Synopsis - Larry started out as a radio disc jockey before his work on Thundercats and Silverhawks. It was very cool but in a way scary to be talking to such a legend! Mr Kenney was great to talk to, and I found him to be very open about his work and his experiences behind them. Larry was the voice of Lion-o and Jackalman from the cartoon Thundercats, he then went on to do Silverhawks as Lieutenant Bluegrass and Pokerface. Please read the following which I transcribed from my conversation with Larry.

Larry Kenney – Hey Rob!

Rob – Hey!

Larry Kenney – How you doing buddy?

Rob – I’m alright how are you?

Larry Kenney – I’m great I’m going to ask you to hold on one second while I go to the office.

Rob – Yeah sure.

Larry Kenney – Ok, Pal. Hang on...Hey Rob!

Rob – Hey!

Larry Kenney – Pal

Rob – You alright?

Larry Kenney – Huh?

Rob – How you doing you alright?

Larry Kenney – I’m great and you?

Rob – Yeah I’m fine Larry, sorry about the delay

Larry Kenney – No problem, I had some things to do anyways its turned out well. Good to finally talk to you.

Rob – Yeah I’m really kind of…you sound exactly like him, really kind of taken back by that.

Larry Kenney – Listen can you hear me alright?

Rob – Yeah I can hear you find Larry.

Larry Kenney – I’m on a speaker phone because I’ve got some things to do on the computer which, are just automatic, I mean its not going to take my attention away, but as long as you can hear me that’s fine.

Rob – You sure Larry, I can always call you back?

Larry Kenney – No, no, listen I’m perfectly fine, I’ve got the phone set up right near me. So are you in London or where?

Rob – I’m near London.

Larry Kenney – Yeah.

Rob - I am near London. Alright first of all I’ll tell you, I’m actually recording this conversation, for dictation purposes.

Larry Kenney – Ok.

Rob – Alright, but if you want, I can always put it online?

Larry Kenney - If that’s what you normally do.

Rob – Yeah yeah if you are up for that.

Larry Kenney – That’s what I think Matt put mine, put it online, sure that’s fine.

Rob – Shall I start firing away then?

Larry Kenney – Of course you can.

Rob – Alright then, What inspired you to become an actor? A voice actor?

Larry Kenney – Well I started in radio, professionally when I was 15, and that kind of just led naturally, because when you start out in radio at least in this country, a small station where I was Perot, Illinois. It’s a town in a middle of a country.

Rob – Yeah you were a disc jockey right?

Larry Kenney – That’s right.

Rob – Yeah how did you get that job then?

Larry Kenney – Well…actually we had a radio class at my high school, which was very unusual back then, we are talking 1963. 40 years ago and so I took this radio class, and I liked it I did well and at the end of the class. Somebody from the radio station came to school and said we need somebody to do this public service show, a non commercial show, for one hour on Saturdays and my teacher recommended me, so I went and auditioned got the job, I guess it was one hour, and after several months that lead to doing fill ins for guys when they were on vacation or had a day off and then after a year of that they offered me a show during the summer, my own show and then I started full time there. Anyway when you work in a small station like that a part of your chores are once you get off the air or once you go on the air you had to go into the productions studio and they’ll have a stack of commercials that will need to be recorded, and are played only in that station. Its part of…you get paid extra you know.

Rob – Yeah so I mean you learned your talent via practice right?

Larry Kenney – Under fire that’s right and it turned out to be a wonderful experience for me, because from doing that as I moved up to bigger cities, when I got to Cleveland, Ohio for example there was a large enough market and, there was a union there. American Federation of Television and Radio artists, and they required that if advertising agency hired somebody to do commercial they would have to get paid extra for it, so I did that then in Cleveland and then Chicago and by the time I got to New York, I was doing so many commercials that I decided I didn’t really need radio anymore. It was more worth my while not doing radio full time, then to devote all my time and energies to doing the commercials.

Rob – So what did you want to do before you decided to take your careah up in voice acting?

Larry Kenney – Well to tell you the truth, well actually Rob, I was a…I wanted to be and already was at that time when I was 14 a newspaper sports reporter.

Rob - Oh yeah?

Larry Kenney – I had been doing that for a year, I would go to high school, basketball games, football games take a camera with me and I would watch the game and take pictures and then after the game go back to the newspaper, write a story, with my film and then my story would be in the paper the next day. I really enjoyed that and if the radio thing had not come along I’m sure that’s what I would have been doing.

Rob – That’s quite good. One of your first radio spots, was “Imus in the morning”? Right, “Imus in the morning”?

Larry Kenney – It wasn’t one of my first.

Rob – It was not one of your first?

Larry Kenney – I had been in radio for…

Rob – Oh yeah yeah yeah, but that was of your first actual, major radio station spots right where you were given… you started doing voice impressions right there?

Larry Kenney – Right yeah, but I had been in radio for ten years and by that time in fact I was already a disc jockey, had my own disc jockey show in New York.

Rob – Right right yeah.

Larry Kenney – I’m sorry in Chicago, I was in Chicago and I was doing quite well on my own and Don Imus called me one day he had heard me and said I was doing voices and impressions on my own show he called me from New York and asked me if I would like to do, not come to New York but if I would like to record things on the telephone with him during the morning.

Rob – So on the show you did impressions, of political figures, famous people right.

Larry Kenney – Right.

Rob – A few of them I have here are Andy Rooney, Ross Perrot, General Paden, Elvis Pressley and Richard Nixon.

Larry Kenney – Right.

