ThunderCats Voice Actors Reminisce: Comic Con Panel with Lion-O Cheetara and Tygra at Undiscovered Realm

Thundercats voice actors reunite at Undiscovered Realm, sharing behind-the-scenes stories, favorite episodes, and fan moments.

The panel at Undiscovered Realm in White Plains, New York, began with moderator Mike Lopez welcoming the audience and introducing the voice actors from the Thundercats series: Lynne Lipton (Cheetara and Wilykit), Peter Newman (Tygra and Wilykat), and Larry Kenney (Lion-O). The panelists shared humorous anecdotes and insights into their roles, reflecting on how they were cast for the iconic 1980s cartoon series.

Lynne Lipton recounted her audition experience, emphasizing the rarity of landing such a memorable role. She expressed gratitude for being hired by director Lee Dannacher, who asked her to voice multiple female characters, except for Pumyra. Larry Kenney humorously recalled that he often appeared partially undressed during recording sessions, much to Lipton’s surprise.

Peter Newman described the audition process as just another day until he learned he had secured a recurring role in what would become a beloved series. He reminisced about recording in the Rankin/Bass office and attempting various character voices, which ultimately led to his casting.

Larry Kenney detailed the challenging and often frustrating nature of auditioning, noting that actors frequently face rejection. He shared his memories of auditioning for Thundercats, highlighting the guidance he received to avoid cartoonish voices for the Thundercats themselves while embracing dramatic flair for the villainous Mutants. Inspired by Snidely Whiplash from “Rocky and Bullwinkle,” he crafted the voice for Jackalman.

The conversation shifted to the impact of Thundercats on their lives and the recognition they received. Kenney recounted a memorable experience in Toys R Us, realizing the show’s popularity when he saw aisles filled with Thundercats merchandise. He humorously recalled an interaction with young fans who didn’t initially believe he was Lion-O.

Peter Newman shared his first inkling of the show’s success when it topped ratings charts. He described how his work on Thundercats led to other projects like SilverHawks and TigerSharks, appreciating the long-lasting impact on fans. Newman also highlighted a touching moment when he signed memorabilia for children from broken homes, realizing the show’s significance in their lives.

Lynne Lipton recounted reading to children in Harlem and witnessing their excitement over a Thundercats script she brought. This experience underscored the series’ widespread appeal and the joy it brought to fans.

The panelists discussed their favorite episodes, with Kenney fondly remembering the early episodes where Lion-O was still a young boy. Newman enjoyed episodes where his characters had unique moments, like Tygra aging in “The Cave of Time” or Monkian taking the spotlight. Lipton found scenes with Mumm-Ra particularly memorable due to Earl Hammond’s intimidating performance.

They also touched on the camaraderie among the cast, who often recorded together, creating a joyful and collaborative atmosphere. Lipton expressed gratitude for working with talented voice actors like Bob McFadden and Earl Hammond.

The panel concluded with the actors reflecting on rumors of a live-action or CGI Thundercats movie. While no concrete plans had materialized, they expressed interest in participating. The session ended with heartfelt thanks to the fans, acknowledging their role in the show’s enduring legacy.

Special thanks to Ms. Aisling’s ASMR and Consistency for their video coverage of the panel.  For more info on Undiscovered Realm Comic Con, visit the official website.

Next: Discuss the Thundercats Reunion on the Film forum

Full Transcript of the Thundercats Reunion Panel

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Moderator – Mike Lopez: Hello, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome again to Undiscovered Realm here in White Plains, New York. How’s everybody doing today? So here we are. We are getting started here. We had a little issue with that false alarm. But everybody’s great. Everybody’s happy. We’re here. Thundercats, Ho! We’re gonna get started. We’re gonna welcome you up to the stage. Here already, we’ve got Lynne Lipton, who played Cheetara and Wilykit. And Peter Newman, the voice of Tygra and Wilykat. And, coming up here from behind, the man, the myth, the legend. Here he is. Lion-O himself, Larry Kenney!

Peter Newman: Lion-O who?

Lynne Lipton: You saw I have a crutch because Larry, we had this race, and he tripped me. That’s the kind of that’s the kind of Lion-O he is.

Moderator – Mike Lopez: So yes, we have, we have three great legends here. So we’re very we’re very excited. Yeah, we’re excited.

