Interview with Larry Kenney on Thundercats, Silverhawks

Coming up today on tune cast Kevin and I TFG1

Mike have the awesome awesome opportunity to

interview Larry Kenny the voice of Lionel Bluegrass

Sonny the Cogglebird Count Chocula and Whole

other various things that he has done This is

gonna be so awesome to talk to him. This is gonna

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

we, 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 thing. Special guest. Oh, good.

Yeah, I like super awesome. I'm gonna add that

to my name, super awesome Larry Kenney. 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. 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 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 Cath Chocula for over 30

years now, both of those. So the radio for me

was kind of the lead into 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 there are outtakes.

Yeah from Thundercats and Silverhawks and I Think

almost every cartoon series we did karate cat.

Oh My gosh, we do a lot of them. So Too many

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 the 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's 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

the thunder 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, we got some great outtakes from

guys from the Thundercats. And that's the only

people that ever hear it. So at first I thought,

oh, this could be bad news. You know, 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. uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... I think all the

advertising agencies, and I've been doing this

for 45 years now, and they all know that I can

do a wide variety of things, and I've been given

the opportunity to do a wide variety of things.

There's still lots of things that are on TV and

radio that you probably hear all the time that

you don't know it's me, which is fine, you know.

The Steedle commercials, for example, and the

guy who says, feel the rainbow, take the rainbow.

That's me. Oh, oh wow. That's awesome. The same

voice I used on the show for VH1 for best week

ever. It's the best. I didn't know that one,

I didn't know the Skittles though. Yeah, yeah.

So, like I said, not that I've guessed, 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 an

eye. Those were the cast of Thundercats. We also

did, most of us did Silverhawks, and Tiger Sharks,

Big Cat, Street Frogs, and then we did a whole

bunch of Christmas, Rankin -Bass Christmas shows.

I can't really point to one moment that was so

funny. Every time we worked, the people were

so funny and we had such a great time and they

were such nice, good people. I miss being around

those people all the time. That's all I can say.

I just cherish that time together. We worked

together. It took us three years to record Thundercats.

Then we worked a couple of years on Silverhawks,

so we worked together 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, 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. It was 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. Why

most shows, even primetime sitcoms, they end

at some point because you run out of ideas. 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

and 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. I

never really thought about that. 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 at

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, playing

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, let's see

now, and then in Tiger Sharks I was Dolph and

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

about it. You guys ask interesting questions.

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

did like, quote, character. I really changed

my voice a lot on those shows. When I did Mutants,

you know, or a Villain, like I was Jack -O -Man

in Rundercats, and he was something like, we

must get them on the gadget. Those are fun to

do, because you got to be like Snyder the Flash.

I always like 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 8 or 10

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

your generation probably know him most as the

voice of Darth Vader. Darth Vader and Sasa from

The Lion King. Yes, exactly. So many, so many

things. So it's a great pleasure for me to work

with James Earl Jones in the medium. Just the

nicest guy in the world. Well, just so many people.

I got to meet, I didn't get to work with yet,

but we're planning on it, with Luke Skywalker.

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

Yeah, of course, Mark Hamill. Actually, he came

up to my table at a Comic Con in Florida and

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

businesses. Every once in a while, you guys get

to meet people that you grew up with. I grew

up listening to them. 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. There's always people you meet

that 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's 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

it in syndication is 130. I don't know how that

was arrived at. I think it comes to three full

seasons or something like that. not worth their

while to try to syndicate something with less

than that 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 decided to end it 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. 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 watching

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

remember what your character sounded like? No.

Or just like if you record something 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... I knew what

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

business would tell you the same thing. Most

actors I've seen wouldn't 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 those 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, first of all, when we were

deciding what kind of voice to do for him, the

word, the very name, jackal man, you know, jackal

is like an evil, you know, fox -like, fox or

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 talks like this, you know. So that was the

first time. I thought, let's bring some Ivy back.

But I gave him a kind of an animal growl, you

know. We must get the fun to catch. Yeah, let's

do it. And that was always fun. It's always fun

to play villains. And it's fun to watch Earl

Hammond do mum -rah. We all wish we were mum

-rah for a while until we saw how much work it

was. How easy or hard was it for you to keep

track of which voice with which character every

voice actor has a method? What was yours? Yeah,

you're right. Everybody does 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 and just,

you know, if Lionel was talking to Jack -o -Man,

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

it probably did, but I preferred to just do it

like, Jack -o -Man, you will not stop us. Oh,

yes we will. I'm telling you, you can't. I always

prefer to do it back and forth. Some of the actors

prefer to do all of one character's lines first

and then all of the other character's 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. Probably

the favorite thing of my career for me is working

with that group of people that I work with. Not

just the actors that I mentioned before, Peter

and Lynn and the two O's and Bob and Jerry Ann,

but Lee Donaker who is 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, wonderful 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. They already have. 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 had to take. Say this is the top one.

So yeah, Thundercats. I'll go ahead and say that.

It's not a guess. But I think because of Wyatt,

I'll use it best. 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.

