TFG1Mike on His Cartoon Watching History and Influences

Always gonna take a drink. Let that bourbon go

down smooth. Yep. Alright, here we go. Hello

and welcome to Tooncast episode 246. We are continuing

the Tooncast origins here on the Geekcast Radio

Network. I'm your special host, Optimus Solo,

and this time around, we have the origins of

Toonster. TFG1 Mike, hello. Hello. We flipped.

Yeah, it's so weird because I've created these

origins things that I do when I basically inter...

I don't care who it is. If, you know, friends

of mine or even some strangers, you know, just...

people I've listened to on podcasts or whatever

else, and I've kind of developed this interview

style that I just ask these questions, and it's

always so weird, you know, me having to give

the answers now. Yeah, I totally get that. You're

not used to letting someone else be in charge.

No, not really. Totally get it. All right, so

if you haven't listened to any of the Origins

episodes, you should go back and do that because

you can hear Yours and Steve's. Yup. Your Optimus

Solos and Steve Megatron's. Right. So we are

starting this series of asking all kinds of questions

to people who are all about cartoons. So you

can follow us as we pick people's brains on what

they love and not love and how they grew up on

tunes and all that kind of stuff. So it's gonna

be interesting now that I've answered all the

questions to be able to ask you the questions.

So let's just start at the top. Question number

one, Mike, did you grow up watching cartoons

and what are your earliest cartoon memories?

Yeah, I did. And it was. It was so weird because

cartoons in books kind of blended together when

I was, let's say, five, six and seven. And the

reason why I say that is because I would always

watch. Back in the 80s, we had. VHS tapes folks.

It's an old technology. I always had the Berenstain

Bear VHS tapes of the old Berenstain Bear cartoon

show and I had The two books I can remember having

is the messy room and too much TV Okay, but I

had other ones and I always went back and forth

with those obviously stuff like I think 85 I

was five so maybe the beginning of thundercats

maybe the the reruns of transformers i kind of

remember and as i you know was getting six seven

eight nine obviously you know you had turtles

and he man and shira and all that stuff yeah

i find it it's hard being a child of the 80s

to pinpoint what you are watching when because

of the syndication Yeah, and reruns etc So you

can't always you know look back and see when

stuff was airing and say well Yeah I couldn't

been doing that because that had come out at

that time because everything was airing ongoing

throughout the 80s like just because he manned

started before all those shows Doesn't mean you

couldn't have been watching it in 86 87, you

know, etc, even though it was you know had been

started long before that. So it's interesting

to try to pinpoint things when you're trying

to think back at your childhood. If you're in

the at least in the 80s, I know that's kind of

somewhat unique to that decade. But yeah, so

that's kind of interesting. So what cartoons

were you watching most as a kid? Were you more

of a Saturday morning afternoon consumer? Did

you watch after school tunes or a little of both?

Or what was it for you? One quick thing I'll

say about the pinpointing is the one pinpoint

that I can say that I switched. Because I do

not remember a lot of the reruns or the rehashes.

When Transformers 84 Generation 1 ended and Turtles

started, that was a complete switch for me. From

watching the Transformers to the Turtles. When

it comes to how... Or not how but where and when

I it was everything as long as I could watch

a cartoon I was watching it, you know As long

as I wasn't on the school bus as long as I wasn't

in school, obviously I would rather sit at my

cousin's and Play Nintendo or watch cartoons

all afternoon then go sit out on the swing set

kind of thing so for me it was weekday weekday

mornings were always the hardest because I had

to get up at like 5 .30. I think the bus picked

me up at like 6 .15, 6 .20. School was real early

in Massachusetts back in the 80s. I don't know

what it's like today, but real early. So if I

could catch... five minutes of a Thundercats

episode, I was happy kind of thing. And then

obviously stuff switched to a weekday afternoons,

you come home from school, you promise your mom

that you're gonna do your homework as long as

you can watch these cartoons first. Right. Because

for me, in the 80s, in the afternoons, it was,

oh, come home, have a snack, watch cartoons.

You know, that was like three, 3 .30. by five,

six, seven, we're having dinner. So by the time

Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy come on, it's like,

oh, that's the time you should do your homework,

because not that I disliked, I'd never have ever

disliked Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy, but at

that time of television, it was either news programs,

it was hard copy, it was a current affair, or

it was the two major game shows, obviously, that

played on weeknights. Kind of thing. So yeah,

it was and then Saturday mornings was just a

blitz right, you know until they killed it, um,

so We're talking about for this next question,

you know, you're about five six seven years old

So what was your number one favorite cartoon

as a small child, you know before you know third

fourth grade Five six seven five six seven eight

somewhere in there Did you have a favorite? It's

funny because I'm going back through it now and

I don't remember a damn thing like I remember

the first five episodes I do not remember a damn

thing about turtles past those first that that

initial opening Five -parter I my childhood memories

I know this is about you but just because he's

mentioned turtles like an amazing I think of

something like for me my childhood memories of

turtles is not the cartoon I know I watched it

but my Turtle Memories is the live action movie,

the toys, the trading cards, things of that nature.

I don't remember a whole lot about the actual

cartoon like I did some of the other shows. Yeah,

I mean the funny thing is I recently was able

to at an ungodly amount of price because it was,

obviously it's been out of print for a couple

of years now. I finally got the complete series

Turtle Van set, the DVD set. So just because

I'm going through some life changes right now

and I have to refocus and figure shit out and

whatever else in order to relax I'm going through

and actually paying attention like I'm in the

middle of I think I just started season I'm in

the middle of season 3 or just about to end it

and start season 4 I don't remember a damn thing

from season 2 to season I remember nothing and

I'm like Turtles have an alien episode this this

early in this it like what the heck where was

that? Like I remember the killer pizza monsters

and more so I remember those from the video game

kind of thing but for favorite as five six seven

I Gotta go with he man or Shira Makes sense.

Those were some of the earlier ones for us for

sure Yeah, so what are some other cartoons that

you'd like? Do you have a like a favorite type

like a genre or style that you kind of gravitated

to throughout your childhood? the interesting

thing about the 80s cartoons was at least in

my and I'm sure I can look this up and get the

proper information but Cartoons today they they

most of them are there 3d. Well ours were kind

of 2d not really but you know, they were that

flat cell shaded animated style that wasn't The

things popping out of the screen. Yes, they they

had pops and everything else, but it wasn't like

that It was that old style. It was the 80s style

of doing stuff and for me other ones that I enjoyed

and I liked For the genre type it was mainly

the boys action stuff. Yeah, and you know like

I've already said, He -Man, you know, even She

-Ra, even though She -Ra is, was supposed to

be a girls show, us boys watched it because we

were, you know, head over heels for She -Ra or

whatever kind of thing. Same thing with Gem.

Gem was an action cartoon and that's how I view

the 80s, all of the 80s cartoons. It's not necessarily

the boys action cartoon or the girls action,

it's just action cartoons. You know, he may insure

a gem transformers GI Joe You know turtles What

other ones got silver hot under got silver Hawks

mask probably at the time We really have to do

we really have to illuminate that weapon, yep

So, okay, and how did that change as you got

more into like your early, pre -teen, teen years?

Did it change as far as what kind of cartoons

you gravitated towards? So, it was interesting.

Again, I can pinpoint when I stopped watching

one and started watching another, but again,

I remember nothing. Well, like you said, in that

time, Oh, finally I get the remote. Oh, I don't

know. I think it was Santa's Little Helper, the

very first episode they aired. We were at my

ex -stepmother's brother's house or something,

and Bart said something or Homer was choking

him. I forget what the hell scene it was in the

show, but one of the adults, oh, you can't watch

that, and turned it off. And obviously, that's

going to come later in the questions. But it

was one of those things where things changed

because life was changing and I didn't have the

normal kind of childhood into teenager thing.