Rob – And they are only a few of the characters you voiced.

Larry Kenney – I’m sorry?

Rob – They are only a few of the characters you voiced? You voiced others right?

Larry Kenney – Oh yes, yes, yes on the Imus show I do many many others I do J F Kennedy.

Rob – You were initially hired for your impressions.

Larry Kenney – By Imus, yeah but initially in radio I was hired as a disc jockey.

Rob – Oh right ok. What other impressions could you do?

Larry Kenney – Oh gosh I don’t know how many exactly I do, but I would say probably gee, you know I don’t even have a number you would think I would probably 40 or 50. I do Jack Nicklson, I do Elvis, I do , I’m trying to think who you guys would be familiar with over there, I do a lot of Americans of course. You may not be familiar with.

Rob – We get a lot of American t.v here as well, you know.

Larry Kenney – Yeah, Paul Hardy, Walter Kronkite, Andy Rooney, are you familiar with Andy Rooney?

Rob – Yeah, I’ve heard of Andy Rooney.

Larry Kenney – He is on a show here called 60 minutes. I do him, who else do I do? (laughs) It’s hard for me to guess. You know its funny I don’t know…people have asked me how many voices do you…I’ve never counted them you know. Occasionally we will need to do a new one…you know somebody will be in the news and Imus would say do you do him and I’ll work on it and then hopefully I can get it…do it well enough so that we can use it.

Rob – So what did you think of the show, I mean do you feel it was right for you?

Larry Kenney – The Imus show?

Rob – Yeah

Larry Kenney – Oh yeah, yeah yeah I had been listening Don and I had worked in Cleveland at the same time; we were in different radio stations. I was doing an afternoon show at one station in Cleveland he was doing a morning show on another station so I had heard him, I had never met him and he left and went on to New York, I left and went onto Cleveland, and so when he called me from New York I was certainly aware of his show, what kind of things he did and I always admired his work, I was ecstatic he had asked me to work him.

Rob – What do you think of today’s radio and how has it changed?

Larry Kenney – Well I don’t care very much for today’s radio.

Rob – No?

Larry Kenney - No I don’t I apposed to twenty , twenty five years ago for example in New York, twenty, twenty-five years ago we had a pleasure, all through the day we had some wonderful, creative people doing incredible things, Bob and Ray, I don’t know if you are familiar of them. Gene Cleveland, people doing very creative funny things, on the radio. Today in America, pretty much what we have the successful people on air are either…well the big thing in America now are the syndicated political talk shows, mostly Conservative, I’m sure you have heard of rush Limboth. People like them. So almost any AM radio station you turn on in America you are going to…at least part of the day you are going to hear these talk shows, and then the other very popular thing, that actually kind of evolved from Imus. Imus was the first guy thirty or something years ago that as a disc jockey radio personality who…he was what they originally labeled, the original “dock jock”, they call him he did outlandish things that nobody had ever done on the radio.

Rob – What kind of stuff? What?

Larry Kenney – Oh things of a sexual…I mean nothing dirty or…

Rob – What like Stern, Howard?

Larry Kenney – Well Howard Stern, then came along years later and and I don’t know if you would say, I certainly wouldn’t say Howard has perfected the craft. 

Rob – (laughs) He has got in trouble for stuff like that.

Larry Kenney – I don’t happen to care for Howard’s style, I like Howard he is a friend of mine he is a very nice guy, but to me his stuff is very sophomoric, very toilet humor and lesbian dating and things like that. I don’t find it that creative.

Rob – I know what you mean, I know what you mean.

Larry Kenney – But Don, Imus was the first guy to do political humor on the radio.

Rob – So do you find interactive radio far more interesting than music stations? What do you think really brings in a crowd?

Larry Kenney – Oh in a place like New York, and I’m sure in London you have such a variety. In New York, Imus is very big, Howard Stern is number one.

Rob – Yeah.

Larry Kenney – Talk shows do very well and then you have music stations that of course do very well, any large market of course like New York or London you got so what they call here , we call it urban radio, which basically means black music you know. R&B and hip hop, stuff like that, and news radio does very well in America. All new stations twenty-four hours a day. In the big city and then you have the oldies stations that do very well, stations that play the hits from the 50’s and 60’s and now of course there are stations that even, that even specialize in playing only songs from the 70’s and 80’s (laughs),you know.

Rob – I know what you mean.

Larry Kenney – Each generation has its own favorite.

Rob – You were the host of the New York show, “Bowling for dollars”, right?

Larry Kenney- Yes I hosted that…

Rob – 1976- 1979

Larry Kenney – That’s right. Yeah, you do your homework.

Rob – Was Bob Murphy the initial/National host of that show?

Larry Kenney – No he wasn’t the National host of the show, it was actually recorded in thirteen different cities, with…they were local shows each city had its own host. Cause the idea of the show, unlike most game shows on American t.v. was to give local people a chance to be on television.

Rob – Oh right.

Larry – So I hosted…Bob Murphy hosted the New York version for a year, well I took over, the one in Los Angeles was hosted by Wink Markendale, who was a very popular game show host, and Jim Lang who did the dating game hosted one in Los Angeles, so it was done in different cities by different people.

Rob – Oh ok I get you now. So what kind of contestants did you have on the show?

Larry Kenney – (laughs) well…

Rob – Any funny stories, any humorous stories you would like to share?

