OptimusSolo’s 500th Episode Milestone

Is yet another clip of the transformers movie

roundtable I should have actually done this Altogether

but didn't have all the people in place at the

time and joining me is Kevin Thompson Who is

my new co -host on tooncast? Hello, Kevin How's

it going? It's going. It's one of those lazy

Sunday afternoons where... Hey, nothing better.

Especially by me since it's raining non -stop

right now. It's raining where you are. It's nice

and sunny here. Of course, it's probably like

85 degrees out. Gotcha. Yeah. So we are here

to discuss more Transformers, the movie, stuff

with Roundtable and I just... I'm sorry to say

to the listeners that pretty much all of my voices

on this episode of the TFG1 podcast It will basically

be me saying the same thing over and over and

over again because that's all the notes that

I have So we're gonna start out Let's see. When

was the first time you saw the movie? I actually

saw it at a birthday party in the theater the

year it came out. So oh really? got fortunate

enough to see it in theater. Lucky bastard. Yeah,

none of us, none of the people that I've interviewed,

or not interviewed, but discussed it with so

far, none of us have seen it in theaters when

we were kids. Most of us saw it like one to two

years afterwards on VHS rental, so yeah. Yeah,

I pretty much remember only seeing about three

movies from my childhood in the theater, one

of them being Transformers, one being He -Man

live -action and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

So those are the only three that I remember actually

seeing in the theater. What was it like as far

as the theater experience for you? I mean, what

was the movie like on the big screen? It was

crazy, especially given the age that I was. It

didn't matter what movie it was in the theater.

It was going to be kind of awestruck seeing a

movie in the theater. But it was mainly all boys

my age and and moms and dads and i just remember

being you know very shocking on you know there's

either seems where it was very much into an excited

and obviously at the beginning of the movie with

the all the the character deaths a lot of silence

in the theater a lot of shock you're listening

to the key cast radio network Unleash the geek

in you. I thought you were made of sterner stuff

Hello and welcome to geek cast radio and this

is a new segment here on GCR entitled milestones

I am one of your host TF2 on Mike and joining

me is Steve Megatron. Hello, sir Hello So folks,

it was a sunny 77 degree day in the Chicagoland

area on May 8th, 2009. And just 1 .5 hours outside

the city in a little town akin to Wayne's World's

Aurora, Illinois. This is a long ass name here,

folks. Professor Bosk - He told Kevin Optimus

Solo Thompson would have had his first guest

spot on a podcast. That podcast turned out to

be a clip inside the TFG1 podcast episode 16

where we talked about Transformers The Movie.

If you are asking which Transformers movie, there

can only be one and you clearly were not a child

of the 80s. It has been nine years since Optimus

Solo's debut on Tooncast Classic episode 0 and

now he has reached a very important milestone

in his podcasting life. 500th podcast episode.

Hey solo Mac. Had you heard about podcasting

before this? That's a good question Not really

term I knew what the word was but I didn't know

what a podcast would entail or what it consisted

of or what kinds of podcasts were out there I

I think the most that I knew about it was you

know like they they'll say it on on TV programs

like especially like sports they'll they'll say

like oh you know you can listen into the after

show or the after you know game notes we have

a podcast over at blah blah blah blah but I never

listened so I never really knew what it was I

figured it was kind of like pregame but something

that was recorded or something like that so I

didn't really have a clue but yeah and you're

the one that came up yeah you're the one that

came up with this idea so you're gonna have to

run this down for us because while we've looked

at the script you know this is kind of your baby

Yeah, I mean, for those that don't know, which

would be everybody, because it's kind of all

behind the scenes, but we've been working on

doing a little history project for GeekCast Radio

Network. And in doing so, I've been logging every

episode that we've ever done, every podcast,

every guest, every host, every date, every everything.

And in doing so, I was noticing that a lot of

shows celebrate Show milestones. So, you know

you get it all the time where a show hits their

100th episode or you know 200th episode or whatever

it might be But as I was starting to compile

this stuff, I'm like nobody ever does anything

for the actual person and what Podcasts they've

done and I was curious as to like what how many

podcasts all of us have done. So that's been

kind of another Motivating factor in doing this

history project now. It just happens that time

wise it works out for us to kind of look at,

I guess, me on this first one. But you guys have

much bigger milestones that you've already reached,

so we don't get the pleasure of doing your guys'

500th episode, but we'll be able to do some different

milestones for you guys later that will be even

bigger and better. His first message to me about

this project, folks, was not to be egotistical

or anything, but I'd be up first. I didn't want

it to sound like that was the reason why I wanted

to do these. I think it would be fun, and I think

it's even going to be fun to do it for people

that have guessed it on the show. Oh, absolutely.

maybe not main host or main network people but

people that have been co -hosts or people that

have guested because some of those guys are getting

up there and you know when they get their 100th

episode it'd be nice to bring them on and celebrate

that as well so I figure we we're gonna do these

for kind of however we feel fit but it could

be you know somebody's 100th episode somebody's

like today 500th episode maybe a thousandth episode

we can get creative with it but it gives us a

chance just to kind of get to know the people

more and kind of go back a trip down memory lane

so to speak maybe absolutely and these will be

the miles episodes as Kevin said will be a specialty

episode this is not going to be a weekly thing

because not everyone I mean not even I can you

know do a thousand podcasts in one week I can

try but it'll never happen and Steve's Steve's

mind will explode if I try to do that so I can't

do that yeah wouldn't be the only one So basically

how these will work is we're just gonna bring

a person on that's kind of reaching their milestone

and will Depending on what kind of milestone

if it's the first time we've done it for somebody

then we can kind of go back all the way to the

beginning like their first interaction with the

network and kind of the journey up until that

point if it's a Additional milestone on top of

that then we'd kind of be just looking at a certain

amount of time snapshot absolutely So as I said

your first was TF2 on podcast episode 16 transformers

the movie Yeah, I gotta ask you something though

because I'm trying to rack my brain on Exactly

how that even came to be now. I know I've had

work with two websites obviously get cast radio

and Behind the voice actors those have been the

two main kind of geeky websites that I've been

a part of and I'm pretty sure that both of those

were birthed from my membership on the TFW TFW

My forums and and message boards because I believe

that's how the owner of behind the voice actors

Got all touch me and I believe that's how you

reached out to me But I can't remember the I

don't remember if I reached out to you or if

you reached out to me There's a lot of reaching

in that sentence folks, but it's one of those

things where I honestly don't know what I do

remember is I remember Steve reaching out to

me that that's how we he and I connected but

I don't I honestly don't remember I know it happened

on that crazy insane silly moronic TFW 2005 forum

and I say that in jest because if you go over

there folks the TFW2005 .com and you look on

their forums there are plenty of crazy Galvatron

characters over there Yeah, it's an interesting

but there's a lot of people that have had a membership

over there from time to time that have come up

in different ways at the GeekCast Radio Network

and I even tried to go back there I was gonna

go back because I knew that it was a private

message or a direct message whatever they called

it and So I even went back to try to find it.

Unfortunately, they like revamped their website

Yeah, they've done that actually about two three

times since yeah So I couldn't go I can actually

go back and find one of the early ones that the

behind the voice actors guys sent me Not the

original one but like the third or fourth message

but are the message that we corresponded back

and forth is gone so you can't even find that

so but I know you reached out to me initially

I don't remember if you reached out to me specifically

for the Transformers the movie I think it was

no it was for the movie first and then after

we talked because here's the thing folks a lot

of stuff has changed in you know eight or nine

years at this point and You and I used to spend

all night talking and planning and plotting and

telecast season two three four and five which

have still never you know three thousand yeah

exactly so you know back in the day we used to

hang out all the time on skype and talk about

a bunch of stuff and whatever else and that's

where it kind of happened was the was the movie

would transformers the movie thing and then you

know you're you'd said something of the effect

of all i'd like to do something more with cartoons

and i was kind of planning to cast but i didn't

really have Like the full vision of it and I

remember we had spent close to like six or seven

hours two or three nights a week working on on

the damn thing for to cast classic Yeah, and

and it was funny because at the time I was I

was obsessed with with cartoons, especially back

classic cartoons, you know, 80s and before. And

I had bought like books that were outlining all

the series and like encyclopedias of animation

and cartoons and stuff like that. So the combination

of the idea of Tooncast as well as the behind

the voice actor stuff working on cartoons and

stuff like that, it was going to kind of kind

of filled that void for me. So I didn't have

to write the book that I was going to do. Kind

of took the place and allowed me to kind of relive

that nostalgia and kind of dig into that stuff

a little bit deeper. So it was a perfect timing

as far as what I was interested in at that exact

time But yeah, I barely remember the the actual

Transformers record that we did because I was

probably pretty nervous It was the first time

and I didn't really have you know the equipment

to do that type of thing Which we'll get into

probably a little bit later But I do remember

specifically the tune cast episode 0 1 2 and

that type of thing because it was kind of a time

where we were You and I knew what we wanted to

do Episode 0 was a little bit of a nightmare,

but the rest of it was alright. Tara, what about

you for your top 5? Alright, number 5, Cinderella.

Number four Aladdin number three Robin Hood number

two the Little Mermaid and number one the Lion

King Excellent. Thank you. I agree with your

tops Okay, let's move on to some commercials

and we'll be back after this I'd be called a

pervert though I knew that was going to be a

sexual connotation right there. I didn't even

think of it until Mike said something. Mike,

you should not have opened your mouth and it

wouldn't have gone weird. Okay, now for a commercial

break. Hello nurses and friends and nurses. Yakko

Warner here and you're listening to a podcast

on the Geekcast Radio Network. Lucky you. Shining,

shimmering, splendid Tell me, princess, now when

did you last let your heart decide? I can open

your eyes Take you wonder by wonder Over sideways

and under On a magic carpet ride A whole new

world Fantastic point of view No one to tell

us no of where to go Or say we're only dreaming

Riff raff street rat I don't buy that If only

they'd look closer Would they see a poor boy?

No siree They'd find out There's so much more

to me If she doesn't scare you, no evil thing

will. To see her is to take the sudden chill.

Cruella, Cruella. She's like a spider waiting

for the kill. Look out for Cruella. Little John

walking through the forest, laughing back and

forth at what the other has to say. Reminiscing

this and that and having such a good time, ooh

-da -lally, ooh -da -lally, golly, what a day.

Ooh -da -lally, ooh -da -lally, golly, what a

day. Oh, the world will sing of an English king

a thousand years from now. And not because he

passed some laws or had that lumpy brow While

Bonnie Good King Richard leads the great crusade

he's on We'll all have to slave away for that

good -for -nothing John Incredible as he is inept,

whenever the history books are kept They'll call

him the phony King of England Every town has

its ups and downs Sometimes ups, outnumber the

downs, but not a nodding ham. Fish with a big

back bone, I'm Abraham DeLacy. G -O -S -P -E

-K -A -Z -Y Thomas O'Malley In somebody else's

lake You dream about going up there But that

is a big mistake Just look at the world around

you Right here on the ocean floor Such wonderful

things around you What more are you looking for?

Under the sea Under the sea Darling it's better

Down where it's wetter Take it from me Up on

the shore they work all day Out in the sun they

slave away While we're devoting full time to

floating under the sea Yeah, yes you see her

Sitting there across the way She don't got a

lot to say But there's something about her You

don't know why But you're dying to try You wanna

kiss the girl Yes, you want her. Look at her,

you know you do. It's possible she wants you

too. There is one way to ask her. You don't take

a word, not a single word. Go on and kiss the

girl. Sing with me now. Sha la la la la la. My

oh my, look at the boy too shy. He gonna kiss

the girl. Ain't that sad in the shade? Too bad

you gonna miss. Hakuna Matata, what a wonderful

phrase. Hakuna Matata, ain't no passing craze.

It means no worries for the rest of your day.

So little hair I'm gonna be the main event Like

the king was before I'm brushing up on looking

down I'm working on my roar At this far rather

uninspiring thing Oh I just can't wait to be

king Run for a long way to go young master if

you think No one's saying do this Now when I

said that No one's saying be there No one's saying

stop that the host situation and eventually come

in I think it was about episode seven or whatever

where it ended up starting to be it was the Silverhawks

episode where you and I were that was the first

time it was just the two of us and it was basically

the two of us for quite a few of them after that

yeah yeah absolutely and it's just one of those

things where what I would be most interested

with you is to find out which tune cast Classic

episodes you me and Steve were on because I don't

remember a lot of those I remember Steve being

on the show and we'll obviously talk about his

milestones when he gets to that, you know in

another episode, but I honestly do not remember

a lot of the three of us in Tooncast Classic.

We actually did a lot of rotating in the Tooncast

time because we had probably, I don't know, a

dozen different people that were on episodes

here and there and at the time I didn't know

everybody from everybody so it was just kind

of like all new people. It's hard to separate

at that moment when you're actually going through

it because it's just you know Here's new person

a here's new person B here's new person C and

kind of learning who everybody was Whereas now

you know it'd be a lot easier to remember what

I've done You know I can remember what I've done

with Steve over the last you know Four or five

years much easier than I can remember what I've

done with anybody in those first couple years.

Yeah Absolutely All right, so you've broken this

down by year for this is your GCR in life Yeah

but but but but but but but but but but but but

but but but but but but but but but but but but

Pretty much, yeah, probably. What interests me

most, and I know you're going to go through these

individually here in a second, but just looking

at these numbers, the most podcasts Optimus Solo

has done in one year happened in 2010 with 77

episodes. Yep. It's weird. Looking back, I was

kind of shocked to find out that outside of two

or three years, it's basically been 70 episodes

every year. Hmm like 2010 2011 2014 15 and 16.

They've all been between 69 and 77 episodes So

that just must be a magic number of some sorts

We all know 69 some magic number dude. Come on

now. I mean 2009 doesn't really count because

I well, yeah, you were just starting and yeah,

we were you know and 2012 and 2013 those were

the that was the first two years that I just

started my new job. So it's kind of took over

life a little bit, because what happened there

during that time period is I was working nights.

There was about 10 months where I was working

five nights a week until 12 o 'clock, 1 o 'clock,

2 o 'clock in the morning. So that's when most

people have available to do records. So that's

why you see a drop off in those two years until

I got back on days. And then you can see it start

to pick back up in 2014. Yeah, it's weird how

it all kind of ends out about 70 episodes. I'm

sure your average per year is like 250. That's

the pull bag alone. Right. That's for sure. But

yeah, I just remember early on doing those tooncasts,

because it was basically just tooncasts that

first year outside of that ATTF, or not ATTF,

the TFG -1, the initial podcast that I was on,

and just a couple other little episodes here

and there. But it was fun kind of finding my

feet there, because we kind of went through a

couple different things. Like you said in the

intro, first of all, you're calling me professor.

That was a terrible idea on my part. I feel like,

I don't know how much. At the time, and if you

want me to edit this, I will. But at the time,

you were a teacher. That was your profession.

That's what you were doing. We worked it into

the script where I would do like these little

history lessons for episodes So that would be

kind of the more you know Contextual information

before we just kind of start discussing it so

I at the time I thought it was a good idea what

it now what it reminds me of looking back is

you know on like your Facebook or your Twitter

where you get like those websites that give you

all like the clickbait articles where it's like

10 this or 13 this it reminds me of the ones

that come up like 10 early wrestling identities

were crazy for people before they became who

they were you know what I mean like it's like

somebody that had some ridiculous gimmick in

the beginning that's kind of what I feel like

when when I hear that luckily I like Optimus

solo a lot better yeah gotta say obviously also

interesting that first year that was also the

first interview I got to do an interview right

off the bat, you and I. And I believe, if my

information's right, that's the first interview

for the network. No. No. Third. Yeah, that was

the third interview. There were two in December

of 2008, and it was David Kaye was first and

Gary Chalk was second. Okay, gotcha. So is those

two and then Larry Kenny, which I was not expecting

that when I got involved with Mike and started

to do Tunecast I wasn't expecting to actually

interview voice actors like a Complete surprise

and I remember you and I both being super Nervous

that first one. Oh, yeah. Well cuz we didn't

I like A lot of these people, a lot of these

voice actors, voice actresses, a lot of these

people in Hollywood, and voice actors and voice

actresses, while they are actors and actresses,

because acting is acting, you know, you never

know, because the way Hollywood is portrayed

on television and the media and things like that,

and it's one of those things where with the Larry

Kenny interview, it was like, okay, don't freak

out on him. don't quote to rely on lines don't

do this don't do that coming up today on to cast

uh... kevin and i tfg one mike have the awesome

awesome opportunity to interview larry kenny

the voice of lionel bluegrass sony the kogelberg

count chocula and uh... whole other various uh...

things that he has done uh... this is going to

be so awesome to talk to him This is going to

be an incredible experience. Oh, yes, very, very

much so. So without further ado, here is Lionel,

Lord of the Thundercats, talking with us. Hello,

everyone. This is Michael TFG1 Blanchard, and

I am joined with my usual Tooncast co -host Kevin

Thompson. Hello. How's it going, man? And today,

the two of us have a super awesome, privileged

interview. Larry Kenny, yes, that's right, Lionel,

Lord of the Thundercats, is on the line with

us. Hello, Larry. Oh, shucks. I'm a secret, what

now? A secret special guest. Oh good. Yeah, I

like super awesome. I'm gonna add that to my

name. Super awesome Larry Kenny. How you doing

guys? Doing pretty good. Alright. First question

for you is where did you grow up? No place yet.