So when I was 12, it was 92, 92 was X -Men, 92

was Batman the Animated Series. I didn't watch

that much Batman the Animated Series. I was all

over X -Men and everything else. It wasn't that

I didn't like it or I didn't notice it. I did.

I just wasn't, it just wasn't there. And then

in 93, from New Year's 93, you know, from Christmas

New Year's to 92 into 93, I ended up... Moving

to Kentucky and things were a hell of a lot different

and cartoons didn't seem like they like I kind

of switched into and I know you're gonna hate

this answer Because you're not a fan of the franchise

I switched from cartoons to live -action and

I went to Power Rangers and VR troopers and Beagle

Borgs and all that stuff Tommy Tommy I know I

know you're the Green Ranger Well, then pink

ranger you should also know that you and the

other power rangers will soon be destroyed Let

us help you we can break Rita's spell Rita is

my Empress She will soon rule the world Tommy,

please let us help You have been warned you Yeah,

I'll just Act like you didn't say all that continue

on so How often do you go back and rewatch any

of the cartoons you grew up with? I can know

this is kind of a silly question for you and

I but have you people listen to the last 245

episodes of this podcast I it depends on what

it is. It depends on because I have been podcasting

for 13 almost 14 years now It depends on if I

need to do something with the cartoon, or if

we're going to be doing a review series here

on Tooncast, or if we're gonna start a whole

other new review show kind of thing. For just

pure enjoyment, I go back to various episodes

of the G1 Transformers cartoon. I will not watch

all 98 all at once or all in one sitting kind

of thing, but If I need to pick me up or something,

I will go back and watch The Ultimate Doom, not

really a pick -me -up episode, three -parter,

but you know what I'm saying. I'll go back and

watch various single episodes. I do that with

Transformers. I kind of did it with Thundercats

when Thundercats first hit Hulu recently in the

last couple of years. Ever since we did the full

-on He -Man stuff and reviewing all the the filmation

I have not gone back and watched any of the original

filmation He -Man since we finished that part

of Powers of Grayskull series. Yeah Yeah, sometimes

you get enough in one one fell swoop and I guess

the way I see it like there's so much stuff I'd

want to watch that I can't Always justify rewatching

stuff. I already have rewatch. So yeah, check

out some new stuff. So Alright, and what cartoons

that aired when you were an adult have you liked

the most as far as stuff that came on later on

in life? So stuff that's been out since I would

say I was for the last let's say 22 years. Yep,

since 2000. Yeah, I really really dug the Mike

Young Productions He -Man show. You can go back

and listen to Powers of Grayscale series, folks,

and hear us gush about the Cartoon Network He

-Man and the Masters of the Universe. I thought

that was one of the good ones and one of the

ones I really enjoyed. I'm trying to think of

other... By this time, by 2000, I was really

into the DC animated universe. So by that time

I had already seen all of Batman the animated

series, Superman the animated series. I tell

ya, I had a major major free - I remember this

explicitly on Kids WB when Batman Beyond first

debuted in 1999. The voice kept calling me Bruce.

In my mind, that's not what I call myself. What

do you call yourself? Oh yeah, I suppose you

would. But that's my name now Tell that to my

subconscious I heard that opening music by Chris

car Christopher Carter and I saw that opening

intro the main intro of that cartoon show I'm

like, what is this because it did at that time.

It had been years since I had seen Some of those

characters and wherever and I'm like, ooh a new

Batman show. Ooh, I see old Bruce What is all

how old is Bruce now? When is this supposed to

what is going on here? and i just love batman

beyond because it was a fresh kind of it's basically

it's not spider -man but people draw spider -man

allegories to it because it kind of is it's basically

a teenage batman because you take jerry mcginnis

and put him in the bat suit you have old bruce

is kind of like the alfred thing so batman's

you know the original batman is retired and You

know, he's now training this new kid. I thought

that was really fresh and interesting. And then,

you know, you move on to Justice League and Justice

League Unlimited and all of that. And by 2007,

we had Phineas and Ferb on Disney Channel. I

know what we're doing today. Okay, Michael, if

we're going to tackle this podcast thing, we've

got to do something really special. It has to

be cool daily in audio form and undetectable

by radar, something that screams summer. I know,

let's do a Phineas and Ferb review podcast. We'll

call it the Podcast Organization Without a Quill

acronym, or Pauka for short. What do you think?

I think if we're not careful, Candice is gonna

bust us. You can find Pauka on the GeekCast,

Radio Network, iTunes, Blog Talk Radio, and all

of the other methods you find podcasts. Okay

then, carry on. You know, we eventually had the

7D on the Disney Channel, which sadly only got

two. For as much grief as we gave rightfully

so to Snow White in episode 29 of this very podcast

The 7d is by far the best thing they ever did

with the seven dwarfs Yeah, I enjoyed that cartoon

Absolutely. What about any was there any more

that were, you know made for adults, you know,

not necessarily like mature but like Anything

that was you know, not necessarily aimed at kids

that you enjoyed watching as an adult Not really

because I get all swim type stuff No, I've never

been like if adult swim or tsunami was showing

reruns of the shows that you know were at that

point, you know 10 or 20 years ago. If they're

re -showing like, I don't want to say super friends,

but Toonami would often re -air like Thundercats

or Transformers or something. They would have

some sort of action block on the Toonami thing,

but I never get into the adult swim stuff or

any of that. Okay, fair enough. What about any

cartoons that have come along that you've at

least watched an episode or so of? That you ended

up really being disappointed about, you know,

something you were looking forward to that just

didn't turn out how you wanted it. Or is there

any cartoons that just like grind your gears

that you just cannot stand? It's been one of

my main rules, even though I've broken it a couple

of times. This podcast will never have a full

on Ren and Stimpy in depth thing, because I am

not a Ren and Stimpy fan at all. I do not like

Gross cartoons Like those cartoons that want

to be gross just to be gross kind of thing things

that Disappointed me no because I don't like

this is again. This is why and I've said this

for years People are like, oh You know, you've

only seen the trailer to Spider -Man No Way Home.

If you don't like it, how do you know you're

not going to like it unless you see the full

movie? The trailer is an advertisement. It is

supposed to advertise to you to see if you're

going to actually want to watch what the... You

know what I mean? Like, that's the whole point

of trailers and advertisements and things like

that. And if I see an advertisement for a cartoon

that I don't like, then... What about Princesses

of Power? That's a whole other bag of swords,

but it's not that so That for me is when I first

started and I you know, I like some of the stuff

they do I don't watch all of their videos, but

there's a YouTube channel called clownfish TV

and Because I had not actually watched She -Ra

and the princesses of power on Netflix it's time

but I had watched their videos kind of angry

videos that they were doing about it and it just

kind of like okay well if it's that bad then

why should I you know why should I waste my time

that's my thing if it's something that I don't

I have zero interest in I am not gonna sit here

and waste my time and the other thing is between

the time obviously since I was a kid to now I

podcast about literally almost everything I can.