Larry Kenney – Not that many but, the whole idea of Bowling for dollars, and one of the reasons for its success, was that any body could be on the show. Most or all the major game shows in network television shows I’m sure same is true in Europe/England. To be on those shows you have to audition sometimes four or five times, they want people who are buoyant, good looking, not necessarily good looking, but…

Rob – Has something to say, something witty to say…

Larry Kenney – Yeah, who people are going to want to tune in to watch you know. Our show, what you would do is, you would send in a postcard.

Rob – Right, right…

Larry Kenney – Any card that came in we put it in, what we called a pin pal barrel you know. Then we would spin the barrel and pick out five cards, and no matter who sent them in they were on the show the following week or a month later, whatever. So we never saw the contestants until they showed up on the day of the taping. So as you can imagine we have blind people, disfigured people, not many you know but…

Rob – Did you have any troublesome contestants?

Larry Kenney – Never had a problem in three years, five shows a day, we never had anybody who caused a problem or more, you know. Anything like that. People are always asking me what was the funniest story. I don’t really have any…it’s hard to believe but…how many shows is that lets see, five shows a week, that’s almost a thousand t.v shows and there was nothing outrageous that happened. One of the funniest stories I can remember is… I guess it is not hilarious but…

Rob – It’s funny to you…

Larry Kenney – It’s funny to me, we are taping the show and…what happened is I would look at the camera and say “Now its from Brooklyn New York, lets welcome Tom Johnson” right and the door behind me would open and the people would walk out of that door and walk up to me, well some people, you can imagine were very very nervous, this particular guy I’ll say his name was Tom Johnson, “here’s Tom Johnson from Brooklyn” music rises I turn around, the guy is frozen he won’t come out.

Rob – What did you do?

Larry Kenney – I take two steps back, and I reach my hand out to shake his hand and when he grabs my hand I pull him out (laughs). You know on to the set and I said “Tom how are you, what kind of work do you do?” and he said (Efr arf erm ugram), so I’m thinking to myself ok forget about asking this guy any questions lets just get him over there and let him bowl you know. Well we…people are always allowed to bring guest with them, to be in the audience.

Rob – Yeah

Larry Kenney – Guests to cheer them on you know and the standard procedure was, after I have asked them questions I would so ok who did you bring along to cheer you on today? Well for this guy I went right to that, “Well Tom lets, we are short on time so before you bowel, who did you bring along to cheer you on today?” and the camera goes to this lovely old couple in the audience and he says “Larry I brought my mother and my father” and I said “Good why don’t you introduce them to us” he says “Ok” he points and says “that’s my mother and that’s my father “(laughs)

Rob – (laughs)

Larry Kenney – I told you it’s not hilarious, but I got a kick out of it.

Rob – That works that works.

Larry Kenney – I’ll tell you one you might like, like I said we didn’t know anything about the contestants accept what they put on their postcards. Well before…we taped each show we take five every Friday, before we taped each show I would sit down, 3 or 4 minutes with each contestant individually and ask them some questions you know and I would put their answers on a cue card, I’ll write it on their myself, where he worked, what his wife does, things like that. So when it came to the show I would have some reference you know.

Rob – Yeah

Larry Kenney – Well one day, we had some technical problems and we were running way behind and I didn’t have time to talk to the last contestant, before we went on the air to say hello. So we are on the air taping now and he was real big black guy.

Rob – Yeah

Larry Kenney – Now we’re taping and I said “let’s welcome Tyrone Davis from Manhattan”, the guy comes out and I say “So Tyrone.” I remembered that he drove a bus, so I said “Tyrone you’re a bus driver right,” yeah yeah…and now I shouldn’t even have gone in any other area because I didn’t know the answer. Rule one is don’t ask a question you don’t know the answer to it on t.v. right. So, but I had to fill some time so I said “Tyrone, are you married?” he said “ah yeah.” I said “ah ha, what does your wife do?” and he pauses and “I don’t know, I ain’t seen the bitch in 3 years.” (laughs).

Rob – Oh dear, oh well. I mean so would you ever consider hosting a show again?

Larry Kenney - No no I don’t, I enjoyed that show but I don’t enjoy doing on camera television, too time consuming, well I’m so use to the voice over business, I’m so use to being to wear whatever I want not have to wear makeup and I have a memory recording session at one o’clock I get there at five minutes to one you know. Takes me twenty minutes to do a commercial or whatever and I’m gone I go somewhere else. To do television like I did some soap operas, and a game show and I’ve done some other things on tv.

Rob – Yeah you are the voice of Sonny the coco or cuckoo bird.

Larry Kenney – That’s right and Count Chocula.

Rob – How did you land that role and come up with his voice.

Larry Kenney – I auditioned for it like all the other ones, well the voice those two voices were already established there were two guys who been doing those twenty years and retiring when they were older, one guy moved to Europe, so they and the voices were very well established and they wanted someone to do those voices. So the audition was to, in the audition to match as closely you could the voices that had been established for years, so that is all I did.

Rob – What is Sonny’s catchphrase anyway?

Larry Kenney – “Yahoo!, I’m Coco for Coco Puffs!” (laughs)

Rob – Ok, it’s like that is it? Alright

Larry Kenney – Yeah.

Rob – In England we have Coco the monkey for Coco pops.

Larry Kenney – Oh you do really?!

Rob – We have that we don’t have the bird.

Larry Kenney – A monkey!

Rob – Yeah.

Larry Kenney – That’s interesting I never knew that, but the cereal is called Coco Puffs?

Rob – It’s called Coco pops, but he doesn’t really have much of a catchphrase.

Larry Kenney – Is it made by General Mills I wonder?

Rob – It’s made by Kellogg’s, Kellogg’s Coco Pops.