And I don't intend to either. 15 forever, that's

my model. Actually, I grew up not far from you

guys, at least where you guys are now. I grew

up right in the middle of Illinois in a town

called Pekin, P -E -K -I -N, which is 12 miles

from Peoria, which is where I started my radio

career in Peoria. Long time ago. I was born there

in 1947. What got your voice acting career started?

Actually, the start of my radio career was kind

of the start of my voice acting career because,

well I had always been class cloud in school,

you know, always doing voices that I had copied

from watching people on TV like Jonathan Winters

and listening to cartoons with metal blank and

things like that. Even as a little kid, my mom

told me I was always doing character voices and

cartoon voices and then... When I started in

radio as a disc jockey, I kind of carried that

into my programs, you know, as a disc jockey.

I'd introduce the records of the day and I'd

have little characters who appeared in my show

and things like that. And that actually led into

voice acting, into commercials, which I had done

for several years before I did any cartoon series.

I've been doing Cocoa Puffs and Calf Chocula

for over 30 years now, both of those. So the

radio for me was kind of the lead -in to voice

acting. Yeah, you mentioned the Cocoa Bird and

some of the other ones. Can you reveal any of

the behind -the -scenes moments from either the

commercial recordings or even some behind -the

-scenes moments from some of your cartoon work?

From the cartoon work a lot of what used to be

what we thought would be behind -the -scenes

moments Turned out to be available for everybody

in the world online that you guys I'm sure know

their outtakes. Yeah from ThunderCats and Silverhawks

and I think almost every cartoon series we did

Karate Cats. Oh My gosh, we did a lot of them.

So Too many things that happened on the cartoon

shows that that are behind the scenes anymore.

I'm sure you guys will tell everybody. If they

don't know about the outtakes, just Google them

or you can probably tell them. Websites where

they can find them. And a lot of people like

me and ask if they're really us and yes indeed

they are. There ain't not too much I can tell

you. I wish I had some funny stories about recording.

How do you feel about those outtakes being available?

Well, at first, when I first found out about

it, I was a little upset. I thought, oh my gosh,

what if some little kids hear those? You know,

some of them are pretty raw. But obviously, you

know, in this day and age, kids hear that kind

of stuff anyway, and it's nothing really terrible.

But it was just, you know, just a shock to us,

because when we made those things, we recorded

Render Cancer Example back in the mid -80s. And

back then, there was no internet, as far as most

of us knew. And what usually happened to outtakes

from recording sessions was that the engineers

would keep a copy of them and put them on what

we call their Christmas reel. When they had a

Christmas party with their friends, they'd say,

hey guys, you got some great outtakes from guys

from the Thundercats. That's the only people

that ever hear it, you know. So at first I thought,

oh, this could be bad news for music bent publicity,

but it never was. I mean, there's so much of

that stuff around. So, you know, it's funny.

Yeah, I've actually looked up some of those on

YouTube and yeah, it's funny how some people

take the the outtakes audio Yeah, I to sync it

to the Thundercats cartoon Yeah, I completely

agree on that point. You've been doing radio

for a very long time. Do you feel that you have

been typecast as a radio announcer slash DJ or

do you feel as you've been typecast just for

Lionel? No, no, I've not been typecast at all.

I'm very lucky because I do such a wide variety

of things. I mean, first of all, Lionel was pretty

much my own voice, as you can tell. It wasn't

something I changed my voice a lot for. I made

it a little more dramatic, you know. to saying

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... There's still lots of things that

are on TV and radio that you probably hear all

the time that you do. You don't know it's me,

which is fine, you know. The Skittles commercials,

for example, and the guy who says, feel the rainbow,

take the rainbow. That's me. Oh. Oh, wow. That's

awesome. Same voice I used on the show for VH1

called Best Week Ever. It's the best week ever!

You didn't know that was gonna be here, did you?

I did know that one. I didn't know the Skittles,

though. Yeah, so like I said, not that I've cast,

I still have a chance to do a wide variety of

things. Looking back at, you know, specifically

maybe Thundercats and Silverhawks, is there like

a favorite memory you have from those shows or

is there something that you, when you look back,

you miss the most over, you know, some other

stuff that happened? The thing I miss most is

just being with all those people. We got to...

Earl Hammond and Earl Hyman and Bob McFadden,

Peter Newman, Lynn Lipton, Jerianne Raphael,

hope I haven't left anybody out. That was a cast

of Thundercats. Most of us did Silverhawks and

Tiger Sharks, Street Frogs, and we did a whole

bunch of ranking -batch Christmas shows. i can't

really point to one, just like one moment that

was so funny or something i mean every time we

worked the people were so funny and we had such

a great time and they were such nice, good people

but i miss being around those people all the

time uh... that's really all i can say i just

cherish that time together and we worked together

for it took us three years to record Thundercats

and then we worked a couple years on Silverhawks

and uh... So we really gave it a lot. Was there

anything about looking back at your cartoon work,

was there anything or any show that you did that

you did not enjoy or you just didn't like or

was there anything that was hard for you in any

of the cartoon shows you did? No, I've never

thought of it. That's a very good question and

I've never thought of it. Maybe it's because

I think about it, there never was anything I

didn't really like. There are some that were

better than others, obviously, and you kind of

knew once you began. I think when we started,

I don't want to denigrate anyone's show, but

when we started working on Tiger Sharks, which

was after Thundercats and Silverhawks, after

about 10 shows we kind of knew, you know, at

lunch we might say something like, I don't think

this is going too far. It's all the ideas for

kind of getting thin and, you know, let's face

it. basically the same writers and animators

and cast that had done 130 episodes of Thundercats

and I think 130 of Silverhawk. It was pretty

tough to keep up the quality. My most shows,

even Primetime sitcoms, they end at some point

because you run out of ideas. But I really can't

say that there are any that I knew right away

I didn't like working on. Usually by the time

you get tired of it, it ended. Yeah, when we

were coming up with these questions for you a

couple weeks ago, I actually thought of something

that didn't occur to me before. You, Peter Newman,

you were Lionel and he was Tiger on Thundercats

and then on Silver Fox the roles were reversed.

He was Quicksilver and you were Bluegrass. Were

you guys ever at odds with each other as far

as who was getting the quote unquote leader role?

No, not that I recall. Never really thought about

that. Peter might have. I'll have to talk to

him. I see him all the time. We have the same

agent in New York, and I see him in auditions

and recording sessions several times a year.

I think probably he would agree with you a little

bit, no matter who his boss is in Tiger Sharks

or Silverhawks. Lionel is probably, you know,

the lord of everything. That's the way I feel

about it. Exactly. Actually a little side note

to that question I just asked you. I actually

didn't know, I mean, we've already covered Thundercats

and Silverhawks here on Tooncast as far as our

discussion and remembering growing up on the

shows. And until I watched a couple of episodes

of Silverhawks on YouTube, I had no idea that

Bluegrass is basically a country version of Lionel.

He pretty much is, pretty much the same voice,

that's right. He's got a little clang and plays

that guitar and hangs out with that annoying

kid all the time. Yeah, none of the voices that

I did, and then in Tiger Sharks I was Dolph and

that was pretty much my own voice. I hadn't thought

about it. You guys have interesting questions.

I come to think of it, the only time I really

did like quote character. where I really changed

my voice a lot on those shows. There was one

I did that did mutants, you know, or a villain.

Like, I was Jack -O -Man in Rundercats. And he

was something like, we must get that one to catch

it. Those are fun to do, because you got to be,

like, sniding with flesh. Right. Everybody always

likes playing villains more than heroes, because

you get to have more fun. When you were doing

Thundercats or Silverhawks or even earlier on

in your career, were there any voice actors out

there that you were in awe of or you admired

the most or maybe you got to work with and you

were kind of speechless around? Who did you look

up to? Oh, sure, sure. I'll never forget when

I worked with James Earl Jones about eight or

ten years ago on some Verizon commercials, radio

commercials. Because James Earl Jones, of course,

is. one of the great, not only great actors on

screen, but one of the great voice actors. People

of your generation probably know him most as

the voice of Darth Vader. Darth Vader and Fassa

from The Lion King. Yes, exactly. So many things.

So it's a great pleasure for me to work with

James Earl Jones in the medium. He's the nicest

guy in the world. I guess so many people. I got

to meet, I didn't get to work with yet, but we're

planning on it, with Luke Skywalker. Yeah. Tell

me his real name, I forgot. Mark Hamill. Yeah,

of course, Mark Hamill. I'm sorry. I met him,

actually he came up to my table at a Comic Con

in Florida, and he stood in line, he stood in

line behind a couple of young people where he

was getting autographs. I looked up and I said,

Hi, my name is, oh my God. He said, I'm a big

fan. I said, how long have you been standing

in line? He said, no, I just got here. So we

had lunch later and he's a big animation fan,

as you guys probably know. I didn't know that.

He does animation himself. He has an animation

studio. So to meet people like that is really

a kick. That's one of the nice things about the

business. Every once in a while, you guys get

to meet people that you grew up with. I grew

up listening. I never met Mel Blank or people

like that, but I've met a lot of people in the

business that I admire. It's always a kick to

meet somebody who is an idol of yours. That's

very much so. Kind of a touchy question here,

maybe you might not want to answer, but on the

flip side of that, has there ever been... Someone

you worked with in the voice acting business

that you just, for some reason or another, just

didn't get along with or rubbed you the wrong

way. Never. Not one. Never. Larry? I'll give

you the initials. Oh, no. There you go. There

are people you meet tonight who aren't as great

as you thought they were going to be. But for

one thing, I'd never mentioned them. And I can't

even really remember who they were. I tend to

forget things like that. I really do. I'm always

kind of a positive person. Unless they really

did something horrible to me and that never happened.

But I don't dwell on who I didn't like. I just

remember the good things. How were you informed

that the show was coming to an end as far as

Thundercats and did you think that the show had

done everything it could have or did you wish

it had gone on even more? Well, once we got to

Gush, you guys really have some good questions.

They're not the typical questions. First of all,

it's pretty common knowledge in the business

that for any kind of syndicated show on TV, especially

an animated show, the minimum number of shows

you need to have to sell that syndication is

130. I don't know how that was arrived at. I

think that comes to three full seasons or something

like that. worth their while to try to syndicate

something with less than a number. So as we got

nearer to 130 episodes, once we got around 130

I think, I think we all knew that something was

going to happen. Either we were going to run

out of ideas and we were just going to end at

130, or they were going to change the series

drastically, maybe even a new generation or something

like that. But then as we got closer, I'm sure

you told it that on recall. exactly when but

I'm sure they told us we've decided to end at

130. So when it happened, we weren't just taken

into a room and said you're fired. We all knew

it was coming and we were ready for it too. One

thing you don't want to do when you're involved

with a show that had already become a classic

really and we knew it was going to live a long

time, you don't want to kill it. You don't want

to ruin it. stretching it out too long and watering

it down and having people say, oh, it's gotten

silly. Leave it. Leave them wanting more is the

idea. I had a long answer to your question, but

I couldn't do that. Over the course of either

show or any of the shows you've done, are you

someone who watches the cartoon back to hear

what you sound like and see it all kind of in

one piece or do you try to stay away from it?

Do you mean as you're recording it so you can

remember what your character sounded like? Or

just like if you record something and then later

on, weeks later, do you watch it back to see

how it turned out? No, really. At least I never

have. In fact, I hadn't seen any of Thundercats

for 20 years or so until this nostalgia wave

came up recently. Simply because I knew what

they said. I did it. I think most people in the

business will tell you the same thing. At least

most actors I've seen will ask that question.

Do you watch your old movies? No, I don't. It's

just something, I don't know. Maybe if you haven't

seen something in 20 years you might watch a

part of it. But you were there, you did it, and

it doesn't have the same magic to the fans because

you saw the behind the scenes and stuff. So no,

I don't watch old stuff. Okay. Out of all the

characters you've voiced, especially focusing

on Thundercats and Silverhawks since you did

multiple voices on both shows, I know you had

mentioned that you liked some of the villain

characters more. Is there a favorite character

that you had on all those shows? I think Jack

-O -Man was my favorite, yeah, because I like

to... I could tell... Well, first of all, when

we were deciding what kind of voice to do for

him, the word delivery name, Jack -O -Man, you

know, Jack -O is like a... You know, it's a fox

-like, fox -sitter -wolf type mixed character,

you know? And the first thing that came to my

mind was, if you guys are familiar with the name

Snidely Whiplash, back in the 40s and 50s, he

was the character with the top hat and the long

mustache, you know, and the black cape. He's

the one who would tie the girl to the railroad

tracks, you know? And he's off like this, you

know? That was the first time I thought, let's

bring some ivy back. But I gave him kind of an

animal growl, you know. We must get the fun to

catch. Yeah. And that was always fun. It's always

fun to play villains. And it was fun to watch

Earl Hammond do mum -raw. We all wish we were

mum -raw for a while, until we saw how much work

it was. I mean, he had to really bellow that

out, you know. He was drooling like Mumara actually

does on screen. The slobber would come out of

his mouth. Nobody would stand closer to ten feet

from him when he was doing Mumara. How easy or

hard was it for you to keep track of which voice

went with which character? Every voice actor

has a method. What was yours? Yeah, you're right.

Everybody has it differently. I always preferred

to if, for example, two of my characters were

having a dialogue with each other. I preferred

to do the whole scene and go back and forth without

breaking. If Lionel was talking to Jack -o -Man,

I don't recall if it ever happened, it probably

did, but I preferred to just do it like, Jack

-o -Man, you'll not stop us. Oh, yes, we will.

I'm telling you, you can't. Yes, we can. I always

preferred to do it back and forth. Some of the

actors preferred to do all of one character's

lines first. and then all of the other characters

lines and have them edited. I just had more fun,

I think, with the challenge of doing it back

and forth. Do you have a favorite memory or favorite

part about each show that you've done over the

years as far as the cartoons? Aside from this

interview? Gosh. No, like I said before, I don't

think I have one favorite moment, one favorite.

It sounds like a lame answer, but it's true.

One of my favorite, probably the favorite thing

of my career for me is working with that group

of people that I worked with, not just the actors

that I mentioned before, Peter and Lynn and the

two of our old, Bob and Jerry Ann, but Lee Donaker

who was the director and the engineers, Larry

Crenshaw and all those guys. It was just for

five years, you know, working for the same group

of fun. people. That's my favorite memory. This

is kind of a little side note because Mike and

I have a little battle going. But when it comes

to Silverhawks and Thundercats, in your personal

opinion, is there one that you think was a better

overall cartoon or which one you had more fun

with? Thundercats. I have to say Thundercats

was the better cartoon and I don't know if we

had more fun. I think we had more fun with it.

And I think that's obvious because it has become

the classic. I mean, Silverhawk still does pretty

well. I think they're even putting it out on

DVD already. But Thundercats is the, as you guys

know, for your generation, that's, you know,

of those three, or of those two, that's definitely

the one that you guys have to take, say to the

top one. So, yeah, Thundercats. I'll go ahead

and say that. It's Thundercats. But I think because

of why, I'll use it back. Let's see. I know you've

mentioned a couple of them, but out of all the

voice actors you've worked with, how many do

you keep in contact with still, or how many do

you see on a regular basis? Well, unfortunately,

we've lost Earl McFadden. We've lost Bob McFadden

and Earl Hammond. So I miss those guys. I see

Peter Newman quite often, probably at least once

or twice a month. He's in the business in New

York. When lifting I see less frequently since

we don't have the same agent, but I see her two

or three times a year I see Jerry and Raphael

that number of times So all those guys I see

quite a bit when I I actually because I have

all Thundercats has has four DVD sets for for

both of the seasons Yeah, I actually both of

us when we were doing research for our topic

show We watched almost every single episode and

as I was watching them and I was watching I was

watching Panther and I'm like, wait, wait, wait,

wait. And I listened and I listened. I'm like,

oh wow, that's Grandpa Cosby. And I never knew

that. I never knew that before. And I'm like,

well, who's Grandpa Cosby on a cartoon? I never

knew that. That was so cool. That's right. And

he was, he played Bill Cosby's father on the

Cosby show and he played Panther. Yes, he did.

Can you tell us about your experience as the

announcer from Grand Theft Auto, Count Chocula,

and Sonny the Kogelberg? Well, Grand Theft Auto

won't take me very long, because I'm only on

there for about three minutes, I think. Yeah,

and I think I am a Choc show host on the radio

or something, or a disc jockey on the radio.

I never heard of it, actually. I remember they

called me, and I went into a studio for about

10 minutes in New York. I just read the copy

and I don't even remember what I said. So my

son talked me into doing it and I wasn't going

to do it. My son said, oh dad, you got to do

it because he was about 18 at the time. In fact,

I got him on there too. He was one of the callers

I think. Yeah, according to our information that

we have on you, you were the announcer for the

beat 102 .7. That must be it, yeah. Someone you

asked me were like, Cocoa Plus and Count Chocula?

Yeah, Cocoa Plus and Count Chocula. Well, I've

been doing those for over 30 years, you know.