Again, look at the last 245 episodes of this

podcast. I do stuff in order to be able to come

on the show and talk about it. I'm not gonna

sit here and waste my time and just record a

full on negative hate -filled, I'm not putting

out a hate -filled podcast, because nobody wants

to listen to that. You get enough of that when

we do our episode -by -episode reviews. All right

growing up did you or you and your friends ever

pretend to be cartoon characters that you saw

on TV maybe outside at home maybe at school recess

maybe for Halloween any dress -up or almost like

Cosplay before it was the thing. I Mean I've

dressed up as cartoon characters for Halloween

when I was a kid, but we never like the reason

why this question is here folks is because it

comes from the Toycast origins question of, you

know, did you and your friends ever act out playing

with your toys or say, you know, you're gonna

hold the He -Man action figure and you're, I'm

He -Man and I'm gonna blah, blah, blah. With

cartoons, I never did that. I was, the two, the

three Halloween costumes I can remember the most

outside of just your standard Adam West, Batman,

cowl thing, you know those old, super friends

or whatever, masks and whatever. I was Donatello

one year. Sadly I did not have a full wooden

bow, but I had the headband, I had all the stuff.

I was 89, Michael Keaton, 89, Batman one year.

And I was Skeletor one year. And luckily, and

nowadays it would be much more intricate if I

had the body to pull it off. Luckily back in

the 80s when I was still skinny, you know, they

just had Skeletor masks or Skeletor t -shirts

or what you didn't have to right With the Batman

with the 89 Michael Keaton Batman costume My

mom went all out for that one though. She actually

sewed the cowl the gloves and the boots for me

We used black pair of sweatpants and just a sweatshirt

with an iron -on that you know Batman emblem

But she made the cowl the boots and the gloves

and it was really really cool Speaking of characters

gonna put you on the spot here is your all -time

favorite villain from any cartoon Villain what

about a hero? We'll get to there. Okay villains

first, huh? Can't pick just one I Just you know,

I just can't pick one and I Have a lot of rediscovered

enjoyment of 87 turtle shredder That guy and

Especially with the late great James Avery doing

his voice. Oh, man Oh, it's so good. I also am

going to say Transformers Prime Megatron. So

it's still Frank Welker Megatron, but it's the

modern version where he kind of, it's not the

low, gravelly high. It's deep. You know, he changed

it. He, you know, flipped his vocals on it. And

I just love what Frank did for Transformers Prime

Megatron. It still sounds very G1 without it

being the actual G1 voice. Okay, any others that

you want to throw in there? Or just those two?

You dressed up as Skeletor for Halloween. Yeah,

I know. Just kidding. Alright, so Shredder and

Megatron, those are good picks. Yeah, I liked

Skeletor, but I liked... Brian Dobbs and the

Skeletor a little bit more because he is much

as I still love Alan Oppenheimer Skeletor from

the 80s never really He never really got the

chance to really win and I know that's the point

You know, you don't want the villains to win

you want the heroes to win But you know after

we've watched all of those cartoons all 130 of

them I just there isn't a single episode I can

point to that Skeletor almost really got his

way. Right. Up until the very end. But I still

love I still love the voice, though. All time

favorite hero. Well, please don't make me throw

up in my mouth. How would I make you do that?

I'm not going to tell you. So basically Tommy

Oliver, the green and white ranger from Power

Rangers. That's even worse. The cartoon character

heroes, I gotta go with, for someone to look

up to, I gotta go with Panthero from the Thundercats.

Okay. All right. If we're gonna do it, let's

do it. I loved Panthero and by the time I was

seven, eight years old, we were, you know, five,

six years into the Cosby show and to realize

that Panthero is Grandpa Cosby was like, wow.

Mutants, always those blasted mutants. What about

any other characters that aren't necessarily

heroes or villains that you really were gravitated

towards or you really enjoyed? I wasn't done

with the heroes. You only get one. Is it all

-time favorite? No, no, no, no, no, no. No, yours

had like three on it, I remember. The way you've

written this question is, end all, be all. Yes,

yes, yes, yes. But again, with the way that you

- Thailand, where there can only be one. Yeah,

yeah, the way you answered the question the way

Steve answered the question we had multiples.

Oh, we like to cheat Yeah, well exactly. That's

the whole point because we do the show other

hero characters I loved Darkwing Duck Loved how

silly he was and obviously the one true Prime

Rodimus Prime. That's the part that was gonna

make me You know, it's gonna be in there because

really, you know, he got a raw deal Alright,

I'll put you on the spot then You mentioned shredder

as a favorite villain. I know you didn't mention

the turtles as a favorite hero But if you have

to pick one turtle, who's it gonna be Donatello?

Okay other characters maybe sidekicks. Maybe

just not heroes or villains Maybe it was more

of a comedy show or something like that any other

characters you really gravitated to as I've grown

older I feel like certain parts of my anger I

identify with x -men 92 cal dodd voicing wolverine

a lot of the times if you look at the x -men

the animated series cartoon from 1992 which is

30 years old this year going after no way wolverine

we've got a job to do first i go i want to go

out of the way gumbo cal dodd voicing wolverine

logan in that i I've felt his emotions in the

last 10 or 20 years. Absolutely. Okay, any characters

that you just couldn't stand, despised, annoyed

by, hated? Every single 80s sidekick. They all

get the number one worst. Except for the one

that you like. Which is? I don't want to say

his name. But you're talking about T -Bob, you're

talking about Snarf, you're talking about Orko.

You know that Scrappy Doo is also a Scrappy sidekick.

Oh, Lord, stop it. Don't even go there. He's

just like all them. I forgot to put him in the

hero column. You said all sidekicks. You're dealing

with Scrappy Doo now. Prepare to splat. Yeah.

Well, I said all eight. Well, technically, yeah,

Scrappy is an 80s sidekick. Yeah. But still.

still defend Scrappy to this day because he...

It's just a joke for all the people that have

watched or listened, I guess, listened to this

podcast for the last decade. X number of years,

yeah. Yeah. Old battle between me and Mike on

Scrappy -Doo. Anyway, what about... Now, obviously,

we could name a thousand of these because we're

both very into voices and voice actors, et cetera,

that have done, lent their skills to a lot of

these characters that we've talked about. Um,

so let's try to keep it somewhat narrow, but

who are kind of some of your favorite go -to

voices from a cartoon or voice actors in general?

I was not prepared. Let's see. Let's go to the

interview section on geekcastradio .com. Uh,

you know, there, there's so many, uh, I will

say that getting to The one thing in all the

interviews that we've done is, even though we've

heard Larry Kenny as Lion -O, as Sony the Cocoa

Puff Bird, as all of the voices that he has done...

I don't have a sense of trepidation, but like

right before we get on any of these calls to

do these interviews, I'm like... What are they

going to sound like? What are they going to be

like? Because you never know. Because you're

watching them do a performance and you don't

even see them. You see their animated counterpart

kind of thing. Let's just go down the list. Larry

Kenny, Gary Chalk, Ian James Corlett, Phil Lamar,

Greg Berger. Greg Berger was hilarious. Uh, Kevin

Conroy, Kevin Conroy is one of my single favorite

interviews I've ever done because he has the

one of, and everyone that was in this sad tragic

event has a story, but the best story I have

ever heard about September 11th was the story

that Kevin Conroy told us in the interview with

him. And then after you had gone to do some cooking

duties after the 9 -eleven tragedy to help out

in New York You want me to as well sure It's

it's it's got a lot of foul language in it. Should

I clean it up? Oh, yeah, we are so so explicit

here at the geek cast radio network. Oh really?

Yes, okay Well, you know, I live in New York.

