Peter Cullen Retrospective

Hello and welcome to All Things Transformers.

things transformers i'm your host steve megatron

and joining me on this retrospective episode

is tfg1 mike oh boy folks it's been a friggin

week it's been wow we here at the gcrn at least

i have over our Network inception for the last

17 years. Every once in a while, we will talk

about when celebrities pass away. Part of our

year end year in review episodes that we do,

we get a list of the celebrities that have passed

away from that year. And we will. bundle that

together and talk about each one of them in that

year end episode kind of thing. Sometimes we

will do episode tributes like this one. And for

me, and I've talked about this expressing grief

about celebrities and things like that. For me,

it's about what that particular celebrity has

put out into the world. whether it's music or

film or television show or cartoon or video game

or whatever it is. However, they've impacted

me depending on that level of impact is how emotional

I get at hearing the news that they have left

this mortal coil. And the news that we got. August,

late in the evening, August 26th, but more so

the morning of August 27th, 2026. Peter Cullen,

the voice of Optimus Prime, the voice of Eeyore,

the voice of the narrator on Voltron, the original

Voltron animated series from 1984. He was the

voice of the Knight Automated Roving Robot for

one episode in Knight Rider, the original Knight

Rider series in 1982. He would then come back

to reprise Carr in the 2008 reboot series, continuation

series. Actually, the interesting thing about

that is Carr in that series. actually was the

Knight automated roving robot. Because in that

series, in the NBC 2008 series, both kit and

car had transformation capabilities. So car actually

transformed into a robot. And I'm sure I've probably

sent Steve a clip and I'm sure. Because now I'm

going to make him do it. Insert that clip right

here. And Peter Cullen, I mean, Optimus Prime.

I always make the joke because I'm a Rodimus

Prime fan. I was, oh, Optimus. All he ever did

was play basketball or throw snowballs or. Blah,

blah, blah. Sherman, damn this or blah, blah,

blah. Energy disc that whatever. But when it

comes right down to it, Peter Cullen. Best robot

dad ever. If you didn't. And I, my dad was around.

I didn't, I haven't lost. My dad is still here

to this day. My dad, he was an awesome, hardworking

father. Did everything he possibly could. Does

everything he possibly can. I'm not sitting here.

I would never, ever do this. I'm not sitting

here disparaging my father. I'm just saying Peter

Cullen and the voice of Optimus Prime, the voice

that came out of that man's mouth, inspired and

attached to so many millions of people that might

not have had a father figure in their life. He

changed people's lives with. The voice that came

out of his mouth as Optimus Prime. And for me,

as I went through the grieving stages after the

news broke, I went through two stages. every

clip and every scroll reel i went through whether

it was people now i did i did two things so i

was either doom scrolling facebook reels or instagram

reels and seeing creators and people i'd never

knew talk about him or i was going to the creators

and people i did know and hearing them tell stories

about him now when i was doing the instagram

scrolling I had the feeling of, oh, my God, you

know, it's usually people like replaying classic

clips of G1 or more recently. And I say more

recently, even though it's been almost 20 next

year is the 20th anniversary of the 2007 film.

How the hell did that happen? I don't even know.

But it's one of those things where. Most of the

stuff on Instagram is everybody like the 20th

anniversary or almost the 20th anniversary. They're

all doing movie clips. Nobody's really doing

generation one clips unless they're somebody

our age in forties or, you know, late thirties,

early forties is almost 50, whatever kind of

thing. And I got to the point where unless it

was a creator, I knew like, uh, Proto Man Daniel

or the guys over at Transmissions Podcast or

Rodimus Primal or Patriot Prime or Mike Seibert

from Mike Seibert Radio Podcast or whomever it

is. All the strangers that I watched, I'm just

like, OK, I am so like I'm kind of over the fact

that he passed away. So, again, it was two very

different things for me when I was consuming

the content of of. Dealing with, oh, my God,

we no longer have Peter Cullen, this amazing

man who did everything he possibly could for

everyone that he came into contact with. And

just wow. And me, all as I did was it's funny

because I did two things. I went through and

I watched maybe the first, I watched the first

part of more than meets the eye and I watched

like half of the second part of it. And then

I went through all my 17 years of podcast audio

clips that I, like I showed somebody, I pulled

up my podcast audio file folder. I forget who

it was that I showed, but I showed them that

I took a screenshot and showed them that folder.