Peter Newman: And if you notice, the first thing we voice actors like to do is adjust the microphone.

Moderator – Mike Lopez: Welcome, Guys, welcome. It’s such an honor and a pleasure to see you all here. We’ve got this great group of fans here. I mean, whose lives you know you’ve enriched. And you know, people love Thundercats. So I guess, really, to kind of get things started, we’ll just go across the board here with you. How did you? How did you, how did you find this world of Thundercats? Larry and I talked about a week ago. Rankin Bass, who produced the show, did these holiday specials. And then here’s this, like rock and roll theme, which you just heard, action-adventure series. What got you all to Thundercats?

Lynne Lipton: It was an audition. You know, as an actor, you’re always auditioning. And I’d say about 80% of the time, you don’t get the job. It was just one of those auditions where you walk in, and the producer, the woman, and the director was Lee Dannacher, who was our sort of savior-leader, and she hired me. And I’m ever-grateful because she said, “Can you do all the female voices?” which I did except for Pumyra, right? It was the best job. There was a hell of a lot of jokes in the room, and Larry was mostly naked at the time. I was really surprised.

Larry Kenney: I looked a lot better back then.

Lynne Lipton: He did. And it was just very lucky. It was a fun job. It wasn’t like work, and I was with all these guys, and they were wonderful Bob McFadden and Earl Hammond who and Earl Hyman, who was the actor on the old Cosby Show, who played the father. Bob McFadden and everybody, some of them are gone, but you know, to be the only woman in this room with these great, great fun people. It was great.

Larry Kenney: Thank you very much! Anything more?

Peter Newman: No. I think she covered it. Alright. Next. It’s exactly as Lynne was saying; it’s one of my favorite parts about the Thundercats world and (???). It was just another audition, another day, another audition.

Lynne Lipton: Yeah.

Peter Newman: I didn’t know what it was going to become at all. We sent it to the Rankin Bass office, not to a recording studio. And my recollection of it was in an office with him, Jules Bass, and Lee Dannacher, the director. Jules Bass, of Rankin Bass, and basically they said, “Well, we have, you know, these cartoon characters.

Can you do a younger voice? And can you do okay, you do an older voice? Can you do the hero type? And can you do a villain?” I did everything I could think of, any silly voice, anything I could throw at them, just in hopes of getting this job, whatever it was, because it was a job.

And then to find out, I don’t know, I don’t know how many days or later that, “Hey, you’ve got the job,” “Oh, that’s nice.” And then they said, “No, no, this is going to be a series. They’re going to do a whole bunch of episodes of this.”

And yeah, it turned out to be, as Lynne said, just about the best job I had in all the years that I worked, in terms of the fun of working with, you know, really professional people that I looked up to, and because I was relatively new in the business, and, yeah, just from a silly audition. And sometimes… sometimes, life is good, and sometimes, the fates are kind. So thank you.

Larry Kenney: Yeah. The audition process is sometimes very frustrating. You know, because, as Lynne said, you probably don’t get 80% of the ones you go to. And it may be even higher than that because, you know, most of your day is going from one audition to another, maybe going to a recording session, if you were even lucky enough to get a job. And I think I remember most about the audition at Rankin Bass.

The walls were lined with drawings of what the characters looked like and what the Thundertank was. Remember, nobody, none of us, knew what Thundercats was. So when we got there, we just knew it was going to be an animated series. So, when it’s your turn to go in and audition, they asked me to audition for one Thundercat and one Mutant, bad guy, you know, and I remember the most important thing you said to me was for the Thundercats themselves. We don’t want cartoon voices because they’re like half-human and half-animal.

A human voice and talks the way a human talks. You know? And then, for the mutants, that’s where you get to act. Any actor will tell you it’s most fun to play the bad guy in something because you can be over-dramatic.

So I picked Lion-O to audition for, I guess because he was Lord of the Thundercats. And I don’t know. Maybe he’ll be the boss of the place. And I liked the picture of Jackalman. So I decided that before I went in. And I was thinking of jackal, jackal, it’s kind of like a wolf. You know, they’re sneaky, and they’re dirty, and they’re sneering. And first thing again in my mind was one of my favorite old shows, Rocky and Bullwinkle. Are you guys old enough to remember Rocky and Bullwinkle?

