The First Time You Saw/Heard About this Guy...
I first heard his voice in a Rug Doctor commercial back in the 90s. It was actually a funny commercial too ;).
You were basically seeing the world from the perspective of a badly abused carpet. The people in the house were really messy, and Rodney's was doing a voiceover as the carpet, narrating and complaining. I think they rigged the set to basically have the camera looking up through glass at a living room. You had people of all ages in this family, dropping gooey pizza, putting out a cigar, and doing all sorts of nasty things to carpets that can ruin it.
I can very clearly remember Rodney's voice saying, "Look at that! No respect at ooooaul!" Then he says "I need the Rug Docta!" (Complete with the NY accent, which I can imitate, hehe). And then I saw this funny, bulky, red carpet shampooer being advertised.
I didn't connect the voice with the man until I saw parts of "Caddyshack" with dad.