I said, this is just the Transformers audio I

have out of the 17 years. I took 21 clips of

Optimus Prime from the Generation 1 cartoon.

I took those 21 clips and I put them all together

in a multi -track file thing. Ends up being like

a three minute long montage. of various things

that optimus prime said in the cartoon series

along with uh you know one shall stand one shall

fall uh i you know i'll rip you into with my

bare hands and blah blah blah all the stuff from

the movie i think there's one line and i'll have

to go back and get it but i'll have to i'll have

to figure out what it is but There's one, that

cartoon, Transformers Generation 1, everyone

kind of like, oh, it's just a toy. It's just

a toy commercial. It's just this. Hell no. I'm

being very cautious with my words here, folks,

because there was a point where I got so mad

at something the other day. where I was ready

to just like literally somebody on their podcast,

they would just, you know how the beep goes.

Like every time you say an F bomb, beep, beep,

beep, my beeps were going to be literally, I

was like, I was holding my, my anger in so much

from something, but, uh, there, there's a lot

like, I, There's a line in one of the episodes.

I got it. It's one of the clips where he said

Peter Cullen is Optimus Prime says something

about we don't. It's something very inspirational.

And I can't believe I'm frigging blanking on

it now. I wish I had it written down somewhere.

But I had never read like I've watched Generation

One so many times. I've watched those 98 episodes

so many times. I've never watched it looking

for the subtlety in the script of some of those

episodes. I've watched it for the funny bits.

I've watched it for the stupid bits. I've watched

it to analyze it, but I've never watched it to

look for specifically Optimus Prime's wisdom

of the ages. because it's not lost it's in there

and it's awesome and i don't know i i i didn't

even really add you're gonna get to tell your

story obviously but i didn't even ask you the

the like the 27th like how you found out and

whatever else and i know you're gonna tell us

here in a second but like man that whole weekend

was like oh, Peter Cullen is no longer here.

What are we going to do? And I know the man was

85. I don't care. And I don't say that I don't

care to be it as a negative way. But this was

our guy. This was the man that inspired many

with one character. And yes, he's played other

characters, but... Not many people get to affect

the entire world for 42 years with one voice.

So yeah, that's, that's where that, that, that,

yeah, I don't know anymore. Uh, you know, right

now I'm. I mean, other than the fact that we're

talking about it now, generally, the last couple

of days, I've been okay. Because I've been listening

to everybody else. I've been watching everybody

else and hearing their stories. And I told, you

know, I got together with Mike Seibert and Anthony

Bercali. Anthony Bercali does TFU. Transformers

University, TFU .info. And we did an episode

of Mike's show. So this is like my second therapy

session to talk about this. Because podcasting

is therapy, folks. But what's your Peter Cullen

grief story, sir? So when I heard about it, I

was at work. And my coworker. leans over to me

and he goes hey dude Optimus Prime died and I

was like what I was like really shocked to hear

it which I was like okay like we've lost you

know because I paid attention to like the you

know there was the Hayden Panettiere that had

passed away. Then there was Dolly Parton. Then

there was Tim Curry. And I was like, these people

have been, you know, in some form of entertainment,

like our entire time growing up. Yep. And then,

and then we get to, we get to, you know, this

news. And I was like, What the heck? It was just,

yeah, I was quite surprised to be honest. And

I still don't know what to think about it. I

mean, I'm glad that he lived a nice long life.

However, you know, it still sucks. I don't know.

It's, it's just, yeah. And the funny thing for

me was how I found out it wasn't that I was surfing

the web. It wasn't that I was on Twitter or Facebook

or Instagram. I mean, I was on like everything

I've already said. I did all that. But how I

initially first found out I was on discord talking

to chaos. We were typing away at each other and

dragon Lord Kai from Kai dragon media messages

me on discord. Optimus Prime has died. And I

just looked at his message and I'm like, bullshit.

I didn't type that back to him. I didn't type

anything to him. I immediately went to TFW2005

.com to check and see. And then I went to Tformers

and then I went to AllSpark and then I went to

every Transformers website. and tfw 2005 was

grayed out and i'm like oh oh oh shnikes oh no

and then i went back to kai and i'm like oh shit

what are we gonna do now what but yeah and it

was kind of and i was seeing like the stuff going

around the rounds, you know, all over the internet,

everybody was like, Oh crap, man. And then quotes

of Peter Cullen were coming up everywhere. And

I was, I was, I was happy to see that. Yeah.