See, I never knew. Honestly, I never knew when

I was a kid. I never knew that that was you doing

Sunny and Count Chocula. I didn't know that until

I started doing research on you for this. Yeah,

I took over from, oh, I forget which hands were

doing it. I've been doing both of them since

about 78, 70, 78 and 79, I think. So that's 30

and 31 years. Actually, it's a good run put my

kids through college. Oh, yeah Actually, it's

very funny. I went grocery shopping last weekend

throughout the entire cereal aisle I could not

find Count Chocula anywhere in the store I went

to but I found Coco Puffs and I have two boxes

sitting in the kitchen. Oh No, they're not open

yet What was it like reprising Lionel in the

family guy episode That was cool. The only bad

part about it, one of the main reasons I did

it and agreed to do it was that I was hoping

I'd get to work with Seth McFarlane, who I consider

a genius. And the other people on that show,

I said, it's a genius show. However, I have to

admit to you that when I first got the call from

my agent, I said, well, I've heard of this show,

I've seen it on the channel guide, you know,

let me check it out. Well, I watched three minutes

of it, I said, there's no way I'm going to do

why I know on that show. Because I said, you

know, I haven't liked the show. I think it's

very funny. But I have this proprietary thing

about Lionel and Thundercats that I don't think

the fans of Thundercats want to hear, you know,

Thundercats on that show saying those kinds of

things. Maybe I'm being a prude. A long story

short, my son Tanner talked me into doing it.

He said, Dad, you've got to do it. It's the big

show. He said, big stars. Try to get on that

show. It's like the Simpsons has been you know

You know, I heard Al Pacino called him and said

can I be on the family guy? I said, I don't care.

I don't want to do it. Well long story short

I always say that don't I never make sure Yeah,

I said well all right, send me the script now,

we'll see I take one look at the script and I

say no Finally my son talked me into doing it.

He said dad you gotta remember First of all,

this show is not for little kids It's not intended

for late year old kids. It's for adults. I said,

well, yeah, you're right. So I did it. And then

I just kind of held my breath to see how much

email I got. A hate email from Buttercats fans

saying, how could you let Lionel do something

like that? And all I got was accolades. It's

funny. Glad you did it. So that's the bullet

on that one. Excellent. I've read some stories,

I don't know if they're true or not, about an

experience you had back in the 80s with some

kids that you ran into at a Toys R Us action

figure aisle. Do you mind retelling that story?

It was very funny. It was probably about 87 or

88. Leathercats went on the air in 85, although

we started recording in 83. So maybe it was about

85 or 86. I knew that Leathercats did a two -show.

a huge hit because I took my daughter, Carrie,

who was only, let's see, she was only 14 or 15

then. We went to Toys R Us for some reason and

we get down to, there's three aisles, two sided

aisles, of nothing but thundercats. Wow. Collectibles

and material, memorabilia. Well, it wasn't memorabilia,

no, action toys and things. Right. That's when

I realized, holy cow, I better make sure I got

a piece of this thing. But anyway. We're walking

down one aisle and there's two boys, maybe, I

don't know, 10 and 12, 8 and 12, I don't know

how old they were. As we walked by, I could hear

one of them say something and one kid said, I

want to get Pantro, he's my favorite. Another

kid said, oh, I like Mumra, he's the bad guy.

So, this was fun. I looked at him and I said,

why don't you get Lionel, you know, he's the

roar for the thundercats. Hello! And they looked

at me like I was crazy. And I walked away. As

we were walking away, I heard one of the kids

say, the other one, he doesn't even sound like

a liar, though. I looked at my daughter, and

I said, he's got a little fart on me. I knew

he'd crap his pants. So I thought it was funny.

He doesn't even sound like a liar. That's awesome.

I used to have a videotape at home that I watched

almost until it didn't work anymore called Super

Duper Baseball Bloopers. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think I was on there. Yeah, do you remember

working on that at all? Because I remember me

and my friends watching that video tape until

it didn't work anymore. Really? I know that I

was on it because I have a list here in case

people ask me questions like this. So I go, yeah,

I was on that. You got to remember it's been

45 years of recording things and sometimes forget

what you were on. Oh, yeah. Seriously, I do keep

a list because sometimes somebody will call and

say, weren't you on... and i'll be i think so

and then i wasn't and then i get you know people

think what you think he's you know he's uh...

he's saying he was on shows he was never on what

a phony you know the bloopers i was on it but

i don't remember recording it i think yes i do

in america i went to ESPN i believe to do that

up in bristol connecticut uh... with their headquarters

and they were very nice to meet and i remember

going up there and had very nice studios and

I ended up doing quite a bit of work there, I

think, up in Bristol, which is about an hour

from my house. That was actually, I think, I

did a whole series over the years of things like

that, super duper baseball bloopers and things

about different kinds of sports. A lot of them,

I think, were VHS tapes. I think that's how I

got it and I just got to give you some praise

there because I remember that we watched it so

much because of you and whoever else was doing

the voices with you. That was awesome. Oh, thank

you. I have to watch that again. You asked me

earlier if I ever watch old things. I literally

do, but something like that. I have to watch

it again. I recall it was pretty funny. Yeah,

it was classic. Okay. Why did you stop doing

voiceover work for cartoons for the most part

and start focusing on other aspects of your career?

I didn't. I didn't. Once we finished the Thundercats,

Silverhawks, Tiger Sharks and all that, the animation

business kind of dried up in New York. As a matter

of fact, up until Thundercats, almost no animation

series had ever been done in New York. They were

always in Los Angeles. And to this day, I don't

know why Rankin -Bath decided to come to New

York for Undercats and the other two. Thank God

they did. But now there's still some down here,

Nickelodeon, of course, and Cartoon Network,

to do some of their own original things here.

But generally, there's not too much. So to answer

your question, I didn't retire from it. I just

haven't been asked to do any more, although I

did recently go to Florida. and record 15 episodes

or so of a show that may be coming on, we don't

know yet, called Redneck Space Track. And I have

in the works now two other animated projects

that they want me to work on that my agent is

looking into. Awesome, good luck with that. I

didn't retire from it, I just hadn't gotten connected

with any of them since then. Just as a side note

because I think we need to bring it up. We kind

of talked about your radio career. Can you talk

to us about being on the Imus in the morning

show? Oh yeah, sure. That I have every time from

just the last couple of years. I was on Imus'

show for 35 years from 1973 to 2008. For the

first 25 years or so. We were on radio only,

and I'd go in every day at about noon. I'd only

be there for about half an hour. I'd record my

three -minute comedy routine as Nixon or Kissinger

or Ted Kennedy or whatever. And then once he

got on TV, on MSNBC, I had to go there live.

I had to be there 5 o 'clock, 5 .30 in the morning,

get my makeup and costume on, and then be there

until 9, and then go into Manhattan. So a couple

of years ago after his eight month hiatus, he

called me and said he was going to start it up

again. I said, you know what, I've rediscovered

the joy of sleeping past 4 a .m. I said, I just

turned 60 years old, I've got two grandsons,

and I'll tell you what, I'm not going to do that

show anymore. 35 years is a good run, but I'm

just tired of getting up at 4 o 'clock in the

morning and driving in it from Connecticut to

New Jersey to do that show. But I enjoyed it,

and it's a good memory from it. I'm sorry to

cut you off, Kevin. I'm not trying to interrupt

you. Well, it's okay. I got both of you off in

a couple minutes here anyway. We have like one

question left for you. Good. That's good. Go

ahead, Gavin. I just wondered two things. First,

could you speak a little bit about your three

children and what they've accomplished so far

in the past? Oh, sure. They're all the joy of

my life. My oldest daughter, Carrie, who many

of you know, I think, she's an actress and a

writer and executive producer of television and

films. Most recently she's been on... a show

called Reno 911, which is on Comedy Central.

She and Danny DeVito are the co -executive producers

of it. And she played Devaney Trudy Weigel, the

crazy one. And they also did a movie, Reno 911

Miami, a few years ago, which did very well.

And before that, she was on Viva Variety. She

was on The Ellen Show on CBS. Many years ago,

she was on The State. on MTV, right at college,

which has just come out on DVD. Getting a lot

of attention now. So she's doing very well in

Hollywood. She lives in Malibu, California. Her

husband, Steve, is a cinematographer. He just

won an Emmy last year for he's been trying to

filming two and a half men on CBS. Charlie Sheen

and Don Cusack. And my daughter, Ashley, is 25.

she had a nine -month -old grandson. She lived

near us here in Connecticut. She's an accomplished

rider, rides horses, and trains horses. And my

son Tanner is 21, and he's finishing up college

at New York University, as we speak, I hope.

Excellent. Excellent. That's the family. And

then I love my wife, Carol. whom I referred to

as Mrs. Kenny DeJure, just to keep her on the

toes. Awesome. I think the last question I have

for you, have you been contacted at all recently

about doing either a Thundercats or a Silverhawks

film? The Thundercats movie, which is supposed

to come out next spring, my agent is in discussions

with Warner Brothers about, but that's all I

can say. In fact, that's all I know. I don't

know. how it's looking, whether we're going to

do it or not. But I know that my agent is talking

with Warner Brothers about my reprising the role

of Lionel in that movie. I'll definitely keep

our fingers crossed for that. Oh, good. Thank

you. Me too. I could use the bread one more year

of college. Hey, thank you. It's been a pleasure

talking to you. We would like to thank you so

much for taking the time to chat with us in this

special Tooncast interview. We'd like to ask

you to hang on the line for one second. Sure,

I'm going to do those things for you, all right?

Right, the promo. So this has been a Tooncast

special interview with Larry Kenney, the voice

of Lionel, Lord of the Thundercats. Oh my god.

That was so awesome. That was a pretty fun experience.

Oh my god. That is a once -in -a -lifetime experience.

For most of you that are probably going to listen

to this, we just interviewed Larry Kenny, who

most people know as Lionel, Lord of the Thundercats,

Bluegrass from Silver Hawk, Sonny the Cogglebird,

which again, I did not know that was him, and

it just shocks me that that's him. Yeah. It is

just so, so shocking. But that was just an awesome

awesome experience Big thanks has to go out to

my buddy of chickenpotpod .com Chris Stapleton.

He was the one to give me mr. Kenny's email address

I believe they had talked to him over there on

chicken pot pod. I'm not sure I'm not sure how

that came about but Wow, yeah, I knew he was

a personable guy and you know a friendly guy,

but holy cow He's just what a stand -up you know

to do this and to work with us over the last

couple weeks to try to make sure this happened

and you know very considerate very nice I couldn't

say a bad thing about him if I wanted to no I

don't and actually I have to throw Kevin under

the bus here because he almost missed the interview

because he wasn't home at the time or he was

off doing something I don't know where the hell

you are let's for the record though as soon as

you texted me that and reminded me I dropped

everything I was doing and made it happen let's

hope That's yeah, let's hope you didn't drop

anything important that nothing that broke Thank

God for that. Oh, but oh my god. I that was a

once -in -a -lifetime thing You know, I the other

interview that I've done is everybody knows I

had interviewed Stan Bush who is the the musical

mastermind behind Transformers the movie 1986

version and I've actually interviewed Stan twice

and I The first time I was really, really professional.

The second time I kind of geeked out a little

bit. I was trying not to geek out on Mr. Kenny,

but wow, that was just so, so awesome. And hearing

him say good things about the questions we asked

was like... Oh yeah. I mean, we had two weeks

to... Even before this, even before the original

schedule conflict, we had... plenty of time before

then to come up with questions and you and i

had just gone back and forth back and forth pretty

much whatever we wanted to know from him even

though some of the questions were kind of the

same and he kind of answered them kind of not

really out of order and i'm not trying to say

it in a bad way i'm just saying that it kind

of it and it flowed very well um is just so so

awesome and you know i was trying to come up

with really not really difficult questions but

you know there are only so many things that that

these famous people can answer answers. I mean,

you know, there's so many, there's only so many

questions that you can ask them about their career

because they've only done certain things. Again,

like I said, with the Sonny the Cocoa Bird thing,

that was a huge shock to me to have that there.

And it was just really, really awesome. It just

doesn't get any cooler than being able to interview.

one of your childhood heroes has like a lion

or a bluegrass or whoever you want it you know

that's just so cool yes very very much so and

a fellow illinoisans so go Illinois in Chicago

Illinois it is illegal to go fishing in your

pajamas What does that have to do with anything?

I have this app on my iPhone called Weird Laws,

and it's on there. Oh, excellent. Anyways, so

yeah, this has been the Tooncast special interview.

Hope everybody really enjoys this interview.

And we'll see you next time on Tooncast. Adios.

Sword of Omens, give me sight beyond sight. I

see a new episode of Tooncast coming this week.

and then looking back and going through it and

realizing oh my god that sony the cocoa puff

bird that's he's this he's that uh... he i believe

it was that interview he actually confirm that

undercats is better than silverhawks oh stop

it but it was interesting you know i mean not

that you're not going to get a little nervous

when you're talking to these guys because a lot

of them you know you know it depending on what

type of interview it is but especially for the

voice actors and some of the musicians and things

like that you're gonna have a little bit of nerves

But now it seems like a lot easier to do these

interviews now because we kind of know how to

do them and we've done so many over the years,

especially you. But yeah, I mean, just going

back to that first one, it was a little bit more

nerve wracking because it's like, how am I going

to screw this up? And it's like, it's not something

you can re -record very easily. No. I'll talk

about that when my episode comes around because

that's happened a couple of times to me, sadly,

due to technical issues. but yeah, no that that

first year was so fun and You you had brought

so much like we had started out with the four

favorites for the Disney spotlight And then later

we came back and did them all again. I'm telling

you right now I refuse to do a live -action Disney

spotlight will not do it. Hell. No those 19 movies

that they have plans screw them all kind of a

child of all the different brainstorming that

we've done over the years is every time we had

an idea for five episodes or six episodes or

this little mini spotlight it always turned into

like ten times that amount well it's one of those

things and i've said this before and you know

this and steve knows this the way i approach

this from day one and again i'm gonna repeat

myself later but you know make a plan plan as

far ahead as you think you want to go Then if

the plan changes it changes, but at least you

have a roadmap Yeah to know what you're gonna

do well And you were dealing with somebody too

that was like obsessed with talking about every

single cartoon And I have like this obscure knowledge

of cartoons that some people have never heard

of it seems like so It was like we can't just

do that. We got to do this this this exactly

Which eventually led to some to cast beyond episodes

that we can get into but yeah, it was just a

lot of fun I don't look back. I the only thing

that I regret maybe about tune cast is the is

the chunk of like 10 or 12 episodes I missed

Yeah, do your job the one thing I'll save that

story poor brain I love talking to Rob Paulson

and stuff, but oh, yeah, no. I love talking to

Maurice LaMarche as well, but man, did I think

my career was over at that point. But I'll talk

about that on my episode. That was funny. That

was not funny. I remember that. Yeah, that was

like a train wreck all of a sudden. Yeah, it

was. Wasn't expecting it, that's for sure. We

didn't even know what was going on when we did

it. No. What's funny is after you guys released

that episode, I was jumping around on the internet.

I don't even remember what I was doing. I think

I was looking for something for Unreal Tournament.

And then I came across some gaming sites, and

I saw a GeekCast radio post. And I'm like, what?

What? And I was playing like, because I was one

of the ones playing the Arkham games or expecting

to play Arkham City. I saw, oh. Mr. Freeze and

I was like, oh geek cast radio. Hmm. Let's look

at this and then So yeah, I was I was quite surprised

when I saw that we went viral across the internet

Early on viral moment that was interesting for

sure So that happened that happened that next

year in 2010 so that's the my second year Doing

stuff in our second and third interview because

we got Rob Paulson and Marissa Marsh that that

year So that was another thing kind of right

off the bat and then of course came the I'm almost

afraid to say the name of the show that started

appearing in 2010 in October One thing you're

gonna see that's kind of weird that also I didn't

know is apparently I like to start things in

October Like to stir things in August Because

in October we started the I started the telecast

in 2010 so that that was a whole different adventure

because that was something Even though it's similar

to tune cast both in name and somewhat in the

structure of the show It was it was still a completely

different animal for me, especially we're talking

about only what? 27 to 50 episodes into my podcasting

career deciding to do a show on my own and i

didn't know if you guys are going to let me yeah

first so i was fine with it i had no problem

with it i think it was an answer you know we

had a cartoon podcast we had a movie podcast

why the hell not have a t .v. podcast in matter

it was more so the idea of hey these guys just

invited you know you didn't buy to be on to do

the show now like a lot of my own show well it's

one of those things are again it's what it was

what i i specifically remember this it was one

of those nights where you had nights off still

And we got on Skype like, I don't know, 7, 8

p .m. Eastern time and we didn't get off Skype

until like 2 a .m. the next morning because we're

sitting here planning out five seasons of this

podcast and all these different ideas and just

everything else and... You know is just one of

those things and you know due to time and life

Circumstances and things like that and everything

else the telecast really has not gone past episode

35. We want it to What do you mean for the record

it no it didn't yeah for the record Dan and I

did nobody knows this maybe but Dan and I did

record season 2 episode 1 and the internet gods

decided to make that whole recording un -listenable.

So we lost it and we have not gone back to re

-record it. I do regret that because it seemed

like it was pretty well -received at the time.

I went back recently and looked through all the

iTunes reviews for all the different Geocast

radio shows and I stumbled across Telecast at

some point during that little exploration and

it had a ton of five -star reviews and a lot

of great comments. So I do regret not immediately

going on to doing more because it seemed like

I built a little bit of a listenership with that

show, so that's probably my biggest regret in

the network, but like you said, sometimes life

does not allow you to do certain things. Well,

you know, I mean, we can always go back. I still

have the original schedule, so, you know, I'm

just saying. We have a lot of different versions

of that schedule, too, so there's a lot of stuff

to cover still, but it was fun. It was fun doing

that, regardless of how long it took to finish

it. But that was all 2010 was, Tooncast and Telecast.