Larry Kenney – I’m sorry?

Rob – Kellogg’s, Kellogg’s.

Larry Kenney – Kellogg’s makes it there, you’re kidding.

Rob – No.

Larry Kenney – Here its General Mills that make both Count Chocula and Coco puffs.

Rob – Yeah you also voice for Count Chocula don’t you? Are you often teemed up with the other voice actors, what FrakenBerry?

Larry Kenney – Oh oh, not very often at all in fact, well occasionally I’ll do something…well in a matter of fact…well we used to do something…I’m sorry to be so…

Rob – That’s all right.

Larry Kenney – I’m trying to remember, maybe ten, fifteen years ago actually that’s a while, that’s going back I’ve been doing Chocula, lets see now for twenty-seven years, when I first started doing Count Chocula. All the commercials Count Chocula, were commercials for Count Chocula…

Rob – What just him?

Larry Kenney – No a cereal called Frakenberry.

Rob – Right ok

Larry Kenney – Another cereal called Booberry and they called the Monsters cereals because the animated spokesperson for each one was some kind of monster, Frankenberry was Frankenstein and of course Booberry sounded like Peter Lawery you know. Anyway so back then, we didn’t do individual commercials for coco puffs we did commercials that were for all three cereals.

Rob – Ok

Larry Kenney – So we worked together a lot. That was only for about five years, and since then its…I don’t work with the other guys.

Rob – See we don’t have Count Chocula around here either.

Larry Kenney – You don’t?

Rob – No, what does he sound like anyway?

Larry Kenney – “Count Chocula cereal is coming your way! How about a monster for breakfast today!” He sounds like Dracula, Count Chocula, Count Dracula.

Rob – Yeah?

Larry Kenney – “Count Chocula cereal, with chocolate flavored marshmallows, frightfully delicious.”

Rob – You do loads of them don’t you I’ve seen quite a few of the….there’s quite a few…you got quite a few name tags attached to the Sonny the Coco bird stuff. I’ve seen that. You were also in a thing called Comic Strip…aka Mini Monsters?

Larry Kenney – Could be I don’t know, I’m not familiar with that.

Rob – No a cartoon called series or something; apparently it featured your voice? Mini-monsters? It might be referring to the Count Chocula series?

Larry Kenney -  Oh wait a minute now, how long is this, this is a long time ago.Rob – Ten years.

Larry Kenney – Yeah yeah that was me, yeah.

Rob – Do you remember what you had to do for that series?

Larry Kenney – Just the same thing I did on Thundercats, I mean get a script, once every month we would do for two straight days , we would four episodes.

Rob – In the cartoon Silverhawks, you took on the characters Bluegrass…

Larry Kenney – Yes

Rob – and Pokerface…

Larry Kenney – Yes

Rob – How did you decide on their voices?

Larry Kenney – Well for those voices and the same is true for the voices I did on Thundercats and other cartoon series and animated Christmas series and stuff, you again had to audition for and I remember arriving at the offices of Rankin and Bass who produced it. When it was your turn they would show you pictures, drawings of the characters, and they would tell you, give you some detail of the character. For example they would say Bluegrass, Lieutenant Bluegrass he’s a southern guy, southern, plays a guitar he’s got a southern country rock singer, you know so we want you to come up with some kind of voice for that, so then you would go out and think about it for a little while, come back in, you would take a script with you and then record three different versions of what you think the character should sound like. They would decide from that who to use.

Rob – Ok, how many series, how many episodes did they make of Silverhawks?

Larry Kenney - Silverhawks I think we only did, probably…probably about 65, the Thundercats was 130.

Rob – Yeah I remember that one.

Larry Kenney – For some reason that’s…they tell me that is the standard, when a show becomes a very popular cartoon series and they can tell its going to be a big hit if you go into syndication. 130 episodes is the standard number that you make, for whatever reason. At least 130 episodes, of course now the Simpson’s has been on for ten or eleven years.

Rob – That is a lot when you think about it. How many years did that take?

Larry Kenney – To make Thundercats?

Rob – Yeah?

Larry Kenney – About 3 years, because you see as I said we would do about once a month we would meet, we would record for two straight days, two days like a Thursday and a Friday. We would do two episodes each day, so we are doing four episodes a month, reason being; initially they only write about 13 episodes of a show. The initial buy when you sell the idea for a show, weather it is an animated show or sitcom whatever, if the network buys it, they normally buy 13 episodes and then they see how it goes, how the ratings are, you know if its not getting good ratings sometimes you cancel that after 13 episodes if its doing well then they buy another 13, and once they see it is going to be a big hit then they’ll say ok, where’s the 130 episodes. So initially only 13 episodes were written for the thing, now once you begin recording those you can’t just…you have to give the writers time to write them and the animators time to animate them. So we would record 4 shows and it would take a month for the writers to write four new episodes.

Rob – Did you record your lines all in one go, or did you were in a group weren’t you?

Larry Kenney – Yeah we had the whole group was there. It was a lot of fun.

Rob – In Transformers, they did it sometimes individually.

Larry Kenney - Well there were times when you know maybe somebody had to be out of town or doing a Broadway show or something, or something like that and they couldn’t be there and there were also times when we had already recorded 4 episodes a week earlier, I might get a call and they might say “Larry we need you to come in alone and just re-record, we have changed a line” you know or “we need you to add some sound affects” some oos and ahhs we call them or laughter something like that, then you would be working alone, but most of the time, the whole group was there.

