dead, I found out that he was putting crap that was not true when I looked online for his death and I saw nothing about Rodger Bumpass dying, I later found one that he put that 1987 Bumpass scandal edit. So if you see past edits in history, about the scandal, his death in 2006, or his heart attack, it was not true and Me and other users believed him. The true information about Rodger Bumpass has been corrected. Rodger Bumpass is alive and well. Thank You.--Stco23 08:22, 27 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You tell him homeboy ! Seriously though I'm glad Bumpy is still alive. Tony Jay however wasn't so fortunate.

Do we have any proof that says he was a voice actor on Pokemon? I'm 100% sure he has never done work for Pokemon.

And a new Squidward would really suck. Even though SpongeBob sucks now anyway. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.242.219.182 (talk) 14:28, 15 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What's the source on his marriage to Amy Stiller? It seems like nonsense to me. --72.128.211.65 (talk) 20:50, 24 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have found an article where Bumpass completes denies the rumour and points to IMDB as the cause of the incorrect info. The exact quote:

"I'm contacting you due to an annoying inaccuracy that is on the Internet and reported by you today," he wrote. "My friends in Little Rock just told me :of the article. I am NOT, repeat NOT, married to Amy Stiller. I know that this is widely listed throughout the Internet but, just like the report that I :have died - twice - it is completely false." Let me summarize his point thus far: Bumpass is not now, nor has he ever been, married to Amy Stiller :despite what you might have read on the Internet."^[1]

As such, I have removed the info from the article. --Jezebel'sPonyo^{bons mots} 17:40, 20 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

2018 update: The

I would hate to have this guy's name. --Mr. Comedian (talk) 16:51, 21 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have been doing a bit of a search inre this fellow's film history. He's been voices in a few animated series and animated features past Sponge Bob... going all the way 45 years back to the Jetson's in 1962, as well as voices in a few video games. This fellow has even had a couple actual film roles. Now looking for some sources toward his work. I am not usually impressed with voice actors... but this guy? Quite a history. We'll see. Schmidt, ^{MICHAEL Q.} 07:48, 21 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I know that IMDB states that

The problem is that it sounds like the 1938 date came about through

reliable source that states a 1938 date, there is very little chance of changing the date from 1951. —C.Fred (talk) 22:44, 2 January 2011 (UTC)[reply

]

I see that there's been some disagreement over whether to include mention of the recent DUI incident. While I agree that it's likely notable enough to warrant brief discussion in the article, I do find myself questioning whether it's appropriate to include, if it's going to be the only thing that we have in the Personal Life section. Ideally, someone will eventually make large-scale additions to this article, at which point I see no problem with having a couple sentences detailing Bumpass' DUI arrest. But until then, I feel like it might be best to avoid any mention of this. Otherwise, it would seem as though this particular incident is the only notable thing known about Bumpass' personal life - which might not be quite as much of an issue if the guy were a notorious drunk, but I've never heard anything to that end. Right now, I feel like the information could potentially carry some issues with neutrality, as well as undue weight. --Jpcase (talk) 20:17, 22 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think it should be included until more personal life details are added, either. I've looked to see if there is anything on his personal life that isn't a report on this one incident, but have been unsuccessful. I'd say that the entire section should be removed for now, since all it includes are two sentences on the DUI.

talk) 21:13, 23 January 2016 (UTC)[reply

]

I've done a little searching myself and haven't had much luck either - although I'm sure that if someone really wanted to dig around, then at least a few good sources would probably turn up. I have managed to find these YouTube videos of Bumpass being interviewed at conventions - (Dragon Con Part 1 [1]), (Dragon Con Part 2 [2]), and (Invader Con [3]). Unfortunately, I'm not sure whether they would be accepted as sources, given that they weren't uploaded by any kind of "official" channel. It may be that we could use the convention itself as the source (e.g. We could treat Dragon Con as the publisher, Bumpass himself as the "author", and then simply use the YouTube video for the url link), but I would have to look into that. There are actually a few interesting tidbits that could potentially be worked into the Squidward Tentacles article, such as when Bumpass describes the voice for Squidward as a slowed-down, angsty version of The Chief from Carmen Sandiego (another one of Bumpass' roles). Even if we determine that the videos are okay as sources though, there would still have to be some discussion as to which specific information to include, as some of it could be deemed trivial.

Here's the "Personal Life" information that jumped out at me:

• As an Arkansas native, he was trained to lose his Southern accent while studying broadcasting. (Dragon Con Part 1 3:59 - 4:44)
• His favorite episodes of SpongeBob are "The Camping Episode", "Dying for Pie", and "Band Geeks". (Dragon Con Part 1 4:45 - 7:05)
• Cites Mel Blanc as one of his prime inspirations in voice acting, describing Blanc as "the Laurence Olivier of our field". (Dragon Con Part 1 10:26 - 10:55)
• He also has significant respect for Tom Kenny's ability to blend into a variety of different roles. (Dragon Con Part 1 10:56 - 11:30)
• He draws a connection between Squidward and himself, remarking, "I say he's my alter-ego, but sometimes I believe he is my ego". (Dragon Con Part 1 13:25 - 13:51)*
• He discusses the false reports of his death in a fair bit of detail, offering up some amusing anecdotes. (Dragon Con Part 1 14:05 - 15:45)
• Says that he can relate to Squidward in that he has dealt with a great deal of discouragement in his life. (Dragon Con 1 15:47 - 16:51)**
• Prefers cartoons that rely on simple story lines and "abstraction", rather than ones with dialogue-heavy scripts, as he considers the latter style to be overly similar to live-action sitcoms. (Dragon Con Part 2 00:10 - 3:02)
• Names Cow and Chicken as one of his favorite cartoons, largely due to Charlie Adler's versatile vocal work on the show. Is also a fan of The Fairly OddParents. (Dragon Con Part 2 5:59 - 6:58)
• Names his SpongeBob co-star Tim Conway as someone who has inspired a lot of his stage acting. (Dragon Con Part 2 13:27 - 14:04)***
• Talks a little more about how he prefers animation that feels like animation, rather than feeling like a sitcom. (Dragon Con Part 2 18:30 - 19:09)
• Delving a little deeper into the above point, he specifies his preference for short animation, over longer animated work. (Dragon Con Part 2 21:04 - 22:08)
• Apparently, he really likes bacon and even has a "bacon wallet". (InvaderCON 2:20 - 2:45)

