Interviews – Dan Gilvezan

Hey everybody, this is Bumblebee, and you're

listening to the TFG1 Podcast. Cool, huh? Spider

-Man and his amazing friends! Iceman and Firestar!

Hello and welcome to the TFG1 podcast. I'm one

of your hosts, TFG1 Mike. Joining me is Peacon

Court Michael. Hello. Hey, how's it going? Pretty

good, pretty good. Now, this is not the first

interview on the G1 review show that we've done

in the past. We did interview Stan Bush beforehand.

However, this is the very first TFG1 podcast

voice actor interview. And we welcome the voice

of Spider -Man, Bumblebee. Cooler from Pound

Puppies, Mr. Dan Gilvezan. Hi, Dan, how are you?

Hey, Mike, just fine, thanks. How are you? Very

well, very well. Oh, and also let me say hello

to your cohort, Michael. Hello. Now, you know,

if you guys really want to make it in show business,

one of you are going to have to change your name,

because Mike and Michael is not going to work.

Michael, let me ask you, have you considered

Terry? I'll tell you what, just for the sake

of this interview, I'm going to call Mike Mike,

and Michael, you will be Terry. Terry. Is that

a male persuasion or a female persuasion? Well,

yeah. Since I don't know you, it's going to have

to be unisexual. For a second there, I thought

he was going for a Hulk Hogan reference. No,

no, not that. And not to say that you, Michael,

or Terry, now, are unisexual because I'm not

really familiar with your sexual habits, but

I am going to refer to you as Terry, and Mike,

I will refer to you as M. Just M. Okay, so are

we straight now on who we are? I think so. Did

you have a career in stand -up comedy? No, I

did not. I've just sat in a lot of waiting rooms

with comedians in my career. Okay, boys, hit

me with the questions. All right. Where did you

grow up? I have not yet, as you can probably

tell. But I was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

And I lived there until I was about 21, and then

I left, and then I went to the East Coast and

did some theater. And then I came out West and

landed in Los Angeles, and that's where I've

stayed because, frankly, it's worked out nicely,

and I like the weather. Awesome. Did you always

want to be an actor or a voice actor? Yes. As

a matter of fact, I had no – I've heard this

story before from a lot of actors that they had

that sort of that aha moment where it's like,

wow, this is what I want to do. And I had it

really early on. I mean, I remember when I was

just like a kid, maybe seven, eight years old,

I would be in the backyard giving puppet shows

and magic acts, and I studied ventriloquism for

a while. I mean, I just – I seemed to always

have that drive to perform. And then in high

school, I actually got to do some plays, and

I thought, wow. This is really interesting because

not only do people look at you and give you all

kinds of kudos and stuff and make you special,

but also it's kind of interesting, the whole

process. So I sort of got my ego stroked, and

I also sort of – my artistic sensibility was

fulfilled at the same time. So yeah, I knew early

on that that's what I wanted to do. Awesome.

Cool. Well, it's a long way from St. Louis to

L .A. Can you tell us – Wow. Really? Can you

tell us the story of how you broke into the business?

I did. Actually, I broke in through a window.

It was a bathroom window. No, I'm not going to

go there. What happened was I moved out to Los

Angeles in 1976, a long time ago, and really

didn't do much for about four or even five years.

I spent a lot of time just shopping my picture

around, and I did a few commercials and stuff

like that, but there wasn't really much activity

around my career. And then there was a casting

call, and I guess it was 1980 or early 81, I'm

not sure, for the role of Spider -Man in Spider

-Man and His Amazing Friends, Marvel's first

animated series, the first one that Marvel actually

oversaw. To this point, they had always licensed

their characters out to other companies. But

this time they were going to do it. It was going

to be an in -house Marvel production. It was

the beginning of Marvel productions. And Stan

Lee came out with a lot of the staff, and they

set up an office out here. So everybody in town

was up for this thing, and that included me,

because I really had no experience whatsoever

in the voiceover world. And lo and behold, I

ended up with the job after innumerable callbacks

and callbacks of callbacks. And so I really kind

of, you know, splashed onto the scene in a big

way. It was really just the confluence of events.

And that's when it all began, really, back in

1981 with Spider -Man and his amazing friends.

Very nice. Yeah, I thought so. We know you best

as the title character from Spider -Man and as

Bumblebee from the Transformers. But what other

shows have you lent your voice talents to? Or

any talents? Well, during... Well, you know,

during the 80s, once G .I. Joe and the Transformers

became so popular, all these other toy companies

jumped on the bandwagon. So there was just a

raft of animated shows being made tied to toy

lines in the late 80s. I was the lead character

of Dardan in Dino Riders. Yeah, Dino Riders.

