For the various Ghostbusters Cartoon series. Real Ghostbusters, Extreme Ghostbusters and more!
#457232
CraigTHEOWL1 wrote:I don't think it would be a stretch to say Dave Couiler is one of the least funny people ever. Even when Full House was on, I remember as a kid thinking that Bob Saget and John Stamos being the comedic relief on that show. Dave Couiler's Venkman is like a half hearted version of his Caddyshack Bill Murray voice which he used several times during Full House.
Interestingly enough, I recently found some episodes of Out of Control on Youtube, and showed them to a friend of mine, as he's always been interested in those classic Nick shows.

I was watching the first few minutes of the pilot, and he is unbearable.

He just keeps making stupid words, and claiming it's "Martian talk" or something like that; and I'm just sitting there wondering how I ever sat thru this as a kid.

And I think Nostalgia Critic nailed it about his performance on Full House "he's the master of 1.000 voices...not a single one accurate!"
#4786474
Oh god. To say Dave Coulier grated is a vast understatement. I absolutely loathed how things just went downhill starting with Season 3.

As a pup, I glomped onto the Real Ghostbusters because it wasn't like all the other stereotypical 80s cartoon shows out there. The characters were HUMAN. Egon was usually off in his own odd little intellectual world, Ray was overweight, Winston was an average dude, and Janine was this sassy little thing that looked like an extra from Jem and the Holograms. They had a pet ghost who was more or less an anime pet. Kind of like a little green Ryo-Ohki. There was nothing polished or watered down about this show or its characters. It was dark when it wanted to be, it was edgy, it was weird, and if you didn't like it, hey, you could always change the channel. But it was entertaining and absolutely hilarious and it WORKED.

In the thick of all this was of course Peter, and what sold me on the show was that voice. I knew who Lorenzo Music was, and was fond of Garfield and to a lesser extent, Gummi Bears. Hearing this spunky, New Wave looking kid with this familiar voice provided a familiar comfort point for me.

But when Season 3 happened, I felt like the rug got pulled out from under me. It was bad enough that Peter lost his awesome voice and dry wit that Lorenzo Music gave him, but the writing went so bad so quickly that he ended up losing his personality and everything that went with him. It got very depressing very quickly, so I quit watching the show and moved on.

I'm not going to say Dave Coulier can't act. I liked him as Joey in Full House, and I remember him fondly from Muppet Babies. He did perfectly fine in those and I had no problem with him. But Real Ghostbusters wasn't upbeat comfort food like the other two shows. Peter's sarcastic and self centred. He's not goofy like Joey, and he's not one of the Muppet Babies. (Though Coulier did use his Peter voice in a Muppet Babies episode once) As such, I don't think Coulier knew WHAT to do, so he focused on doing that horrible Bill Murray voice and just left it at that. Case in point, Coulier provided Baby Egon's voice briefly in "Three Men and Egon". and he does that a lot better. But that was part of his element, since he was more or less just merging Babies Animal and Bunsen together into one voice.

So adding to this mess was the writers and network executives. As the writing got more and more dumbed down, poor Peter became stupider and more or less a glorified background character...he was there, but no one knew what to do with him. As the writing got more ridiculous, so did Coulier's portrayal of Peter, until he started sounding more like Goofy.

The end result was, as I mentioned before, very depressing for me. But then, between that and the comics, I'm coming to the conclusion that Peter's one of those characters who needs to be portrayed just right. Mess it up, and it's really noticeable.

:cool:
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#4790441
'm not going to say Dave Coulier can't act. I liked him as Joey in Full House, and I remember him fondly from Muppet Babies. He did perfectly fine in those and I had no problem with him. But Real Ghostbusters wasn't upbeat comfort food like the other two shows. Peter's sarcastic and self centred. He's not goofy like Joey, and he's not one of the Muppet Babies. (Though Coulier did use his Peter voice in a Muppet Babies episode once) As such, I don't think Coulier knew WHAT to do, so he focused on doing that horrible Bill Murray voice and just left it at that. Case in point, Coulier provided Baby Egon's voice briefly in "Three Men and Egon". and he does that a lot better. But that was part of his element, since he was more or less just merging Babies Animal and Bunsen together into one voice.
He did a voiceover on a plastic-man short for DC comics a while ago and I was shocked to see it was him. I also thought his demonic voices weren't bad either.
#4870180
I think it is pretty unfair when folks say things like "Murray got Music fired!" or that Bill is a jerk for causing Lorenzo to leave...

