Mike Teevee, the TV addict, is something of a dated character, as the old parents’ chestnut that “TV will rot your brain” has had to evolve with technology. In Tim Burton’s 2005 version of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” Mike Teevee was updated to be a video game addict. No doubt a further update would see Mike Teevee as a TikTok addict. Mike Teevee was played by actor Paris Themmen who eventually went on to study theater. His acting gigs only came occasionally.
Like Peter Ostrum, Themmen didn’t want to stay in the acting game after “Willy Wonka,” saying on his website that he just wanted to be a kid. He would later get back into acting in college, eventually earning a BFA in theater. After that, Themmen became a world traveler, enriching himself by traversing this big, great planet of ours. At the time of his website authorship, Themmen said he had backpacked across 40 countries on six continents. One can only imagine that number has increased since. He also ran down the various jobs he held in the years since “Willy Wonka,” including Imagineering at Disney, working retail, and even working in film production. He still appears at conventions to sign autographs.
In terms of screen credits, Themmen dubbed multiple voices for the “Macross Plus” anime, and had a bit part in a sixth-season episode of “Star Trek: Voyager.”
Themmen, it seems, has lived a large, full life.