And then, you know, there were individuals that

were like, you know, this new, it's like a truck,

uh, artwork is pretty tasteless now. Yeah. And

I was looking at them and I was going, you know,

you could look at it that way. Mm hmm. Or you

could flip it. Yeah, that's the way it said.

Yeah, I was like, you could look at as, you know,

the joke that it was intended as. Yep. Or you

could look at it from the other perspective.

It hits like a truck because we lost Optimus

Prime. Yeah, that's like we lost Peter Cullen.

And so it still hits like a truck is like, yes,

we lost Optimus Prime, you know, 40 years ago.

But we've just lost the man himself who voiced

it. And I don't know if it's... It hits at the

right time for the hits like a truck. I did like

the fact that with all of that, they changed

directions with the artwork from that to something

brighter. you know, on Optimus Prime to honor

the man who played him. And I feel like I feel

like Prime and Peter Cullen, although I didn't

meet the man, seemed very genuine from everything

I saw. It seemed very personable, very down to

earth, loved his fans and was just grateful for

where he'd landed having played Prime and G1.

as well as the live -action films, and then Transformers

Prime, and then the Machinima series for a short

stint. Rescue Bots. Yeah, and he was Optimus

Prime. And I'm grateful that I was able to meet

Frank Walker years ago at BotCon. And I'm glad

that he's still around too, but it's going to

be just as painful watching him go. just because

he's also unseen voices on countless other animated

series. Yeah, Frank is everything. Frank is not

just Megatron. Frank is Scooby -Doo. Frank is

this. Frank is that. Yeah, Frank is everything.

Yeah, so it's going to be rough when that day

comes. And we're hitting, and it's really weird,

too, because we're hitting this age where we're

the old people. Yep. And... we still think of

ourselves of like, oh, 20 years ago, it was the

80s. It's like, no. No, 20 years ago was 2007.

40 years ago was the 80s. So it's really weird,

especially for me, because I'm sitting here going,

I'm 40. The movie's 40. You know, in a few more

years, the 80s are gone. Yep. long gone like

it's it's going to be over 45 years you know

and it's so it's i'm on the one hand i'm i'm

very thankful for the you know the life and all

the people that have gotten to be in it uh you

know through all of these different series that

got me through uh all of the the the discomfort

of my childhood my parents divorced the you know

the crap of just growing up and, you know, prime

was a staple primal was a staple, you know, they

both seemed like, you know, the surrogate parent,

you know, I looked at captain Kirk and captain

Picard the same way. So, I mean, these, these

legends that have, you know, more or less raised

us through these animated series and these television

series are, are great and they'll be missed.

And as we get older, we're going to see more

of. Our heroes from, you know, the 80s, 90s and

early 2000s pass away and it's going to get much

more difficult to watch the things. I mean, I

even going back and watching Robin Williams films,

I've had the same thought of, you know, man,

this guy got taken way too soon. And. I know

Colin was 85, but. Just. The amount of stuff

that I didn't realize he was in. Yeah. I mean,

I listened to, you know, I watched E1. He did

the Voltron, Defenders of the Universe, you know.

Plus he was two different voices in that show.

He was the voice of Coran, the old guy that helped

the princess and the pilots, and he was the voice

of something else as well in the show. He was

in GI Joe is, you know, wild bill among others.

Yeah. He, I mean, he's been in all kinds of stuff

that you just don't realize he was your, yeah.

He was the, or if you grew up with Winnie the

Pooh, I mean, you got your, he also was the voice

of tsunami. Yeah. The announcer when we didn't

have Steve bloom doing the, you know, the Tom

bits or the, it's like when you were doing the

promos in between, he was Peter Allen. and oh

my god i've i've re -watched that batman beyond

promo like seven times well and he did that for

like yeah dragon ball z he did that for beast

wars when it was on on toonami he did it you

know so i've got all these clips of him over

the years of of doing these things and i'm just

like man that's awesome yeah yeah he was such

a great Great voice actor. Such a great actor

in general. Just simply amazing. Just wow. And

he did the video games. He did Transformer video

games. He did War for Cybertron, Fall of Cybertron,

and Devastation. He was in the Robots in Disguise

series. He was in Titans Return and Power of

the Primes. He was in Rise of the Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles. Yep. He did Prime's voice in Fortnite.