I was always the young hero guy. I don't know

why, because I guess it's voice quality or whatever.

I did a show called Sectars. We did a show called

Spiral Zone. I did a very short live series called

Ring Raiders. I mean, there were just lots and

lots of stuff. Probably one of my favorite ones,

though, was Cooler on the Pound Puppies for Hanna

-Barbera because that was very different from

the Young Hero guys. That was, hey, that was

kind of a cartoon voice that I got to do. So

that was kind of cool, I thought. So those are

just some of the things that I did, and it was

truly a golden age for voiceover actors, the

late 80s, because there was so much work going

on. Speaking of Spider -Man and his amazing friends,

we always thought that Bobby Drake sounded a

bit too much like Fred Jones from Scooby -Doo.

What was it like working... Imagine that. Yeah,

well, you know, did you notice that Firestar

sounded a lot like Sissy on Family Affair? Yeah.

Yeah, it's odd, wasn't it? What was it like working

with Frank for the first time? Oh, I gotta tell

you. Well... For someone like me who, you know,

I've had acting training, but I had never had

any specific voiceover training, and it is really

a different technique when you're just using

your voice to portray a character. And Frank,

as most anyone who knows anything about voiceover,

he's the absolute best in the business. He's

the finest voiceover artist performing today.

He's the Mel Blanc of our time. So to stand next

to Frank was a big, big help to me because I

was able to sort of... to see how he worked the

mic. I was sort of able to watch his approach.

And I learned so, so much from Frank. And on

top of that, he's one of the nicest guys in the

world. I haven't seen him in a while, but we

hung out a lot during those early years. Just

a real sweetheart. And talent for days. Yeah,

I mean, he is the man of a thousand animal voices.

Any sound you can think of, he can make it. Yeah,

he's incredible. I mean, he can do anything.

I've heard him do, I mean, he does dragons. He

does monsters. He does dogs. He did Ms. Lion

in the show. He does dogs. He does cats. He does,

I mean, just about, he does a cricket that is

really phenomenal. His cricket is so lifelike.

You keep looking around for it. I think my favorite

Welker story is the one about the feedback in

a Wally Bird session. Yeah, yeah. No, it wasn't

feedback. It was overlap. It was like, oh, we

got overlap there. No, it's just Frank. Well,

he used to do feedback, too. He would, as a matter

of fact, I talk about this in the book. One of

his little tricks that he played on the engineer

was, you know, that high -pitched whine that

happens when the mic feeds back on itself. Frank

could do that, like, perfectly. And once in the

middle of the session, he just started doing

it, and Wally Burr, our director, had to stop

the recording, and the engineer's looking through

his connections, and he's pulling and pushing

his buttons and his levers, and he's like, can't

figure this out. And Frank is in the booth with

us. And he's like, Frank's like looking around

like a ventriloquist would do, right? I mean,

and he's still doing the sound, but he's looking

around like he can't tell where it's coming from

either. I mean, the engineer comes in, and he's

looking for all the stuff, and he finally discovered

that it was Frank doing it, and it was just,

I mean, it was really one of the red -letter

days for us. I mean, we fooled around a lot during

those sessions because they were, you know, when

we began, they were eight -hour sessions. So

there was a lot of time spent in that studio,

and once you're in there for a while, you start

to get punchy. And so there was a lot of hijinks,

I think you'd probably call them. Yeah, hijinks.

Yeah, hijinks. Between Welker and Michael Bell,

I'm sure. Well, Michael Bell, first of all, has

an extraordinarily trenchant wit. Michael will

cut you to ribbons and you'll laugh your ass

off at the same time. Welker is a little gentler.

And then you had Peter Cullen, who thinks that

Frank Welker is the funniest man on earth. So

whatever comes out of Frank's mouth. Peter would

be – that was Peter's laugh. I mean it was just

– it was a lot of – it was a magic time. I will

say that. It was just a lot of fun for all of

us. Very awesome. So do you find your work on

Spider -Man being compared to other renditions

of Spider -Man like Tobey Maguire? Yeah, I mean

ultimately there have been many iterations of

Spider -Man. Mostly I get compared with the animated

versions. because that was part of my gig. But,

you know, everybody's got their favorite, and

generally it's whoever you grew up with. I've

heard people say, well, you're, for me, the definitive

Spider -Man. And it's because they grew up, they

were at that perfect age when Spider -Man and

his amazing friends. For a lot of people, it

would be, you know, Josh Keaton, who did, was

he also Spider -Man? Spectacular Spider -Man.