I see nothing in the story that paints Bill as wanting Music fired. All he said was that he really liked the show (which would actually, in my opinion, be praise for everyone involved), and that he was curious why Peter didn't sound like him. A perfectly valid question when Egon sounded very much like Harold Ramis. That's it. He didn't say "I like the show... but you have to fire the guy being Peter and make it a crappy impersonation of me". He didn't lobby the producers to change it, or introduce them to Dave Coulier in an effort to get a sound-a-like. He just asked a question.

I highly doubt he ever thought that this little question in the middle of casual conversation would lead the producers to go back and change their position on having the voices sound like the original actors. It sounds to me just like curiosity from a fan of the show.

The folks behind the show then took it as "Oh... well if Bill really wouldn't have an issue with the character sounding like him as we feared... then maybe we should get a sound-a-like! That means no escalating contract renewal with one of our primaries, and a character that sounds more like the film to general audiences! Win-win!"

Except it turned out to be a lose-lose. Music was vastly superior as Venkman. I couldn't get enough of Peter when Lorenzo voiced him. When it was Dave... I just wanted him to shut up.

But Bill's fault? Nah, I don't see it personally.

Sallah
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#4870252
I wish i never herd the complaints about Dave. I knew the characters voices changed, but i was young, it had proton packs, didn't pay much attention to it as kid. Its now like getting pointed out some one has 6 fingers on a hand. Once you notice, you can't un notice it. About ruined the last half of my box set. But in Dave Coulier's defense, alot of bad descions were made with rgb that brought down the quality of the show.
#4870261
Thanks, when I saw the Garfield cartoon I instantly thought Lorenzo sounded like Bill Murray, even though the Garfield movie hadn't been made yet, and at the time I wasn't aware of Real Ghostbusters. My mind was blown when I learned about the Bill Murray/Lorenzo Music connection :)
#4870745
Sallah wrote:I think it is pretty unfair when folks say things like "Murray got Music fired!" or that Bill is a jerk for causing Lorenzo to leave...
You could argue it was Ivan Reitman who was responsible as he misinterpreted Murray's suggestion as a complaint against Music.
#4873301
Watching the Ghostheads documentary, I facepalmed through the mini-interview with Coulier. I will give though, at least he still respects how great the show was at the time, and despite not liking his Venkman myself, he was in a few good episodes.

I always hate watching the DVDs when it gets to Coulier's first episode. It's like "Well, here we again. Should I keep watching?"
#4873600
TheDreamMaster wrote:Watching the Ghostheads documentary, I facepalmed through the mini-interview with Coulier. I will give though, at least he still respects how great the show was at the time, and despite not liking his Venkman myself, he was in a few good episodes.
Really? What does Coulier say that made you facepalm?
#4873985
pferreira1983 wrote:
TheDreamMaster wrote:Watching the Ghostheads documentary, I facepalmed through the mini-interview with Coulier. I will give though, at least he still respects how great the show was at the time, and despite not liking his Venkman myself, he was in a few good episodes.
Really? What does Coulier say that made you facepalm?
Agreed what did he say?
#4874038
He was speaking about the fans... He said something to the effect of him having a lot of Full House fans, and fans that remember him as Venkman on RGB. He said the Full House folks are fans, but the Real Ghostbusters ones are fanatics. They take it very seriously... You'll see Real Ghostbusters fans dressed as the characters, but you don't see anyone wearing a mullet and a Hawaiian shirt pretending to be Joey Gladstone.

I personally didn't see anything wrong in what he said, outside of the fact that you don't see many folks cosplaying the cartoon uniforms, let alone cosplaying one of the actual Ghostbusters by name.

Sallah
#4874206
From what I remember growing up in the UK, we never had any of the Dave Coulier episodes until much later, so I was blissfully unaware that the voice actors had changed until long after the show had aired here regularly.

Funny enough, the first time I heard Dave Colulier as Peter was in the Extreme Ghostbusters episode, "Back in the saddle". I had just assumed they couldn't get Lorenzo Music back for the reunion.

It wasn't until later that it was being shown here again, possibly as late as 2004 or something, that I saw an episode from one of the later seasons where Peter and Winston sounded different and Janine not only sounded different but also had different design to her.

No offense to Coulier, but I feel Lorenzo's unique voice was perfect for Venkman and hearing that character sound so different wasn't something I could get used to. I also feel like maybe Coulier didn't have a chance with it, because it was like they wrote the character differently in the few episodes I saw. Venkman seemed like an obnoxious jerk now while making unfunny one-liners.