I live in New York and after the attack Everyone

wanted to help. I mean the thing that was amazing

You always see those pictures of everyone running

away from the buildings as they were coming down

with the cover with soot But what you don't see

any pictures of is everyone running back as soon

as the dust cleared people started running back

to try and you know help people and So I called

there was a number set up. Everyone was being

told to go to the javits convention center that

sort of coordinating the volunteers so i went

to the javits center and they already had all

everybody they need a bit such a huge turnout

if it looked we've got everyone we have all the

toddlers we have all the diggers we've overwhelmed

with volunteers you don't need anybody so it's

going for the jacket i was on my way home thinking

what am i going to do i want to help i stopped

off at a coffee shop and there was a guy there

covered with dust who had just come from ground

zero and said He was talking to the waitress

about how he was working in a kitchen there.

And I said, and I said to him, this total stranger,

I said, you know, I just came from the volunteer

place. They told me they didn't need anybody

anymore. He said, do you really want to volunteer?

I said, yeah. So he wrote down this phone number.

He said, call this number. They need people.

This is the kitchen at ground zero. So I called

them up and they said that they did need people.

And they said, do you have any restaurant experience?

I said, I'm an actor. Of course I have restaurant

experience. What do you need? Actors can do anything

in a restaurant. So we really need cooks. I said,

well, I worked in a short order cook when I was

going through Juilliard. They said, are you free

now? And I said, yeah, I'm between jobs. They

said, no, we mean right now, like tonight. We

need someone tonight. I said, yeah, I'll be right

there. So I ended up doing the night shift. It

was like from 6 PM to about 6 AM. And it was

a few blocks away from the actual pit. But it

was a big, big like cafeteria that they had commandeered.

It was a restaurant I think called Nino's. It

was a big old restaurant. And they'd taken it

over and all the work crews would come in covered

with dust and soot, just exhausted. And it was

a very hot September. So it was really, it was

a very depressing atmosphere. And there were

these huge work lights set up all over Lower

Manhattan, setting it up. It looked like a moonscape.

because it was a big a big search site and people

would come in there was just a sort of rumbling

kind of melancholy um mumble going on because

you know everyone was so overwhelmed by what

had happened and i was working this night shift

and this guy who was next to me one night goes

so i'm an architect during my day job what's

your day job i said well i'm an actor He said,

yeah, but do you do some special kind of acting?

He said, I thought I knew your name. I said,

well, I really work in animation. I do voices.

He said, I knew it. You're a Batman. How did

you know that? He said, everybody knows who's

Batman. I said, no, everyone does not know who's

Batman. He said, oh my God, the guys are going

to go crazy if I tell them that. I said, no one's

going to care. He said, are you crazy? He said,

watch. So he was out in the dining room and he

goes, guys, guys, you're not going to believe

who's been cooking your dinners. It's Batman.

And there was this long pause. And you hear it

from the back of the auditorium. Bullshit. And

then someone else says, someone else says, make

him prove it. So from back in the kitchen, right?

In this big echoey kitchen that I do, I am vengeance.

I am the knight. I just want to break that. And

there's this long, long silence. You hear it

from the back of the auditorium. Holy fuck! That

is Batman! They all start pouring back into the

kitchen and suddenly you hear this laughter.

And this guy's like, hey, you know that episode

where you and the Joker, you know, I watch that

show all the time with my kids. And you know,

hey man, what's that dated lady like? And everyone

wanted to know everything about the show. And

then the guy who had recognized me, the architect

says, what's it like to be Santa Claus? Because

that's what happened. Santa Claus just got here.

And it was true. It was like suddenly people

wanted something else to think about, you know?

And so I emailed Andrea the next morning at Warner

Brothers and I told her what had happened that

night. I wrote it all as a story. And I said

at the end of it, you know, what we do is not

insignificant. We're already contributing. And

she said she circulated that all around Warner

Brothers. She said everybody at Warner Brothers

loved that story. It's just an amazing story

because, you know, a lot of, you know, and that

goes to like, you know, you know, sometimes we

will ask a question of, you know, do you get

recognized, you know, on this? Because a lot

of times voice actors, you know, in person don't

get recognized unless, you know, you're at a

convention and a big sign says, hey, this is

Kevin Conroy voice. You know, I mean, I assumed,

I assumed this would be a completely anonymous

job. And for many years it was. You know in the

early 90s. No one knew what I was doing it was

when the internet Developed and you could you

know you could just Google someone's name and

then get the picture and suddenly Everyone knew

who was Batman. You know it's really since the

internet that people know who's doing what and

For many many years it was completely anonymous,

and I was used to it that way I kind of liked

it that way actually Tom Kenny's interview was

weird and wacky like literally he came on the

line and He was immediately spongebob and I'm

like Where's Patrick? It was so funny, but yeah,

I mean that they're just so many of them Jess

Harnell Pat Fraley and There's so many that we've

lost like James Avery. I mean, I know technically

James Avery wasn't actor and he did some of the

voicing stuff but you look at James Avery as

uncle Phil and then you listen to him and watch

the animation for shredder and you can't believe

that that's the same guy and it's just amazing

the range of You know, yeah Any specific voice

work that stood out like a certain character's

voice that you just always remember I Gotta say

It's different because it's a different actor

that portrayed the character, but I have no,

like I love them both equally, but I love what

the late great Dick Gaudier did with Rodimus

after Judd Nelson was the character in the movie.

But just the way that the Rodimus voice sounded

in season three versus what it is in the movie.

Because in the movie he's going through this

whole transition. He's this young hot rod hot

rodden teenager He's this he's that and then

at the end he gets leadership thrust upon him

as the chosen prime It's a pity you are a boss

die so easily or I might have a sense of satisfaction

now You know, and then in season three, obviously,

I don't think you were going to get Judd Nelson

back. It would have been awesome. But Dick Gaudier

was was an awesome voice actor to voice that

character. And just every emotion that he put

into that role was just so, so good. Yeah. Why'd

I have to be the chosen one? And of course, like

I said, we can't list them all. I know Mike also

is huge on Rob Paulson and Murray. Yeah You know

Peter Cullen Frank Welker, etc, etc. So Alright,

did you ever own anything based on a cartoon

toys comics coloring books merchandise of any

kind lunchboxes? Everything was it all the same

cartoon or just oh, no There was so like between

toys and lunchboxes and board games and and all

of it was all so random it was all it was a smorgasbord

of stuff from the funny thing is I had very little

transformer stuff like I remember having Blitzwing

I remember having astro train because astro train

for me personally is my favorite overall g1 transformer

as an actual toy the original I Want to say 86

toy that was released. I Love sound wave and

blaster, but I I had blaster and I had his cassettes.

I never had sound wave as a kid sadly I had a

buddy of mine who had sound wave and he wouldn't

even let me look at the damn thing half the time.

But anyway, I remember having the Knight Rider

game. I remember having various versions. The

one version I never had was the talking car,

the talking kit car version where it was, you

know, there was a Michael Knight doll that came

with it. But if you press the license plate,

it would be William Daniels doing Various kit

clips, but I had the Knight Rider board game.