Rob – In Thundercats you portrayed Lion-o Lord of the Thundercats, as well as Jackalman.

Larry Kenney – I was Jackalman he was one of the evil mutants.

Rob – Thundercats appears to be one of your first cartoons? Am I right in saying that?

Larry Kenney – Ah yes, it was my very first one, yeah.

Rob – Were you initially given the role as Lion-o?

Larry Kenney – Yes I was yeah.

Rob – Can you remember what you had to say in the audition?

Larry Kenney – Well of course with Lion-o, the important…one of the important things was he was always saying “Sword of Omens, come to my hand!” and “Thunder…Thunder…Thundercats Ho!” you know (laughs).They had scripts.

Rob – Did you have that, so you voiced that one line and they repeat it? Or did you have to keep saying it again and again?

Larry Kenney – We would do it over and over every time.

Rob – Yeah?

Larry Kenney – Yeah.

Rob – It sounds all the same all the time.

Larry Kenney – Yep, but for some reason they wanted it to be I guess fresh and everything, I don’t know. They wanted to get their moneys worth out of us. (laughs)

Rob – Is there any ideas to make Thundercats into a CGI, an anime or a live action cartoon?

Larry Kenney – I keep hearing rumors all the time of about a new series of episode , rumors they are going to put a CD package together re-release it there is even rumors about…once a year a rumor comes out about either a Thundercats animated movie or live-action movie, but nothings come to permission so far.

Rob – Was it ever banned? Was Thundercats ever banned in some countries?

Larry Kenney – You’re kidding?

Rob – I’m just saying was it ever banned?

Larry Kenney – No not that I know of.

Rob – Cause Panthro he use Numchucks right? The numcuck weapons the one with the chain.

Larry Kenney – You know I don’t remember…

Rob – Yeah (laughs), well he has got them and they were banned in some countries…

Larry Kenney – Oh.

Rob – You know even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, you know that one.

Larry Kenney – Sure yeah.

Rob – Yeah there is a scene I think where Michelangelo or Donatelo…its Michelangelo he uses sausages as Numchucks like Panthro used to use and that was banned.

Larry Kenney – No kidding?

Rob – That was taken out of the cartoon and stuff like that.

Larry Kenney – Ha, No I don’t recall I’m sure strange things happen.

Rob – So if they made Thundercats into a movie who do you think would make a good Lion-o?

Larry Kenney – Me…

Rob – Yeah?

Larry Kenney – Oh you mean a live action movie.

Rob – I mean a live action movie.

Larry Kenney – (laughs) Oh gosh I don’t know it would have to be one of the young…the young hero guys of today, I suppose who would be today, Ben Affleck.

Rob – I think Mel Gibson, looks a lot like Lion-o.

Larry Kenney – You think so, yeah?

Rob – Yeah he has got the face, isn’t it…the face of wisdom.

Larry Kenney – Yeah you know I guess he kind of does.

Rob - I don’t know about the accent but…

Larry Kenney – I would think though he would have to be fairly young fellow because if they would do a live action movie, think about necessity he would have to have a lot of…lot of stunts otherwise what is the point of making it you know.

Rob – I see. What do you think of cartoons today?

Larry Kenney – Well frankly I don’t watch that many, well the Simpson’s just amazes me with their creativity, just blows me away.

Rob - What about South Park?

Larry Kenney – Ah no I can’t stand it.

Rob – You don’t like the slap stick humor?

Larry Kenney – I just don’t get it, I just don’t think its funny you know with the turd and the toilet humor, little fart I just don’t think its funny, you know my kids both like South Park, I have a 19 year old and a 15 year old, they think it’s the greatest thing. I just don’t get that…get that, like I was telling you about Howard Stern I just don’t think toilet humor is funny. The thing with me is I’m not saying I think its terrible because I’m a prude or anything I just don’t think it takes a lot of creativity to say “Hey kid” you know there is not a lot of thought that goes into that to me. Now the Simpson’s on the other hand those people are brilliant.

Rob – It’s a depiction on life isn’t it, it’s the way you perceive it.

Larry Kenney – Yup.

Rob – Ah.

Larry Kenney – My daughter’s listening in she says you have a sexy accent.

Rob – yeah?

Larry Kenney – (laughs)

Rob – Cheers, yeah thanks…

Larry Kenney – How old are you Rob?

Rob – I’m twenty, twenty-one

Larry Kenney – Ah well she’s…

Ashley Kenney – Woo hoo!

Larry Kenney – Ashley, please this is business. Excuse my daughter.

Rob – That’s ok. She is in a band isn’t she called “Cake Like”?

Larry Kenney – That’s my other daughter, my oldest daughter.

Rob – Oh right ok.

Larry Kenney – She was in a band, but Ashley my 19 year old has a band called Keen to destroy. They just got started and they’re great.

Rob – Yeah.

Larry Kenney – Write that down Rob, Keen to destroy

Rob – Keen to destroy, huh.

Larry Kenney – To destroy when they are hugely famous touring in Great Britain.

Rob – Alright I’ll look out for that yeah. How big was Thundercats in the USA anyway?

Larry Kenney – Well it was the big cartoon show for 3 years, I mean I don’t know how the ratings arrived. The one way I can tell you as somebody who was involved with the show is that the impact is that when you to a toy store for example. Lets say for a while I think before Ninja turtles was before Thundercats wasn’t it? I don’t really recall but for example.

Rob – They were running around the same time.