Yeah. It depended on where you were in your life

and what show you were watching, I think. And

I think... They're very careful about the character,

so anybody who's performing it is doing an A1

job. Well, I think you are the one that I grew

up with. So I'm your best. Exactly, as far as

I'm concerned. Many people like our age, they

just keep making more Spider -Man shows. Wait

a minute. Hey, M? Is Terry still there? Terry,

you there? I'm right here. Okay, good. Terry

here, Dan. Okay, good. Thank you. All right,

go ahead, Dan. Red Terry, checking in. Thank

you. I'm sorry, where were we? I was just going

to ask you, closing out the amazing Spider -Man

thing here, any interest in making a celebrity

voice cameo on one of these other Spider -Man

shows or perhaps playing? Yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah,

yeah, sure. I mean, you know, show me an actor

that turns down work, and I'll show you an insane

actor. In fact, just last year, or was it last

year? Yeah, last year, I guess, we did a video

game called Spider -Man Shattered Dimensions,

and they used four of us because there were four

separate Spider -Men. There was Spider -Man 2099,

which is the one they cast me as, and they decided

to use all people who voiced him in the past.

So Neil Patrick Harris was one. He was amazing,

both in the role and as Spider -Man. Josh Keaton

was, I believe, Ultimate Spider -Man. And, oh,

he's going to hate me for this. Christopher Daniel

Barnes was the normal Spider -Man. Right, exactly.

Yeah, Chris Barnes was. So we all got a chance

to kind of reprise our roles, and that was a

lot of fun. Yes. Now, for the 2099 Spider -Man,

when I first saw the trailer, I remember watching

reruns of Spider -Man and His Amazing Friends.

And that version sounds like really happy -go

-lucky to me. Yeah. The old cartoon version,

the 2099 version you did, even though it's essentially

the same voice, it sounded a lot darker. Did

you inflect any different tones than what you

did back in 1981? Yeah, absolutely. We were very

cognizant of the fact that it had to be a lot

harder, a lot grittier, and the voice director

worked very hard with me. Because I came in doing

the sort of 80s version, and they said, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no. This guy is like a hard -ass

man. He's going to really hurt you. You need

to get down. Keep the energy, but it really needs

to be a lot more gritty. So, yeah, we worked

very hard, and it was a real conscious decision.

I mean, not only has my voice matured in the

last 30 years, but that was a very conscious

artistic decision on the part of the producers.

Awesome. Terry? Well, I'm Terry. How's it going?

I recognize Steve Blum as the 2099 Hobgoblin.

And, you know, that guy is great. What do you

think of his work? I think he's terrific. I don't

know that much about the rest of his work, but

I think he did a fantastic job in that role.

Did you get to work with him in the booth, or

were all the lines recorded separately? Everything

was recorded separately. The only time I ever

saw the other guys, and I never saw Neil Patrick

Harris, because he's frankly way too big to associate

with me, I saw Josh and Christopher. when we

did a little promo of the trailer for the thing.

They were in the studio at the same time. But

no, the games are generally pretty much always

done one actor at a time, and that's kind of

a shame because I miss, like the Transformers

and most of the shows we did back in the 80s

were all, you know, there was an ensemble of

actors together, and there's a different energy,

which is, as I say, the director is very important

in the game thing because... They keep your energy

up. You may start to flag, and the director will

constantly be saying, okay, give it faster. Give

it a little more energy, a little more energy,

because you don't have that feedback from the

other actors. So I really kind of miss that,

but that's the way that the games are done these

days. These young whippersnappers, I tell you,

they don't know. When we were young, I used to

walk 12 miles through a blinding sandstorm to

get to the studio. Yes, sir. Those were the days.

And just before we transition to something else,

just to let you know that essentially you are

bigger than Neil Patrick Harris, in our opinion.

Well, I'm taller. And I certainly outweigh him

by a few pounds. We're going to talk about some

G .I. Joe stuff. There was a lot of crossover.

In the voice casting for G .I. Joe and Transformers,

were the recording sessions any different between

the two? Not really. In fact, the cast was really

similar. I mean, you had Michael Bell, who was

Duke, and he, of course, was Prowl in Transformers.

So there was a lot of the same people. I mean,

it was a very similar experience. Yeah, it was

– in fact, it was almost identical except for

the characters, and you're not robots, you're

soldiers. But yeah, it was very close to the

same, and Wally directed them too. So yeah, it

was like they were almost identical. I almost

imagined that they'd almost be in the same studio.

They were in the same studio. They were in Wally

Burr's studio. Oh, nice. Yeah, they were all

done in – Wally had his own studio. That's where

all the stuff was done. That's where they did

Gem. That's where we did Transformers, G .I.