Earl McFadden. Bob 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. Lynn Lipton 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 Ann Raphael

that number of times. So, all those guys I see

quite a bit. When I actually, because I have

all, Thundercats has four DVD sets for both of

the seasons. 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 Panther, I was watching

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

And I listened and I listened and I'm like, oh

wow, that's Grandpa Cosby. And 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, it's Earl Hyman. He played Bill

Cosby's father on the Cosby show and he played

Panthro. 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. a talk 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 ten minutes in

New York and 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 and my son

said, oh dad you've got to do it because he was

about 18 at the time. In fact I got him on this.

He's on there too. He was one of the callers,

I think. Yeah, according to our information that

you have, that our information that we have on

you, you were the voice, the announcer for the

Beat 102 .7. That must be it, yeah. But someone

asked me, what, Cocoa Plus and Count Chocula?

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

been doing those for over 30 years, you know,

so. See, I never knew, honestly, I never knew

when I was a kid, I never knew that that was

you doing Sonny and Count Chocula. I didn't know

that until I started doing research on you for

this. Yeah, I took over from, I forget which

year I was doing it, but 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 been

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, fantastic.

Don't eat that crap, it'll kill you. No, they're

not open yet. Keep it that way. What was it like

reprising Lionel in the Family Guy episode? That

was cool. The only bad part about it was one

of the main reasons I did it. agree to do it

was that I was hoping I'd get to work with Seth

McFarlane that I consider a genius. And other

people on that show, I think it's a genius show.

However, I have to admit to you that when I first

got the call from my agent, I said, once I heard

of the 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 YNO 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. 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, 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? I never make it short. I said,

well, all right, send me the script. And then

I will see. I take one look at the script and

I say, no way. Oh my goodness. By the way, my

son talked me into doing it. He said, Dad, you

got to remember. First of all, this show is not

for little kids. It's not intended for little,

eight 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, put 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. Leather Cats went on the air in 85, although

we started recording in 83. So maybe it was about

85 or 86. When I knew that Leather Cats... It

had become a huge hit because I took my daughter,

Carrie, who was only 14 or 15 then. We went to

Toys R Us for some reason and we get down to

three aisles, two sided aisles, of nothing but

thundercats. Wow. Collectibles and material.

Well, what a memorabilia. Action toys and things.

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 a bad

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

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

the ward for the thundercats. Oh! And they looked

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

we're walking away, I heard one of the kids say

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

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

he's got a little fart on me. I knew he'd crap

his pants. 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. 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. I know that I was on

it because I have a list here in case people

ask me questions like that. So I go, yeah, I

was on that. I remember it's been 45 years of

recording things and sometimes I forget what

you were on. I do keep a list because sometimes

somebody will call and say, weren't you on...

And I'll say, I think so. And man, I wasn't.

And then I get people saying, well, he's saying

he was on shows he was never on. What a phony.

The bloopers I was on. But I don't remember recording

it. I think, yes, I do. I went to ESPN, I believe,

to do that, up in Bristol, Connecticut, where

their headquarters are. And they were very nice

to me. And I remember going up there and had

very nice studios. 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 this 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. 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

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 Reagan best

decided to come to New York for undercats and

the other two. But 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 here. So to answer your question,

I didn't retire from it. I just haven't been

asked to do it anymore, 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 as a side note

because I think we need to bring it up you are

you I mean we kind of talked about your radio

career Can you talk to us about being on the

I miss in the morning show and you're oh, yeah

sure I was on I miss a show for 35 years from

73 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 rediscovered the joy of sleeping past

4 a .m. And I said, again, I just turned 60 years

old. I got two grandsons. And I'll tell you what,

I'm not going to do that show anymore. And 35

years is a good run, but I'm just tired of getting

up at 4 o 'clock in the morning and driving from

Connecticut to New Jersey to do that show. But

I enjoyed it and it's a good memory from there.

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

to interrupt you. Well, it's okay. I got a couple

of you off in a couple of 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 9 -1 -1, which is on Comedy Central.

She and Danny DeVito are the co -executive producers

of it. And she played Deputy Trudy Weigel, the

crazy one. And they also did a movie, Reno 9

-1 -1 Miami, a few years ago, which did very

well. And before that, she was on Leave of 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 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

has a nine -month -old grandson. She lived near

us here in Connecticut. She's an accomplished

rider who rides horses and trains horses. And

my son Tanner is 21, and he is finishing up college

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

Excellent. That's the family. And then I love

my wife, Carol, whom I refer to as Mrs. Kenny

DeJure, just to keep her on my 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. Good, thank you. Me

too. I could use the bread one more year of college.

Thanks, 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 Silverhawks, Sonny the Coalbird,

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 chicken pot pod comm 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... I mean, 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 sunny, the

cocoa bird thing, that was a, a, a huge shock

to me to, um, 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 tune cast special interview.

Hope everybody really enjoys this interview And

we'll see you next time on tune cast. Adios.

Sword of Omens, give me sight beyond sight. I

see a new episode of tune cast coming this week