Everyone Loves Raymond's Brad Garrett's First Role Was Playing A WWE Legend

Prior to his lucrative, star-making stint on "Everybody Loves Raymond," actor and comedian Brad Garrett spent 15 solid years paying his dues. Garrett was bitten by the stand-up comedy bug when he was young, and started touring local Southern California comedy clubs in the 1980s when he was in his 20s. In 1984, Garrett won an impressive $100,000 on the talent show competition "Star Search," the first comedian to win the prize. That led directly to a night on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," which, in turn, got Garrett a long string of gigs opening for some of the hottest musical acts, performers, and lounge singers of the day; he opened for Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Liza Minnelli, and David Copperfield.

To supplement his income, the deep-voice Garrett also took on a lot of voice roles for various animated shows. He played the robot Trypticon on the 1986 series "Transformers," but made his professional voice acting debut with a rather high-profile role, playing the legendarily weird Hulk Hogan in the bizarre animated series "Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling." 

It's important to remember that the World Wrestling Federation (later, World Wrestling Entertainment) was huge in the mid-1980s, and had grown into a legitimate entertainment empire. The very first Wrestlemania event debuted in 1985, and over 19,000 people gathered at Madison Square Garden to witness it. It featured star wrestlers of the day like Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake, King Kong Bundy, Big John Studd, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, and, of course, Andre the Giant. The main event was Hulk Hogan vs. Mr. T, an event for the ages. Hulk Hogan was more or less the "main character" of the WWF. 

"Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling" debuted the following September. It was a hit.

Just like in the WWF, "Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling" featured a team of colorful good-guy "faces" often butting heads (sometimes literally) with equally colorful bad-guy "heels." The heroes of the series were Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Junkyard Dog, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, Hillbilly Jim, and Captain Lou Albano. The villains were led by the irascible "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, and included the Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff, The Fabulous Moolah, and Big John Studd. 

None of these wrestlers provided their own voices. Brad Garrett played Hogan, while cartoon luminary Charlie Adler played Piper. James Avery of "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" fame played Junkyard Dog. Jim Steinman wrote the theme music, which Hulk Hogan would come to use as his entrance music in live events. The opening title sequence was the only place where Hogan appeared in live-action, sort of as a way of signing off on the animated adventures we were about to see. If the theme music sounds familiar, it's because Steinman re-wrote it for Bonnie Tyler, turning it into her 1986 single "Ravishing." 

The series was the height of silliness. The stories were simple sitcom plots about racing cars, professional jealousy, or going on first dates. In one episode, Andre the Giant needed a suit of clothes, but was too big to fit any traditional outfits, requiring a special suit made of camping equipment. In another, a gorilla infiltrates the wrestlers' costume party. In yet another, Lou Albano becomes Hulk Hogan's roommate for a spell, and he becomes the sloppy Oscar to Hogan's Felix. Most of the episodes were full 30-minute stories, although a few were broken into two 15-minute segments. 

The series mostly took place in the real world, but occasionally tipped into outright fantasy. This was fine, as the WWF wrestlers were already outsize fantasy characters to begin with. Some episodes featured aliens, genies, or ghosts. Mostly, the stories were about kidnappings, bungled businesses, or, uh, ballet performances? Nikolai Volkoff had to replace his dancing niece in a recital, anyway. Because the characters were so varied and plentiful, "Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling" was successful enough to last for 26 episodes over two seasons. The series sucked — the scripts were bad and the characterizations broad — but it was riding on the coattails of a popular wrestling franchise, so people tuned in in droves. 

On the WWE website back in 2013, Garrett talked a little bit about playing Hulk Hogan, recalling the thrill of getting the part. He watched old-school wrestling with his grandfather when he was a boy, and he namechecked John Tolos, Porkchop Cash and Pampero Firpo. When asked if Garrett ever got to meet Hulk Hogan, he answered: 

"No, I didn't. I've never met him. I always wanted to. He really wasn't involved in the production as far the recording, or writing or any of that. [...] No idea [if Hogan liked my performance]. Hopefully it was okay, because I'm still alive."

The WWF eventually became the WWE, but it never forgot its history. Indeed, the bulk of "Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling" is available on the WWE Vault YouTube Channel. Deep cut wrestling fans will definitely want to check it out. 

Garrett, meanwhile, has continued his prolific comedy and voice acting careers. He most recently played a character in the Pixar film "Elio."