Joe. Whatever other shows Wally was directing

were generally done at his studio. So, yeah,

all that. Boy, if those walls could talk. Nice.

You've talked about how cast members in that

studio played up to three parts in each episode

of Transformers. Yeah. Why did you only get one

in G .I. Joe? I think you just did slipstream.

I could be wrong. I think he also did. Yeah.

Oh, a beachhead too. Um, so I was up to two.

Come on, man. Don't, you know, don't, I couldn't

tell because he's always got the ski mask on.

Yeah, exactly. So you couldn't tell. Well, yeah.

Plus they didn't have to animate the mouth. So

it was really cool. Um, generally, you know,

My whole sort of forte was being an actor as

a voiceover person, so it wasn't so much range.

Like, Welker has incredible range, or Corey Burton

has just incredible range where he goes from

Spike to Braun. I mean, you couldn't be any more

different. I'm sort of in the same range, so

they can't really give me too many roles because

it's all going to sound like Fred and Bobby Drake.

Yeah. Yeah, so I think for the guys whose real

specialty is to just do lots of different voices,

they ended up doing many, many more characters.

And you see like Casey Kasem, who has a very

distinctive voice, only did a few characters.

Scatman only did one because, I mean, he's Scatman.

You hire him for that voice. So I think that's

kind of the reason. I mean I have some range,

but that was not really my strong point. Right,

right. Let's – Talk about Transformers, which

you are most known for. What inspired you to

write Bumblebee and Me? How did the whole book

come about? Well, we've done some conventions

in the past. We went to Birmingham, England for

Auto Assembly a few years back. We went to Toronto

for TFCon. We're going to be doing, we'll be

doing actually... BotCon in Dallas. Yeah, BotCon's

coming up in Dallas. We just made a deal with

them to come and do BotCon. So if you're in the

neighborhood, stop by because we'd like to say

hi. At any rate, the question is... The question...

How did the book come about? I'm sorry, I'm getting

coaching from my wife in the background. Tell

him about this. Tell him this. Yeah, honey, why

don't you go back to the kitchen? Everything's

fine. She's leaving now. It's all good. Oh, I'm

going to get in trouble later. There goes the

fangirl. So anyway, at the conventions that we've

done, fans are always curious about what it was

like and what was it like working with this person,

similar to some of the questions you've asked

me. And during the summer, I had some time off,

and I thought, what if I just put this down in

a book for people who – weren't able to make

it to a convention or couldn't go to a panel

or couldn't be there when the questions were

answered. So I sat down and I decided to take

it from the day that I actually first got the

role to the day that the show ended and try and

address all the questions and tell stories and

anecdotes. And that's pretty much how the book

came about. I actually, I got the audio version

and I absolutely love listening to audio versions

where Especially with voice actors, if the voice

actor writes a book about their life and they

are the ones that do the audio version, I love

that. And there were times where I laughed. There

were times when I cried. There were times when

it just made me smile. I absolutely loved listening

to the book. The thing about it was, I think

the first time I laughed was like... This is

not to have a full, complete version of the Generation

1 cartoon, and if I get anything wrong, well,

go write your own damn book. I laughed at that

so hard. Well, yeah, I mean, that was my whole,

and the only, actually the only criticism I've

ever gotten from anybody on it was it's too darn

short. But I didn't set out to write the definitive,

you know. g1 reference guide this was really

just an attempt for me to to put down on paper

you know some of my experiences and share some

of that with you know with the fans or whoever

might be interested in it and i didn't want to

pad it with a bunch of other stuff and i didn't

want to make it like a You know, the autobiographies

where you have to go through like 12 chapters

of them growing up before you get to the stuff

that you really want to hear about, you know,

when they're on the TV show. So rather than do

all of that, I just thought, you know, I'm going

to make it 80 pages long. And if that's as long

as it's going to be, that's as long as it's going

to be. And it's priced really low, so I haven't

heard anybody complain about that too much. And

I think it came out, you know, for what it is,

I think it came out really, really well. Oh,

it did. Absolutely. As someone who listens to

audio books and podcasts and stuff like that,

an hour and 20 minutes to tell your entire Transformers

story, that's more than enough time. Yeah, exactly.

And, you know, it certainly doesn't drag. No.

You know, there was a time like when it got close

to the end, like chapter like halfway through

chapter nine, I was like. is he going to get

to conventions? Because I was like, this thing's

almost over. Yeah. And then you finally did.