Larry Kenney – With a large toy store, like toysrus one of those there might be two or three isle’s full of what ever the show of the day happens to be with all of their action figures and things like that and then until the next big thing comes along. For Thundercats it was probably about two full years you could go to a Toy store you know and there would be two or three big isles devoted to all of the stuff.

Rob – What was your reaction when you know; saw a figure of Lion-o?

Larry Kenney – It’s pretty cool first time I saw one. I’ll never forget the first time I went to a toysrus my oldest daughter she was about 8 or 9 I think, well lets see we started in 83, she was about 13 and we went into a toy store. Walking down the Thundercats isle and this little boy, two little boys were talking one of them said “I want get a Panthro doll” and the other one says “I want to get a Tygra doll.” I said “Why don’t you get a Lion-o doll, he is the one who says sword of omens come to my hand!?” the kid looks at me and says you don’t even sound like Lion-o.

Rob – (laughs)

Larry Kenney – When he walked away, my daughter said if he only knew.

Rob – If only, I mean do people recognize your voice usually, when you are walking around town? You ever had anyone recognize that you are the voice of Lion-o or not?

Larry Kenney – Sometimes they do yeah

Rob – Do you ever get sick and tired of them asking?

Larry Kenney – No, no I like it because I like the level of recognition because its not like…you know its just people saying hey I like your work. It’s not like a movie star where they are tearing your clothes off and are outside your house. I would never like that, but...

Rob – You have never had any troublesome fans?

Larry Kenney – No, no stalkers

Rob – Not yet anyway?

Larry Kenney – Not yet no.

Rob – So what did you think of Thundercats, in general? Did you really enjoy the show?

Larry Kenney – Oh yeah. I loved doing it and I really like the idea of it, because the whole idea of the Thundercats was it came about when there was a lot of talking in this country…a lot of people were upset about the violence in children’s programming in cartoons and things, and there was one group that got started to try and get it banned from t.v. and everything so Rankin and Bass came up with idea to make a show purposely that showed kids there’s alternatives to violence. If you notice Thundercats never beat the hell out of somebody and Mummra (laughs). You know they would capture him and say “now look Mummra…you’re a nice person. “(laughs)

Rob – (laughs)

Larry Kenney – The show would put forth good values, you still get e-mail from people all over the world who write me and they say, they’re grown now, they are like 35 years old, lawyers, clerks or whatever and its amazing how many of them say “I want you to know that when I was growing up Thundercats meant a lot to me, and I learned a lot of good values from it.” That’s nice to hear.

Rob – It’s a very moral program it had a lot of morals in it. Some of them were very weird; I remember I think was it Tygra he got addicted to these flower things or something.

Larry Kenney – (laughs) you know every time I’m interviewed by somebody they remember more things about the show then I do. (laughs) I just read the script.

Rob – Yeah. Did you have to do your lines over and over again, were there many mistakes? There were many bloopers.

Larry Kenney – Not me no (laughs) Have you ever heard the outtakes on the internet?

Rob – I’ve heard all of them.

Larry Kenney – So you know where we made mistakes…we were all professionals so sure we had to read some things two or three times but that’s you know just to get the right timing, the right tone of voice or something. Or you mispronounce a word I remember that one thing “now I’ll take this samoflange and” (laughs).

Rob – It was megacondensor wasn’t it?

Larry Kenney – I still haven’t figured out what a samoflange is?

Rob – I don’t know what it is either, it was Panthro that said that right? The guy who played Panthro.

Larry Kenney – I think that was me, cause the outtakes on the internet.

Rob – Yeah, oh yeah, ok…What…where there any cheesy lines you thought that needed to be changed?

Larry Kenney – Ah not too often, I remember, I can’t remember the specifics but I do remember a couple of times, once in awhile we would say, we would stop and say to the director and producer, director Lee Doniga, we would say Lee “you know I don’t think…I don’t think kids today would say, he would say in a different way.” You know what I am saying because the writers, most of the writers were like 35 – 45 years old or older and most of us on the show were young at the time and had young kids so we knew what the lingo was you know.

Rob - I know what you are saying I know what you mean.

Larry Kenney – I can’t remember any specific words but I remember a couple times saying “guys I think for our audience you know which is like 6 to 12 years old, this sounds old fashioned to them”

Rob – Yeah, so how do you think you have changed Lion-o, how have you added to the character?

Larry Kenney – Well…added to what was written you mean?

Rob – Yeah in general. The way he has also changed.

Larry Kenney – I don’t think I added anything. I mean the idea was you were hired to bring life to the character as they wrote it, there was no really no need for me to change it or anything, and actually to be honest I was hired to portray the character they wanted.

Rob – Ok, So Mummra had like Mummut, didn’t he? He had like a little dog.

Larry Kenney – Yeah.

Rob – For a time, and that was to try and show that even though he is a bad guy he has also got some morals and some caring for life or what was the point of that?

Larry Kenney – I think probably it goes back to the idea that the show was less evil, less violent, less evil like so I think in this show more than others even the real bad guy had his moments, you know.

Rob – I mean you even had like a pet to, didn’t you?

Larry Kenney – No I never had a pet.

Rob – It was something like a cat or something around there. Was it Pymras?

Larry Kenney – No that was Snarf that was Snarf, Snarf was a cat.

Rob – Yeah.

Larry Kenney – He had a little cat called Snarfer.

Rob – That was his cousin or something?

Larry Kenney – Yeah something like that.

Rob – Something like that. What did you think of him did you think he was a good character or did he annoy you now and again?