Still, thankfully we have a good 60+ episodes with the proper voices. :cool:
#4874364
pferreira1983 wrote:
TheDreamMaster wrote:Watching the Ghostheads documentary, I facepalmed through the mini-interview with Coulier. I will give though, at least he still respects how great the show was at the time, and despite not liking his Venkman myself, he was in a few good episodes.
Really? What does Coulier say that made you facepalm?
It wasn't so much what he said, just it made me remember the worst of RGB. If I recall they only interviewed him and Maurice Lemarche regarding the show, so it was like the good and bad right next to each other.
#4874651
Sallah wrote:He was speaking about the fans... He said something to the effect of him having a lot of Full House fans, and fans that remember him as Venkman on RGB. He said the Full House folks are fans, but the Real Ghostbusters ones are fanatics. They take it very seriously... You'll see Real Ghostbusters fans dressed as the characters, but you don't see anyone wearing a mullet and a Hawaiian shirt pretending to be Joey Gladstone.

Can I watch the Ghostheads doc online or is it behind a pay wall?
Wafflerobot wrote:From what I remember growing up in the UK, we never had any of the Dave Coulier episodes until much later, so I was blissfully unaware that the voice actors had changed until long after the show had aired here regularly.
Actually the Dave Coulier episodes aired in the UK around 1990 so we got them pretty soon after the US airings.
#4874659
pferreira1983 wrote:Actually the Dave Coulier episodes aired in the UK around 1990 so we got them pretty soon after the US airings.
Odd that I never saw those episodes, I was obsessed with the show at the time. Glad I missed them to be honest.
#4875427
Sallah wrote:He was speaking about the fans... He said something to the effect of him having a lot of Full House fans, and fans that remember him as Venkman on RGB. He said the Full House folks are fans, but the Real Ghostbusters ones are fanatics. They take it very seriously... You'll see Real Ghostbusters fans dressed as the characters, but you don't see anyone wearing a mullet and a Hawaiian shirt pretending to be Joey Gladstone.

I personally didn't see anything wrong in what he said, outside of the fact that you don't see many folks cosplaying the cartoon uniforms, let alone cosplaying one of the actual Ghostbusters by name.

Sallah
Yes...because they want to dress as *appealing* characters, not some schmuck who had to sleep on his co-star's couch because he can't find work due to his lack of comic appeal!!!!!!!!!
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#4875907
Wafflerobot wrote:
pferreira1983 wrote:Actually the Dave Coulier episodes aired in the UK around 1990 so we got them pretty soon after the US airings.
Odd that I never saw those episodes, I was obsessed with the show at the time. Glad I missed them to be honest.
They were shown as part of children's show Motormouth. I remember being annoyed at the show splitting the episodes into halves as I didn't care for the rest of the show. I wasn't impressed with Dave Coulier or the other changes. But the animation was great.
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#4875978
pferreira1983 wrote:They were shown as part of children's show Motormouth. I remember being annoyed at the show splitting the episodes into halves as I didn't care for the rest of the show. I wasn't impressed with Dave Coulier or the other changes. But the animation was great.
That probably explains why I never saw these episodes back then, because although I remember Motormouth, I think I normally watched Going Live!/Live and Kicking on the other side, or slept in. I only ever watched Real Ghostbusters when it was shown once a week on CITV.

Having seen a couple of episodes from the later seasons now, I find Couliers Venkman really grating but like you said, the animation is great.
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#4879176
I thought Coulier was very condescending myself. The fact that he refers to us as "Real Ghostbusters" fans shows that he doesn't really get what GB fandom is really about, and he's dismissing it.

Comparing us to Full House fans is also insulting, because he's more or less stating that we're weird, and Full House fans are much more stable and less fanatical. it's not the first time he's blown off RGB. He's done so in other interviews, and his stance in the Visual History is more defensive because he knows he was a replacement for Lorenzo, and that it wasn't his favourite project to work on.

This makes me mad. Cos if Lorenzo Music were still alive, he would have spoken very fondly of his time bringing Peter to life. It sucks that Coulier doesn't have that same appreciation or respect.
#4879198
TDotBabs wrote: Comparing us to Full House fans is also insulting, because he's more or less stating that we're weird, and Full House fans are much more stable and less fanatical.
Well he was saying no Full House fans are about to dress up as Joey. And I agree, that's highly unlikely. It's a different type of fan.
#4879252
I think Coulier is unbearable as Venkman. The first 2 seasons are definitely the best because Lorenzo Music was such a great Venkman. I really blame Bill Murray though because apparently he complained that Lorenzo "didn't sound like Venkman" but then ironically he goes on to become Garfield. So how can Music not sound like Venkman but Murry can sound like Garfield? I love Bill Murray's performances in his films but I think he leaves a lot to be desired as a person. Music should have never been let go from that role and he certainly shouldn't have been replaced by Coulier.
#4879522
TDotBabs wrote:I thought Coulier was very condescending myself. The fact that he refers to us as "Real Ghostbusters" fans shows that he doesn't really get what GB fandom is really about, and he's dismissing it.
And I think you're reading way too much into it. I didnt think he was being condescending or dismissive at all. There are GB fans who prefer the cartoon to any other fiction. Ive often refered to myself as an RGB fan.