I also managed to stumble across two short sources in print - this interview with the Georgia State Signal [4], in which Bumpass discusses the above-mentioned Tim Conway information, and this article from BULL magazine [5], in which he repeats the anecdotes about his purported deaths. These are both college publications, so I can't say for certain whether they would qualify as RS, although I do know that at least some college newspapers have been accepted within certain contexts. Depending on how much (if any) of this information we decide to incorporate into the article, mention of the DUI incident may or may not be balanced out. If we only include the two print articles, I would argue that it may still be premature. If we can use the conventions as sources, and decide that at least one or two additional pieces of information could be discussed, then the DUI info would certainly have a place in the article.

(Check the asteriks above)

* This may be more of a joke / playing to the crowd though, as in the Georgia State Signal article, he distances himself - although not entirely - from the notion that he's similar to Squidward. My guess is that there probably are some similarities - most of us have a Squidward side I think, haha ;) - but they may not be strong enough to warrant a mention here. Of course, there's no reason why we couldn't just say that Bumpass has made differing claims on the matter, if that's the route that we wanted to go in.

** As with above, this may be an example of Bumpass making a broad, general statement, due to the crowd setting, rather than him referencing anything highly specific to his life. Everyone deals with discouragement in their lives, so while I'm sure that he was being truthful in his statement, there's little reason to infer that Bumpass has gone through any particular hardship worth mentioning here. We can leave it open to discussion though.

*** He also goes into an amusing anecdote about working with Ernest Borgnine on Escape from New York, although this would be better incorporated into the "Career" section.

--Jpcase (talk) 15:18, 27 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, so considering that this conversation has been ongoing for about a week now, and no objections have been raised, I've made a call and decided to delete the "Personal Life" section. If anyone objects however, the matter is certainly still open for further discussion. I'll actually go ahead and ping @

Mediran: and @Cyphoidbomb:, as I know both of them to have a vested interest in SpongeBob-related articles. If I have the time, I'll look into whether any of the above sources would pass muster as RS. Things have been really busy for me lately though, so if anyone else wants to take the lead on this, please feel free! And if the sources are okay, then I'd like to ideally get some opinions on which specific info ought to be included. --Jpcase (talk) 15:30, 29 January 2016 (UTC)[reply

]

Hi Jpcase, I'm really only in the world of SpongeBob in my capacities as a WikiGnome and I too am rather busy with my adminly duties along with my real life crap. I don't have any specific objection to your actions though, in case that helps. Take care, Cyphoidbomb (talk) 16:00, 29 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hey Cyphoidbomb, thanks for the fast reply! I know that you aren't heavily involved with the content creation side of things, so unless someone else beats me to the punch (which I guess is unlikely), and providing that real life for me doesn't get too messy these next couple weeks (which, if I'm being honest, is a bit of coin toss at the moment), I'll probably take on for myself the task of adding whatever information is deemed RS (supposing that any of it actually is). My hope in pinging you (and the other two above) was just to get another voice in the conversation, however briefly, as three opinions feels like the minimum for reaching a consensus on this sort of thing. I've always valued your input, and so I appreciate you stopping by. Oh, and congratulations on the adminship! That must have happened sometime while I was out. You seem like a good fit for the job! --Jpcase (talk) 14:57, 30 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

FYI - A couple weeks ago, I opened this discussion, WP:Reliable sources/Noticeboard/Archive 203#Using live events as sources. Only one editor replied and it sounds like, as of the moment, there isn't any system in place for using live events as sources. Response from that editor was fairly encouraging though, so I'd like to eventually get wider input on the matter. If the editing community is willing to accept this kind of source, then perhaps a new template could be created. Such a turn of events would, of course, impact much more than just this article. It would be a long process, I'm sure, and there's hardly any guarantee that a favorable consensus would be reached. If I can ever manage to find the time though, I'll certainly pursue this further. And if anyone else is reading this and has thoughts, then please do share. --Jpcase (talk) 15:24, 16 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

P.S. - I've come across this [6] article, which paints the DUI arrest as a fairly amicable experience between Bumpass and the police. Whenever the "Personal Life" section is rebuilt, I would suggest using this article to frame the situation in the appropriate context. --Jpcase (talk) 15:31, 16 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

This would be a good source to draw from - HIGH PROFILE: Rodger Bumpass, Little Rock native who voices Squidward on 'SpongeBob SquarePants', The Arkansas Democrat Gazette (October 21, 2018) --Jpcase (talk) 14:54, 2 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

What's his ancestry? Bumpass sounds like a typical English surname, so is it likely that he descends from 17th century English colonial settlers? --37.201.4.72 (talk) 18:36, 7 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]