I had the Knight Rider audiobooks Books on Wow.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. I still have my Knight Rider

thermos somewhere around here I don't know where

it is, but it's it's somewhere it might be in

storage I had what else did I have? I mean we

all had action figures folks. I had almost every

single Good and bad guy from Masters of the Universe

from P -Man and Master of the Universe. I had

Grayskull, I had Snake Mountain. The only thing

I never got for play sets from Masters was Palace

of Eternia. I never got that. Right. And by the

time She -Ra kind of came out and they were releasing

all that stuff, I was already into Turtles and

things like that and whatever. All right. Um,

this is a tough question here. We're gonna there's

a lot riding on this mic, you know that this

is like one of my One of my passion labors of

passion. So what is your favorite cartoon theme

song? There is a right and a wrong answer Go

go Power Rangers you make one more Power Rangers

Will I will sabotage this whole episode? No,

if I have to just pick one All right, I'll I'm

gonna cheat I'm gonna pick one from each decade

and one from the 80s one from the 90s The 80s

is definitely season 3 of Transformers generation

1 Not that I dislike the Season 1 and Season

2 themes, but the Season 3 theme was more action

-packed to me. And then for the 90s, Darkwing

Duck. That's a good one I don't know about favorites,

but uh, well, I mean, you know, they change all

the time I mean, it's not like i'm making a top

100 list of my favorite cartoon theme songs Who

would do something like that you okay? Obviously

you've you've at times had a lot of these cartoons

whether it be on dvd or blu -ray or digital copies

or different things of that nature Are there

any that you have a complete set of? What's your

crowning achievement as far as your collection

goes? So I don't have much of a physical DVD

collection anymore. Right. What's the favorite

one you've owned over time, though, whether you

have it now or not? Cartoon? It's only because...

Oh, you know what? I'll say it this way. Because

it can tie into my Funko pop obsession they released

a couple years ago a Blu -ray set for Batman

Beyond and if you ordered a spit You know how

they have all you know steel book at Best Buy

or this at this store this at that store They

had I forget. I think I honestly think it was

Best Buy If you ordered it you would get a cus

not custom. It's not a custom you would get the

black metallic variant version Funko Pop of Batman

Beyond. So I think that was one of the best sets

that I had, because most of the sets that I had

had when I was collecting DVDs, I never ended

up getting the Transformers Shout Factory Matrix

set. I never got the G .I. Joe Foot Locker. I

mean, technically, I can say, yes, I have the

Turtle Van DVD set now, but honestly, other than

the fact that it's the Turtle Van and it looks

cool as the Turtle Van, that is the single worst

way to ever store DVDs. What the hell were they

thinking? No, seriously. No, yes, the Turtle

Van itself looks cool. But if you open that thing

up, the top of it opens up, and the DVDs are

just sitting there kind of in these little spindle

pockets, but they can move, they can this, like

there's no like... At least with the Matrix set,

they were in actual individual boxes. Like, you

know what I mean? Like they actually were a DVD

box set. The Turtle Van thing is just... 23 discs,

like you open the jukebox and they're just sitting

there collecting dust, like, mmm. Like I said,

I love the idea of the Turtle Van DVD packaging

and I love the Turtle Van itself that I have

now, but that's one of the worst ways to store

disc media. Yeah, probably. Not necessarily the

most practical. What cartoon or cartoons, a couple

of them, if you want to name them, have had the

biggest impact on your life? Besides Transformers.

Well, it always comes back to Transformers. So

the lessons in He -Man, I think that's where

most of my morals came from. Most of my the way

my personality has been since I want to say I

was six years old to now at almost 42 years old

those life lessons and those lessons that were

taught like even as much as I dislike the character

even them teaching kit not kit cloud kicker that's

tailspin copper kid uh copper kid what a joke

uh you know even those lessons you know all of

those end of You know, whatever lessons were

really, really good. Other ones that I can think

of had the biggest impact. It wasn't OK. So Transformers

had long since at least the generation one version

had long since been over. We went through the

beast era with Beast Wars and Beast Machines.

And yes, there is the Unicron trilogy, but I

refuse to acknowledge that here. And then in

from 2007 to 2009, we had Animated and I know

you don't want to hear anything about animated

and that's fine. However, I will say With what

they did with season 3 of animated that first

three -parter opening trans warped There were

two moments where I just like did double takes

One I did a fist bump and then the other one

I nearly fell off my bed. So the two moments

are when Rodimus shows up and it's Judd now doing

the voice, that was the fist bump. And then falling

out of bed was when, because Shockwave had been

in it the whole time, he was long arm prime,

he was Shockwave, he was a double agent, and

he was still voiced by Corey Burton the whole

time already, but in season three when he did

the color swap, because that was the one thing

I disliked with Animated, was the fact that Long

arm prime whatever shockwave he was gray he was

this guy wasn't like shockwave is only supposed

to be purple damn it. There's no gray is purple

so at the time in season three when he was like.

And finally megatron i can finally show you you

know pledge my allegiance to you under my true

colors and they had the color fading and that.

I literally fell off my bed on a Saturday morning

and I was 2007 so I was like 27 28 years old

whatever however that maybe I was 29. I don't

remember but yeah, no What's the most money you've

ever spent on a cartoon related item I Just say

would it be like your most expensive toy you

ever bought no I mean, I've bought expensive

toys, but like, okay, so back when I was working

with Boyshaven in Louisville, Kentucky, I had

extra income coming in and this was 2005, 2006.

This was like my burgeoning on eBay and this

was like, ooh, I can reclaim my childhood. Optimus

Prime, do you want Optimus Prime for $115? Sure.

Okay, Blaster for 120, sure, fine. Soundwave

for 140, you know, that kind of stuff. But I'm

trying to think the most expensive cartoon item

it honestly is trying to find. At the time, this

was before the Shout Factory set and even now

the Shout Factory set because it's out of print

and whatever. When I was trying to find the original

Rhino DVDs of Transformers, that was the most

expensive thing. And when I bought the Turtle

Van set, it was like 200 and something dollars

to get it. And I was like, oh, I want it, but

oh, that's $200. Damn it. Those complete series

sets sometimes can be expensive. Yes, yes, they

can. Alright, let's hear it then. I know you

alluded to it earlier. My parents wouldn't let

me watch that cartoon, so why wouldn't they let

you watch The Simpsons? Well, it goes beyond

The Simpsons, actually, but I think it was, again,

I want to say it was the debut episode, Santa's

Little Helper. I want to say maybe, and I don't

remember because I'm not looking at Santa's Little

Helper, and it may not have been that episode,

but it may have been an episode where Homer was

choking Bart or Homer said something flagrant

or Bart did something or whatever and one of

the adults in the room were like, Oh my God,

turn that off. You can't watch that. So that

was 1989. Before that in 1987, I believe this

was a snow. It was re it was rebirth. Wow. It

was either. Was it rebirth? I don't remember

which intro it was. Anyway, somebody, my aunt,

My aunt Debbie my cousin Rachel's mother Rachel

Robbie and Cassie are my three cousins from Aunt

Debbie I was over at their house and I was watching

one of the transformers generation one episodes

and my aunt Debbie walks in and she swears or

at least at the time She heard somebody on that

cartoon episode say ass Now I Since 2021, I have

gone through every single iota of audio of all

98 episodes of the Transformers Generation 1

cartoon for the Geekcast Radio Network's Top

100 Transformers Character Countdown. Ain't no

robot in that entire cartoon said ass, but that's

what happened. And she was like, oh, you can't

watch that. For some odd reason, I think Mainly

because of the violence, my stepmother at the

time was like, Oh, you can't watch Batman, the

animated series. But it was never anything that

like really stuck or anything. I just like, again,

that's why I ended up discovering it later. 96,

97, whatever. But with my mom, my mom didn't

care because my mom knew how I was. My mom knew.

That I was being raised on common sense again

going back to some of those life lessons from

he man and she run other cartoons and things

like that and Just everything I grew up on my

mom, you know My mom was showing me Freddy Krueger

at seven years old. I mean, come on, you know

If I can survive the nightmare on Elm Street,

I'm sure I can survive Rocco's modern life or

whatever All right, what about this is a whole

can of worms, but what about your opinion on

reboots? You know, which ones do you think have

been the most successful should they happen?