So very awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah,

the book's doing really well. The fans are really,

really digging it. I've got some great responses

about the book. So I'm really, really gratified

that everybody's enjoying it as much as they

are. Wow. Nice. Moving on to... G1 Transformers.

How did you decide on the characteristics for

Bumblebee's voice? Well, and once again, as you

know, that's a whole chapter in the book. But

basically what happens is when you go in for

the audition, they present you with the sample

script and usually some character sketches of

what the character looks like, and you kind of

put those together. and you work out something

for yourself, and then when you go in, the director,

who knows the character better than anybody at

this point because he's been to all the meetings,

he's asked questions of the producers, he's made

well, and he knows what the producers are looking

for. He sort of guides you, and in the case of

Bumblebee, Wally was invaluable in creating the

character. started with a kind of just a generic

young person voice, and he would throw in comments

like, all right, loosen him up a little bit,

or make him just two or three years older, or

put a little street into it, make it a little

less articulate. And working through that process,

maybe 20 minutes or even a half an hour of doing

that, you end up with something hopefully approaching

what the producers are looking for, and that's...

That's where we got to. And then, of course,

as you perform the show, your character tends

to deepen because you understand more about it.

The more scripts you do, the more episodes that

you do, the more experiences that your character

has, the deeper the meat of the thing gets. So

it's a process that begins at the audition and

really doesn't end until you finish the very

last episode. Are there any, now I know that

there are a lot of stories in the book about

the voice sessions, but are there any stories,

crazy off -the -wall, behind -the -scenes stories

that you have yet to tell? Well, I may be holding

a few back, Em. I can't give everything away

at once, because then people wouldn't come to

conventions at all to see me. Oh, yes, they will.

If people love you, they will come. If you build

me, they will come. Well, that's fine. No, if

you build me, they will come. If you build me,

they will come. Anyway, yeah, there's probably

a couple of little few things, but really I sat

for a long, long time just really casting my

mind back. And remember, we're talking 30 years

ago, and nobody at the time, when I was putting

the book together, I was looking for some pictures

to add to the book because I thought that would

be fun to have a picture section in the middle.

And I thought, I kept thinking, God, if anybody

had the foresight to take some photos of the

sessions. And, in fact, I called Wally and asked

him if he knew whether Hasbro or Sunbow or any

of those guys had come in and taken a picture

at any time because it would have been just,

I mean, incredible to have a picture of the cast

all lined up in front of the microphones. He

said he didn't think so. So, you know, nobody

knew that this was going to be anything. I swear

to God, if I'd have known it was going to be

this big, I'd have been there with a camera at

every session. But nobody had any inkling that

this was going to happen. I've done tons of shows

in the 80s that have just, a lot of them have

been completely forgotten. This one, for whatever

reason, has gone on and on and on. So no, you're

not going to get any more stories out of me.

For those of you listening, you're going to have

to buy the book to get those stories, and you're

going to have to come to conventions to hear

the blue color, the off -color ones, the ones

that I actually couldn't put in the book because

I wanted to keep it PG -13. Oh, you're strictly

rated R here. Let it out. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

We want to hear about the holiday blooper reels.

