Rare footage featuring an interview with Sonic the Hedgehog for the Rosie O’Donnell Show has been discovered and posted online.
The 54-second long clip appeared on Twitter this morning thanks to user RebelTaxi and has already amassed over two hundred thousand views.
In the segment, originally broadcast in the US in 1999 as part of Episode 69 of the fourth season of the popular daytime variety show, an actor in a Sonic costume appears with Rosie O’Donnell as part of a promotion for Sonic Adventure and for the Toys For Tots campaign.
Sonic appeared on the show to donate five hundred plush Sonic toys to the charity campaign before Rosie O’Donnell revealed that every member of the audience would receive a Sega Dreamcast bundle, just for attending.
The Man Filling Sonic’s Sneakers
Sonic fans will undoubtedly recognise Sonic’s voice in the clip as that of Ryan Drummond, the American actor and comedian who first lent his vocals to Sonic in Sonic Adventure before appearing as the Blue Blur until 2004.
Drummond appeared on Episode 67 of the Nerd On Podcast in 2018 and spoke about his experience voicing Sonic on the Rosie O’Donnell show. While Ryan provided the voice for Sonic, an unknown actor portrayed the Sega’s mascot in the costume.
Drummond remembers the man in the suit with some wild descriptions, calling the unnamed individual “the epitome of the horror movie where there’s a killer in the costume” and a “totally nice guy”.
According to Drummond, the unsung hero inside in the Sonic costume had “a long ponytail and a porn moustache” and worked as a “tragedy scene clean up guy” as his day job.
Drummond received a Dreamcast and several games from Sega as a reward for his Sonic voiceover for the Rosie O’Donnell Show.