Larry Kenney – He was a good character, he was a cute character and Bob McFadden is the guy who did both the Snarf and Snarfer. It was just fun to watch him do the voice you know. “Snarf”

Rob – Could you do like a promotional message for our site?”

Larry Kenney – Of Course.

Rob – Would you be willing to do that?

Larry Kenney – I got the e-mail with that other guys thing and what I’ll do , is I’ll write a script and take it into WFAN when we go back to work in two weeks.

Rob – Could you?!

Larry Kenney – I’ll record in a productions studio so it will sound good.

Rob – Thanks.

Larry Kenney – Do you want that on a cd or a mp3?

Rob – Larry I don’t mind Larry, thank you very much.

Larry Kenney – What’s best for you when you receive it.

Rob – mp3 would be fine.

Larry Kenney – Oh I’ll e-mail it to you.

Rob – Yeah .

Larry Kenney - Oh yeah of course I could do that.

Rob – Yeah that would be very nice of you Larry cheers.

Larry Kenney – I’ve also got your message I’ll send you an 8*10 and a what else did you ask me for, by the way I got 10 or 12 packages so far.

Rob – I’m sorry about that Larry.

Larry Kenney – I don’t mind.

Rob – I really admire your work it was really cool.

Larry Kenney – Why thank you its just again I want to apologize for when I got the misunderstanding that you were going to sell these.

Rob – I have given you a lot, its understandable.

Larry Kenney – Its alright, listen I don’t mind, I don’t mind at all. As a matter of fact in April I’m going to my first convention.

Rob – Yeah?

Larry Kenney – They have these big conventions, now because all things 80’s are very big, I understand they are in England too, which is why you are calling.

Rob – Which convention is this?

Larry Kenney – Its called Fanfest they have a lot in this country now, where you can…people who are fans of and are fans of 80’s animated shows, Star Trek and things like that, go and there would be actors there signing autographs. There will be seminars were you can ask questions about the shows, have pictures taken with the stars, by action figures and things like that, they have become very big here, I’ve been invited to a couple of them in Los Angeles and didn’t go but this one is right here in New York in April, so I’m going.

Rob – So what other voice actors have you met that are classified similar hero types like He-man, Brave Star?

Larry Kenney – I don’t think I’ve ever met any body else.

Rob – No?

Larry Kenney – The people on Thundercats and Silverhawks, no I don’t…for one thing Thundercats, Silverhawks, were very unique and that they were recorded in New York, almost all the animated stuff has been and is again now is done in Los Angeles. Well I shouldn’t say that because now with Nickelodeon and stuff like this they do a lot of stuff here, but we were very shocked that Thundercats was actually going to be recorded in New York with New York actors because it had always been done in Los Angeles, going all the way back to Looney Tunes you know Warner Brothers and all that kind of stuff. Hey can you hang on one second Rob?

Rob – yeah absolutely no problem.
(talks to his daughter in the background)

Larry Kenney – Did you find what you wanted honey?

Ashley Kenney – Yeah I was looking for a cup

Larry Kenney – You got it?

Ashley Kenney – Yeah

Larry Kenney – Ok, get out…my dumb daughter

Rob – (laughs) everything ok?

Larry Kenney – Everything is fine.

Rob – Right ok, just got a few more questions Larry then I’ll let you go, must be kind of late now.

Larry Kenney – Ah its only 10 o’clock, its late there isn’t was it 3 o’clock in the morning?

Rob – It is yeah, but it’s not late for me.

Larry Kenney – I told you in my last e-mail I’m always up to two or three in the morning.

Rob – Its always a peaceful time to think about a day, you know what I mean.

Larry Kenney – Right.

Rob – Digest your memory.

Larry Kenney – Right.

Rob – So did you ever collect any of the memorabilia? Thundercat memorabilia?

Larry Kenney – No I never did, but now I wish I had kept some stuff I have maybe, I have one Lion-o action figure. I got a…I got my draw right here. I’ve got Mummra, Panthro, just stuff I had thrown into a draw you know. I didn’t keep anything from the show, wish I had now.

Rob – There is another production you were involved in called Karate cat and Tiger sharks?

Larry Kenney – Yeah, Tiger sharks and Karate cat, also Rankin Bass produced shows.

Rob – That’s right.

Larry Kenney – They were not nearly as successful as Thundercats of course but they…I think we probably did about 65 episodes of each. They are most of the same people.

Rob – Oh right what most of the same voice actors.

Larry Kenney – Ah ha, Peter Newman and Lynne Lipton and Mummra (Earl Hammond).

Rob – Oh right ok, you voiced also for a few Christmas productions?

Larry Kenney – Yes also Rankin Bass.

Rob – Are you doing anything this year?

Larry Kenney - No we probably haven’t done anything since the 80’s, but they still run all those here in the states every Christmas, one’s called the Star of Jermony, all the twelve days of Christmas one called the life and adventures of Santa Claus, oh that was with…was honored to work with a…I shall forget his name now…Alfred Drake.

Rob – I’ve only briefly seen it, but I didn’t look into it that much. Alfred Drake.

Larry Kenney – Very famous British actor, maybe I got the name wrong, Alfred Drake something like that. Anyway

Rob – Were there any plans to give Thundercats like a…

Larry Kenney – I’m sorry and Phil Hartman was on that too.

Rob – Oh right ok. Were there any plans to give Thundercats like an event celebration, I think there was a birthday one wasn’t there? Lion-o birthday one or not?

Larry Kenney – I’m sorry I’m not sure what you mean?

Rob – Was there like an Easter or Christmas, like a Halloween special for Thundercats?