Audience Member 1: Yes!

Larry Kenney: The kid knows! Anyway, there was a character named Snidely Whiplash, and he was the ultimate villain. Wore a black cape and had a mustache like this. You know, “Heh, heh, heh, heh! I’m going to get you now and tie you to a railroad track!” So, I kind of combined those in my mind, and Jackalman came out. “We must get the Thundercats, yes?” And the rest, I must say…

Peter Newman: …is a long history.

Larry Kenney: Yeah.

Lynne Lipton: I must say. You know, we did that for the 128 episodes.

Peter Newman: 130.

Lynne Lipton: 130. You know, every time there was a new episode, sometimes there were new characters. So we would actually audition for the characters in the studio that day, you know? And, the guys would say, if it was a female character, I’d say, What do you think I should do? And Larry would say, “Oh, do Katherine Hepburn.” They would give me suggestions.

That’s how I found the character: they would paint a picture of a cartoon character, a new cartoon character in Thundercats, and a character like Mandora. I remember Mandora as a character, and Larry said that because he knew this about me, I used to do, love to do impressions of dead stars.

And I know that sounds like a crazy thing, or a star’s relatives, and I used to do this silly impression of John Wayne’s sister. John Wayne, you might all be too young, but John Wayne was a movie star, and he used to talk kind of like, “Oh, I just don’t know what you’re talking about.”, you know. And Larry said, why don’t you give John Wayne, you know, like a sister, and that’s what mandora is. Mandora is Larry Kenney’s version of John Wayne’s sister. “I just don’t know.”

Larry Kenney: “Well, ya done it pretty good, kid.”

Lynne Lipton: See?

Moderator – Mike Lopez:

So, like you said. The rest is history. And it’s a very rich history. The show. It was almost 40 years ago when it came out. And obviously, you guys travel around the country and beyond to meet fans. We’ve got all these people here today seeing you. When did it sink in for you guys that Thundercat became more than this cartoon series that went to an audition for, and it became bigger than you?

Larry Kenney: I was in Toys R Us. Rest in peace. I used to love that store. I was Christmas shopping about a year after the show had been on the air. And the time previous to that, when I had come to Toys R Us, there was a row, a single row of Thundercats merchandise, you know, action figures, and stuff like that.

But this particular time, when I came back two weeks before Christmas, there were three aisles, all Thundercats. And you know, the ones for He-Man, you know. And so anyway, I walked in, I saw that. I thought, Oh, my God, the show’s a hit. And as I walked up one of the aisles, there were two young boys, probably eight, nine, ten years old, looking at the action figures, and I close. One of them said, “I’m going to get Tygra. He’s the best.”

Peter Newman: You know, smart kid.

Larry Kenney: Well, I dissuaded him of that notion. And then the other one said something about “No! Panthro, Panthro.” I couldn’t help myself. “Excuse me, boys, why don’t you get Lionel? He’s the guy who says, Sword of Omens come to my hand.” They looked at me like I was a pervert, but I just, I get that a lot. And as I did, they started looking at me like this. I felt like an idiot. I kind of slunk away. And as I was walking away, I heard one of them say, “He didn’t even sound like Lion-O. And I went like, “…” If you only knew, kid.

Peter Newman: My recollection of the first inkling of the success was the first ratings that came out when it was number one. It didn’t; it didn’t dawn on me what might lead to it. The concrete thought I had at the time was, well, then I guess we’ll keep making episodes. They’re not going to just shut us down and put us back on the street with nothing to do. And it continued on that way. And we did have 130 episodes, and then SilverHawks after that, and…

Larry Kenney: Sixty-five of those.

Peter Newman: No, that was also 130. We did two full seasons, I believe. I’m pretty sure, anyway. And well, maybe not. Maybe you’re right, maybe 65. Then, there were the TigerSharks and the other smaller series that came after. And it was just wonderful. The notion that Thundercats was anything more than that didn’t come to me until later on.

