More on Jim Forbes:
San Jose Mercury News (CA)
February 4, 2001
VH1 NARRATOR MAKES CLICHES SIT WELL
ONCE A REPORTER BUT NOW VOICE OF 'BEHIND THE MUSIC'
Author: CANDACE MURPHY, Mercury News
As far as Jim Forbes is concerned, it's all about his but.
No, not the double-t posterior portion of his body, though Entertainment Weekly did include him
in their 1999 ''IT'' list. No, we're talking his but. The conjunction. The conjunction junction what's
your function. Picking upwords and making them sound right.
And no one, but no one, has mastered the use of the words more so than Forbes, the narrator of
VH1's ''Behind the Music.'' But that trademark of the show, made even more memorable by
Forbes' gravelly delivery, is often the toughest part of an episode to get through with a straight
face.
''There's always that transition,'' says Forbes. ''Any time I have to go, 'But.' I think the time I
used it that really cracked me up was in the show on Vanilla Ice. It was the quintessential
'Behind-the-Music But.' It was something along the lines of, 'Only five months earlier, he was an
unknown break dancer from Dallas. Now, he was on top of the charts and on top of the world.
But! It would only last eight days.' I did have trouble getting through that.''
Part of the reason Forbes sometimes has a hard time slogging through the melodramas of Leif
Garrett or Creed or Meat Loaf is because Forbes never, ever thought his career would make him
what he is today: a veritable John Facenda of shipwrecked careers.
Long line of journalists
A fourth-generation journalist -- his father was the New York Daily News beat writer for the New
York Giants baseball and football teams in the '30s and '40s -- Forbes always was respected for
his hard-hitting investigative work. One memorable expose for Forbes was a major investigation
he did of an anesthesiologist at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut who was caught several
times abusing drugs while on duty, was allowed to continue practicing, and the state
investigation was quashed because Yale's chief-of-staff was also the head of the state examining
board.
That's not to say Forbes never wanted to narrate. When Ken Burns' baseball documentary was
being made, he tried to get in on the action but got involved too late. Still, with a portfolio
crammed with clips keeping public officials on the up and up, his colleagues are truly surprised by
Forbes' VH1 venture, a career move that has many comparing him to the late Facenda, the
storied voice behind NFL Films fame.
''The VH1 stuff is certainly nothing I'd ever have expected of him,'' says Tricia Takasugi, a
freelance journalist and reporter for Fox News and Court TV, who met Forbes 15 years ago when
he was an investigative reporter for KCBS in Los Angeles. ''But he's the true Renaissance man. I
knew him back in the day when he was a hard-nosed, ultra-serious reporter. He wanted nothing
to do with anything fluffy. He'd be offended to be thought of as anything else, and never wanted
to be associated with that ditzy L.A. typecast.''
But actually, it was Forbes' skill for digging up dirt and putting ne'er-do-wells' feet to the flame
that landed him his job behind the fluffy microphone of ''Behind the Music.'' Forbes had been
wanting to do a documentary on Selena, the Tejano singer from Texas murdered in 1995, when
VH1's George Moll called up and asked the reporter if he would produce such an episode for the
new show he was executive producer of, ''Behind the Music.''
''My first reaction was , 'Uh, NO. What does VH1 do?' '' says Forbes. ''Because at that time, VH1
was not the network it is now. And 'Behind the Music' wasn't on the air yet. So initially, I
declined.''
But after a week of mulling it over, Forbes called Moll.
''He really wanted to do an investigative report on looking at aspects of Selena's death that
hadn't been reported yet, so I agreed to do it,'' says Forbes, who, over the phone from his home
in Los Angeles sounds almost as if he's narrating his own life on ''Behind the Music.'' ''Then I
asked who was hosting the show and was told it was a non-hosted show. I asked who was
narrating it and he said, 'It's funny you should ask, because we're looking for somebody.' ''
Forbes ended up writing and producing the Selena episode, which won an American Latino Media
Arts Award in 1999, and now, after episode upon episode airs in perpetuity in VH1's periodic
''Behind the Music'' marathons, the veteran television news producer and correspondent finds
himself a pop cultural icon of sorts. Albeit one whose face isn't too well known. Takasugi, his
colleague, finds that fitting.
