Let’s take a quick detour into the weird part of this story. The original voice actor for Dale Gribble, in that one single pilot that never aired, was actually Daniel Stern—the guy from Home Alone and The Wonder Years. Imagine Dale talking in the same nervous, lovable tone as Marv the Wet Bandit. It would have been a very different show. Stern quit because he hated the long hours, and the role went to Toby Huss, who then handed it off to Hardwick after a single recording session because Huss thought the character was “too weird.” Irony, thy name is animation history.
And here’s a truly surprising fact: Johnny Hardwick had never done a voice for a cartoon before Dale. He was a writer, not an actor. He just walked into the booth one day to demonstrate how he heard the lines, and the producers said, “You’re hired.” He went on to voice Dale for 13 seasons, plus a direct-to-video movie, and became the definitive voice of the pocket-sand king. So when Hardwick left, the producers didn’t just lose a voice—they lost the guy who invented the character’s vocal quirks.
What Does This Mean For The Reboot?
Honestly, it means you should probably lower your expectations a little. Not because Ben Schwartz is bad—he’s great at his job. But Dale Gribble is one of those rare characters where the voice is 50% of the joke. Without the exact pitch, the obsessive over-the-top paranoia might just sound like regular weirdness. Plus, the new Dale might actually sound smarter now, which defeats the entire purpose of a man who once tried to pay his taxes with raccoon pelts.
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Still, don’t panic too much. Remember when they recast Homer Simpson for a single episode, and no one noticed? Or when Miss Piggy changed voice actors and the whole nation held a funeral for muppetry? Fans adapt. And if Ben Schwartz can channel just 20% of Dale’s “I am a master of disguise and also a crackhead” energy, we’ll survive. Worst case scenario: you can always mute the TV and imagine Rusty Shackleford delivering the lines in your head.