What's your opinion on reboots? So there's a

difference to me Yes, there is the cartoon reboot

2011 Thundercats was a reboot Because it was

a different story. It was not a continuation.

It was not a continuing story the Transformers

franchise there are no full -on reboots in the

Transformers franchise to me because every iteration

of a Transformers cartoon has been different.

Yes, Animated started off with kind of the same

way G1 started off with the Transformers leaving

Cybertron to go to Earth, but it's a whole story.

It's not just rehashing. Same thing with the

Netflix War for Cybertron trilogy. Yes, they're

taking on the fact that there's an X number of

million year long war in there. the planet's

dying and whatever else, but it's told in a different

way. No one to this day in 2022 has ever just

regurgitated Transformers Generation 1 as it

was, other than the adventures of the cybernetic

space cube. So for me, there's a whole difference.

You have to do something completely different.

Oh boy, going back to Thundercats. 2011, Wasn't

great, but it wasn't horrible to me. I didn't

dislike it I disliked some of the things that

they did with it and we'll get into that way

way down the line here in tune cast But after

that you have a decision of them making thundercats

roar That's something so again Yes, I know certain

reboots do happen and things like that, but As

long as they're you know as long as they're trying

to be there like okay you look at the You look

at Revelation and you look at the Masters Universe

Revelation on Netflix and He -Man and the Masters

of the Universe on Netflix the CGI one and the

Kevin Smith one Two very different things directed

at two very different audiences. No matter what

Kevin Smith said, I don't give a shit about any

of that. You look at the style of both of those

cartoons. One cartoon is taking toyetic designs.

The Revelation series is kind of based on the

toys because that's what Mattel owns and whatever

else. It's not a direct sequel to Filmation at

all. But they take various things and go various

ways with it and it's good. It's okay. It's There

are things I disliked about it and you guys can

hear that in episode 127 and 128 of powers of

grayscale series Just like, you know, you had

issues with it and whatever else With this new

CGI series, which we have yet to record an episode

about that, but with the CGI series, I watched

it in one go, all the episodes in like one morning,

because I really enjoyed it. I thought it was

great. The voice acting was really good. The

animation was, I want to say, kind of the standard

2D animation we get nowadays, the standard CGI

animation, but it was a... Slightly different

look and after I initially after I watched the

I think it's was it got ten episodes for the

first season Something like that. Yeah, I think

so You know, first of all, we got all ten episodes

at once we didn't have to do a five and five.

Thank God Second of all, I feel like they have

taken with that CGI series the roots of what

Filmation He Man of the Masters universe was

and made it like 1983 when we were young Like,

you know, you were only two years old. I was

three years old. But by the time we ended up

seeing The original filmation show, let's say

85 86 whatever because of syndication when we

were watching that, that was our introduction

to the character, to that universe. The way I

feel about the CGI version of He -Man and the

Master's Universe, that is like this, like kids

of this generation, that should be their introduction

because to me, after watching those 10 episodes,

I was like, well damn, it's 1982 in the modern

day because it just felt like the filmation series

moved forward several decades and you have this

new kind of spin and new types of care like you

don't always need all met like I remember everybody

was joking and laughing and whatever about Ram

ma 'am whatever it's a character name I mean

oh my god it's not the end of the fucking world

But her as a character and what she does to implement

the team and how that goes I really enjoyed it.

I thought it was fun. So Yeah, there are plenty

of reboots that I like and there are plenty of

reboots that I just don't think should have happened

I will keep my Masters of the Universe and my

Transformers animated opinions to myself. I've

been told I'm not about to share them at this

time. It's too soon. I never said that. I never

said that. Such -and -such. Anywho. All right.

So we've had a lot of Transformers rewits, obviously.

We've had a lot of G .I. Joe. We've had a lot

of He -Man. We haven't had a lot of GI Joe. There

was early on there was like four or five like

in the late 90s early 2000s We haven't had a

whole lot since Obviously, we've had a lot of

human and Transformers for sure Are there any

cartoon series from the past that you would want

to see more of and whether it would be a reboot

a live -action movie just to remake completely

I Have often said in the last couple years that

I would love to see G1 pulled forward into the

modern day like that whole style You know, you're

not obviously gonna be able to get all the voice

actors because sadly some of them are no longer

with us like Scatman Carothers and things like

that, but you take the generation one format

and universe Pull it forward into the modern

day and I would love to see that style again

as a cartoon on streaming services or whatever

because that's the other thing that's changed

with cartoons like you know, we talked about

how You know weekday we get you know weekday

morning weekday afternoon or Saturday morning

In the last 40 or 50 years now we've got streaming

services and online and the internet and this

that and the other thing and everything else

so It's so much different now and I just would

love to see that Transformers generation one

style and story arc continue. That's just one

that I can think of Others not so much because

I view them in the time that they were made Okay,

like people are so I see articles online about

You know, oh this, you know Certain websites

and I assume they have an algorithm and I'm not

gonna mention who they are but most people will

know these five episodes of G .I. Joe are the

best and these, you know, five episodes that

are the best of this and five episodes that are

the worst or five things that are really awesome

about this or five things that really suck about

this or five things, it's mostly the negative

side of these articles that are like five things

that would never hold up today from She -Ra or

whatever, you know what I mean? And it's like,

Oh God, why can't you focus and look on these

things as like, even though I just said, I would

love to see the generation one transformer structure

brought into the modern day, not to change it,

to add to it. That's what I want to see. But

some of these people are like, they won't look

at it in the time it was made. You look at the

top of your head without thinking about it. Number

one favorite cartoon of the 80s for you. You're

on a desert island and you only get one choice.

What would you choose? Answer me. Oh, you're

asking me. Yes. No, yes I'm not the one that's

supposed to be answering questions trying to

prove a point Say it again, so I know exactly

the specifics your number one favorite End all

be all 80s cartoon the one you would be on a

desert island with that you would have to watch

for the rest of your life Transformers g1, okay

You look at that in the time that it was made

1984 to 1987 and everything else that was going

on at that time With he man and she run thundercats

like all that's my point here. You take something

and you look at it in the time that it was made.

Some of these people online are like, I really

want to make this fit for the modern day. No,

you don't do that. You maybe start something

new or different and use elements, but you don't

compare what we've already had to what we currently

have because there is no comparison. Fair enough.

We're going to skip past the next one. You've

already talked about how you hate cartoon sidekicks.

No, no, no, we're not skipping any question.

Well, you already said you hate them. I don't

necessarily hate them I mean scrappy do is the

single greatest cartoon sidekick of all time

because Well, okay, but the thing with scrappy

is I Was always the the quiet kid I was always

the kid I said this recently in a Facebook post.

I've always preferred being alone Being by myself

I never need like as much as I had a few friends

here and there as a you know Kindergarten or

for you know elementary school age kid, whatever

I would rather be at home watching cartoons by

myself or with my mom or whatever whatever You

know what I mean? But like I could go in my room

and read a book for two or three hours and be

fine I don't need other other human interactions

all of the time kind of thing And because of

that, I just feel like, you know, as a kid, I

was in somewhat of a shell and seeing Scrappy

and how he was like, I'm sure I'll put it in

here somewhere, but, you know, let me at him,

let me at him, put him up, put him up, you know.

You know, his can do attitude, his non -fraidy.