''He always hated being known for his looks,'' says Takasugi. ''He wanted to be known for his
writing, how he could tell a story. But he's always had this fabulous voice. He didn't think
anything of it, though. It's amazing,now that it's made him so well known.''
Parodies prove he's big
And if there are doubters in the crowd that the VH1 gig has made Forbes famous, then perhaps
they missed the parodies of the show on Chris Rock, Rosie O'Donnell and ''Saturday Night Live.''
Even the San Jose Sharks have contacted Forbes to see if he has any interest in narrating a video
for San Jose Arena's Jumbotron, for a ''Behind the Music'' spoof of Sharky. A game-show pilot
hosted by Forbes and based on ''Behind the Music'' is in the works on VH1, as well.
''The series has become a cultural phenomenon,'' Moll, executive producer and VH1's vice
president of West Coast production, has said. ''I've been involved in a lot of TV shows in my
career, but not in one that generates the kind of reaction this one does.''
As for Forbes, the experience has been eye-opening. For one, it has vastly augmented his CD
collection. On this day, his car CD player features Green Day, U2, Eric Clapton, Bon Jovi, Janis
Joplin and Metallica. Just the other day, he says, Outkast was in the mix.
''Hey, I have to listen to this stuff,'' he says. ''I like it all.''
Still, the narrative job isn't exactly as easy as it sounds, in part because Forbes is not accustomed
to reading the writing of another reporter. Forbes has written only one on his own, the Selena
episode, and was a contributing writer on Fleetwood Mac. Each episode takes about four months
to create from start to finish, and more than 100 people work for the show, ranging from legal
advisers to researchers. To make the narration sound fresh and authentic, Forbes makes every
effort to do his job in one take.
''A lot of that comes from my background of doing news for so many years and probably having
done several thousand live reports from major events, so there's that sort of training,'' says
Forbes.
In addition, Forbes doesn't look at the show's script or video until its time to narrate.
''We're reading to the video and I have cues as to when to come in,'' says Forbes. ''I think it's
actually to our benefit, because I'm responding as a viewer would. I think that emotion probably
comes through in my voice, and I really prefer to try to get it on one take, especially those very
poignant moments, because it's more of an authentic response to what I'm seeing. Whereas if
you become too familiar with the copy, I think it becomes a little more by rote and you don't feel
it as much.''
Of course, that unfamiliarity with the subject matter can backfire. Like the struggle to get out the
Vanilla Ice nonsense. Or relating the almost darkly comedic predictability of substance abuse (Joe
Cocker, Andy Gibb, Iggy Pop et al.), time in the pokey (David Crosby, Rick James, Tommy Lee et
al.), strange deaths (Sonny Bono, Karen Carpenter, Mama Cass Elliott et al.), financial sob stories
(Billy Joel, Blondie, Hammer, Meat Loaf, Grand Funk Railroad et al.) and deaths by plane crashes
(the Big Bopper, Jim Croce, John Denver, Buddy Holly, members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ritchie
Valens et al.).
''There are times,'' executive producer Moll has said, ''when you have to scratch your head to
come up with another way to say 'And then things began spiraling out of control.' ''
His natural sound
Forbes, though, put a trademark on that whole ''spiraling out of control'' moment. And he thinks
the reason he has is because there is nothing special about his voice. And despite the fact his
voice, when he speaks low, sounds as gravelly as an unpaved road, he says he's an extremely
healthy and athletic guy, and doesn't smoke, like many in the business of voice-overs.
''People say you ought to start smoking and drinking a couple of shots of whiskey before you do
this,'' says Forbes. ''But I do nothing to alter it. I think what works in my favor is it's not
annoying. It doesn't have any quirk to it that at first somebody might say, 'Well, that's kind of
interesting,' but then it gets real annoying over time. Especially when we do these marathons
and there might be 24 straight hours of it. I can't stand listening to myself and I don't watch
those marathons, but at least my voice doesn't have a Porky Pig or Elmer Fudd quality that you
know who it is, but God, it's annoying.''
That said, don't try to get Forbes to compare himself to the aforementioned John Facenda. ''I'm
no John Facenda,'' says Forbes. ''I hear stuff like that, but I don't see that. Really, I don't. I think
Facenda is phenomenal; he's just got one of those amazing voices. I truly don't think there is
anything special about my voice.''
But there is. And because of it, Forbes fame is just starting to spiral out of control. So who
knows? This may be one VH1 story with a happy ending
