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[Junior]

From '77-'84, the original run of the diving bell at SDC, Slim Pickens was the voice of Rube Dugan, Dub Taylor the voice of Grandpappy Dugan. I've been thinking about it lately, and if they brought back the diving bell with todays technology, who would be a good voice actor for the ride? My top pick right now is Tom Lester, the actor that played "Eb" in Green Acres. Tom Lester has a good country twang in his voice. But if revived, should he play "Junior" as the new Captain? Should Rube be killed off? Maybe Pickens' and Taylor's voices could be the new ghosts who meet the diving bell at the treasure location. I actually interviewed Lester in my radio days, and he was a very nice guy. This was about a year or two before the release of the kids movie, "Gordy." He told me in the interview that he was developing a talking pig movie, somewhat like "Arnold" on Green Acres. Any thoughts? How about your picks for voice actors? We would have to voice Junior Dugan, Rube Dugan, Grandpappy Dugan...and maybe Eli Tolts (the bad guy) or, if Rube is dead, so would Eli...so how about a voice for Eli's son, who could be the new bad guy?

[Joy]

Ooo... I like the idea of ghosts!

[Junior]

Man, I'm really showing my age. I don't think most of my friends here at sdcfans.com are old enough to remember the ride clearly. No wonder I'm not seeing too many replies regarding voice actors for a new ride! Ha! 

[Duelist]

Buck Taylor is usually at SDC during the Cowboy Fest- maybe he should do the voice his Dad Dub did.   

[MissinTheGreenTrams]

I did think about this. Really. And my thoughts were stupid. Like Larry the Cable Guy for Junior. And Clint Eastwood for Eli Toltz...

[Junior]

I also thought about Larry the Cable Guy, but he has done so much Disney stuff...Mater from Cars...and other things, I don't know. Clint, don't know if he would even consider it. Buck Taylor? A possibility. Any other ideas?

[okiebluegrass]

Junior, I think you should do the voice of the older wiser Junior Dugan, who has designed a new fangled diving bell to try and get to that silver. If we think about this long enough, I think we could write an entire script.... Anyone interested in helping out?

[Junior]

Hey, I'd be interested if the PTB would say yes!
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My storyline is this: thirty some odd years have passed, and so have Captain Rube and Eli Tolts. Junior, in the years since the Dugan Salvage Yard at SDC closed, has drifted around, at first working as a deckhand on Mississppi River steamboats, later, as a hand on ocean steamers that visited European and Asian rim ports of call. Now Junior is in his 50's, and has resettled in SDC. He updates the diving bell with technology ideas he picked up as a young man on his world travels. Now, Junior's nephew and niece, Ruben and Ruby Dugan, help him out as pilots. The adventure is much the same as the old attraction, dodging underwater rockslides, sinkholes, almost striking the wreckage of an old diving bell stuck in mud on the bottom of Lake Silver. Oh, and trying to evade Eli Tolts' son in his submergible! After loosing Eli's son, the diving bell finds a narrow, dark passage at the bottom of the lake...Grandpappy's old silver mine! When the treasure of silver is spotted, the ghosts of Grandpappy Dugan and Captain Rube appear...and of course, the end result is the same, the diving bell is blown out of the water, and comes to rest on a ledge, allowing the volunteers to narrowly escape with their lives!
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With today's technology, you could have alternate storylines. From reading on threads here, apparently a few theme parks do this now with their simulator attractions. There are many possibilities. With the cost of operating such an attraction, I think that unfortunately it would not be economically feasible to have a Ruben or Ruby in each capsule with the guests. The pilot would have to join Captain Junior in the loft above the audience's heads. The capsules would probably have to be smaller, and there would have to be more than five simulators for capacity reasons. Anyway, the PTB at SDC have to make the decision on bringing back this attraction, and it would probably take two to four years minimum to work out the details, get the attraction built, and then opened.