In one particular instance, a friend of ours, a friend of my wife and I, was a social worker and worked with mothers and children of the broken homes. And when I had told her, told her friends about, oh, I was doing this cartoon series, she commented that she knew some kids who were big Thundercats fans, and did I think I could get anything, sign anything, you know, that she might be able to give to these kids. I didn’t have anything. But I found something, and I don’t remember what it was. I made ten copies and signed them for the kids. Then she came back and said how thrilled these kids were to get this.

That just gave me the first inkling of the power, you know, that this kind of thing could have in someone’s life. And now the men and women are in their 40s and, well, I mean 40s now and beyond, and their kids are, yeah, it’s, it’s hard to believe. Honestly, there was one instance, somewhere in the middle years, I was at a commercial audition, and a friend of mine was talking to me, and we were just having the kind of chat that you have on your audition in the waiting room. And he pointed to a young guy who was standing online for his audition. He pointed and said, Hey, he’s wearing a Thundercats shirt.

And he went over to the young fellow cats. He said, “Well, he did some voices for Thundercats.” And much to my amazing this young fellow was like, “Wow, really, you did?!? Sign my shirt.” So, I did.

Larry Kenney: And then you said, “50 bucks.”

Peter Newman: Well, that was before inflation. $25.

Lynne Lipton: I remember I used to go up to New York. And they’re not homeless kids, but I used to go up to Harlem and read to kids in the schools, and just because I like to do that. It’s a lot of fun. And one day, I thought, I’m going to bring a script, a Thundercats script. Because we had just recorded something.

And I figured maybe the kids would, you know, like to play the parts because I thought that would be such a wonderful thing for kids too, you know. So I made like these little scripts of this script of Thundercats, and I went up to the school and, and I had no idea that Thundercats was, we’re always in the studio, or I was always doing a play, either on Broadway or off, but this was our job. We never knew what the world thought of Thundercats.

And it brought the script, and the kids went crazy, and they played. I let them play all the parts, and that’s when I knew, I mean, they knew the Sword of Omens. They were fighting. It was great. It was just great. I had no idea because we’re recording it in a studio. We had no idea what the real world thought of it, you know?

Larry Kenney: I think we all, as I recall, we all knew the cast and the crew early on; after maybe five or six episodes, I remember sitting at lunch and talking about it and said, “You know, this is really well-written. It’s serious; it’s well-written.”

And then somebody said, at that moment, we had never heard the music yet, you know, because you have to animate first. I’m sorry, you have to do the voices and record the voices first. Some people think that they do the animation possible, and you try to match your lips to it. But that’s impossible. Anyway, the music is just coming in. And they say I’m going to play it for you. Then they hit that thing. {Makes guitar sounds}

Oh, man! It sounded like no other cartoon series.

Lynne Lipton: I just want to tell you I was doing a play, Sherlock Holmes, and it’s all very English. The lead actor at the time was Robert Stevens, who was a fine actor. He, I think, drank a little too much. What can I say? All of a sudden, he found out that I did Thundercats, and he just was like a revelation, you know.

“Excuse me, did you do Thundercats? Did you do Wilykit?” And a lot of times, he had a drink or two. You know. “You want to start?!?”

It was so funny to me that it had such a worldwide acceptance and popularity. And I think Lee once played me a version of it, not only in Japanese but also in some, you know, like Thundercats in another language. I know I heard it once in Spanish, and it was just so funny because the actors that they got to dub our voices were, you know, it’s like, oh, did I really sound like that? It was really good. It was a lot of fun to hear how other people do it.

Moderator – Mike Lopez: And I can say it was really a bubble. At that time, when we were making the show, you didn’t see what was going on in the outside world because there was no social media. There was no internet. Now here we all are, you know, celebrating the work that you did so many years ago.

Peter Newman: What’s the internet?

Moderator – Mike Lopez: So speaking of that, let’s hear from some of the folks out here, if anybody has a question, we’ll get that started.

Audience Member 2: What’s your favorite episode that you recorded for Thundercats for all of you guys?

Larry Kenney: Favorite episode?

Peter Newman: Favorite episode, Larry. Ep-i-sode. He’s an old man.

Larry Kenney: I don’t have a favorite. They’re all great. So, I think for me, at least, it was more fun doing the very first few because that’s when Lion-O was still a little kid. And he didn’t really grow up entirely. He didn’t have a chance to have a childhood. He went right into becoming the leader of the Thundercats. So, I got to voice him as a young boy.

