Thursday, Oct. 30, 2003 | 8:25 a.m.
When Matt Groening, creator of "The Simpsons," first approached Fox about a sci-fi animated spoof called "Futurama," he demanded absolute control of the show.
"Matt wanted autonomy," said Billy West, the voice behind "Futurama's" "everyman" protagonist, Fry a 20th century pizza delivery goof-off who is inadvertently cryogenically frozen, only to be thawed a millennium later.
"(Groening) had enough clout to say to the network, 'Look, I don't want any meddling and I don't want a little stool pigeon sitting there from the network dropping a dime every five minutes making phone calls, saying, 'Guess what so-and-so did and here's what's going on.' He didn't allow that and they hated it."
So network brass did what most TV executives do they got even.
"They just said, 'OK, we'll fix him,' and they just started playing Chinese checkers with the days and times of the show so that no one could find it and it was always pre-empted by football," West said in a recent interview from his home in Los Angeles. "They tried to kill it."
Fox did kill it officially earlier this year after a five-year run. But it is the show's creators who are laughing now after "Futurama" reruns landed on Cartoon Network, anchoring its lineup of adult male-oriented 'toons.
"It is the male-demographic king of late night," he said. "There's more 18-to-34-year-olds watching 'Futurama' every night of the week than Jay (Leno), (David) Letterman, Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Kimmel combined. And those guys are seen in 10 million more homes than we are."
"So maybe the word over at Fox is 'D'oh!' "
West will be at the Las Vegas Comic-Con to promote a new film in which he stars, "Comic Book: The Movie." He will be part of a panel discussion from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday.
The three-day Las Vegas Comic-Con is open to the public and features comic book writers, artists, panel discussions and celebrity signings.
The 53-year-old West, who in real life sounds similar to an older version of Fry, said he is proud of "Futurama's" ratings comeback.
But, more importantly, he is proud of the show.
"It's a highbrow show. It's got layer and layer of gags. If you don't get one, there's another, in keeping with the way cartoons used to be," he said. "And the writing was beautiful (but) nobody saw it.
"It's strange. Here it is five years later and I'm getting posts on my website from the UK and New Zealand saying it's the best thing they ever saw."
"Futurama" isn't the only cult cartoon series to feature West.
He provided the voice for Stimpson J. Cat on the original "Ren & Stimpy Show" seen on Nickelodeon in the early '90s. And later he took over as the voice of Ren when series creator John Kricfalusi, the original voice of Ren, was terminated from the series over creative differences.
The parting wasn't amicable and Kricfalusi blamed West for not also leaving the show. Kricfalusi has since resurrected the 'toon as "Ren & Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon" on the Spike TV network.
West, however, has yet to watch the new series. The days of "Ren & Stimpy" are, in many ways, happily behind him.
"It became such an unpleasant experience, being accused as the man who set animation back 20 years ago. That kind of thing, when John K. declared this dogmatic war on me," West said. "He was like a rock in my shoe for about seven years. And he got his own ass fired. And he tried to pin everything on me, like I wouldn't go with him so that's why he was out. ... (He was) acting like I was his partner, and I wasn't his partner. I barely knew him.
"He was this walking, talking collection of show-business tics who seemed to be very quirky and everything. I liked his work, but I was a hired gun. I wasn't his partner."
It's hard to fathom the seemingly happy world of animation being so cutthroat. But West said he was even replaced from voicing Bugs Bunny in the upcoming movie "Looney Tunes: Back in Action" after "this political thing happened."
West did provide the voice for Elmer Fudd in the movie, scheduled for a Nov. 14 release, and voiced Bugs in several upcoming animated shorts that Warner Bros. plans to release as a package with its feature films.
West said he prefers to voice original characters such as Fry versus well-known ones such as Bugs.
"If that's all you're gonna do is impressions, you're just gonna go down as a footnote in history," he said. "If you're somebody who created the character and people loved it, that makes you as special as any other person who created the stuff."
Plus, imitating the work of other voice-over actors puts you at the mercy of individual perception. Which can be brutal -- especially as seen in many comments to his website, www.billywest.com.
"I'll get a post and somebody will say, 'Wow, you're the best one so far.' And then I'll get these griping posts on the computer: 'I can't stand it. It makes my skin crawl,' " he said. "They'll keep saying it and it's like, all right already. You don't like it."
Not that West takes the criticism to heart.
"I don't give a dismal damn," the Detroit native said. "I didn't hire myself. I was hired by someone to go and do that."
West originally wasn't hired to do any voice-over work. While he grew up a fan of Mel Blanc, the voice behind the Looney Tunes animation empire, West never dreamed he would one day be voicing the same characters.
His first gig was as a guitarist/singer for various rock bands. When problems would occur onstage, however, such as a broken guitar string or a blown amplifier, West would resort to making cartoon voices.
"I would stand there and start riffing onstage," he said. "The air would become electric and I would realize that I had some other thing going on besides playing."
As he got older, West got out of the music business.
"Bands are like the Viet Cong: They just keep getting younger and they just keep coming," he said.
He later got a job as the titular cartoon character Doug on the Nickelodeon series, followed by "Ren & Stimpy."
From there West's career took off as he provided voices for various characters on movies, such as a cockroach in "Joe's Apartment," a monkey in "Jumanji" and Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in "Space Jam." His television work also includes a year on "The Howard Stern Show."
Most recently West provided the voice for Popeye and Pappy for an hourlong Fox special to air next year.
The animation will be computer-generated and, depending on how the special is received, could lead to a "Popeye" movie or series.
West also went in front of the camera for the mockumentary "Comic Book: The Movie." Directed by Mark Hamill, who also stars in the film, "Comic Book" features other voice-over actors such as Tom Kenny, the man behind "SpongeBob SquarePants."
The film concerns a comic book fanatic, Donald Swann (Hamill), who is filming a documentary about his favorite comic book hero, the fictional Commander Courage.
While making the film, Swann discovers Leo Matuzik (West), a sheet metal worker from upstate New York who is the grandson of Commander Courage's creator.
West said it was actually easier to appear in front of the camera than remain behind it.
"It wasn't as hard as doing voices," he said. "You didn't even have to act. You would just live it as if you were this person. There's not much to think about after that.
"I know people go through all of this toiling, but I was able to switch gears for characters of any kind no matter how many you threw at me. So this was easy."
"Comic Book: The Movie" is scheduled to be released to DVD in late January.
In the meantime West has returned to his other love, music, fronting the band Billy West and the Grief Counselors. The band is set to release its debut disc soon, "Me Pod," "because I'm, like, downloading myself," he said.
Being "the man who set animation back 20 years" notwithstanding, West said he has enjoyed his career as the unrecognizable face behind well-known voices.
"I'm very fortunate that people like what I do and they like me via my work," he said. "I'm just honored. I mean, what are the odds of that happening in somebody's lifetime?"
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