McCONNOHIE: Well, right to the actor's nub -- what's my motivation...? Honestly, not fame. Success, yes, but not the kind of recognition that has strangers interrupting an otherwise quiet meal in a restaurant. I pretty much always liked to show off. I think any performer with a healthy ego does; otherwise why be in this business? The opportunity of being clever and witty, and be paid for it as well? A highly seductive concept.

Once I decided what I wanted to do, I pretty much hit that path and stayed on it. Although truthfully, at the end of my military enlistment I did come close to making a career in the Marine Corps. I think it's safe to say my life would have been very different.

TCC: The road to Hollywood certainly seems to be one of the least secure paths to travel in terms of a life-long career. Was there a point along that line which cemented for you the feeling that you'd made the right choice in pursuing a professional life as a performer, writer, and director?

McCONNOHIE: No particular point stands out as being the "Eureka!" moment for me. I've never regretted my choices (although sometimes I did wonder what I could have been thinking). I had actually spent my formative early teens in the San Fernando Valley suburbs of Los Angeles, and when I made my choice to go for acting as a career, I packed up and headed back to what had always been home in my heart.

Of course, when I arrived, I immediately embraced the glamour of Hollywood: living at the YMCA, and delivering newspapers and working temporary jobs to keep body and soul together.

TCC: How did you find your way into the world of voice-overs?

McCONNOHIE: From middle school on, I was involved in theater and singing, so there were quite a few performance opportunities, and some of them involved amateur presentations on local broadcast venues.

Then when I enlisted in the Marines, I actually had an active effect on my career choice. Although the general rule of thumb in the military is "shut up and don't volunteer," in this case they asked if anyone had any experience at all in radio. I said yes, and was sent to broadcast school. Then when my schooling was over, I served in Vietnam, Okinawa, and several locations in the States.

McCONNOHIE: Industrial narrations are bread-and-butter for anyone with a fairly well-modulated voice, so I've got a long background in that. Obviously I derive a lot of enjoyment from original animation productions, such as G.I. JOE and TRANSFORMERS.

And although it's intrinsically less artistic from the creative standpoint, I really enjoy dubbing and looping, although it's a lot harder than running free with a character. Trying to find a voice that believably sounds like it would emerge from a particular face, AND match the mouth movements, AND put some color into the performance is very hard but satisfying. Unfortunately, it's also one of the less-remunerative aspects of VO.

For me one of the most difficult things to do is an audiobook, especially an unabridged book. That can be anywhere from 16 to 20 hours of finished reading -- which means 50 - 60 hours of reading, and if it's a fiction piece, doing EVERY character in the book as distinctly as possible. An unabridged audiobook is easily a week and a half of vocal hell.

TCC: What types of character, if there are any specific ones, do you most enjoy playing and why?

McCONNOHIE: Without a doubt, Bad Guys are the most fun! They get the best lines, they get to be clever, they get to castigate everyone else, and if they get any backchat the offender gets obliterated. Best of all, they don't even really need to raise their voices (sometimes just a pinkie will do).

I've done a few CD games where I got to do a couple of highly different characters. In DIABLO II, there was this occasional nomad guide named Warriv, sort of a standard blustering John Rhys Davies rip, all well and good. And then there was this spooky Necromancer character -- and while he was ostensibly a good guy, his power was based in Black magics. He sort of drifted around, always speaking in a semi-whisper and being mildly amused when he saw an interesting death or a tasty poison. That kind of thing is great fun.

TCC: Does it surprise you that THE TRANSFORMERS not only has proved to have such staying power, but also continues to lay claim to such a large place in people's consciousnesses after all this time?

McCONNOHIE: Actually, it doesn't. I've been a science fiction fan from my early childhood, and one thread that runs through the best of it is a hope for our future. In that respect, I think TRANSFORMERS shares with STAR TREK (in all its incarnations) the viewpoint that people -- beings -- are generally positive, and that most problems can be resolved through communication.

I know that sounds a bit simple and perhaps it is, but I truly believe it. There are those who say that violence solves nothing; they're wrong, of course, because eventually it will solve something for one side or the other. But communication can solve it for BOTH sides. That's what the Autobots generally try to do, communicate and empathize. Violence is always an option, but it's rarely the first one. I admire that.

COSMOS: Lone space traveler and sometime object of UFO excitement.

TCC: The TRANSFORMERS TV series had already gotten through its first season by the time you were approached to take part in it. What were the circumstances surrounding your involvement, and how did you end up getting cast in the roles of Tracks and Cosmos?

McCONNOHIE: Ah, well... I was represented by the voice agent, Steve Tisherman, who also represented many of the performers already working in the show, like Peter Cullen, Chris Latta, Arthur Burghardt, and others. The producers were adding characters (mainly because Hasbro was adding toys!) and I was lucky enough to be included in the "expansion draft," as it were.

I went in to read for Wally Burr; he had his idea for the characters, guided me through the audition, and to my everlasting surprise (and pleasure) the producers chose me for both roles. As a general rule, because the Screen Actors Guild animation agreement allows three voices in one show without additional pay, if you have two distinct character voices you're far more likely to be cast. That way you can do your two main characters, and an additional guest or supporting voice.

TCC: Had you heard of the show prior to landing your part?

McCONNOHIE: I had, but I don't believe at that point I'd actually seen it yet. Bear in mind the lengthy production time for animation back then. There was some xerography used, but certainly no computer-aided animation shortcuts like now. It was all hand-drawn, and that took a lot of time.

TCC: I understand it's a fairly common occurrence for actors to read for roles that are ultimately given to others. Do you remember reading for any major TRANSFORMERS part or parts that other actors ended up performing?

McCONNOHIE: Not really, because by the time I was brought in most of the truly major roles had already been doled out.

TCC: Although you performed two very distinctive characters on THE TRANSFORMERS by way of Tracks and Cosmos, it seems that Tracks is the one most people tend to remember. He was certainly a very visible member of the gallery of personas, and I, for one, feel that you did an exceptional job of infusing him with the snobbish haughtiness for which his personality called. Of the various characters that you've performed in your career, would you at all consider him one of your favourites?

McCONNOHIE: Oh, most definitely! The process of finding, then fleshing out a character is always a fascinating trip. And remember, because the episodes hadn't been produced yet, all we had to go by visually was one color Xerox of a character sketch page. No action scenes, no little character "hooks," no basis for inter-relationships. During the actual recording process, we didn't have access to the storyboards, so we had to build the situation and context in our minds.