That was my early days on just those two shows.

Yep. This is the brain and you're listening to

the Geekcast Radio Network. Yes! It's time for

the Telecast brought to you by the Geekcast Radio

Network. Alright, thank you Mouse Chipmunk and

Guy with the deep sounding voice. Like they said,

I am your host, Kevin Optimus Solo Thompson.

You may have heard me as a co -host on a couple

of the other GeekCast radio shows, especially

Tooncast. And today I am joined by... the two

co -founders of Geekcast Radio Network. First

off, I am joined by Steve Megatron Phillips.

Hello. Hello. And of course, you've heard him

on just about every Geekcast Radio podcast, so

you should be familiar with him. And my other

guy I have with me is my other host from Tooncast,

and he has also done just about every Geekcast

Radio show, and that is Mike TFG1 Blanchard.

I don't have to do any work. I just have to show

up. Yeah, that'll be a nice change for you, huh?

Exactly. Yes. Vacation so what's been going on

with you guys lately Steve a lot of voiceover

projects have been in as well as recording a

bunch of podcasts for next week Excellent. What's

the what can we expect to be coming out here

in the not -too -distant future here for get

cast radio Well, we got M wire with the water

boy We got TB you the beast unleashed episode

26 What is our next episode coming out for Tooncast,

Mike? Probably Scooby -Doo. Is that the next

one to hit the air? Yeah, Tooncast episode 77,

Scooby -Doo, which is pretty much any Scooby

-Doo series before 1988. And of course, Scrappy

-Doo rules, yes. Well, if you want to hear thoughts

about Scrappy -Doo and people who like him and

people who don't, make sure you tune into that

episode. uh... what else have you been doing

lately mike nothing but doing nothing uh... that

kind of leads us right into what the heck are

we talking about with the telecast and what is

the telecast basically the idea came to me as

we were recording episodes of to cast And if

you're not aware of what Tooncast is, obviously

it's a show that's about cartoons from the past,

a lot of 80s cartoons, 90s cartoons, classic

cartoons from the 50s, 60s, 70s. And as we were

recording all those shows, I started thinking

about other shows that I liked from when I was

a child, but we couldn't do on Tooncast because

they weren't cartoons. So I kinda got the idea

that we should do something for all these other

shows that I grew up with that were not cartoons.

So the idea came along to have a podcast dedicated

to more of these live action or puppet type shows

that were playing when I was a child. So that's

what season one of the telecast is gonna focus

on, basically kids programming for anybody that

grew up in the 80s. So if you were born any time

in the 80s, whether it was early 80s or late

80s, we're gonna try to hit stuff that you -

you watched as a child. So that's kind of where

it all came along. And like I said, this is gonna

be season one, which should give you kind of

a little forewarning that there could be other

stuff to come later on, but I'm not gonna necessarily

give away what to expect in future seasons. So

quick question as far as the format of the show

you might have, what kind of stuff can you expect

us to be talking about? Basically, it's not gonna

be so much of a Review as some of the other podcasts

that we've done are it's more of a reminiscing

or discussion of stuff that we liked when we

were kids So you're gonna hear you know, you're

gonna hear theme songs from the shows You're

gonna hear a spattering of that's nice word spattering

of sound clips from some of the shows will give

you DVD release info I'm going to pull a VH1

on you and kind of tell you like a where are

they now type thing as far as the actors that

were involved in the shows. We'll try to throw

in some interesting trivia. Basically, we're

going to do our best to entertain you, inform

you, and reinforce the geek in you as far as

kids programming goes. Another question you might

have is what kind of shows are we going to be

covering? We're going to try to hit them all.

For example, Mike, what's one of your favorite

shows that you grew up with that wasn't a cartoon

kid show? I really, I dug Saved by the Bell,

but I really latched onto the College Years.

That was really cool to see them, because I had

seen Saved by the Bell a lot when it was on.

But when they went to the College Years show,

I was like, oh, it's nice. They're actually,

you know, a show that actually continues the

continuity of the previous show. And I love the

Saved by the Bell College Years theme song. It's

just so cool. Yeah, so that's a great example

of some of the stuff we'll have. We're going

to cover all things Saved by the Bell, so it

doesn't matter which version of Saved by the

Bell you like. It's going to be somewhere on

our schedule. Steve, what about you? What's one

of your favorite shows from growing up? Pee Wee's

Playhouse. Yeah, so Pee Wee's Playhouse is something

that you can expect to hear on the Season 1.

Another one I was thinking of, one of my favorites

when I was growing up was the live action game

show of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.

So that's the type of stuff you can hear any

Muppet fans. You're gonna get Sesame Street the

Muppet show Stuff like that. So there's gonna

be a little bit of everything a little bit something

for everyone and We're gonna also try something

new. Hopefully it doesn't bomb in our faces or

else Mike's gonna get his way Basically the second

to last episode we're gonna do something called

a listeners choice episode, which basically I'm

gonna give you guys all season of the telecast

to write in, email us, voicemail us, whatever

with your pick for a show that you want us to

cover. Basically the only rules are it has to

be something that was airing either in the 80s

or early 90s when an 80s child would be growing

up and it has to be geared towards kids and it

can't be a cartoon. So basically when it comes

down to one of the second or the second to last

episode we'll tally up the votes and we will

cover whatever you guys want us to cover. If

you guys don't vote Then I have to cover what

Mike wants me to cover. No, hold on. Let's do

some preface here. The only like listeners choice

that I want to axe and make guest host choice

is for season one because every other season

so far has shows that that I want to talk about.

So, I mean, the only one that I'm really going

to pretty much take over the show for is season

one. And he's basically going to be politicking

the entire year to try to get your votes for

a certain show. Video power. anybody remembers

video power it was a game show in the eighties

that did have animation in it so i know it's

kind of going against uh... kevin's rule here

of live action but you can actually separate

video power from power team so and and i don't

have anything against video power but i'm gonna

be campaigning the whole year for some other

show to get more votes just to piss mike off

So we'll see how that goes and if it goes good,

then we're gonna do it for future seasons as

well I haven't told Mike or Steve about this,

but I'm also gonna be doing a contest during

this first season It's gonna be all I'm gonna

say right now is that there will be pride a prize

that you can win and The contest will have something

to do with theme songs If you want to know more

about what that contest is gonna be you're gonna

have to tune into episode one, though Already

know what it is. So I will just kind of put there

what it is. You shouldn't even said theme songs

I already know but we'll we'll leave it at that

tune into episode 1 see what you're gonna have

to do you're gonna have all season to try to

to Figure it out or to win the prize so to speak.

So that's stuff to come to So basically just

go into each one of you guys since these guys

are gonna be basically my co -hosts on I would

say what 80 90 percent of the season one episodes.

Yeah What kind of stuff? Yeah, what kind of stuff

interest you Steve or what kind of stuff? Are

you excited about as far as the the telecast

season one? Definitely I'd have to say like the

salute your shorts the Bill Nye the science guy

A lot of the other shows that I used to watch

as a kid like, you know, Fraggle Rock, The Muppets.

The Muppets I'm really pumped about. Guts. A

lot of the game shows that we're on, I used to

sit and watch those back to back to back flipping

between channels. Yeah. So I mean, yeah, there's

a lot that we still have to cover through the

lifespan of this show. Yeah. And I think one

thing that kind of brought up an idea in my head

and one thing I'm going to enjoy about it is

You know a lot of these shows I have not watched

in since I was a kid and You know, it's not like

some of the cartoons where I've since you know

bottom on DVD and I've watched them and I've

you know Like obviously we've all we're all huge

Transformers fans So we've seen those multiple

times with some of these shows that are on the

schedule. I literally have not seen Since the

80s or the early 90s. So it's gonna be fun for

me Just rewatching them and seeing what I think

about them now I don't know how many of these

guys, how many of the shows on the schedule you

guys have seen recently, but for me, it's gonna

be a lot of kind of re, kind of attaching to

these shows again or reliving them one more time.

Oh yeah. You know, as soon as you sent me the

schedule, before we even got to the point of

multiple seasons, and of course that'll come

later, but when you sent me schedule for the

first 35 episodes that you were gonna do, and

I saw... where in the world is carmen san diego

but at first i kinda questioned you and kind

of go to do like why the hell is it why are you

covering the cartoon like no no you'll get like

all okay the gate and as soon as that happened

and like almost throughout this whole entire

recording of episode zero so far i've had the

theme song in my head i can't i can't stop list

i can't stop just rock But yeah, I mean that

and that's an example that is a game show that

I absolutely loved as a kid I gained I am telling

you, you know God's honest truth. I have not

watched it since it was airing originally Yeah,

I've listened to the new song Right, I don't

know I don't think I ever saw that one I just

remember the the the one that they had to basically

the whole outline of the the map on the floor

and they had the little light up poles that they

put on in the in the bonus round or whatever

you want to call it and that's going to be kind

of some of the fun stuff that's going to come

around telecast because i i'm guessing a lot

of our listeners maybe haven't seen some of these

shows since they originally aired too so it's

going to be stuff that as you're listening to

episodes you know stuff's going to trigger in

your mind and you're going to be like oh i remember

that or you know oh i love that and and that's

what's going to be the cool part about telecast

for me Yep, and then I I think and I haven't

really mentioned this to Kevin yet But I think

if we do like like over on tune cast I have the

I have a clip from Tara strong is bubbles saying

you know tune cast will be back after these messages

I think every show at least for this first season

we need to use After these messages will be right

back and we will because I already have them

all ready to go So you're going to hear lots

of nostalgic sound clips and all kinds of stuff

like that. I'm also flirting with the idea there

may be a few supplemental shows where we kind

of just go off the script and we're not talking

about a specific show, but maybe we do some different

lists or favorites or stuff like that. So you

might see some other stuff besides just covering

the shows just in relation to kids TV shows back

in the 80s or early 90s. You guys have any other

thoughts about Telecast before we wrap this up

and get everybody set for episode one? I'm not

sure if Kevin's going to do this, but I suggested

to him to do, I mean, most of our other shows,

like Tooncast now, and M -Wire, Movie Weekend

Review, and the Beast Unleashed Podcast, we have...

Exclusive art for each episode and I've suggested

to him to find pictures or you know, you know

Even I could find you know pictures for Steve

to make art for that specific episode So if there's

a picture out there for the where in the world

is Carmen San Diego game That would be the exclusive

art for you guys and that you know That's just

another little collectible thing that we've been

doing over the last year and a half that GCR

has been up. So Right. And if you're curious

about what kind of shows, besides the ones obviously

that you've heard us mention, tune in to episode

one. I'll give you a place to go as far as to

see the entire schedule of shows. And the reason

I'm going to put that out at the beginning is

so that you can start voting for the one you

want to be the listener's choice and you won't

be voting for one that's already on the schedule.

So there's a couple things you want to tune into

episode one. Number one, to hear what the whole

theme song contest is about. to get a whole schedule

of shows so you can start voting for the show

of your choice for the listeners choice episode

and obviously you want to tune in because we're

going to be talking about some cool stuff yes

so any other thoughts from you steve uh... no

alright i think that does it for episode zero

hopefully you have a a decent idea of what the

telecast season one is going to be all about

so thank you for joining us here on the telecast

if you want to leave us feedback on the show

there's going to be three main ways uh to do

this first you can visit the website www .geekcastradio

.com where you're going to be able to comment

on all of the different podcasts and each of

our episodes as we air them um second once we

get going you can rate our shows and leave us

feedback in itunes and i'll give you more information

about that in episode one or if you want your

comments to be a part of a future show you can

call the voicemail line 526 -5821. Just tell

us the show that you're leaving it for, so the

telecast, and give us some type of name or screen

name that we can use so that we can give you

some credit there. So that does it for now, and

we hope that you join us next time when we have

episode one, which is going to be Steve and I

talking about Salute Your Shorts. For now, I

am your host, Optimus Solo, with Steve Megatron

Phillips. and TFG1 Mike saying thank you for

listening until next time. It's a beautiful day

in this neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor.

Would you be mine? Could you be mine? It's a

neighborly day in this beautywood, a neighborly

day for a beauty. Would you be mine? Could you

be mine? One. Coming next on Nickelodeon Oh,

it's Mr. Wizard's World. This part has been edited.

Ha ha ha, you'll never know what was actually

here. Alrighty then, as he said, I am your host,

Optimus Solo, and I'd like to say hello and welcome

to the eighth, that's right, the eighth episode

of The Telecast, brought to you by the Geekcast

Radio Network. Today we continue our look at

educational shows from our, and when I say our,

I mean my, childhood by going old school to the

man that started it all and to help me I have

with me absolutely nobody that's right folks

Optimus Solo is living up to his name and riding

solo Okay, now before I have to turn in my geek

license for playing that song on one of our podcasts,

let me explain No, there is too much. Let me

sum up And by the way 500 geek points to anyone

besides Mike who can identify the movie that

sound clip comes from All right. Well see when

I was making up the schedule for this introductory

season of the telecast I wanted to highlight

all the great shows from the late 80s and early

90s that were not cartoons As I was compiling

my list of shows to cover, I started seeing that

some of them fell into similar categories, so

just by chance happened that I basically had

five shows in each of the categories. Now, obviously

the first five episodes of the show had a common

Nickelodeon theme, and the second set has had

an educational theme. Well, one of the most impactful

educational shows from my childhood was the show

we're covering today. Now, at the time, little

did I know that none of my fellow geeks would

have a good enough memory of this show to co

-host with me. And I know Mike would have probably

preferred me to just give it the axe and replace

it with something like Video Power, Nick Arcade,

or whatever he's trying to get me to do for the

Listener's Choice episode, but there was absolutely

no way that the man that started it all as far

as educational shows for kids was going to get

cut from my schedule. This does though further

the thought I have always had which is that somehow

I was exposed to every television show that ever

aired Here in the United States during my lifetime

which kind of boggles my mind because I was a

very active child I played every sport under

the Sun I had enough friends to be outside with

them and swimming in pools and you know doing

all kinds of stuff But I have yet to meet someone

who has seen all of the shows that I somehow

saw as a kid besides my sister. Now today's show

as well as the future episode, today's special,

prove my point. And yeah, exactly, all of you

are saying what the hell is today's special?

but anyways I apologize to anyone who can't stand

my voice but don't worry this won't be as long

as our normal shows since if I talk to myself

too long I'm afraid I may go more insane than

I already am but anywho let's get to the show

that I've been talking about which is That's

right folks we are talking about Mr. Wizard's

World. Now before I get on another high horse

or go off on some little tangent here's a little

background information on the show. Mr. Wizard's

World started airing on Nickelodeon in 1983 and

it lasted until 1990. It was a 30 minute show

and so if you count up from 1983 to 1990 there's

six seasons and it aired for 78 episodes. Now

just to go even further with the background information

a little bit for those of you that don't know

and since most you don't know Mr. Wizard's World

exists you probably won't know any of these other

shows but Mr. Wizard's World was actually not

the first show of its kind. It started as Watch

Mr. Wizard which was an American television program

that started in 1951 and it started as just a

show that aired in the Chicago area. And then

from 1951 to 1965, it basically expanded and

eventually was broadcast by 91 different stations.

So that's the original series, 1951 to 1965,

and it was called Watch Mr. Wizard. Now there

was a 1971 Canadian -produced revival of the

show that was just titled Mr. Wizard, I believe.

And that was basically just for Canadian audiences

only. And then after that, the second revival

is the one we're talking about today, which is

the 1983 to 1991, which is the only one titled

Mr. Wizard's World. So. This is the time of the

program where we usually talk about general memories

of the show. This is along with our next two

shows coming up, which is Reading Rainbow and

Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. These are the three

educational shows that I watched when I was a

kid. Now, I'm not talking about when I was like

preschool, kindergarten age. I'm not talking

about the days of Sesame Street, which is a whole

nother block on the telecast schedule. I'm talking

about, you know, when you are after the Sesame

Street age, but not you know in your upper teens

or anything like that. If you were to watch an

educational show for me it was either basically

reading Rainbow or Mr. Rogers even at the earlier

stage of that but Mr. Wizards is one I could

watch not only then but I was older, too. I mean,

it was the one that lasted the longest for me.

I was probably watching it up until it stopped

airing in 1990. Although it did air in reruns,

Nick and Night, and stuff like that. Oh, Nick

and Night. I remember the days. Anyways, that's

a whole nother topic. And then in 2011, you had

72 more episodes, because your Tooncast run ended...

