Voice Talent Joe Cipriano

Editor’s Note: Having had the pleasure of meeting and briefly speaking with Joe Cipriano for the first time last week at VOICE 2010, I was very happy (and not at all surprised) to hear he has received this award in recognition of his voice over work and his efforts on behalf of the Don LaFontaine Voiceover Lab within the Actors Center at the SAG Foundation offices. Here’s the official announcement from PromaxBDA and Brief Magazine:

PromaxBDA and Brief Magazine are proud to present the 2nd Annual Don LaFontaine Legacy Award to Joe Cipriano. Created collectively by PromaxBDA and Anita LaFontaine to honor the name, memory and defining legacy of one of the world’s most famous voices, the Don LaFontaine Legacy Award recognizes a voice of impact as determined by a specialized industry committee. Through the criteria filter of character, longevity, talent, professionalism and the passion for giving back, this year’s recipient embodies much of Don’s defining legacy.

Joe Cipriano has worked on the air for the NBC, ABC, FOX and CBS Television and Radio networks, and has been the live announcer at high profile events including the Grammy Awards and the Primetime Emmy Awards. Cipriano has more than 20 years of voice talent experience.

He is the co-founder of the newly launched Don LaFontaine Voice-Over Lab at the SAG Foundation Actors Center. The Lab and all of its programs, dedicated to educating and inspiring young up and coming voice over talent, will be offered free to the public.

Don LaFontaine, whose immediately recognizable voice was featured on more than 5000 promos and trailers over a period of more than 30 years, passed away last year. Cipriano will accept the Award at the 2010 PromaxBDA Promotions and Marketing Awards scheduled for the final night of the three day PromaxBDA Conference.

The Don LaFontaine Legacy Award was introduced for the first time at the 2009 Promax Marketing & Promotion Awards celebration as part of the 54th annual PromaxBDA Conference. The PromaxBDA Awards competition is dedicated to celebrating excellence in marketing, design and creative content in the entertainment industry.

With the switch to HD, networks and local stations are not only sprucing up their sets (and their talents – make up doesn’t work the way it used to), they are also updating their graphics package.

So Monday, CBS’ Early Show did just that…complete, I’m advised, with a new announcer.

I am open to correction but it sure sounds to me like the lovely and talented Mr. Beau Weaver scored himself another network gig. Sounds great to me.

In case you might have missed it during the Super Bowl….

P.S. Here’s a little story about how the promo came about from Late Show EP Rob Burnett.

I’ll be brief.

Tonight, “The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” changed the news program’s opening; the graphics were the same but the voice was different.

The network’s most celebrated anchor (even more than Edward R. Murrow) Walter Cronkite had introduced the network’s flagship broadcast since it began in September of 2006. It was a masterful piece of casting.

Tonight, CBS News President Sean McManus and Executive Producer Rick Kaplan used a new voice to introduce the program, actor Morgan Freeman.

Here is the audio for the new introduction.

Mr. Freeman did a passable job as an announcer and it’s said he’ll voice other CBS News programs as well, adding unity and flexibility to many CBS News broadcasts.

But Freeman is not Walter Cronkite whose voice upon that program bestowed a blessing and implied gravitas the likes of which cannot be measured by anything yet invented. No other network news program had or has anything like it. Suffice it to say Cronkite’s voice over on the program’s open was an invaluable asset.

McManus had indicated the program would lose Cronkite’s voice on the open in 2009 after the anchor man died but the Cronkite family allowed it to be used ever after, which (it was said at the time) made everyone happy at CBS News.

Evidently “everyone” lied.

The stupidest thing The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric ever did occurred tonight – it removed a pillar of broadcast journalism as the voice of the network’s primary news program and replaced it with someone else. It is not Freeman’s fault…no one could have replaced Cronkite’s perfect voice over.

No one should have.

There are those, sometimes myself included, who wonder if any event on television can ever capture the imagination anymore.

Sporting events? Maybe for a day like the Super Bowl – but when you think about it, it is just another football game with some extra sweet frosting surrounding it.

Inaugurations? Funerals, maybe.

But visually the sight of Paul McCartney playing live during a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman ON THE MARQUEE of the Ed Sullivan Theatre (the theatre where he first played in America as a Beatle on the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964) was stunning.

It was impactful.

Watch the thousands of people lining Broadway and the side streets…as far as the eye could see. Office workers and people hanging out windows to listen. The TODAY show may try but it’s not the same.

To consider the history that happened there in 1964 and everything that transpired for McCartney, the Beatles and the world since then was amazing.

That’s what television CAN do when it’s not doling out crap about some pseudo celebrity or chasing “real-life” stories.

If you’re a true broadcaster at heart, if you get the history that surrounds our medium, this was great television.

This is why David Letterman is the king of late night and, since Carson retired, always has been. They both can be called comedians and entertainers but they are broadcasters first.

True broadcasters can make great television.

P.S. 7.17.09- Sometimes when you do make great television, EVERYBODY notices. Congrats, Dave!

The cynical would say when television networks produce anniversary shows it is to prove they are still relevant. While I get that argument, I look at it differently; I see it as a kind of a history lesson.

Maybe it is because I am so fascinated by such things that I found this blog post from the KINESCOPE HD blog so terrific. The post features clips from the 1978 production of CBS-TV (and to a degree, radio) celebrating its first 50 years.

What is so poignant for me watching this was seeing so many of the stars long since passed today shown healthy and vibrant and so duly noted in this 1978 special. I cannot help but imagine how cool it must have been back stage, not because of some past, present or future “celebrity” status but rather to have all those talented people together, mixing, sharing stories…what an amazing experience it must have been. Some egos? Sure…you’ll note the absence of a certain Jackie Gleason in the show. What’s up with that?! Maybe it was a “scheduling” thing.

Can you IMAGINE sitting, chatting and mostly listening to Lucille Ball, Red Skelton, George Burns and on and on – likely pleasant folks with mind-blowing stories and experiences and more than a few great belly laughs. So much to learn!

Also of note were some of the sets in the show which used graphics still on the air today on shows like CBS News Sunday Morning. The designs are classic and timeless, much like the network’s famous eye logo (shown respectfully above).

Look, the songs and the skits are a bit hokey but it was celebration and taken as a whole, a pretty OK one at that.

I hope you enjoy watching these clips as much as I did and kudos to KINESCOPE HD for putting it together. They always do a bang up job and I am a proud subscriber to their blog.