Scooby attitude where he was you know wanting

to run into the danger where he was wrong at

wanting to face his fears Again going back to

the cartoon lessons. That's what scrappy taught

me was to eventually you're going to have to

face your fears You're going to have to face

your bullies. You're going to have to face this

or face that and That's why I like him. Do I

do I not like Scooby because Scooby's afraidy

-dog? No, that's what his character is and whatever

else but As a cartoon sidekick, Scrappy, in my

personal opinion, rules because he taught me

to kind of stand up for myself. We here at Tooncast

have found the one human being on planet Earth

that was positively impacted by Scrappy Doo.

If we have done nothing else, we have done that

over all of these episodes. Alright in your opinion,

which decade represents the golden era of cartoons?

So that's a term you always get thrown around

golden era of music golden era of this that and

the other blah blah blah and sometimes you hear

it Bantied about when it comes to cartoons, you

know, whether it be the classic era with Looney

Tunes and Hannah Barbera Whether it be you know,

one of these decades that we grew up on whether

it's happening right now What is your opinion

of the golden era of cartoons and why do you

pick that? Well, I wouldn't say it's right now.

I would not say it's the 2020s, not that that's

listed here. Like you said, you get the 50s,

60s, 70s, 80s, 2000s, and 2010s. I would say

that it's for the action cartoons. It's gotta

be the 80s or the 90s, but I'm gonna stick with

the 80s because there were a hell of a lot of

action cartoons in the 80s. And I think for that,

specific genre. In the 60s and 70s, you had,

I don't want to say just say Josie and the Pussycats,

but you had like Johnny Quest and you had all

of that stuff. You had Space Ghost, you had the

Super Friends and their various shows, but I

didn't end up, because I was born in 1980, I

didn't end up seeing the challenge of the Super

Friends or whatever other titles that series

used, I didn't end up seeing those until like

the mid 80s. I know the Jetsons started in the

60s and the Flintstones started 60s or 50s for

Flintstones. 50s, okay. So all of that because

I was born in 80, I was seeing it as reruns around

these action cartoons that I was watching. So

again, the 80s I would say would be the main

golden era. because in the 90s, they were trying

to do all new stuff, all different stuff. 90s

was a transitional decade, I think, but the 80s,

because you had literally everything. I was watching

Pink Panther, I was watching Looney Tunes, I

was watching Mary Melodies, I was watching Mickey

Mouse cartoons, I was watching the Flintstones,

the Jetsons. I take that back. I thought it started

in 58, but it started in 60. That's what I thought.

So Flintstones and Jetsons originated. Flintstones

was 60, and then I remember specifically Jetsons

was 1962, I think, originally. But then the Jeffersons,

the Jetsons came back in the 80s. So for me,

the golden era of cartoons, because you literally

had everything that you could possibly watch

and only on like six channels. I would say by

1989, we had, you know, besides NBC, CBS, ABC,

we had Fox, we had, you know, whatever. You know,

we had five or six channels by the end of the

80s. You had a smorgasbord of everything from

those past decades that you didn't grow up on

that you could see. Same thing with Looney Tunes.

Looney Tunes started back in the 1920s or 30s

or something. You know what I mean? You know,

you had all of that. And I saw, I wasn't just

watching the 80s action cartoon. I was watching

everything. So yeah, I gotta say, the 80s is

the golden era of cartoons because literally

with syndication and all of that and reruns,

we had everything. I would agree with you. And

it's not just because I was growing up in that

time. I think the only competition the competition

is like the classic Hannah Barbera era, you know,

when all that stuff was happening alongside Looney

Tunes and things of that nature. I will say that

there has been some good stuff in the last, you

know, 10 to 15 years. It's come a long way. I

was not a big fan of the mid to mid 90s to mid

aughts. I just some weird stuff happening then

in cartoons in the 70s was kind of a black hole

for cartoons. So it definitely wouldn't be that.

But. I'm with you. I think the 80s especially

if you're putting the caveat like if you're specifically

looking at like action cartoons and things of

that nature But you know boys action cartoons

and stuff like that. There was never more choices

than there was in the 80s. So Some people like

to look down on us for you know, enjoying cartoons

Some people view cartoons as something that's

only for little kids. It's for children You know

anything animated shouldn't be watched by adults

and things of that nature So in your opinion

who are cartoons made for who should they be

made for and what is the you know? What's the

demographic that should be watching cartoons?

in 2022 I'm Okay, I'm just gonna say the last

100 years from 1922 to 2022 Cartoons are for

all of us. Yes, there are different types of

cartoons that are for very, like, I'm not gonna

sit here and watch Caillou, or any of the stuff

that's on Disney Junior, because I know that

that is for kids of a certain age, that is for

little kids, that's for younger kids, but with

the way that the world has changed since we grew

up in the 80s, with the birth of the internet,

with you know all of this stuff now basically

being at our fingertips and we can like i can

go to boomerang and i can watch any episode of

looney tunes i want to watch or pink panther

or whatever or i can go to disney plus and i

can watch the old 90s marvel cart you know x

-men and spider -man and whatever else You know,

we can go on 2b .tv and watch Transformers Generation

1 or if you have the physical media, you can

watch the physical version of the DVDs. I would

say that cartoons are for everybody, no matter

who you are. It's not just for kids. It's not

just because again, these cartoons as we have

grown up and as pop culture has changed and we

now have a burgeoning, you know, whole thing

of geek culture over the last. 20 years or so,

maybe 10 to 15, whatever. You know what I mean?

Like, you know, geek culture is a thing. Hello,

this is called the GeekCast Radio Network. You

know what I mean? So I mean, with geek culture,

it's, you know, it just depends on what you grew

up with. And if you're still watching cartoons

today, it's, you know, for pure enjoyment. Or

it's for, you know, running a decade long podcast

review series about, you know what I mean? But

it's like, it's not, Like I know what you're

getting at and I understand what the question

is saying with how it's just it's for children

versus adults that was the thinking of the 70s

80s and 90s because They the same way that people

viewed like people that watched wrestling or

people that watch like certain things if you

didn't There was a lot more rules back in our

day growing up as far as like what society accepted

that you were supposed to watch on TV and if

you watched the fringe stuff or if you watch

something that wasn't you know, the demographic

target audience, then you often got looked down

on. So that's kind of why I threw that in there.

So, OK, we're going to have some fun for the

rest of the way out. Not that we haven't had

this whole time, but we've been grilling Mike

on a bunch of questions and trying to, you know,

make him remember things as such as such. So

we're going to try to be a little bit more loose,

a little bit more fun for the rest of the way

out. We're calling it the fictional fantasy fun

begins here. Mike, if you could own. any vehicle

featured in a cartoon, what would it be? I can't

wait till I do this episode, this format with

TV's Mr. Neil, and I'm not saying this just because

of that. I'm saying this because I've thought

about this and there is only one answer. There

are so many answers. For me personally, there

is only one answer. I want to be the kid in the

Exosuit getting into Rodimus Prime at the end

of Transformers The Movie. Rodimus Prime would

be my vehicle of choice. Alright, fair enough.

Question number 26 here. If you could live in

any cartoon world that you wanted, where would

you live? So many choices. You could be in space,

you could be in water, you could be on earth,

you could be on some alien planet. Different

time eras. Yeah, I know, I know. Lots to consider.