You had the telecast and you had your Cybertronian

correspondence duty on Transformation Animation

Podcast. That was a lot of fun. Yeah, sure it

was. It was a lot of fun because it was a lot

of fun just being the devil's advocate or being

the other side of the coin. I think Steve was

somewhat with me. I think he was a little the

most in my camp on that one for some of those

episodes, but I Was not a fan of that show The

longer it went on I was like get me out of here

It was fun because I didn't have to necessarily

do a full -on review of the whole show So I didn't

take a ton of time, but I was able to give my

like two cents Which who doesn't want to give

their two cents? Fun very sure no matter how

much of the two mics didn't like my stuff. Yeah

We had the wars Flintstones versus the Jetsons

That was fun. That was another kind of idea Expanding

something we had already somewhat done or a show

that we already had even if it took it a little

different direction And I have a lot of fun I

wish you know I wish over the years We would

have had time to do more of those two because

those episodes to me are a lot of fun I don't

know what everybody else thinks, but I like doing

those absolutely and then the first annual well

it would have started to become the first annual

and it went to two every two or three years at

that point the GCRN top 100 animated series was

2011 oh my god that was six years ago I guess

we learned the power of doing the top 100 series

that year yeah we did a lot of negative feedback

on that one Well, and the reason that came about,

obviously, was in doing Tooncast, we had covered

a lot of cartoons, and we'd looked up a lot of

different things about cartoons. And I don't

know which one of us stumbled across that IGN

list. Do you know? I think it was you. Because

I think you kind of approached that whole project

and was like, hey, we should totally demolish

IGN. You know one thing in doing this history

project is every once in a while I actually have

to listen at least two parts of the episodes

because most of us Steve Mike and me especially

are real good in our Episode descriptions to

put who's on the show like right up front and

center But everyone every once while there's

you know a description that takes over and the

and the guests aren't listed until later Or sometimes

they're not listed at all so in those episodes

I'd have to you know listen to the first five

ten minutes of the show just to make sure I knew

who was on them and one of those I was must have

hit the wrong you know my finger on the wrong

part of the episode because I didn't jump to

the first part I jumped like somewhere right

in the middle and it was me I think it's me I

had to be me doing some type of promo for the

top 100 animated series are just completely trashing

IGN, and I forgot I had even done that. I had

completely forgotten that I'd even done that.

Yeah, you were the only one that made the IGN

trash promos for the GCN Top 100 Animated Series.

Hey guys, it's my cunt, and we here at IGN have

just put together a totally cool list of the

Top 100... Oh my god, what's happening? I am

from the Kickass Radio Network. And I have been

sent from the cartoon gods to do away with your

crappy top 100 list and to enlist all of the

other geek gods from across the internet. With

our powers combined, we will create the most

epic top 100 list of all time and forever put

you peons at IGN to shame. So go tell all the

other morons at IGN to take cover because the

Geekcast Radio Network's top 100 anime I somehow

didn't save those I don't think on my computer

at the time so I'd never heard them again until

I listened to that episode yeah I may still have

them I don't remember they were hilarious but

but that was a lot of fun that was a I mean it

was uncharted waters again we had no idea what

we were getting ourselves into we had no idea

if anybody was gonna listen comment do whatever

but I think without just the way we all kind

of Kind of I don't know came together on that

and promoted it and you know pimped it out and

stuff like that It just ended up being a lot

of fun. Now, would it be different if we did

it, you know? Again, of course it would there's

been a lot of TV series and we've been exposed

to a lot more and we've rewatched some of the

older stuff But just the whole process I think

was fun. I don't know what kind of comments we

got back on that first one Compared to the ones

we did after but it had to be a decent amount

of comments that we've got on that first one

Yeah, I'm pretty sure uh... i'm pretty sure it

was close to fifty or so each post each each

podcast episode because that's the thing folks

when we went to start the top one hundred stuff

the whole point of you know bearing i g n uh...

was we weren't going to do one hundred website

pages where you had to click each frigging time

That was the point and, you know, and OptimaSolo

wanted us to do it in the way of audio and actually

explaining why we think this belongs at this

number or this shouldn't be here. It should be

higher, lower, things like that. So you actually

hear opinions without having to read through

a hundred flipping pages. Yeah, because that

was, I think, my least favorite thing about those

lists is, number one, flipping through all the

pages. But number two, all those things do when

they're in text form is it just puts somebody's

opinion out there with no rationale, no criteria,

no explanation. And then the message boards or

the comment sections of those pages just turn

into a big bickering, back and forth nonsense

of everybody saying, this show, this show, this

show, this show. It makes it for a lot better

conversation. I think when we did it our way

because we allowed people got to they weren't

just saying This show should be at this number

They were saying I disagree with your rationale

behind this or I I get what you're saying here

So it made it a lot more civil I think of that

we didn't get too many I don't remember at all

actually Maybe you guys have a better better

memory, but in all the top 100s we do or have

done I don't ever remember it getting like negative

Didn't get rabid like well the television series

the okay, but okay. I it was a couple key elements

Yeah, oh yeah that one. This is gonna come up

in my episode, but I'll say this right now The

television top 100 television series one happened

in a time in my life that wasn't really going

well And it's one of those things where certain

comments or certain Jokes would set me off because

of a certain event that it just happened so I'm

sorry, but there's nothing I can do about it

now. It's two years on. It wasn't like, you know,

our top 100s have a history of just becoming

this, you know, crazy, you know, back and forth

at your throats, negative, personal attacks.

Yeah, they were actually pretty well received

for the most part. I mean, everybody was not

really... It was very... I don't know kosher

compared to what you would find civilized at

least not saying we didn't go back and forth

with 50 different comments arguing points back

and forth but it seemed like it was done at least

in a respectable manner from what I remember

hopefully that's accurate yeah absolutely that

was a lot of fun a lot of fun And then in 2012,

you had 43 episodes. Tooncast Beyond, a couple

of those. Masked Mayhem, oh boy, we gotta talk

about that in a minute. Powers of Grayskull,

launched in October, because that was the 20th,

no, 30th anniversary of the original Mattel He

-Man stuff. Thundercats versus Silverhawks with

wars, and Star Trek versus Star Wars. You know,

it's funny, I mentioned he's not... on air anymore,

but a local DJ here was part of a morning show

team, and they were talking about Star Trek and

Star Wars, and I'm like, well, you should go

check out this podcast I did, you know, Star

Trek versus Star Wars. He's like, oh, who won?

I'm like, I'm not going to tell you that. You

have to listen to it. I said, it's only like,

at the time I told him, I said, it's only like

an hour and a half. I go back and I look at the

thing, and it's like three hours and 59 minutes.

And I'm like, I messaged the guy on Facebook,

and I'm like, yeah, it's not an hour and a half.

It's close to four hours. He's like, what? Those

are two epic things they had to take some time

on there, but that was it's there's a lot of

There's a lot of symmetry if you think of it

back You know in keycast radio network because

a lot of things are born out of other things

and then come full circle or do different things

like that So even though it's it's 2012 and in

tune cast ended, you know a year the year before

in the February of that year So, you know quite

a bit of ways that you know that Thundercats

versus Silverhawks came straight out of you know

our initial first episode that we you and I did

together just the two of us when we started talking

about Silverhawks and Thundercats back on Tooncast

so a lot of stuff gets born out of other things

and then comes back and kind of finishes off

later so it's kind of nice to see that. Yeah

Tooncast Classic ended in 2011 and Tooncast Beyond

started like I don't know the next month in that

year so but yeah. With 2012, what was your favorite

episode not counting interviews? Um, it's tough

to say because I did like those two wars episodes

quite a bit the Thundercats versus Silver Rocks

and the Star Trek versus Star Wars Those were

those are fun. I love all the wars episodes But

maybe that first retro episode because it was

again something completely different something

new that we were just trying out And I think

that's one of the things I like doing the most

is just coming up with new ideas and just trying

to see hey Is it gonna work? Is it not gonna

work or how can we shift it around change it

up do stuff like that? So it was fun kind of

going back in time the first time, you know,

we haven't had it chance to do a ton of those,

but maybe that can change here going forward.

Oh, it's going to change, because you and I have

already planned out a few of those. We'll have

to list even on that later. But yeah, that's

going to be interesting, bringing retro back

to GCRN. It's always fun to go back in time.

Yes. That's right. So that year you had one interview.

It was you and Steve talking to Mr. John Delancey,

and I was producing that interview. That was

the first time Steve and I did an interview,

just the two of us, I think, as far as the question.

So that was fun. It was a different type of atmosphere

in that one, because I think what we've learned

Especially you Mike because you've been on all

the majority of the voice actor ones because

like you said in the beginning when you're first

Getting that first voice actor. You don't know

what to expect. Is this person gonna have an

ego? Is this person gonna be offended easily?

Are they gonna, you know, just hang up and walk

away, you know, and we've learned that voice

actors overall are very very down -to -earth

Very humble at least the ones that we that I've

come across and they're just very friendly as

far as the interviews go now we're interviewing

someone John Delancey who's done has done voice

work but has done a ton of on -screen and different

things like that so it was a different kind of

I had no idea what to expect going into that

one I mean this is a guy I watched growing up

on Star Trek and I was like I didn't know what

to expect I don't Steve did you have any expectations

going into that one I was very like nervous Going

into that because I had no idea what to expect

right and It was it was different from doing

the voice actors however, I wasn't again it was

it was kind of Just learning what? How he he

received the information and it's kind of I think

from his perspective, he had to be thinking,

these nerdy dudes are sitting here nerding out

over what I did, and it's nothing special to

me. And so we're borderline nerding out, and

he's like, yeah. I did that. Right. Well, I think

that you bring up a good point. You know, like

when we're working together, like the three of

us, for example, have done episodes together

for so long and you know, you get an idea for

that individual, you get their cadence down,

you get there, you know when they're going to

pause, you know when they still have something

to say, you know how to read them. And in an

interview, you're doing that on the fly and you're

trying to do it super fast in a couple of minutes

at the beginning to try to figure out the...

Just the atmosphere and the personality of the

person you're talking to so it's a much different

ballgame Mm -hmm. Yes, it is and I will talk

about that more. I will say that Yeah, I will

say though that that was another interesting

interview because it set the record straight

on a couple of misnomers that were out on the

internet I actually had to go to like I think

it was like three or four different three different

Star Trek websites that had misinformation about

John Delancey that we kind of corrected during

that interview. And they even requested a link

to the interview so they could hear it, so they

could post it as a credit at the bottom of the

page. That's where they got that information.

So that was kind of interesting, too. That was

awesome. 2012 also debuted two cartoon review

shows. We had the Powers of Grayskull series,

which would go on to last five years to this

point. What did we get ourselves into? To this

year in 2017. We've got New Adventures and Masters...

Masters... Masters in Space! We've got Masters

in Space and Masters of Grayskull coming up.

Masters of Grayskull will be the 2002 series.

But also that year... Because he loved the cartoon

so much and didn't remember a damn thing about

it. We launched masked mayhem We were gonna review

all 75 episodes of mask and in the podcast scheduling

out of 30 episodes He tapped out at episode 14.

He came back a couple of times after that but

at episode 14 of mass mayhem optimus solo gave

up I did I'm not afraid to admit it you know

this is one of those things where you you know

you grow up with all these different and you

know especially as many cartoons as i watch they're

just like dozens and dozens of ones that i had

a strong affinity for growing up and you know

we had done the top 100 animated series and i

was all pushing for mass to be in there i remember

this show it's good you know thunder cats is

good silver hawks is good all this stuff's good

And they just came out with the DVDs or I just

got a hold of them maybe. I don't remember if

they had just released or I just purchased them.

So I was like, all about it. And that show just

did not hold up. And I was not afraid to admit

it. And it became so painful that I had to tap

out. It was just awful. Let me ask you this now,

though. Well, I think that - Wait, wait, wait.

Well, wait. Really quickly. Years later, are

you willing - You know, not worrying about scheduling

or any of that. Are you willing to come back

and look at the IDW comic series? Oh yeah, I'm

more than happy to look at any of those comic

series. It's just a matter of time and being

able to do it. But I'm all for different re -imaginations

of those things. I think the main reason I tapped

out on Mask was not because I didn't think I

could record anymore. I could have gone on. And

I could have gone on for the other 15 or so episodes.

But what I felt like is... It was gonna be too

I was gonna be bringing too much negativity to

the show is what my Fear was and for people that

are tuning into a mass mayhem show all about

mass They probably have a very strong like for

the property, you know, you're not gonna watch

a episodic review, you know episode by episode

review of a series unless you had some type of

enjoyment from it and And at that point, we were

able to somewhat keep it light and keep it fun,

even though I was probably some negative aspects

to those first 13, 14 episodes. But I didn't

want to just go on a rampage of just shitting

on the show episode after episode after episode.

I felt like that was going to be not doing anybody

a service. So that's really why I tapped out.

It wasn't because I couldn't keep doing it, but

nobody was going to want to listen to 15 episodes

of me complaining about that show. I came back

in the alley and said my piece. Yeah, exactly.

Oh boy, now what early Tooncast Beyond episodes

were you on in 2012? I was on almost 100 % of

the DeLorean episodes that you did. Oh that's

right, that was the Laugh -Olympics and Wacky

Races. Then we did like the Adventures of the

Little Koala and a couple other episodes. Oh

my god. I still have that outtake. Now people.

listen to the 30 second 30 fuck listen to the

33 second clip yeah listen very carefully yeah

there was like a hannah barbara spot that we

did and then there was some just like just generic

ones that we had kind of not had chance to do

that I really wanted to so you brought me back

for those DeLorean episodes I think there was

like maybe I don't know between six and twelve

of them or something like that yeah absolutely

2013 you had 53 episodes Pug Cinema Geek started

in October we had wars originally was a different

show right yes well that was my original device

Yeah, that was a so we started the show that

actually started in that October would have been

the MWIRE weekly Which was actually started with

Mr. Michael Powers Dan and myself the three of

us on that MWIRE weekly and then that lasted

for half a dozen episodes until we lost Mr. Powers

Yeah, and then it turned into just Dan and I

for a good couple months there towards the beginning

of that next year into 2014 And then Dan, I don't

know if that was when he was having his child

or if that's when something happened with Dan

and he was kind of MIA there for a while. And

it kind of left me in limbo. We had changed it

again at some point to Weekend at the Movies

somewhere in there. And then it wasn't until

after Frithy Scent and Adolfo Shabadoo, my roommate

at the time, Nate, had... We've done that the

weekend at the movies and then when they left

and Amanda came on, that's when we turned it

into Cinema Geeks. So it's been through a couple

different names. But again, Telecast started

in October. POG started in October. And that

was more my doing because that was the POG starting

in October of 2012 was because that was the 2012

in 82. In 82, that was their 83. That was the

first. I'm just pointing out, if I ever do another

show, it's going to start in October. Halloween

Horror Night! That kind of started a new chapter.

2013 was the Pogs and Cinema Geeks chapter of

my time here at GeekCast Radio Network, where

it really kind of monopolized my time. I've only

been doing those two shows with a little bit

of other stuff sprinkled in ever since. We did

Wars, Die Hard vs. Lethal Weapon in 2013. Yep,

we had we had the wars first wars tourney the

cartoon villains. That was fun. That was a lot

of fun It's too bad though that we did that tourney

before we got to the point and pogs See Skeletor

and I know Skeletor still wins though That was

a lot of fun. I like those tournaments and that

was kind of another thing. Let's just try something

new. Let's see how it goes and let's have some

fun with it. And I think, you know, we got a

couple different voices on there and we got to

debate. I think Birdman Dodd was on there on

that first one. We have TV's Mr. Neil, I think.

Yeah. It was a good dynamic between all of us

debating this stuff and coming up with these

crazy and that was kind of also I guess come

full circle again that was born out of TFW Because

I used to do Transformers tournaments over there

Where we would do like in that that time it was

crazy because it was all in the forums or the

message boards and we did like 64 Transformers

characters and we even had like arenas like where

the setting was and we had like four different

settings for each tournament like one was on

land one was in space or whatever and that got

so many comments that eventually it pissed off

the people at tfw and they like were trying to

shut us down because that's all people were doing

was commenting and it just kept jumping to the

first post of the page over and over and over

again. Which isn't that a good problem to have?

You would think it was and they actually had

to we actually had to start a petition to let

them so that they would let us finish the tournament

because they were shutting us down and so I did

like one or two of those over there and then

I was that's when I just stopped to go into that

site altogether I'm just like I'm done with you

guys like there's just too much negativity here

so this was an opportunity to kind of do it again

in a podcast form. And what better thing to do

than like, you know, cartoon villains? Sounded

like fun. Absolutely. And then we had GCRN Top

100 animated movies in 2013. Yep. Again, we learned

from our first Top 100 that that's something

people like to participate with. So it was a

lot of fun going through that. That was a whole

different ballgame because, you know, you only

have so many movies and what people have seen

and what people haven't seen and... It'd be another

one, you know, that's interesting to revisit

eventually down the road because I've seen a

lot more movies than I had at that point. Yep.

So... 2014, you had 69 episodes. Pog, Cinema

Geeks, end of telecast for now. We had The Wars,

Ninja vs. Pirates, Trek vs. Trek, PlayStation,

Xbox, and then video game icons for The Wars

turning that year. Yeah, this is when Fridley

Sint and Adolph Shabadoo were on the weekend

at the movies, because we did a lot of these

things. The ninjas and pirates they were on,

they were big into video games, and so they wanted

to be a part of that. So that was fun. And this

was, yeah, let's see, Telecast had started in

2010, and we finally finished season one in 2014.

So that happened. But I did it, dang it. I did

it, dang it. It was like the black cloud hanging

over me for three years. When are you going to

finish this? When are you going to finish this?