Larry Kenney – Oh that was produced you mean?

Rob – Yeah or thought about or concepted?

Larry Kenney – You know I don’t recall Rob, like a special seasonal thing huh, I don’t recall any like a Christmas episode or a Thanks giving or anything I don’t think we did because frankly if you think about it the show was…the setting of the show was not…I mean it was on a…

Rob – Alien planet?

Larry Kenney – And a different world, Universe and all that so, it would look a little weird to have to celebrate Christmas.

Rob – Just asking cause even Star Wars have…had some kind of Christmas thing going on once.

Larry Kenney – I may have happened, again I just don’t remember.

Rob – It was called Happy life day

Larry Kenney – Oh yeah?

Rob – I think it was flopped, it went flopped and I think George Lucus is trying to destroy the reels now.

Larry Kenney – Oh really?

Rob – Yeah yeah yeah so I shouldn’t even be talking about it really, it’s not supposed to exist. Happy life day. I think Carrie Ann…what was it Carrie Fisher, she actually sang in that.

Larry Kenney – Really?

Rob – Did you ever have to do any singing in any of the series?

Larry Kenney – Not a lot, never in Thundercats, well Lieutenant Bluegrass sang quite a bit.

Rob – Yeah?

Larry Kenney – Ah ha let see I didn’t sing in any of the animated Christmas.

Rob – What kind of songs did he sing anyway?

Larry Kenney – Oh they were songs that…did you ever…are you familiar with the show at all Rob?

Rob – I’ve seen only a few clipits, because its not available, I can’t walk into my place…

Larry Kenney – The whole idea with Lieutenant Bluegrass is, is that he played a guitar.

Rob – He had a guitar that could turn into a bird or something?

Larry Kenney – It could do all kinds of things, when he hits a certain note it had special powers, when they were fighting the enemy and all that. You know it was great. Sometimes as I recall he would just sing just short little you know, like “here’s one for you, you bad guys dodo doo” you know (laughs).

Rob – I know what you are saying. Ok. Out of the all of the characters you have ever portrayed which one were the most fun to do?
Larry Kenney – Lion-o was a lot of fun.

Rob – Which one do you think matches your natural voice?

Larry Kenney – Oh Lion-o is my natural voice.

Rob – Absolutely yeah

Larry Kenney – It’s just the intonation and it’s that super hero sound. It’s my voice I’m not changing my voice at all, “I’m just talking like this” you know, in a very dramatic way, but that’s my voice.

Rob – Have you ever been stereotyped for something like that?

Larry Kenney – No because everybody here knows that I do a wide range of voices, so I’m fortunate in that way that I get work in a lot of different areas.

Rob – Alright then, is there anything you would like to add Larry?

Larry Kenney – Yes I’d like to thank you very much for your interest and devotion, you’re obviously a big fan and always… I will never get tired of having people tell me they enjoy the show and enjoyed my work, I’m very proud of it and to anybody who might hear this on your website, or read about it or whatever, I want to thank everybody for being big fans of Thundercats its meant a lot to me, as I said I still get e-mail from people who watch the show. I’ll tell you something I’ve probably had thousands of e-mails over the years, forwarding e-mails and letters, things like that and never once did I have anybody ever say you know I hated that show and you were this or that, it was always that they enjoyed the show and liked the values of it all and that makes me very proud to be a part of it. So everybody who is hearing this or reading about it, thank you and that’s from all of us, cause I talk to Peter Newman and Lynn Lipton I told them I do interviews, you know and they all feel the same way that we were proud to be a part of it and also to be quite honest with you we all…it was very financially beneficial to us all, we made a lot of money from it but it was just a wonderful thing to be a part of.

Rob – It was much more than today’s cartoons and shows and ideas.

Larry Kenney – Thank you I’d like to think so too. You know when you are in the entertainment business, when you are an actor, we all do sometimes years later, you look back on you were very young and needed the money whatever, but you’re not real proud of it, you know what I’m saying.

Rob – Yeah.

Larry Kenney – You would be ashamed of them but you know, you do a cheap movie or something you know, with Thundercats I’m just glad and proud I have something in my resume in my past that I can be so proud of it, is that show.

Rob – It is pretty good. I didn’t even know they had made comics books of Thundercats.

Larry Kenney – They just started making them a couple of years ago, and they put a new one out every month now I think.

Rob – I’ve got some now which are like older versions of Lion-o, and how has aged.

Larry Kenney – Oh really?

Rob – He is more…of course he is more bigger.

Larry Kenney – I have a stack of them here that a guy who runs a local comic book store, comic books, Baseball cards, collectable stuff, you know he sent them over to me. I’m going to take them to that convention, I’m going to send you some, I’ll sign them for you and send them to you and I believe some of the things you have had sent to me are comic books, I know they are.Rob – Yeah I have got a friend in a local comic book shop, “The American Comic book shop” in Chatham, it’s called.

Larry Kenney – Oh good.

Rob – So I had to buy them, sorry it had to be done.

Larry Kenney – Well anytime in the future you want anything like that you just let me know. Ok?

Rob – Thanks Larry

Larry Kenney – Right, Rob its been a real pleasure talking to you, and I’ll talk to you again, and we will be communicated of course again about all the merchandise.

Rob – Thanks a lot yeah. You take care yeah.

Larry Kenney – You too pal.

Rob – Alright man.

Larry Kenney – Happy Christmas.

Rob – Yeah you too.

Larry Kenney – Ok

Rob – Happy New Year as well.

Larry Kenney- bye bye

Rob – Bye Larry.