As a young Videographer/Editor at Ch 64 in the late 80s, I was assigned to handle Mike’s account. His vision, patience and attention to detail made it a pleasure to work with him. But that’s only the surface. It didn’t take long to become friends with Mike; he was like a surrogate father, a favorite uncle, an older brother I never had, all wrapped up in one kind, gentle, caring, fun-loving person. Mike made working on his commercials a fun learning environment, and his effervescent personality livened up a room just by entering it.
On one occasion, Mike explained to me how he directed the Uncle Al Show. He not only directed the show calling camera and audio cues and the like. He also was the voice for many of the characters on the show–live. Having directed live TV before myself, I can assure you this is seemingly an impossible task. Mike had two microphones, one he directed the show with, the other he could activate to perform the character voices in the show. Essentially you have two tracks of information going through your mind simultaneously.
One of the many silly things Mike would do around the studio is, when doing an on camera bit, we would ask him for a microphone check, and in an extremely feminine voice Mike would proclaim, “One two — one two, I’m one are you one too?”
It sounds cliche, but Mike was Mike–you got what you saw and heard and you loved it.
Dave Hoctor, Producer/Director/Editor/Videographer
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