Not from you guys, just in my own head. When

are you going to finish this? But we finally

got it done. So I'm glad we actually brought

that to a close. And I sent out some prizes for

the contest to someone that had submitted an

entry three years prior. That was sweet. Awesome.

uh... twenty fifteen you had seventy three episodes

more parts more cinnamon geese you guys are the

turn to you know retrospective on some of these

that year i've never been turned to you know

fan so he yeah i'm sorry focus entitled to your

opinion uh... there was a lot of fun we got a

lot of good positive comment as i was just in

and myself and it had been a long time since

the two of us and then episodes uh... from those

early days of of my weekly so it was a chance

for us just the tools to do some stuff we got

a lot of good feedback so that was fun absolutely

we had the top hundred tv shows again the top

hundreds tend to come out two years every two

years so technically we're due this year i guess

right steve Yeah. We'll see. Yeah, no promises,

folks. So Top 100 TV Shows. That one was weird.

I thought it was fun. It was fun, but the way

the countdown ended up being, that one was just

strange to me at times. TV shows is such a big

section. I think the thing that we haven't learned...

as we've done this and I think we talk about

it at the end of every single top 100 is we always

say like we should have segmented this first

like we should have done like you know come up

with our list of individual things like best

you know break down in the genre like the best

you know sitcoms the best whatever you know etc

etc etc and then go to the top 100 just like

in your animated stuff you could come out with

like the best animated series of the 70s of the

80s of the 90s and then do your total thing we

always like to jump Right to the big dog, though,

because that's fun. We don't have time for all

that other stuff, so... 2015 also was our big,

technically three episodes, but our big two episodes

on Star Wars films, the prequels and the original

series, and then there was Spaceballs for 75

.5, a total of, I think... six -and -a -half

hours of Star Wars film that came a little that

actually came a little bit prior to that the

one in 2015 is when we were ramping up to the

force awakens okay yeah that's when we did a

bunch of like I was able to do a bunch of oh

yeah 85 to 90 you're doing the top 10 Star Wars

okay I have to do one of those with you got to

do one with Dan got to do my cousins and one

with for the sense so that was a lot of fun kind

of ramping up to the force awakens Cuz cuz we'd

already covered so much Star Wars I was trying

to come up with creative ideas to do more Star

Wars and not do the same stuff We had done already

exactly I made a return a strange return to the

interviews. I had not done an interview in forever

And I can barely remember anything. We talked

about Neil Ross with many of your favorite cartoon

characters And you're listening to the geek cast

radio network Here and you are listening to all

things transformers Hello and welcome to the

latest crossover interview with all things transformers

in the TF2 and podcast from the geek cast radio

network I am one of your hosts TF2 and Mike joining

me is optimus solo. Hello. How's it going Mike?

It's it's going it's been a while since you've

been on one of these shows actually you've never

well You've been on a few of the interviews,

but you've never actually been on the DFG one

podcast But it's been a while since you've been

on all things transformers anyway today. We would

like to welcome the voice of hook Springer commander

Keith from Voltron shipwreck from GI Joe Howard

Sands from Gem and the Holograms and everything

else he's done. Mr. Neil Ross! Yay! Hey, hooray!

I don't remember any of those characters. Well

then, ladies and gentlemen, this is going to

be the shortest interview ever because it just

nullified all of our questions that we're going

to ask Mr. Ross. I'm being silly. I seem to recall

two of those characters, yeah. So how are you,

first of all? Not too bad. I came down earlier

in the month with this terrible virus, and that's

all gone, but it's left me utterly exhausted,

but today I feel pretty good. Sorry to hear that,

but I'm glad you're feeling better now. Yeah,

I mean, this thing hit me like a ton of bricks,

I'll tell you. Well, not not I mean we're not

here this isn't a medical show Well on it, but

I'm glad we waited, you know until this week

to do it last Before we get started Can you give

us the scoop on what is going on on in the world

of Neil Ross any upcoming projects that you're

allowed to talk about? well, that is the conundrum

because I'm sure you guys know by now that in

a lot of cases they ask us to sign non -disclosure

agreements and if I reveal anything involving

their precious little concept my firstborn child

is taken away and God knows what else so I'm

very I don't talk about a lot I about all I can

tell you for sure is I was the announcer on the

AFI Life Achievement Award telecast. This year's

saluting Steve Martin. The show already aired

on TBS, but there's a rerun on TCM, Turner Classic

Movies. And that'll be this Thursday the 30th.

It's gonna run at 8 p .m. and 11 .30 p .m. East

Coast time. If you're interested, insults or

local listings. You mean consult not insult The

virus must be coming back When all else fails

blame Megatron All right, where did you grow

up for those that don't know Well, I grew up

a lot in a lot of different places. I was born

in London England and but left when I was two

years old. I almost stole a Steve Martin line.

I was going to say I abandoned a wife and two

children, but that's his line. Anyway, we moved

to Canada, and I spent the next 10 years in Montreal.

And then, and in those days, this is, we're now

talking 1957. We hopped on a plane and went to

California, which in those days was like going

to Mars. I believe it's still that way today.

Maybe, you know. Anyway, I spent the rest of

my youth in places like Long Beach and San Diego,

California. And then when I matriculated, I don't

know if I'm allowed to say that on the Internet.

The great adventure began, but basically Montreal,

Canada and a couple of cities in California is

the short answer. Did you always want to be an

actor or did you have any inclination of being

a voice actor at all when you were in your youth?

Well, it's funny. I'm in the process of writing

a book about my life. You can sort of see where

things fell into place, but did I have some sort

of master plan? No, I I found myself fascinated

by voices and accents at a very early age Mostly

listening to the radio or a few records that

I I had and You know, I would I would sit around

and try to imitate things I heard Not with any

thought of making a career out of it. It was

just something that was fun to do You know some

kids build model airplanes. I sat in my room

and talked to myself And Then when I got into

my teens like I was sucked into the devil's vortex

rock and roll music and The only way to hear

that in those days was to find the few radio

stations that would play it And I spent a lot

of time listening to rock and roll radio stations

and gradually I began to pay attention to what

happened in between the records. And I began

to be fascinated by these disc jockeys. And suddenly

at the age of 16 I thought, God, that's something

I could do. I seem to have no aptitude for anything

except being an idiot in the back of the classroom

and cracking up my friends with armpit farts.

And I thought you know, that's not maybe I could

be a disc jockey. So that's what I did and I

Began once you get in a radio station you realize

there's more to it than you thought when you

were on the outside Mm -hmm, and every radio

station has two studios one is the air studio

and that's where the disc jockey does his or

her thing But then the other is the production

studio, and that's where they pre -record commercials

and promotional announcements and all of these

various gizmos. And I found that I had sort of

an aptitude for the production room. I actually

did my best work in there. I was not that great

of a disc jockey ever, really. And my ability

to do character voices and this sort of thing

was much prized by the sales department, because

I could create these really interesting commercials

that they could go out and sell. But I began

to think that my full potential was not being

realized. And all along, I'm paying attention

to these people that I hear voicing national

television commercials, national radio commercials.

People who are voicing cartoon shows people who

are narrating documentaries, and I'm thinking

who I'm turning into Seinfeld I'm thinking who

are these people? That do this work and I sort

of had this I mean, you know everybody knows

about voiceovers now, it's Common knowledge,

but back then no you never heard about it And

I had this sort of working theory that well Maybe

they're on camera people who do this stuff on

the side to make a couple of extra bucks And

then one day, I vividly remember in the parking

lot of KCBQ radio in San Diego where I was working,

I was talking to a record promoter and he suddenly

blurted out the phrase, voiceovers. And scarcely

daring to hope, I said, what the hell's voiceovers?

He says, oh, you know, commercials, promos, cartoons.

And I said, you mean... There's just a business

that just does that, you can make a living. He

says, make a living, and he threw out the name

of a particularly successful guy. He said, he's

a multimillionaire, and all he does is voice

work. And I said, well, that's for me. I had

no thought of becoming a multimillionaire, but

I thought, if I can make a living doing that

kind of work, it's just about the perfect fit

for somebody with my weird little bag of tricks.

And it took me another 10 years to do anything

about it, but I I segue out of radio and into

voiceovers and that happened in the early 80s

Did you have any favorite disc jockeys radio

shows television shows cartoons that you had

growing up that you know You mentioned listening

to some of those. Do you have some favorite people

or shows that you listen to? Yeah, I We didn't

have a television set for a long, long time.

My parents resisted it. And you couldn't go to

the movies in Montreal back then. I don't know

if it's changed. They had had a terrible fire

in a theater in the 40s and a lot of children

died. So they essentially said no one under 18

can go to the movies unless they put on 50 extra

ushers and the fire department is standing by.

So very seldom could you get into the movies

in Montreal when I was a kid. So I saw very,

very few cartoons, but I listened to a ton of

radio. Radio comedy, radio drama. It was really,

you could hear stuff from the States. You could

hear stuff from the BBC that was extremely well

done. and you could hear Canadian -produced stuff,

drama, cop shows, just kind of like prime time

television, only it was all on radio. And I had

a number of favorites. We listened to the Jack

Benny show a lot, which I still hear on the satellite

radio, and it's funny, it holds up. It's, you

know, a different era, but the comedy still works.

But in the middle of all of this, I discovered,

and I don't know if you guys have ever heard

of this, it was called the Goon Show. I've heard

of the Gong Show, but not the Goon Show. Well,

a goon in England doesn't mean, it means more

like, if you did it in the States, you'd call

it the Idiot Show. It means more like an idiot.

In this country, it means somebody who breaks

your legs for not paying your grandpas. Anyway,

it was this bizarre radio comedy show that hugely

influenced, I mean, all the Monty Python guys

said they grew up listening to the Goons, and

that was their inspiration. People from the Firesign

Theater referenced the Goons. It was three guys,

Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe, and a very young

Peter Sellers, who would later go on to become

a huge star. And Milligan wrote most of the scripts

and they were like audio site gags. You'd have

to hear the show. You either got it or you didn't.

My father and I thought it was wonderful. My

mother couldn't stand it. But I began to focus

on, in particular, Peter Sellers. You know, he's

been gone a long time. Are you guys even aware

of him? Yeah. Yes. Okay. He did about, God, I

don't know, 12 or 15 different characters. You

could sort of figure out it was him, but he did

them in such a way that they became absolutely

real. You could see them in your mind's eye.

It wasn't a guy doing a funny voice. He created

characters. And I was fascinated by this. How

one guy can crank out 12 or 15 really believable,

interesting, funny people. And they're all coming

out of the same voice box. And he was a huge

influence on me and that show was a huge influence

on me. And listening to Jonathan Winters, because

a lot of his act involved character voices. I

mean, everybody, everybody has stolen Maude Frickert.

I mean, Johnny Carson stole her and turned her

into an Aunt Blabby. Again, you know, this may

not be old enough to remember that. Oh, you know,

I remember. Yeah, I remember that it's the same

thing It's an old woman that talks that but Winters

was the first person to do that and You know,

I used to listen to his albums Just compulsively

to the point where I almost had a memorized another

huge influence was a guy named again You may

not have heard of him Peter used enough Who was

a fascinating writer director actor? And he did

this album that a relative gave me, and this

one I really did listen to thousands of times.

It was called The Grand Prix Du Rock. It was

a satire of radio coverage of sports car racing.

And Ustinov did everything on the record. Sound

effects, he played all the characters, he did

Russians, he did Germans. a wonderful, wonderful

American announcer who, you know, was sort of,

you know that clueless guy Fred Willard does.

It was almost like his grandfather. Wow. And

I listened to that thing literally thousands

of times and suddenly whenever I needed a German

accent, suddenly I had the German accent, but

I wasn't really doing a German accent. I was

doing Peter Ustinov doing a German accent. But

that's how you learn. You start out just imitating

people you like, and hopefully eventually develop

your own style. So that's a very long -winded

answer, but those were some of the influences

as I was growing up. Do you remember the first

actual cartoon voiceover role that you landed,

and at what point did you know that you were

there to stay? Oh, I still sometimes question

if I'm there. Now, the first one, well, they

all sort of happened around the same time. Wally

Burr was working on a version of Spider -Man

in the early 80s, and he called me in a couple

of times just to do incidental voices, just a

couple of lines as a cop or a construction worker

or something. but the session I remember is I

got called into Hanna Barbera and I did a guest

shot on a in an episode of Richie Rich and I

walked in there and there they all were like

Mount Rushmore, you know to me Joni Gerber Lenny

wine rib Michael Bell, you know Names that were

even then legends in the voiceover business and

there was renowned director Gordon Hunt and I'm

in the middle of all of this and I thought You

know, I'm I'm waiting to get kicked out like

who hired this guy. He's nothing but a disc jockey

faking it but somehow I got through that session

and everything went pretty good and Don't know

maybe a year or two later I breezed in to do

something somewhere and it suddenly occurred

to me. I guess I'm I'm Making a go of this. I

mean if they were gonna throw me out they'd have

done it by now. I guess I'm okay Yeah, I you

know, you know you talk about you're listening

to all these old albums and everything else and

the funny thing is for me as a kid I'm 35 now.

So when I was a kid at six years old when Transformers

the movie came out Granted, we didn't really

have the technology to do this properly back

then. I always wanted an audio version of the

entire movie because I am to the point now in

my life where I prefer listening. Like I'll put

something on to watch it, but I'll end up just

listening to it and doing other things. Not,

not even like housework. I'll just sit here at

my computer and just be writing something or

doing something else. And yeah, I am such an

audio file. It's just crazy. Voice actors have

a lot of characters that they cover. What is

your easiest character to perform and what is

the hardest one on your voice? Well, a lot of

the Transformers stuff tended to head in the

direction of what we call throat rippers. If

I'm asked to... Give a talk to aspiring voiceover

people. One of my rules is never ever Do anything

in an audition that you are not prepared to do?

over and over and over and over 65 episodes You

know if I don't care how wonderful the voice

is if it starts to hurt after about 30 40 seconds

Just tell them guys. I'm sorry. I can't I Wipe

that one because I cannot you know do it without

causing myself damage. You say 30 or 40 seconds

and the first thing I think of is, oh my god,

12 hour Raleigh -Burr sessions. That's the point.

It's working you after 30 seconds. How's it going

to feel when you're doing take 25 and you've

already done, you know, God knows how many lines,

you know. That that was one of the remarkable

things about the late lamented Chris Lata. We

used to joke that he had Barbed wire for vocal

cords. Yeah, because he could just do the most

amazing Howling and screaming and it never seemed

to affect him in the slightest. He didn't lose

his voice He didn't seem to be in any discomfort

And that that was not true of quite a few of

us in that show Know I've been podcasting for

seven years now and for me There have been like

I've never in seven years lost my voice But I'll

sit here and I'll record two or three different

podcasts over a six hour time period in a day

and Even after talking all six hours. I remember

a couple years ago. We were doing a San Diego

comic -con audio play -by -play as the news came

out and I was there for all six and a half hours

of that show and my voice still didn't crack.

So I don't know. I must have some barbed wire

in my cords, too. Well, you know, if you find

a good placement, theoretically, you should be

able to go, you know, indefinitely where you

get into trouble is and you can create a voice

like this. And oh, boy, I'll get this job. And

then while he's going, all right, take 35. You

know. Neil, what type of characters do you like

playing the best? Do you like playing good guys,

bad guys, serious characters, funny characters?

What appeals to you the most? Well, the most

fun, and I think probably every actor would tell

you, this is a character that's conflicted. That

was what I particularly liked about Shipwreck

and G .I. Joe. Everybody else in that show was

either super, super good or super, super bad.

Right. Right. And Shipwreck was kind of on the

fence. You know, he wanted to be a good guy,

but he didn't like following orders. So he would

decide to do it his way and somehow muddle through.

And that's what made him a really great character

to play. Much more fun than just some square

jawed hero type. Who keeps saying here I am to

save the day over and over again When coming

in with a voice for a brand new character in

an audition, you know a character that's not

established or anything like that What process

do you go through in finding what you believe

to be the right voice for that character? Well,

I don't think I'm that much different from the

rest of the folks in the business You show up

if you're smart you show up half hour early and

they've got a couple of pictures of the character

and maybe a paragraph or two description Some

descriptions are helpful some are laughably silly

You know, I've read for some characters where

they say he led the revolt in On the planet Belistar

and then he joined this and then he went over

there and I'm going this is fascinating Skippy

What the hell does he sound like? Do you want

a high voice low voice? Do you want an accent?

That they won't tell you but they'll tell you

reams about you know that he led the slave revolt

on the planet Spelman Which is not that helpful

frankly, but anyway if it's a good paragraph

Sometimes they'll say, listen, we don't know

what we want. We're open to anything you've got.

Or they'll say, we think we want a gruff voice

for this guy, whatever. And then some of the

characters that you read for are so outlandish

that it's anybody's guess what they should sound

like. So you absorb all of this. And then if

all goes well, you begin to hear a voice in your

head. That you think would fit this character

and then the trick is to try to reproduce it

once you get up to the microphone And that's

kind of the process Okay, yeah, no Neil Ross

it was mostly his his career the transformers

things like that I just don't remember it as

much because I was so busy at the time I think

well you should have gone back and listen to

it before i did listen i did listen to like three

or four episodes heading up to this but that

was my god i didn't realize it was something

that i'd completely literally forgotten about

it until just last night when i was tabulating

some more stuff and i'm like wait a second i

did a sixth interview i thought i'd only done

five uh... twenty sixteen years seventy three

episodes parts in the weeks the main shows in

the east and uh... miyazaki uh... retrospective

that you guys are doing plus the video game film

retrospective that you're doing okay out of the

ones you've done so far in your personal opinion

What is the worst video game film? Oh my god,

it's a much easier question if you would have

just asked me the best. There's such a battle

going on at the bottom for the worst films and

so far it's got to be the last two films we covered

which would have been House of the Dead and Alone

in the Dark. Those two films are absolutely terrible.