Yep. He was in Invincible. He was in just the

amount of stuff. It's just mind boggling. He

also was the voice of the Predator. Yep. Those

Predator clicks. I remember watching that TFCon

video that they took when they first. Oh, my

God. That 2015. Yeah. But I think one of the

best things that I ever saw was when Frank Welker

gave him that Lifetime Achievement Award. Holy

crap. That was so good. I mean, he was Monterey

Jack in Chippendale. Yep. The dude's been...

He's literally been a legend in everything that

we've seen over the years. And yeah, he'll 100

% be missed. Yep. He just absolutely will be.

You know, like, it just... And it's just one

of those things where you think of... When I

think of... Optimus Prime, the first thing I

think of is that voice and him and what he did.

We've said this for the last... Was it September

9th, 2008? No, it was August 9th, 2008 that you

started. Obviously, I wasn't there with you August

9th, 2008, but... When you started all things

Transformers, we've said this from the beginning,

or at least since I've been on here. Oh, to be

a fly on the wall of a Transformers, Sunbow Productions,

Transformers Generation One voice session. Look

at everybody we no longer have. Peter Cullen,

Scatman Crothers, the voice director, Wally Burr.

Wally Burr passed away a number of years ago.

Lady Wreck mentioned that to me yesterday. I

remember seeing him at TFCon in 2012. Yeah. Chris

Lotta is no longer with us. Jack Angel, voice

of Astrotrain, is no longer with us. There's

so many people that are no longer with us. Peter

Cullen, sadly, now is one of them. But you have

all these amazing characters and voices and everything

else up there doing their own voice session and

doing whatever they're doing up there. And all

that. And it just is just crazy. But man. Just

the works that he has done. I just absolutely.

He was just amazing. Just an amazing person.

And you look at the filmography. Yes, he's done

other things besides Transformers, but this man

built a career. Even if it took years, like from

1984, because I remember a clip of him where

he said, oh, I hadn't been on it in a while.

It's been years or whatever. And it kind of was,

but I mean, I don't find a besides the film.

yeah it kind of was so yeah i guess the film

was whatever but still like it just it's just

one of those things where you anytime he would

show up as optimus prime is just amazing and

he was an amazing man and uh turns out according

to I'm trying to get the source on this to make

sure the source is right. At least until this

link pops up, Wikipedia says he died of cardiac

arrest. Who said that? Wikipedia. About Colin?

Yes. There was something that came out. I just

saw it. that his agent said he died of natural

causes in his sleep. So. Okay. Well, we need

to update that then. But, but yeah, the man will

be missed and it's going to be so weird in the

Transformers fandom. Because I think I said this

to you off air. I don't think Hemsworth is going

to be a good voice to pick up the mantle. He

was a fine Orion Pax for that character, I guess,

for me. I don't see Chris Hemsworth as the next

Optimus Prime, in my personal opinion. Yeah,

I mean, I can kind of see that. I don't know

who they're going to get. I don't know what they're

going to do. I don't know how much of a rush

they're in to do anything, honestly, right now.

I will say, since we are talking about this,

I guess I did get it from Dan Gilvezan himself

because he published it on his Instagram and

Facebook. But TFW does have an article about

unpublished interview with Peter Cullen from

2017 available online. I read that interview.

Oh, it's so good. I think Dan was originally

going to put this in his book, but I'll have

to send that to you. It was such a good read.

Absolutely amazing read. But yeah, Peter Cullen.

Just he will be missed. I agree. The apology

tour is still going on. As you said earlier.

It is a great piece of marketing. It just hits

a little different now since Peter has passed

away. But we do have a actual reveal of what

is after the movie. And no, it is not just a

Robosen reveal of whatever the next Robosen.

automatic robot toy is the transformers the movie

40th anniversary reveals peter cullen's final

optimus prime performance so this is kind of

like i'm gonna go out by being batman that's

the first thing i thought of was the the jlu

or the crisis on whatever blah blah blah So,

courtesy of Fathom and Hasbro, we have new information

about the Transformers the movie 40th anniversary,

revealing Peter Cullen's final Optimus Prime

performance. Following the credits of Transformers

the movie, audiences will get an exclusive look

at Optimus Prime Awakening, a brand new 12 -minute...

animated short that expands the story and gives

the iconic Autobot leader one final adventure.