Seriously folks I understand that Lorenzo Music is more prefered (myself included) but Dave Coulier isn't the anti-christ. Even his vocal performace as Peter isn't 100% his fault as he's directed what to do by voice directors. He did very well as Peter in some of the more well liked episodes from the later seasons (The Grundel comes to mind)
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#4879582
Wafflerobot wrote:
Having seen a couple of episodes from the later seasons now, I find Couliers Venkman really grating but like you said, the animation is great.
Yeah the animation in Seasons 4 and 5 were great because they had more money. Seasons 6 and 7 had the worst animation.
StarSpengledBanner82 wrote:I think Coulier is unbearable as Venkman. The first 2 seasons are definitely the best because Lorenzo Music was such a great Venkman. I really blame Bill Murray though because apparently he complained that Lorenzo "didn't sound like Venkman" but then ironically he goes on to become Garfield. So how can Music not sound like Venkman but Murry can sound like Garfield? I love Bill Murray's performances in his films but I think he leaves a lot to be desired as a person. Music should have never been let go from that role and he certainly shouldn't have been replaced by Coulier.
Actually Ivan Reitman was really to blame because he jumped to conclusions about Murray's remark and ordered Music get let go for Coulier. Bill Murray I don't think had any knowledge Music played Garfield and was just eager to work with who he thought was one of the Coen Brothers. :-?
#4879754
pferreira1983 wrote: Actually Ivan Reitman was really to blame because he jumped to conclusions about Murray's remark and ordered Music get let go for Coulier. Bill Murray I don't think had any knowledge Music played Garfield and was just eager to work with who he thought was one of the Coen Brothers. :-?
Yeah from the little we know about this, it does sound to me as if Ivan overacted a bit to Murray's remark. It still seems strange that they felt the need to change the voice actor though, even if Murray complained.

By that point, the show was a huge success, spawned a successful toy line and had a good 70 episodes under its belt. Clearly the audience had no problem with a Venkman that didn't sound like murray so why make any changes at all?
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By Fritz
#4879770
Wafflerobot wrote:
pferreira1983 wrote: Actually Ivan Reitman was really to blame because he jumped to conclusions about Murray's remark and ordered Music get let go for Coulier. Bill Murray I don't think had any knowledge Music played Garfield and was just eager to work with who he thought was one of the Coen Brothers. :-?
Yeah from the little we know about this, it does sound to me as if Ivan overacted a bit to Murray's remark. It still seems strange that they felt the need to change the voice actor though, even if Murray complained.

By that point, the show was a huge success, spawned a successful toy line and had a good 70 episodes under its belt. Clearly the audience had no problem with a Venkman that didn't sound like murray so why make any changes at all?
I wonder if Reitman overreacted because he figured if Murray got pissed about the cartoon any chance of a sequel went up in smoke. We can't really rule out Murray being that petty, after all.

And they were changing the show anyway...even if Music had stayed, DiC was under orders from ABC to "improve" the show. I'm not sure how much better it would have been with Lorenzo being all buddy buddy with Slimer.
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#4879790
Fritz wrote:
Wafflerobot wrote:
Yeah from the little we know about this, it does sound to me as if Ivan overacted a bit to Murray's remark. It still seems strange that they felt the need to change the voice actor though, even if Murray complained.

By that point, the show was a huge success, spawned a successful toy line and had a good 70 episodes under its belt. Clearly the audience had no problem with a Venkman that didn't sound like murray so why make any changes at all?
I wonder if Reitman overreacted because he figured if Murray got pissed about the cartoon any chance of a sequel went up in smoke. We can't really rule out Murray being that petty, after all.

And they were changing the show anyway...even if Music had stayed, DiC was under orders from ABC to "improve" the show. I'm not sure how much better it would have been with Lorenzo being all buddy buddy with Slimer.
"Executives" have pretty much always proven themselves to be some of the most clueless people when it comes to knowing what the audience actually wants. I don't think it's a coincidence that pretty much any famous artist has always tried to be in as much control of their work as they possibly can be. Whether it's music, film, comics, or whatever it just seems that people who are creative and maintain creative control have a greater chance of being remembered fondly as opposed to those who just listen to the "suits".

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