Okay, so what's the best one? Mortal Kombat.

Obviously. Yeah, Mortal Kombat is by far the

best one we've covered. That's not a that's not

a consensus though. That is I believe if you

ask myself and Dan We would both say Mortal Kombat

Amanda might say Mortal Kombat Matt is not in

that camp. He hated that movie. So I think he

would say like Street Fighter or something like

that That year, okay, so maybe we're not due

for a top of my head when last year uh... gcr

in top 100 animated characters now i was not

a part of this one so you guys will have to talk

about this i mean it's just for me it felt like

the a logical conclusion to what we've done so

far in top 100 we did animated series we did

animated movies and what spawned this one i get

my ideas obviously someone in my own head but

a lot of times from something i see that makes

me mad And I didn't do any bashing episodes where

promos like we did for IGN. But what had happened

was is, and I kind of had the idea beforehand,

but I had never really decided on it. I'm like,

yeah, it would be fun to do sometime. But I wasn't

motivated to do it. And then Fox aired this top,

I don't know if it was 20 or something. They

did top 50, top 20 animated characters of all

time. Right, and I don't know if it was over

a course of a couple days or if it was just one

show or whatever but I ended up watching it over

dinner I think or something and It was so ludicrous

and I guess I should have expected it because

it was being broadcast by Fox but every character

in the top ten was a Fox property character,

of course So it was all Family Guy, it was all

Simpsons, and I think there was one other show

that Fox does that had a bunch of characters

that were put in there, and I'm like, come on,

guys. They had Family Guy characters ahead of

Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse and stuff like that.

And so that really motivated me to like, okay,

let's actually look at this and let's come up

with a list together and see what we come up

with, you know, if we get a bunch of people down

that aren't just motivated by network affiliations

to see what would come out, because I can't buy

the fact that somebody would put Peter Griffin

ahead of Bugs Bunny. Yeah, I can't either. Yeah,

no, that just seems all hell kinds of wrong,

because wow. So that was the motivation. I thought

it was a lot of fun. I mean, I think it was maybe

the most predictable one as far as who was going

to be the top couple. But I don't think it was

predictable as far as the whole rest of the countdown.

Like, there's such a wide variety of animated

characters, both in movies, both in TV shows,

et cetera. We didn't include any video game characters.

But I think you can predict that Bugs Bunny and

Mickey Mouse were going to be one and two. The

rest was kind of up for grabs, so it was a lot

of fun, and I think we got some good discussion,

especially with Mr. DJ Valentine being part of

that one, so it was a lot of fun. Oh yeah, that

was fun. Out of the TV one almost came... a full

-on A -Team show with him and I, because we both

love the original A -Team show. And I think my

favorite moment of the animated character countdown

was the face -off between Amanda and DJ Valentine

for the Little Mermaid versus Mulan. So that

was epic. I crack up every time. I just listened

to part of it again and I just happened to be

in that part where they were going at it back

and forth and it was absolutely hilarious. And

this year 2017 you've had 14 episodes so far

Yeah, probably a couple more so by the time this

airs will probably be around 15 or 16 But hey,

I'm making my way to the 70s. I'm hoping maybe

maybe I can maybe I can beat 77 this year maybe

March yeah, we got some plans for cinema geeks

too that we're gonna be probably pumping out

a little bit more content than we have ever before

so Maybe we'll be able then I know you and I

have plans to power through two different he

-man shows still so oh yeah could be a lot of

stuff coming in 2017 hopefully absolutely all

right so the shows you've hosted or co -hosted

um yeah there's not a lot of these here there's

a lot of good ones but You've really done a few

of them and I know you've been on some GCR episodes.

I don't know why that's listed What do you want

to remember about these ones here We brought

most of them up so I don't need to need to go

too much But obviously mass mayhem wars telecast

to and cast pogs and cinema geeks have been the

main ones So those have been fun the ones we

didn't get to talk about I guess in that kind

of chronological breakdown was more of the guested

shows. Dan actually got me on one episode of

Talking in Circles. I think I was begging him.

They do so many fun games over there with all

their different Mount Rushmores and whatever

drafts that they do and different stuff that

I eventually weaseled my way into there. Like

you mentioned before, the initial podcast was

a TFG One podcast. That makes the list. You had

me on a couple of ToyCasts, too, back in the

day. I must have had some time to kill or something.

Which is weird, because you had, like, a couple

hundred or 150 or 100 episodes of ToyCast. No,

that and... Well... Or 99. What did it get to?

Yeah, it only got to 99. Yeah. Yeah, it only

got to 99. You know, I was on four episodes,

but I am a huge toy collector. But I just didn't...

have motivation to be on them and i have a humongous

star wars toy collection humongous transformers

toy collection etc but uh... able to sneak on

a four of those we talked about the two cast

behind episodes uh... steven uh... you and i

got to do quite a few a t t f we had a run there

we were i think we did like almost ten episodes

in a row together because we're finishing off

uh... version two point oh i believe yeah and

that was the thirtieth anniversary stuff at the

time in twenty fourteen oh Yeah, no, it was still

2 .0. It was still 2 .0 because that was... Oh

yeah, we continued the numbering. Yeah, we continued

the numbering. You had changed it later, but

2 .0 was the 30th anniversary stuff, like episode

40 to 49 or whatever, and then episode 50, we

did ATTF, This is Your Life, and then you continued

the numbering, but... We changed it to 3 .0 after

50, but the 16 that you were on was probably

the 30th anniversary stuff, like with Beast Wars,

Beast Machines, G1, G2, that kind of stuff. Well,

and then there was a little stretch where we

were doing the news stuff. I was on a few of

those. Just kind of coming up with Transformer

news and stuff like that. So that was a lot of

fun. just being able to talk Transformers because

even though I'm a huge Transformers fan, I, you

know, wasn't time wise and different things that

I wasn't able to be on, you know, some of the

other Transformers actual podcasts outside of

the Transformers animation, which happens to

be the one I like the least. So it was fun being

able to talk some Transformers with you guys,

you know, because TFG1 was already a thing, you

know, by the time I came along and you guys were

already involved with the Beast Unleashed. So

this is my chance to get some Transformers talk

in there. There you go. But we also had some

MWIRE episodes. You and I did quite a few of

those back when I had a lot more time at night.

And then some GCR. I remember doing like the,

we did like MWIRE, the spring or the previews.

Where it used to be Steve, you, me, and either

Dan or Michael Powers. And we would kind of review

what was coming out. Pre -dates, cinema geeks

and all that type of stuff. And that was fun

to do. Yeah, a lot of fun stuff in there. I'd

have to go back through the GCR to remember all

those episodes. I'm sure there was a vast variety

of things we talked about, but I can't remember

them either We're all old people we know The

majority of those were you me and Steve I think

on a lot of those GCR episodes or oh, yeah, absolutely

Most definitely I remember the one of them one

of the M wires that we did do that. We're gonna

have to revisit Because of the soundtrack and

the film franchise being 30 years old this year

is we did Lethal Weapon for episode 58 or 59

of MWIRE, so I remember that. I think the first

MWIRE I was on was Can't Hardly Wait, now that

I think about it. Yep. So we will be right back

with Can't Hardly Wait. At first it was also

unbelievable. Mike Dexter wanted to date me.

I know why I started dating him. I just don't

know why I did it for so long. Well, he is the

most dope guy in school. Yeah, and school's over.

This party tonight? Amanda suddenly being single?

It's fate. Fate has opened me a window. You know,

I gots to have sex tonight. It took me all day,

but I narrowed it down to a list of ten very

lucky finalists. You know what I'm saying? Do

you think there'll be any girls there? Are you

kidding me? People may even be having sex tonight,

totally. Have you seen Amanda Beckett? Yeah,

Matt just saw her in there. I'm thinking about

asking her out, boy. Oh, God, you're a hype.

I filled this with seven bottles of vodka last

September. It's been in my freezer for... Alright

y 'all, check it. Time to get busy. Who does

he think he is? Brad Pitt? And you're like Glennon.

But with bigger boobs. Totally bigger boobs.

I can't feel my legs. I can't feel my legs! Columbia

Pictures presents an event 18 years in the making.

When you find out who your friends really are.

I don't think she's prettier than Gwyneth. Not

even. What your future really holds. I am going

to have sex with someone at this party. And how

one night can change your life. I don't know

about you, but I really believe that there's

one person out there. And for me, it's gotta

be Amanda. There's a mirror right there. Why

don't you take a look, okay? You're white. Guys

like us, we are a dime a dozen. It is fate. But

it only takes you so far because once you're

there, it's up to you to make it happen. Amanda?

Can't hardly wait. Witch team has the winning

play. Huntington, Huntington, hey, hey, hey!

We are back and unlike tooncast and wire doesn't

have a format at all This is Kevin's first movie

we can review and I basically just go through

get the wiki information and just Go down this

go down through the pages It's too loud actually

make a an actual format for this show So we're

going to be talking about Can't Hardly Wait.

Now, when did you first... Well, first of all,

this is made in 1998. So, you know, 11 years

ago. Did you first see this in theaters or did

you see it on DVD or VHS or whatever? Well, you

don't know this about me unless I've somehow

leaked it before, but when I was in junior high

and high school, I was, let's just say, obsessed

with Jennifer Love Hewitt. Who wasn't? I actually

owned all of her movies at the time on VHS, even

ones that nobody's heard of. So yeah, I saw this

right away. And because of that, I also actually

know that Peter Faffanelli, who's also in this

movie, this is not actually the first time they

were in a movie together. If anyone has free

time and can find it, there's a movie called

Telling You. The head spoke Jennifer and Peter

on it and you know, I don't think it was ever

popular I don't even know if it was ever in theaters,

but it's worth it. It's worth a watch. So yeah,

I thought it's right away in the theater And

all I can think of now and I hope she listens

to this also I can think of is now is You know,

she's got her own Mike's debt. She's got her

own Mike Dexter at this point Alright, so if

you can remember that far back, what are some

of your memories that you want to go over? Um,

I just, I think there's um, when I was thinking

of memories, kind of myself, I was trying to

break it into a couple different things. My favorite

moments as far as interactions with hosts or

co -hosts, because I think that's what why we

do most of this is the interaction with the people.

You know, the friendships we build, the camaraderie

or just the ability to just kind of, you know,

shoot the breeze with each other and talk and

rant and do whatever, get everything off our

chest or escape from your regular day and just

kind of have some fun, almost like why you go

to a movie. So I was trying to think back to

like what some of the favorite interactions I

had or maybe like a favorite dynamic between

myself and another host. And a couple of them

came to mind. from telecast I really liked the

episodes that Steve and I did because it was

the first chance that the two of us had had just

to record stuff on our own and we did like the

video game block I believe if I'm remembering

the right episodes where we went through like

Double Dare and Ghost and Legends of the Hidden

Temple and some of those type of things yeah

so I thought we had a kind of a neat dynamic

there and then the other kind of person that

hasn't come up yet this record was I did a lot

of episodes with JT from Saskatoon. It's been

a while from him. Yeah, but we did we did a lot

of telecast and the good part about having him

on the telecast was a lot of those shows that

I was including were Canadian based. And he happened

to be someone that actually had got a chance

to see those being from Canada So it was able

to add some insight from there and I thought

him and I kind of worked real well on the telecast

as well So I really liked the episode that both

Steve and JT and I did on telecast. So that was

one dynamic And then there's of course you Mike

Which I think we have a we have an interesting

dynamic I think one thing you can say is just

based on the sheer number of episodes we've done

together. And I know you could say the same thing

probably with Steve, but the sheer number of

episodes that you and I have done is that we

know each other as far as we don't walk all over

each other for the most part. I mean, occasionally

you're going to do that regardless, but we kind

of know each other's cadence. We know each other's

style. And also, I just think we're comfortable

with taking each other to task. Yeah, and calling

each other's BS or We're not afraid to like get

into little debates and arguments because we

know it's not necessarily personal and especially,

you know through all the tune cast and all the

pogs we've Especially the pogs because you know

tune cast we were experiencing that for the first

time and I was probably a little Rough around

the edges at that point and it was still early

for you, too But when we got to pogs, we both

kind of were in a rhythm at that point So, I

just think the interaction that we have there

is pretty fun. It's something that makes the

show, you know, especially on some of these,

you get to like, you know, He -Man was 45 episodes,

She -Ra was 35 episodes. By the time you get

halfway through those, you need something to

keep hanging on and a reason to keep... All the

iTunes people, all the iTunes negative reviews

that are on Pogs and there are not a lot of them,

but the ones, they're like... The one host is

too negative. The one host is this. And they're

talking about me, and I'm like, I'm sorry. I've

sat through a hundred and third. By the time

we got to She -Ra, by the time we got to episode

56 or 60, I really think the straw that broke

my back on She -Ra was a glimmer story. I'm sorry.

That's one of the worst episodes. It's not the

worst, but it's one of the worst episodes of

the series because it has nothing to do with

the actual character. Anyway, but it's one of

those things where... People don't understand

when we podcast we're watching these cartoons

We're watching them on a daily weekly basis kind

of thing and now I want to gouge your eyeballs

out pretty much Yes, and now I'm at the point

of where I would rather spend a year Pre -producing

all of this content whatever the content is I

would rather spend a full year 12 months in doing

all the work and then not release the content

until the next freaking year that way I can just

sit back and watch and just cackle and see what

reaction it has to it. Shut up. It was kind of

like adjusting itself, so I had to get it to

a point where it wouldn't. Alright. Alright.

Stop it! Dammit! Hold on. I'm trying to podcast

over here! Alright, I should be good. I just

can't laugh. Stop it. You gotta be fucking kidding

me. Your headset is alive! It is. Can't be professional

with headsets. Oh my god Stop moving your facial

features, it's my ears It's all in my ears your

ears. Nothing will appear. It's only if you twitch

your nose. All right Let's go Like I said, I

just think that we've done enough shows where

our dynamic works for the most part because we're

kind of opposites when it comes to a lot of the

different things. So not that we don't agree

on quite a few things too, but we have our differences.

So that makes it more interesting, I think, for

the listener. And then I think the other dynamic

that would come across would have to be from

Cinema Geeks or whatever movie we can interview,

NY Weekly. I think Dan and I... I have a lot

of fun talking movies with him. And we also get

each other for the most part. There's some internet

connectivity issues there that come up. Because

there's different delays and whatnot. But that

notwithstanding, him and I. I have to share a

story of this really quickly. I have to. So back

when we were not using this service anymore,

but back when we were using Dropbox. I used to

get desktop notifications on my computer anytime

anyone did anything with Dropbox, whether it

was deleting files or adding files or whatever

else, and I noticed that Cinema Geeks Part 1,

2, 3, and 4, and I'm like, why is there... parts

one two three and four for the same episode and

i actually went into the folder and i started

listening like oh it's all the flubs and screw

-ups okay but but then i know each other for

the most part especially when it comes to movies

so it's it's been really fun i think you know

we did some twelve years a slave and her i remember

that from early on in the tent you know retrospective

so that's been a fun dynamic and i mean it it's

it was been a lot of fun i'd be Silly not to

mention this but it's been a lot of fun to bring

Amanda in and be able to record with her You

know, she had never done a podcast before so

to be able to kind of Experience that together

has added a new element to why she understands

why I like doing this so much and it's it's been

fun because I get to see the visual on that one

as we're recording as well, so I get to see all

the facial expressions and Hand motions and different

things as I'm making her mad when I talk good

about a movie that she hates or whatever When

you're talking bad about a franchise she loves,

like the one you just recently went to go see,

which I can't believe that's your first interaction,

you need better, dude. I have to show you white

light, you'll be alright. Hey, I actually would

give that movie a positive review. So I was not

upset with the Power Rangers film at all for

being the first thing I ever saw Power Rangers

related. And then I was also thinking, you know,

which guests I've enjoyed working with the most.

From our countdowns, the ones that came up to

me were Dirt from one of those... From Pop Culture

Network, yep. Yeah, I can't remember which top

100 it was. I think it was the animated movies.

Yeah, it was probably animated movies most likely,

yeah. But he was a lot of fun. I remember Double

D having some good episodes with us on those.

And then Sketch most recently, I had a lot of

fun talking with him on the animated characters.

So those guys came up to mind. And then just

on some like just generic episodes, DJ Valentine

is a blast to work with no matter what. So every

time we have him on, he brings the energy up

and he brings the comedy and he really knows

his stuff, especially geek related stuff. So

he's been a lot of fun to work with. from the

early days of Tooncast and Telecast, Chris Stapleton

from Chickenpot Pod. That was fun to have him

on just because I was such a big fan of their

show. Unfortunately not going on anymore, but

it was fun to have him on. I think we had him

on for the Gummy Bears and a couple other episodes,

so that was fun. You know, just in that Star

Wars section, being able to do an episode with

my cousin and kind of reliving the Star Wars

fandom that we shared in high school was fun.

And then, I don't know if you want to count him

as a, I guess he'd be more in the host section,

but all the episodes that I was appearing on

with him, we were both guests in the most part,

but just recording with Birdman's been fun too.

