Long before I was “D23’s Scott Wolf,” writing This Day in Disney, my first job with Disney was as a production assistant on DuckTales, which premiered on this day in 1987. It was a thrill to begin working on the second season of the series because it had just finished 65 episodes and was a huge success, bringing the Carl Barks comic book characters to life on television. It was a complete joy to work with Bob Hathcock who had taken over as producer on the second season, and whose father, Jerry Hathcock, was a veteran animator, having worked on numerous Disney shorts and animated features such as Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp. It was always fun to see a voice recording session. In those days, the shows were still recorded as an ensemble, rather than having the actors record individually as it is done today. Scrooge McDuck was voiced by the wonderful Alan Young, who had seen great fame in the ’60s, costarring with the talking horse in Mister Ed. Russi Taylor, the official voice of Minnie Mouse, portrayed the nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, as well as Webby. I remember Russi bringing her pet bird to the recording sessions, which for a show about birds, was entirely appropriate!