Well, we had the – yeah, and there was a blooper

reel, I'm sure, because there was a lot of craziness

that went on, and the tape keeps running. In

those days, we used tape. Now everything is put

on a hard drive, but in those days, it was a

big reel -to -reel tape that ran, and they just

kept it running. So there was all kinds of stuff,

and as I said before, if anyone had an inkling

that this was going to have the kind of lakes

it had, all this stuff would have been saved,

but nobody knew. Well, we've all heard about

Wally Burr's tenacity in the studio, but did

anybody ever tell him no, like ain't going to

do it, Wally? I'm already bleeding from the throat

over here. Yes. Yeah, only a few times. Peter

would – actually, Peter is once again a consummate

professional. Peter is an incredible talent and

a really sweet guy as well. But occasionally

he would say to Wally, we would have to do something

called group walla, which is, you know, if there's

a crowd scene or something like that, everybody

has to kind of go. And they overlay that and

overlay that and overlay that. So you sound like

you had, you know, 300 people. And the only time

I ever heard Peter or anyone say anything to

Wally was, and Peter's job was really tough because

he was working way down deep. And that really

takes a toll. He asked Wally if he could do the

WALA at the end of the session rather than at

the beginning, just to save his voice. And Wally

said, yeah, sure, no problem. But that's the

only time I can remember anybody saying to Wally,

I'm not going to do any more of this. I mean,

nobody ever threw their script down in a huff

and left the room. You just did what you were

told. And you were told a lot with Wally. Yeah,

those marathon recording sessions. Yeah, we had

eight -hour recording sessions, and this is –

bear in mind, this is a 22 -minute show. When

you take out the beginning, the end credits,

and the commercials, it's 22 minutes. We spent

eight hours recording that show. That's a lot

of time. So Wally was a real perfectionist when

it came to the readings that you gave him. He

would not move on until you gave him exactly

what he wanted to hear. And it used to – I mean,

if you weren't used to it, I've seen actors –

just completely reduced amounts of jello by the

time Wally was done with them. It wasn't really

free, but it was kind of in a way because, you

know, all of us who were in the regular cast

would kind of look at each other and go, oh,

this poor guy, man. This poor guy. You know,

and it was really rough. A lot of times it was

really rough on the guest cast, people who came

in, you know, not knowing the show. Let me ask

you a question about Transformers the movie.

Yeah, 1986 one. We heard that you were unhappy

about Spike saying the oh shit line in the theatrical

version of the movie. What would you have done

if they had given that line to Bumblebee? Well,

I would have said it, I'm sure, but here I'll

share this with you. This is something that people

don't know that Wally told me. This was after

the book was out. I was talking to Wally, and

I mentioned that, and he said, as he remembered

it, they were goofing around. And Corey did the

line and threw in the, what is it, dam? What

does he say? He says, oh, shit, what are we going

to do now? Because Unicron's about to swallow

the ship whole. Okay, so actually the line didn't

have the word shit in it. And they were just

fooling around. And Corey just said, you know,

shit. And apparently it got sent to New York.

And either by mistake or probably I think what

it was was the producers go. Hey, we're a movie

now. We can go a little bit further than we could

on TV. Let's leave that in. So that, according

to Wally, is how that got in. The story goes

that they left it in there to get away from the

G rating. Well, yeah, exactly. It's like – remember

the very early days of cable? Well, I remember

the early days of cable when you actually – there

was a cable. You could always do more. So the

cable shows were always at year, and they still

are. There's more nudity and there's more language

than network TV. And I think it was the same

with the movie. I think you're right as far as

the ratings go. And as far as, hey, it's a movie.

We can do more here. Although I think it was

totally unnecessary and it's totally gratuitous.

Is there anything that you would absolutely not

do as a voice actor, or have you turned down

roles or lines that cross the line? Yes, as a

voice actor, I have one explicit rule. I will

not perform in the nude. I thought that was the

best part of being a voice actor. Now, on camera,

I have no problem with that, but while I'm doing

voiceover, because there's a lot of movement

going on, and I'm afraid I might hurt someone

in the studio. You can use your imagination.

Oh, wow. In lieu of working with Orson Welles,

we could probably hook you up with Maurice Lamarche.

He does an awesome Orson Welles. He's also currently

working on Rescue Bots, another Transformers

property. We don't think that they've cast their

version of Bumblebee yet. So essentially, would

you ever want to go back to being Bumblebee?

Yeah, sure. I do at the minute. And as a matter

of fact, it's funny you mentioned it. I was having

dinner with Ginny McSwain just the other night.

She's directing those shows. And she was talking

about, you know, she was talking about, I know

Mo very well, Mo LaMarche very well. We're both

same agent and I see him quite often. I have

the idea because it's such a different take on

the show that they probably want to get away

from, you know, rather than. like they're doing

in the movies with keeping Peter to sort of have

the continuity, I think they probably would more

want to move away from that. But believe me,

Ginny's a friend of mine. If they were casting

for it, she'd definitely throw my name out. But

my instinct and my knowledge of this town would

say to me that they probably would want to use

something different. That's a shame. I know they're

using Peter as Optimus Prime again. So it would

be really cool to hear you pop up. Yeah, well,

Peter and Frank are doing, in Prime, they're

doing... Optimus and Megatron, yeah. Yeah, of

course. And I've heard it talked about on some

of the blogs in the blogosphere. that it would

be great if Bumblebee got his voice, that if

they went to me. Now that would make more sense

to me because that's more of a continuity. So

you never know. Like I said, I thought I was

done with Spider -Man, and then they called me

to do this game last year. So that's the wonderful

and terrible thing about being an actor. You

never really know what's around the corner. The

wonderful thing about, and we're going to transition

actually into some movie stuff here in a second,

but the wonderful thing for me with Prime is

it's Frank. but it's him not doing the old voice.

He's essentially deepened it because that older,

higher pitch, he said this in interviews in the

past, that the higher pitch, the old voice hurts

his vocal cords. So he essentially deepened the

voice and it sounds so awesome. Yeah, and you

also understand he's 30 years older now too.