You know, and he sounds pretty much Like the grown-up Lion-O, but he said things like, “Gee, Panthro. I don’t know if I’m cut out to be the Lord of the Thundercats.” And, uhm, it turned out he wasn’t. But they let him do it anyway.

Peter Newman: Did I answer your question?

Audience Member 2: What about Peter and Lynne? What are your favorite episodes that you recorded?

Peter Newman: I don’t know that I have one; as Larry was saying, it was when you got to do something different with the character. That was more fun, generally, than just being a character. You know, on an even, even keel, so that the like the Cave of Time with Tygra, because you got to get old and the sound bubble, or Monkian in this episode, I don’t remember the name of it, but where he gets to take over somehow. And, of course, in the end, he crashes and burns. But it was Monkian having his day. And so it was fun to play that, to just do that beyond what was already done for Monkian.

Monkian was one of my favorite characters, the way Peter did it.

“Hoo, hoo, hoo. What’s so great about liking Monkian? Who asked you? Hoo, hoo, hoo. “

Larry Kennye: He would actually go, “Hoo. Hoo. Hoo.” {makes ape motions with arms to indicate Peter acting out the role.}

Peter Newman: Yeah. I did that. As I said, we would audition in the studio when a new character was introduced. When Monkian came up, there he was drawn, and it was an ape-like character. “Hoo. Hoo.” So, that’s what came out.

Fortunately, they didn’t embarrass me by saying, “Get out.” So, yeah.

Lynne Lipton: My, my favorite scenes were always the scenes Mumm-Ra was in because Mumm-Ra scared the shit out of me.

Peter Newman: Language. Language!

Lynne Lipton: I’m so sorry. You didn’t hear that.

Larry Kenney: Kids, we’d like to apologize for Lynne for saying, “Shit.”

Lynne Lipton: But Mumm-Ra… Earl was a very nice, very sweet, kind man with a big personality, but when he did Mumm-Ra, I mean, it really sometimes scared me because I don’t know about you, but it was just like “Mumm-Ra.” {makes undead sounds} You know, and he’s in the studio, he would become this guy, you know. {more undead sounds} And he was just wonderful and scary and just a nice, funny man, but boy, did that, it scared me.

Larry Kenney: Well, you know, when Mumm-Ra does the transition, “Ancient spirits of evil, transform this decayed form…” So, you know, on screen, Mumm-Ra starts drooling this green bile. Earl really did that. Spittle would start coming out of his mouth. So, he would go, “I, Mumm-Ra…” {wipes mouth}

I don’t know about you guys, but when I read the script, I would look a page or two ahead whenever I saw Mumm-Ra do the thing, and I would move a little further away.

Peter Newman: I would try to be very conscious of my reaction because it was so great to watch him do that. I tried to ensure that I was back far enough from the microphone so that if I laughed because I was just enjoying it, I wouldn’t mess up his work. Because he really works. So I need to get right in my face, and he would just scream, and I would, you know, feel terrible if you messed up the take, and he would have to do it over again. Yeah, so…

Lynne Lipton: Our director is a wonderful woman named Lee Dannacher. She was in the room studio with us, and she had a habit. Always had a habit of, you know, let’s, let’s do another one for safety, which is a way of saying, just in case there wasn’t something right with the take that, you know, she would always ask for another one, and Mumm-Ra was, she’d say, Oh, that’s great. Well, no, let’s do safety on it. I always saw Larry back away again. He’s gonna spit all over me.

Larry Kenney: I thought about bringing a plastic sheet.

Moderator – Mike Lopez: Another question here from this gentleman.

Audience Member 3: Hi, there. I’m Peter. Thanks for being here today. We appreciate you for taking the time to join us. For decades, there have been rumors and rumblings about, uh, live-action or CGI Thundercats for the big screen. At any point in that time, have you guys been contacted to contribute to such a project, either as an actor or as a consultant?

Larry Kenney: I don’t think they would want me anywhere because I still have that leotard, but it’s not a pretty picture. And you’re right, every about every seven or eight years, there’s another rumor. Maybe the most recent one, they even went so far as to say that Warner Brothers has hired a director and a screenwriter, and the director is the guy who did Kong versus Godzilla, and then it goes away. And you don’t hear about it again. I wish they would do another movie.

