Geoff Peterson, Robot Skeleton Sidekick
Who created Geoff Peterson (and why)?
Geoff Petersen, Craig's Robot Skeleton Sidekick, was created by Grant Imahara of Mythbusters fame.
Craig would often speak of his love for the Nicholas Cage film, "Ghost Rider," in which Cage's head morphed into a skull *on fire*. One thing led to another, and Craig started to get excited over the idea of deconstructing the late night genre even further by having a Robot Skeleton Sidekick, based on this Ghost Rider character, who would robotically agree with Craig, and say things like "That's cold, Craig."
Grant had noticed Craig oft-mentioned desire to have a robot skeleton sidekick, and on March 1, 2010, he issued Craig a challenge:
To which Craig responded:
By the next morning, the task was complete, and construction on Geoff Petersen began. Craig wrote:
and Grant replied:
Geoff Petersen made his debut on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on April 5, 2010:
Who voices/operates Geoff Peterson?
Geoff was originally voiced by Craig Ferguson, and had a repertoire of about eight pre-recorded phrases, which were done in a fairly traditional robot-like voice.
Craig soon decided to bring in Josh Robert Thompson, voice artist and long-time (if intermittently-) recurring character actor on TLLS, to provide the voice of Geoff. Josh started doing the pre-recorded phrases (which eventually grew to about 16), starting with the April 20, 2010 show.
In the credits for the July 27, 2010 episode of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Geoff Petersen was finally listed, giving credit to Grant Imahara, Tom Straw, and Josh Thompson.
Grant Imahara sent a tweet the next morning with further details:
Credits for 1/4/2011 still list these three people. Credits for the Jan 18, 2011, list Grant Imahara, Bob Oschack and Josh Robert Thompson. (Last date for this on-air credit was 5/19/11.)
Starting with the abbreviated credits from 7/22/2011, Josh Robert Thompson is listed as sole person responsible for Geoff:
In the 11/15/2011 credits, Credit is again given to both Josh Robert Thopmpson ("played by") and Grant Imahara ("created by"):
When did Geoff go live?
Josh Thompson started voicing Geoff "live" on a trial basis on April 15, 2011. When Craig took TLLS on the road to Las Vegas to record a special, he took Josh along to voice Goeff in a live setting. While there, Josh proposed the idea to Craig that he voice Geoff live on the show as well, and Craig agreed.
The "Live Geoff" trial became a permanent position as of June 29, 2011.
Pertinent tweets below:
September 2, 2013:
Geoff was upgraded to have a second working arm, for the start of the 10th season of The Late Late Show.