So, and your voice has a tendency to take on,

you know, a deeper quality. So, yeah, I think

it works beautifully for the character. Yes.

Speaking of Michael Bay's Transformers, do you

at all feel cheated that you did not get to do

the voice work for Bumblebee? Yeah, in a way.

I actually read for it. They sent some scripts

over. I don't know whatever happened to my audition.

You know, here's also what I'm thinking about

this thing. You see the movie, and I saw the

first one, which I thought was terrific. I mean,

the CGI is absolutely awesome. The second one,

I stopped watching about 20 minutes into it because

I thought it sucked big time, and I never got

to see the third one. So maybe I'll look at the

fourth one. I don't know. I'm being completely

honest with you. The third one has actually got

a better story than the second one. It would

have to. Yeah, well. If a three -year -old had

written it, it would have to have a better story.

Michael Bay should not let his children write

these scripts anymore. That's been the problem.

At any rate, I'm never going to work again now.

This isn't going to go out and be broadcast anywhere,

is it? Because I can't have you listening to

this. God help me. All right, go ahead. Actually,

I think we're going to transition into conventions.

Yes. We're having a lot of transitions here.

Yeah, well, we've got a lot of stuff to cover.

We're moving. We're moving. So tell us about

BotCon 2012. Are you really looking forward to

this? Are you excited? Oh, yeah. Absolutely,

yeah. I really am. It's such a kick to do the

conventions, and this is the biggie, of course,

as you know. Yes. I mean, thousands and thousands

of fans. And it's just, I got to tell you, from

the performer standpoint, it's such a thrill.

I mean, people say they're thrilled to meet you.

It's a thrill to meet them, to hear all the kind

words that they have to say and all the compliments

and, you know, people saying, wow, you were such

a big part of my childhood and stuff. And it's

just, it's really heartwarming. Everybody is

so kind, so polite, just respectful. And it's

just a great, great feeling. I told my wife it's

like being Brad Pitt for a weekend. I'm sure

it's like what they go through every day of their

life. Well, for me, I'm super famous for an entire

weekend. So they're a lot of fun. Yeah, as I

said, I hadn't been to VodKon. I think the last

time I was there was 2004, which was the only

time I was there. So, yeah, I'm really looking

forward to it. And once again, if anyone's in

the area or if you're not in the area, fly out

there, and we're going to have a lot of fun.

It's going to be some fun. Yeah. I'm not going

to be able to make it this year. Normally I do.

It's a shame, too, because I decided not to go

before I found out you were going to be there.

That's like, oh, hell. That would have made the

deal for you. I know. What if I sent you an airplane

ticket? Hook me up. Well, that's the thing is

they don't tell you who's going to be there before

they – Well, you know what? I've got to tell

you. They don't make these deals until really

late, which surprises me. The deals aren't really

made until just shortly before the convention,

and I find that interesting because I think you'd

want to publicize who was going to be there,

but that's the way they do it. Yeah. Right. At

this point, we're about 20, 30 days away from

the convention. I mean, that's the thing. And

you just got announced like two weeks ago. Yeah,

I know. Well, they just put the deal in place

a couple of weeks ago. But, you know, we had

been talking to them for a while, but, you know,

it just took a long time to put together. Like

six months ago when the initial, you know, Raptors

tickets sold out, I was like, well, maybe I'll

just skip it this year. And, you know, I'm not

going to fight for it. Well, that's too bad.

You're going to miss me, and it's going to be

a devastating blow for you, I'm sure. Well, we

have you here, though, so that's the important

thing. That's true. You've got the vocal parts.

That's right. I'm not sure, because we're going

to kind of wrap this up, but... I have to bring

this up because I don't know when the next time

is I'll ever talk to you or see you again. I've

heard that you disliked the transition from Bumblebee

into Gold Bug. Now, myself as a fan, when that

happened in Rebirth, Bumblebee was injured. He

was essentially going to go offline. And when

they fixed him and brought him back and you said

the line of, I'm no longer just plain old Bumblebee,

I'm a gold bug, I absolutely love that line.

Well, you, my friend, are in the minority. Just

about everybody I've talked to has agreed with

me. I just felt like, why? And the answer is

obviously more toys. And I talk about this in

the book very briefly, too, that why in the world

would you take a popular character from a television

show that everybody knew and loved and in one

of the very last episodes completely change his

physicality? It doesn't make any sense. Except

it does when you realize that it's a toy company

that's producing the thing, and they're going

to sell some gold bugs now. So it bothered me

on just like an artistic level, I think it is.

And once again, I discuss this in the book. I

mean, I think I'm fairly honest about it, and

I don't think I'm bitter or anything like that.