This says, the short isn't simply being presented

as a traditional post -credit scene either. Optimus

Prime Awakening is described as a fully realized

12 -minute cinematic event created as a love

letter to the Transformers community and to Coen.

The project also reunites Cullen with another

legendary voice actor from the franchise. Frank

Welker returns as Megatron and Soundwave, giving

the short one final story featuring two of the

most important characters in Transformers history.

To our surprise, we finally have Frank Welker's

statement about working with Cullen one final

time. Optimus Prime and Megatron were made for

each other. After all, one needs the... Perfect

hero against the epitome of evil to create great

drama. Peter's portrayal of Prime was born of

his own personal beliefs, honesty, loyalty, and

always insisting on doing the right thing. This

made it easy to be friends. Returning as Megatron

and Soundwave for one final story opposite Peter's

Optimus and Optimus Prime awakening was a real

gift. I will miss my friend, but that voice and

his heart. and values will always be part of

Optimus Prime. This is sure a great surprise

for all fans. The upcoming re -screening of the

classic G1 Transformers movie will feel so different

now till all are one. Let's see what else it

says. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Transformers,

the movie has Rojas crew. As a special animated

short, as part of its broader... By the late

Peter Cullen, Frank Welker. Animated short delivers

emotional storytelling. Peter shared returning

for Optimus Prime Awakening meant a great deal

to him as he felt that the project was a homecoming

to the character he had shaped for more than

four decades. Peter's performance reveals a deeper

vulnerability while retaining the unmistakable

strength and authenticity that made his portrayal

iconic. okay so that's already yeah so that's

that's what's gonna be at the end of the movie

so that's what all that was about the um the

special performance or the special this or the

this this this this this so that's what all that

was so that's what's at the end of the movie

here's i'm assuming this is what's going to happen

uh is that going to be at The end of the movie

on the physical media releases. That's my question.

I don't know if it will or not, but I'm assuming

so because they haven't released any information.

Yeah, because I did go to... Why does Amazon

always change their web color thing? Because

I did go to Amazon. Hopefully this will be the

last time I have to order a Transformers the

movie physical media copy 40th anniversary. I

did preorder it. It is arriving November 20th.

According to Amazon, it does say on it that the

art is not final. So it does have the. So let's

see on Discord so you can see it. It has the

one that we were trying to figure out where the

art came from thing. If Discord will paste it.

Come on, Discord. Really? Really, Discord? There

we go. So it has that. But it does say art is

not final. So I don't know what they're going

to do. When I was taught when Mike Seibert and

I were talking about this, honestly, at this

point, you already leaned into 40 years later,

still hits like a truck, the Marcelo Matera art.

Just leave it at this point. I know it kind of

feels yucky to still have that. But honestly,

it's kind of an homage, even though Peter is

no longer with us. But I'm trying to see. It

does not directly say on Amazon what the features

are, but I don't know. But yeah, that's coming

out in November. So yeah, Transformers the movie,

40th anniversary, 4K. It's on DVD. It's everywhere.

Optimus Prime, Peter Cullen. I hope you are resting

in peace, sir, because we sure do miss you. Yeah,

it's. Yeah. It sucks. It sucks. Yeah, I'm I'm

looking forward to the movie and then seeing

the the new 12 minute clip. Yep. It'd be nice

if Hasbro or Hasbro Pulse or whatever would just

put the 12 minute clip on their YouTube channel.

And maybe they will. Maybe. Maybe they will.

You never know. We'll see. You never know. Anyways,

I think that's I think that's everything, right?

Yeah, I think that's everything for now. I don't

think there's anything else like majorly going

on. Of course, I say that now. And of course,

as soon as we hit stop, some sort of major news

is going to. Oh, my God, they did this or oh,

my God, they did that or oh, my God. You know,

that's what's going to happen as soon as it always

happens that way. I think that about rounds this

episode out. Let us know on the comment section

what you guys think. Also, let us know what your

memories are or what your connection is to Peter

Cullen if you got a chance to meet the man or

how you feel about all that stuff. 100%. Yep.

So until next time, transform and transcend.

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