I think he brings an interesting, he's an interesting

character and an interesting persona that's fun

to kind of play off of. He's a Canadian ham.

Right. As far as moments, Telecast as a whole,

it was just a lot of fun. Like I said, I wish

I could have done more of it right away. It was

a lot of fun being able to be the one calling

all the shots and the editing, adding all the

different sound effects that I was adding, the

different intros, all that stuff was fun. I enjoyed

Telecast except for the break that it took in

the middle. I would say that one of the more

fun parts was the fact that Mike or I didn't

have to actually do any producing on it and we

just showed up and we talked about it and had

fun with it. And then it was the structure and

it was the nostalgia of rediscovering the old

shows that we grew up with. Yeah, and I like

being able to do the segments, you know, where

were they now and how can you watch this and

the good, the bad and the ugly. It was all just

kind of fun regardless. I think hosting the top

100 because especially for those first few, when

I kind of held all the cards, it was a fun experience

because I know what's going to happen. But I

was so I was ready and anticipating what kind

of reactions am I going to get from you guys

when I say this show or this. movie or this whatever

so that was a lot of fun I mean it was a lot

of work too but it's work that was fun so I didn't

mind doing that how about this memory Mike scooby

-doo back and forth for a scrappy do that's never

gonna die folks it was hilarious scrappy do debates

is awesome leave that puppy alone as the scrappy

due debate in the sorority of the market today

i think those are the the big two debates okay

if the voice actor who voice two of the lead

characters in both of you those individuals shows

says one is better than the other i'm going with

the voice actor larry kenney said himself thundercats

is better than silverhawks I like them both.

I think Steve will appreciate this one, because

he was more a part of it than you were a part

of it vicariously, Mike. But Steve, maybe you

remember the marathon that saw you, me, and Mr.

Mike the Birdman Dodd... Star Wars. ...have a...

I don't remember if it was Twitter or Facebook,

but we had like... I remember this. We had like

7 ,000 messages. back and forth as Mike was ranting

about something on and off that episode. And

Mike did not know, I don't think, that we were

doing it. Until they screenshot it and gave it

to him. Yeah. You jackass. That was one of the

funniest records ever because we were cracking

up at stuff. We were making comments, especially

all three of us were making comments that were

like all inside jokes because they referred to

something we were talking about on Facebook.

And we couldn't help but laugh and Mike has no

idea what's going on. Like I wish there would

have been like a visual recording of what was

going on there. Well, there is the screenshot.

I think you still have the screenshot somewhere.

Somewhere. It's in the back end of the site.

It would be one of those though that would like,

it would have been hilarious to see like, to

be listening to the podcast, but then being able

to look at your screen and seeing the conversation

happening between Steve Dodd and myself. But

I still remember that as being one of the most

hilarious records I've ever been involved with.

A bunch of jackasses. It was so mad. It was awesome.

That was hilarious, but other than that the interviews

have probably been super memorable too. I'll

never forget interviewing Larry Kennedy, Rob

Paulsen, and Maurice LaMarche for sure. Absolutely.

All right, so now it's time to roast the host.

I don't want to die. Get some napalm in there,

you'll be all right. Napalm and silly putty.

I guess this part just gives me an interesting

way for maybe the milestone person to try to

like Come forth with what they think they bring

to the table or what they think they're weak

at and then see what you guys react to a little

bit about that because I Think one part that

I'd like to do is not just hit a milestone But

then use it as a jumping off point to kind of

build and improve the craft going forward So

maybe this will allow you guys to inform me and

enlighten me and I won't take it personal but

Looking back I think the the biggest opportunity

for me especially early on and hopefully most

of it's been corrected but I'm not I've never

taken any type of class tutorial watched a YouTube

video or learned anything about the audio equipment

And so I'm a little bit ignorant when it comes

to the audio and how to make something sound

better, crisp, clear, et cetera. Now, that's

one side of it. The other side of it is when

we were doing the recordings for those first

couple of years, I... Was using archaic Equipment

yes for the most part. I you know I had a computer

that wasn't old at the time But there's some

records out there that I don't even want to listen

to because I know It's like when we're doing

the interviews where we have the interview person

on a cell phone Mm -hmm. I mean I remember interviewing

Rob Paulson And he was pulled over on that on

the highway and that Los Angeles talking to us

on a cell phone And I recorded some from my bedroom

on my cell phone because my computer was not

functioning or wasn't, you know, as available,

et cetera, et cetera. So those have to sound

terrible. And then I went to the headset mic

where you had the flip down mic as part of the

headset. And I can only imagine what those sound

like, too, before we actually got the free standing

mics and different things like that. But even

with that, I still think I could improve. with

the audio techniques. I think that's probably

my biggest regret is not being better at that

early on. Honestly, dude, it's not just you.

That's all of us. No, seriously. In 2008 and

2009, right before the network launched and right

after the network launched, from 2009 to 2010,

I was working off a headset mic, I was working

off something else, and I think somewhere in

2010 I got what I still have today, the CAD U37

condenser microphone, and I've had this thing

ever since, and it has never failed me, it has

never gone out, it has never done anything. I've

had various headphones, or hell, even when I

wasn't using the headset, with the headset mic,

I just would do it out of my speakers. I don't

need headphones. Somebody else recommended a

couple, I think 2013 it was, my buddy Dustin

recommended these JVC headphones and I've had

those ever since and that's what I use now. I

think the biggest benefit of eventually getting

the Yeti mic was I had broken at least three

headsets because I tried to walk away while they

were still plugged in. You're not supposed to

do that, dude. Dude, it was probably on record

with you. I remember having to delay records

because I had to go to like Target and get a

new headset because I snapped. the freaking cord

out of it. And now I wear a hands free, you know,

no cord wireless headset to listen to when I'm

doing it like this. Now when Amanda's here, I

can't do that because we have to do a splitter.

But basically I can walk around this room and

you won't be able to hear me because I won't

be talking straight into the mic, but I could

hear you guys. So that's helped a lot. And not

because I went through when I was in my in those

early days, I know I went through at least three

different heads up mics because I personally

broke them leaving the record. So So I think

that's maybe one of my biggest weaknesses. I

think the other thing is just I am a decent public

speaker But when it comes to recording for some

reason I I think I turn part of that part of

my brain off Because and I guess this comes from

editing when I edit the cinema geeks podcast

Matt says um every Fifth word All right And I

see I just did it and Amanda and I say it every

20th 25th word Dan never says um He literally

never says um like he is the perfect person to

edit because you never have to worry about when

he's talking about having to edit out any um's

or uh's or like pause and see at this point I

am beyond doing like, look, I will spend two

or three hours editing a podcast, but I am not

going to edit out every single, um, uh, whatever,

because honestly, to me, I kind of subscribe

to what Michael power said to me at one point.

He thinks it. At least I think this is what he

said. I know it was him that said it, but, um,

he thinks it adds some natural, you know, speaking

things to. To the recordings, right? Right. I'm

not saying anything about what you edit out or

what you don't and I don't edit out a hundred

I know 100 % of them. I just try to get like,

you know Maybe over half of them, so it's not

completely dominated by it Well what I'm saying

is just from a someone who's been doing this

I wish I could get a little bit better at training

myself to just speak better So you don't even

have to worry about it You know just to delay

and get those or get those delay tactics out,

so I don't have to you know stutter over things

I don't have to say um or whatever But for some

reason when I'm when you're doing this so much

of it's not planned out that you do have to kind

of think on the spot So I think that's something

I could improve on slightly And I think the third

thing that I can identify on my own is I have

a lot of energy and a lot of personality when

I'm not recording. Like when you if you were

just, you know, hanging out with me, I can get

crazy and I can get energetic and I can rant

and rave and do all this kind of stuff. For some

reason, when I put the headset on, not every

time, but usually when I put the headset on and

I start recording, I for some reason subconsciously

go into like I have to record now. And I think

I lose some of the energy and some of the entertainment

value that I could otherwise bring. I don't know

if it's just because I'm trying to sound too

professional or I'm trying to sound too, you

know, record type, but that's something that

I could get. I could bring more of my personality

in through the mic because I think I leave some

of that on the cutting room floor and don't razz

it up enough. Yeah, you've you've essentially

done the reverse of what I did where I came in

really stoic and Stern and like okay I have to

do this now I have to sound a certain way and

blah blah blah blah blah by the middle of 2009

after the network launched I'm like okay I'm

just gonna sit back here in my chair, and I'm

gonna talk really loud so I don't have to lean

right up against the microphone You know where

I'm like I'm just gonna relax and just let you

know where I so I think we've had that kind of

flip between the two of us. Yeah, because if

you listen to a tune cast or telecast, I'm much

more animated. Yeah, I'm much more energetic.

I'm like in a different level and now when I'm

doing all this It seems like I go into like host

mode or something and I have to be like like

if you listen to cinema geeks There's a lot of

times where I don't even share my opinions or

I don't even like go into the discussion I'm

more just directing traffic I'm just trying to

like give it over to Dan and then move it to

Matt and then move it to Amanda or this that

and the other maybe they don't feel like that

but I feel like that's what I'm doing in my head

is just trying to keep the show going where I

forget to actually like input some of my personality

into it, so. But on the positive, I feel like

I do at least bring a creative aspect to it.

Oh, yeah. We wouldn't have the top 100s if it

wasn't for you suggesting to do them. We wouldn't

have half the stuff we did. That's like my bread

and butter is coming up with ideas. Even if half

of them don't ever happen, I love my - i really

do think there are half of them that have never

happened honestly i think it's fifty fifty at

this point because you've had a lot of ideas

in almost ten years yeah i mean but i love doing

that i love brainstorming with you guys whether

it's on forums whether it's on skype or whatever

and just being like oh let's do this let's do

that or what if we did this what if we did that

like that is what i like if i could get a job

where all i'm doing is coming up with creative

ideas for stuff like that'd be perfect for me

because i think that's something i do do well

um do do um but i don't know i was interested

to see what kind of resin you guys would do or

what what you know over the time what what habits

do i have that drive you nuts or what do you

like or appreciate or whatever the constant rescheduling

oh my god just pick a day and do it or not being

able to record two episodes in one at it in one

session like come on i want to get this stuff

done already i will say that mike as in as the

main person that's worked with me like in two

person shows is more patient then I give him

credit for because there is a lot of times where

I have to reschedule on him. You have no idea.

So I do appreciate that. I've only done it once

or twice just to drive you crazy. Yeah. I've

been guilty of that lately, so that's... Well,

you know, we're all going through crap at this

point, so, you know. We're old. Yes. We're all

old. God, I'm three years away from 40. Somebody

help me! Know what Steve appreciated most about

me coming onto the network it allowed him to

talk to someone other than you Mike No, but it

was nice having more voices on the network and

not just talking about necessarily transformers

and in kind of growing it out and much like how

You know, we're planning the end of scenes for

the future. It's been a constant progression

and growth as a group of geeks and friends on

the network. So it's been with the addition of

you and then Dan and everybody else that's kind

of joined up or come and gone based on things.

It's really helped. Grow and flush things out

so and I think that's something too though that

that's been a benefit because it's allowed all

three of us specifically as being kind of three

of the oldest members to To kind of branch off

and do our own thing and then in those own things

bring a new set of voices So, you know whether

it's Steve going and doing this and bringing

in guests to do stuff on his show, whether it's

Mike doing the pull bag and bringing a bunch

of people in on there, or like us on the Cinema

Geeks and bringing some extra people on there.

It's been a fun way to branch out and kind of

add more and more voices to the network, which

you guys are going to be astonished when we do

this history thing about how many voices the

network has heard. And how many we're going to

have to go find. Yes, yes, yes. Back to the Easter.

uh... yeah there's like twenty or so or maybe

no actually it's probably close to sixty or so

podcasts that are just completely gone well you

have a record of all of it you say that but i'm

working on a project where every old retired

show will return to the network all of them even

though you don't have any How is that gonna happen

because those 33 episodes you just said later

earlier though you're talking about yeah I got

I got I got a contact those guys and see if either

one of them has has it so we can get it back

So but yes, it's it's I I just tested the feature.

It's it's nice. Yes, and Hopefully yeah the site

issues Yeah, we're not going to talk about that

here. But yeah, I would say about the rescheduling

or the four -year hiatus on telecast was about

the only thing I'll razz you about. I deserve

it. I'm like, come on! We spent six and a half

hours creating essentially five years of a show!

I feel like the thing that was lost the most

during that time period was that I was as upset

as you guys. Like I was more upset than you guys

that it wasn't being done. It bothered us, but

then we were getting emails as for like, leave

us alone. Yeah, it's like you know people love

that show people want that show back and like

I said I still have the original you know original

original thing and we can always go i have no

problem going back to it whatsoever no problem

whatsoever so i'm just saying you know alright

so now that the razing is done uh... life outside

the network where were you in your personal life

when you started with the network well i know

you were just buying a house at that point well

it was a little bit before really i was getting

i was house hunting at the time but man talk

about a long strange trip i was twenty 27 when

we did our first episode I was 27. I was living

in an apartment a one -bedroom apartment and

Teaching and house hunting that's that's where

everything started and I believe it started during

I don't know if we started recording in the summer

or what so I had a lot more time we did yeah,

so so that's where I was to begin with and just

to think about From 27 to I'm going to be 36

in November. Jesus. But and yeah, no longer living

in a one bedroom apartment, obviously living

in a three bedroom house and all the stuff Steve

knows that comes with owning a home and interior

work, the exterior work, the appliances, the

landscaping, the painting, all of that that goes

with it. Think at the time I had I had two cats

at the time when we first started recording And

I currently have two cats, but one of them is

a different one than what we started with Because

jazz had passed away when I moved into the house.

So I have Mad Mar, Artigan instead of Jazz, but

Nellie is still there. So one cat still remains,

but a different job altogether, you know, instead

of teaching, doing the whole restaurant management

thing. Yeah, you're working for Pizza the Hut.

Yeah. So, but restaurant management, sort of

working as an area manager, but not a hundred

percent because they can't seem to get that going.

But so that is a lot more hours, which is cut

into the podcasting time, unfortunately, but

it also pays a lot better than I was as far as

teaching goes and then of course the biggest

change I was single when we started this whole

venture and now I'm in a it's about to be three

years that Amanda and I have been dating so the

future the future wife Is a big part of the life

now too, so that's probably the biggest personal

life change So we'll see what the future holds

a little something different October 31st 2018

is when the man when the wedding is gonna happen,

right? Yeah, none of us are Alright, so what

does the future hold for optimus solo? Well,

obviously he's still doing cinema geeks We're

gonna be doing some other stuff as well We're

gonna finish pogs. We're gonna keep doing cinema

geeks and eventually eventually one of the two

ideas that I had from the beginning for a podcast

is a Eventually gonna happen, but I'm not gonna

put a date on it That's good then Because then

we would actually expect you to come and get

it done there's been it's gonna be a solo show

I think and It's been something I've wanted to

do forever and hopefully eventually I can find

the time to actually make it work Well, that's

either podcast to the max or the MacGyver files.

Yeah, it's one of it's something different I

don't feel like I could do MacGyver without having

someone to banter back and forth with and I haven't

found the right fan to do that with uh... so

that's just forever on the back burner but i'm

dying to re -watch all those episodes for the

three hundred time but uh... and something something

a little bit different i don't want to use it

because just in case it never happens time -wise

uh... anything you want to say steve about optimus

solo before i close it out uh... no just uh...

hopefully we get to uh... expand that number

of uh... of of guest hostings and podcasts this

year i think that'll be fine So your actual 500th

episode, which episode will it be? I was going

to ask you guys, because it's going to depend

on how we do this going forward. Because my initial

count of all the episodes did not include interviews.

Because I wasn't sure if we were counting those.

Because a lot of them aren't. Those are episodes.

Right, but I meant a lot of them aren't. They're

just indicated on multiple things. I wasn't sure

how to count that exactly. If you did not count

interviews, this Record right here will actually

be my 500th episode if you count interviews then

It would have been about five episodes ago because

I did or six episodes ago because we did six

interviews. Oh Okay, so either six episodes from

back from whatever this is or this one whichever

one you want to count But I'm past 500 finally

and that's a that's a lot of episodes Not a good

batting average to that's a good batting average

you guys are batting a little bit high a better

average I'm gonna tease you on that one. I'm,

again, terrified at what Mike's is gonna say.

And then, because obviously his is probably gonna

be double of mine. Well that's, in a way I guess

that's a way to tease the episode that'll eventually

come out to reveal all of that. So. Yes, absolutely.

And I'll hit the first podcast to hit 200 episodes.

Mmm, yeah you will. Legitimately. Yeah you will.

So we'll go over all of that in a future episode

So you guys can keep your eyes out for that because

we are gonna do a podcast of the geek cast radio

history Where we reveal all kinds of fun facts

at least for us. It's gonna be fun. Oh, yeah

Hopefully the listeners will find it fun, too.

Yeah, that's coming this Christmas GCR in history?

That's coming this Christmas, folks. There you

have it. That was Optimus Solo's podcasting life.

Of course, it ain't over yet. Join us next time

for the next milestone episode when we will celebrate

another one of the GCR and crew members' accomplishments

in podcasting. For now, I am TFG1 Mike with Steve

Megatron Phillips and Optimus Solo. Unleash the

gig in you and we will catch you next time. Oh

shit, what are we gonna do now?