It did bother me, though. It did bother me. The

same way the movie bothered me, the fact that

most of the regular cast got killed off. And

the bulk of the work was done by Leonard Nimoy

or Orson Welles or Eric Idle, who are certainly

great talents, but didn't the fans come to see

our show? You have no idea how many people cried.

That was a rhetorical question, guys. It was

rhetorical. You don't need to answer that question.

Well, Terry, I'd like to hear you answer the

question. I was crying, actually, yeah. You can't

just kill everybody else like that, you know?

Thank you for that. Yeah, yeah. Is there anywhere

online or anything where fans can interact with

you that you want to give out? Well, not necessarily

to interact with me. I'd like to let the fans

know where they can purchase the book. Okay,

sure. If you would allow me to do that. Yeah,

it's on Amazon .com. It's available. It's called

Bumblebee and Me, My Life as a G1 Transformer

by Dan Gilvis. And the cover is a caricature

of me riding a yellow Volkswagen done by a very

talented young lady who runs Retro Screamers'

website, Rosemary Ward. Many of you probably

know her. Oh, yes. Yeah, she's really, really,

what a sweet girl. I'm going to see her in Dallas.

She said, when I told her I was working on it,

she said, can I do anything for you? And I said,

well, I need a cover. And she said, let me work

out something. And she came up with a wonderful,

wonderful cover for the book. So anyway, the

book is Bumblebee and Me, Life as a G1 Transformer.

It's available on Amazon .com in paperback or

for your Kindle, or it's also available, as you

mentioned, as an audio book. So go there, buy

it, enjoy it, and I'll be with you. We'll have

to put a link on the website. Yes, oh yes, I've

already got that up there. Yeah, as I said, the

fans have really gone out of their way to tell

me how much they've enjoyed this, so it's really

been gratifying to me that everyone's enjoyed

it as much as they have. Before we let you go,

is there any upcoming things that you've got

going on that you would like to inform anyone

about? Well, the only thing... that I have in

stone right now is the Dallas appearance at BotCon.

We're working on a few other things for later

in the year and even next year, but I really

can't talk about them until they're set. So that's

really the only thing that's set in stone at

this point. I mean, I continue to work and I'm

doing, you know, I do commercial work and I do

a lot of other voiceover radio work and stuff

like that. just to keep my hand in, more or less.

And I'm also working on another novel. I should

mention that in addition to Bumblebee and Me,

the first book that I wrote was a novel called

Drowned in the Grenadine, and it's the story

of an actor, and it's fictional, but it's based

on a lot of the experiences that I've had out

here, and it's a pretty funny book, too. So I'm

working on another novel, and that's taking up

some time, so that'll probably be out sometime

next year. So there's stuff happening. Awesome.

Awesome. We would like to thank Mr. Gilvazan

for taking the time to chat with us in this special

TFG1 podcast interview. We will ask you to hold

the line, and we'll be back after this. Wow.

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Dan

the Man Gilvazan. That was awesome. That was

pretty exciting. I mean, it was... He's a voice

from my childhood, and it's always really cool

to hear them speak to you, even if they're calling

you by a name that is totally not your name.

Pecan Court Terry here. You should have used

your son's name, Aiden. That's your middle name.

It's not my middle name. Wasn't it your middle

name? I don't know. Oh, no, no. Oh, no, you're

first. I get it backwards. Your first name is

his middle name. There you go. All right. But

anyway, Dan Gilvezan. That was very awesome.

Then I could have played it back to my kid, and

it would have been like, who the hell is this

old guy talking to me? That's so funny. That

would have been smart. You should have said that.

Yeah, I should have. I didn't think of that.

But yes, Dan Gilvezan. It was awesome to talk

with him. Everyone needs to go get his book.

I recommend the audio book. just because it's

him reading it. I find I connect more like that

with an audiobook from someone like Dan Gilvezan

versus reading it on the page and just hearing

a voice in my head. Very, very awesome. So, yes.

That's going to do it for this first TFG1 voice

actor interview. We do have plans for other G1

voice actors to come on the show. Kind of a rebirth

for the TFG1 podcast if you... Shut up! Please

don't do that again. Hey, I liked it. It was

good. Anyways. We're going to have an hour -long

toy commercial where everyone's introduced really,

really quickly, and nothing really good happens,

and then they kill Bumblebee. Shut up. All right,

so I am TF2 and Mike, and you are? Pecan Court

Terry. No, I'm kidding. It's Pecan Court Michael.

Catch you again next time. Oh, God, it's like

Astrotrain just ran us over.