I think I would, as much as I would probably

dislike the environment of it, but Cybertron,

but Beast Machines, Cybertron. You're going to

live in a robot world with nothing you can't

breathe there probably I would have an exosuit

Food or not is another thing. I mean, I'm sure

I'm sure I could learn to love energon cubes

So unfortunately, you've used all of your transformers

as answers. You can you've got to go somewhere

else now Alright, so if you can pick any three

Cartoon characters they're gonna be a quartet

with you Whether it's you know, you guys solving

mysteries or whether it's you guys making mischief

or whether it's you guys have a band or Saving

the world you have three compadres. You can bring

with you. Who are they gonna be? Bart man Hmm.

I'll keep thinking as in do the Bart man. I'm

Bart man scrappy do Scrappy? We're gonna catch

us a bunch of drunks! Follow me! And Rodimus

Prime. Relax! Enjoy the ride! What? First of

all, you can't use another Transformers, Aster.

We've already featured that. You've used Rodimus

Prime three times now. Fine. Aster will train

so he can transport Scrappy and... Taking Rodimus

Prime and Scrappy to do as two of your three

cartoon friends eliminates all... No, no, no,

no! No, no, no. You told me I couldn't use Rodimus,

so I changed it. I know, but if you did, your

original answer was two of the first characters

that you could possibly take with you. Who was

the third one? I forgot. I was so thrown off

by the other two. If you can do the Bart, you're

bad like Michael Jackson. We'll just go with

what I originally chose, except I will replace

Rodimus with Astro Train, so that way he can

transport the rest of us. Alright, next up, if

you could date any cartoon character... Core

you dating just a rabbit. I'm not bad. I'm just

drawn that way I feel like that'll get a lot

of answers here on this depending on how many

times we run this survey You that will will kind

of rise to the top and I think that she's in

the running for one of the top three answers

All right, one more fictional fantasy fun question

here. What? Is your holy grail of cartoon artifacts?

This could be a device. This could be a weapon.

This could be an accessory. This could be like

a helmet. It could be anything like that. So

what is the holy grail of cartoon artifacts for

you? Hmm. For objects or items that you could

hold if you were a cartoon character. And it

cannot be Rodimus Prime. No, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no Well scratch his tail.

It can't be anything. No, no, no, no, no The

examples that we give here folks the sword of

omens matrix of leadership the power sword from

he man kind of thing the first thing I thought

of was rat trap in in Optimal situation in Beast

Wars What you can't hold two sparks in your body

so technically I would take the spark of optimus

prime If you can't tell Mike likes transformers

folks Okay, nothing wrong with that. I like transformers

too. I mean seriously though. It would probably

be I'm not much of a swordsman, so literally,

seriously, it would probably be the Matrix of

Leadership because not only is it the wisdom

of, you know, it's the well of wisdom and knowledge

and whatever. With the wisdom we accumulate from

this moment on, Autobots transforms and roll

out! Eventually, when you have to use that against

a giant Omnikron virus to defeat it, you know,

you have to refill it with new wisdom. So I guess,

technically, my choice would be the Matrix of

Leadership. Alright. So a little insight into

how Mike's mind works there with our fictional

fantasy fun. But to end, let's get a little bit

more serious, I guess, and give you a chance

to sound off one last time. This is our last

question of the episode. Mike, what is one piece

of advice that you would give cartoon fandom

in general? Just enjoy it. You know, like I said

earlier, I look at cartoons in the time that

they were made. So if I'm watching a cartoon

series from the, let's just say the Jetsons or

the Flintstones, so from the 60s for the original

runs, or something from the 80s or something

from the 90s, and you know, you look at the 90s

and there are a lot of cartoons that we didn't

even mention on here, but stuff like Courage

the Cowardly Dog or Doug or Powerpuff Girls or

You know, whatever kind of thing You know look

at it in the time that it was made and just enjoy

It for what it is, yeah it's something that's

hard to do in this internet world where everybody's

on social media and everybody wants to interact

and Respond to what people post and this that

and the other but it's something you got to try

to remember if you like it Talk about it, you

know engage with other people that like about

you know, like it whatever if someone's posting

about something that you don't like Maybe just

let it go So, you know, I'm gonna say this here

and I'm not gonna say because I don't remember

the girl's name, but I'm in the On Facebook.

I am in the Gary chalkboard Facebook group. It's

basically Gary's, you know fan page whatever

and somebody posed a question of at the end of

at the End of Other Voices Part 2. So this is

the end of Season 1 of Beast Wars going into

Season 2. Why didn't Optimus find another way

to get out of the pod that he was piloting to,

you know, whatever? Well, Megatron, Magna sealed

it and Megatron took it over. And they're like,

but why didn't he find some other way? So as

of this recording... All day today, I have gone

through literally every single second of the

last moments of Other Voices Part 2 and the first

15 minutes of Aftermath, which was the Season

2 premiere of Beast Wars. And I'm like, because

they were wondering like why he didn't escape,

why he didn't just break it open or whatever

with his cannon or something or gun or whatever.

And I'm looking at this thing and I'm like, well

then... it's a season one finale they want to

leave it on a cliffhanger they want to leave

it on the to be continued if if optimus had gotten

out like he was initially supposed to you wouldn't

have optimus primal's death you wouldn't have

all of the character reactions that we had in

aftermath you wouldn't have mystic rhino rhinox

trying to get his spark you know trying to get

optimus primal's spark you wouldn't have all

of that story building without optimus being

trapped in the pot. I don't know, just some people

just don't understand cliffhanger writing or

whatever. Again, going back to the whole thing

of we now live in a world where with the internet,

instead of enjoying the stuff, people want to

pose the question that will eventually create

arguments because the question is freaking stupid.

Well, or they just want to attack anything they

don't like. This is our Tooncast Origins episodes

where we get to go through and figure out what

you like or dislike about cartoons and kind of

learn more about both our hosts, our co -hosts,

our guests, our audience. So if you would like

to be on an Origins episode here, send an email

to feedback at geekcastradio .com with the subject

line Tooncast Origins guest spot. Just remember,

you have to have at least a little bit of time.

As far as podcast experience, you're going to

have to have a mic, you're going to have to have

a way to record, et cetera. So we can fill you

in on the details if you email that. That message

to us will fill you in. But that is it for this

episode. We'd like to thank you for joining us

here on Tooncast. If you'd like to get in contact

with us or leave feedback for the show, there

are several ways to do so. Mike, what are those

ways? You can visit the website, geocastradio

.com, where you can listen to and comment on

all of our content. Send us email, as Optimus

Solo already said, feedback at geocastradio .com.

Hear all the ways you can listen to us nowadays.

Apple and Google Podcasts. Leave us reviews,

please. Yes, iTunes is still a thing, folks.

Spotify and any other podcasting client you choose

to use, follow us on Twitter, at GCR and Tooncast,

and Tooncast Beyond are for the show. I am at

TFU and Mike. What is your Twitter? My Twitter's

at OptimusSolo. Become a fan on Facebook. Go

to facebook .com slash geocastradio network.

You can also go to Tooncast, all toons all the

time, over there as well. We hope you enjoyed

this episode of Tooncast. We wish you'll join

us next time when we will be giving you our thoughts

on something. It's the beginning of 2022, folks.

I have not had a chance to plan anything. I'm

sure it may be another Tooncast origins because

my goal with starting the origins here in Tooncast

was for Optimus Solo, Steve Megatron, and myself

to have our episodes done before I start advertising

to other friends of mine that want to come on

and have me grill them through these 30 questions

of cartoon accuracy or inaccuracy or whatever

you want to call it. TF2 and Mike with... Optimus

Solo. Thank you for listening and until next

time. Oh yeah, unleash the tune in you. You did

it, Uncle Scooby! You got the star creature right

where we want him! Ruff! Ruff! And double! Ruff!

Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest

imagination!