Peter Newman: I wish they would hire us to do another movie.

Lynne Lipton: I would be Cheetara’s grandmother. I would just, you know, like, have a role in the live-action. “You know. Oh, Cheetara, you just have dirty paws, honey.”

Peter Newman: Tygra would be like, “Has anyone seen my bolo whip? I can’t find it. I’m invisibile to everybody. I don’t know.”

Moderator – Mike Lopez: We have time for a few more questions. This gentleman, right here.

Audience Member 4: Thank you. I’m just curious about the process with the animation. Was the whole cast together for all of the recordings?

Lynne Lipton: We were so lucky, because most animations, certainly other animations that I’ve done, you are in a studio alone. You often just looking at the picture and getting it’s called…

Peter Newman: ADR.

Lynne Lipton: You know, and you’re basically dubbing to the animation. And we were so lucky because most animation is done that way, certainly now, but we were together, and it gave us just fun. And it was very easy to go to work. I mean, I go home and think I’m getting paid for this?

He was, you know, Larry’s one of the most talented funny people I know, and Pete is dear. And all the old guys, you know, who were like masters of voices that you learn from, you learned how to do it from Bob McFadden, and the guy who did Mumm-Ra, Earl Hammond, and, you know, so it was, it was always kind of very joyful, and I felt absolutely lucky. Yeah.

Larry Kenney: Yeah. We were always all five of us, with minor exceptions in the studio together. If, at one point, they were at lunch, and Lee Dannacher here decided she wanted to change a word or two. She might just have that person come in and do it, you know, record it. To this day, I think any actor would would rather be in the ensemble. Can you imagine going to a play, and the first character comes out and does all his lines. Then, the next person comes out and does all his lines. That’s what it’s like when you work just by yourself. I mean, I’m still on a couple of shows. I’m still doing Teen Titans Go and a brand new one, Pokemon: Horizons. We’ve already done 45 of them.

But, yeah, it’s always better. Because, as Lynne said, when you’re together in a group, especially if you’re in a group like ours, everybody becomes like family. I mean, we really love each other, but we were doing it for so long. It took three years to record all those Thundercats, SilverHawks, and TigerSharks. And then we did a Saturday morning cartoon series called The Comic Strip. Does anybody remember that? It was four 15-minute shows. Two hours. Then we did over four or five holiday inspections. Yes, the adventures of delighted The Adventures of Santa Claus. That was Filmation.

So three or four years, we were seeing each other at least a few times a month to work on this. And we all became very close. I know we used to have Christmas parties and stuff like that, so I just really feel it’s better to work together because now, let’s see if I get called into a session, I’ll get there, I’m the only one in there, and they’ll record all my lines, and then I leave. Then, another actor will come in and record all his lines.

Peter Newman: You have to record to video, right?

Larry Kenney: With Pokemon: Horizons, they do ADR. Okay, the difference is Pokemon: Horizons has already been on the air in Japan for three years. So what we’re actually doing is just overdubbing. We’re not, we’re not the original. And for that, I mentioned earlier that you always do the voices first and then the animation.

Well, since the animation is already recorded for this, it kind of turns everything around. Now, you watch a screen, and you they then wait to a certain point before your line comes up, and then three seconds before your line comes up, you hear a beep, beep, beep. And then, on three beeps, you start reading your lines. It’s interesting, but it takes a little getting used to.

Lynne Lipton: It’s more fun to work with a lot of people. It just is, and these guys, they’re just not nice people. You know? But you take it.

Moderator – Mike Lopez: Guys, I have to thank you. This has been an amazing panel. We’re just about out of time, unfortunately. But if you guys have some other questions, you can come visit their tables downstairs. We have the whole weekend. You’re going to be with us so you know again, thank you for your contributions to all of our childhoods, you know, and the generations to come. So, let’s get a round of applause.

Larry Kenney: Thank you very much. And we always keep in mind, always have that there just three people. We wouldn’t be sitting here talking about Thundercats without you people.

Lynne Lipton: Yes, thank you for being fans for all these years. It’s amazing to me. Thank you.

Larry Kenney: So, can we go eat now?

Next: Discuss the Thundercats Reunion on the Film forum