I agree with your comments. They made so many changes for the worse. I’m about to start the last disc on volume four right now and I don’t know how much more of this I can watch. I didn’t even finish GUESS WHAT’S COMING TO DINNER? This is the season that they brought JMS back to write JANINE, YOU’VE CHANGED and a few other episodes, which were actually quite good after the previous season where you had two twenty minute-long episodes during the SLIMER AND THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS hour. Some of the shorts were pretty good, but a long way from the best of the first three seasons and the syndicated run.
As I alluded to, it is hard to watch the show in Volume 4. There is little conflict and therefore little interest. They dumbed the show down to make everyone so “chummy”. Peter and Slimer never fight. They never give Janine a difficult time. The conflict between her and Peter is gone. She and Egon don’t show the same level of interest in each other. Ray is a mindless child-like character. Winston lacks that edge he used to have and is another soft character. Egon is probably the least unchanged, but even he isn’t the same. He isn’t as distant and seldom uses the long words that so often had to be translated by Ray, which someone said they found annoying, but I actually enjoyed.
Even though the later episodes aren’t to my tastes, I’m glad I have this set. But if I ever get through these later episodes, which will admittedly be difficult, I doubt I will go back to the well for them again. I’ll be sticking with the first three volumes. I actually liked the 3rd season on ABC more than the 2nd. And as for Dave Coulier, there are a few of the episodes on Volume 4 that JMS wrote in which he actually does a good job. But often I feel like he is just terrible. Like he’s talking with something in his mouth. It just doesn’t sound natural to me at all. Lorenzo Music was perfect.
i think that this board should be named the why i hate dave coulier board. because from what i’ve been reading of this board everyone seems to be spilting out venom against this dude. claiming he’s the reason that the series went downhill after season 2 ended. in which i find ridiculous. i mean does it matter who was good or bad as the voice of bill murray’s character from the ghostbusters movie? i mean the way i see it both voice actors brought on their own take of venkman. by that i mean lorenzo music brought on the comic side of venkman.while dave coulier brought on the somewhat voice and take action side of venkman. all in all i really think that you guys aren’t really being fair to coulier sure the dude may go a little of the top as venkman,but it’s like i said before do you know another voice actor that could do a good bill murray impersonation.
That’s the problem right there, in part: Lorenzo Music had already proven you can be a great Peter Venkman without sounding a thing like Bill Murray. But because Murray got butthurt that cartoon Venkman didn’t sound like him, Music was fired and replaced. Not because Music was bad for the part, or doing a bad job–he wasn’t. Because Bill Murray didn’t think Music sounded enough like him.
Coulier was not responsible for the decline in writing quality or the directives from ABC pinheads to have Venkman be buddy-buddy with Slimer. And he certainly did better with better scripts (ie JMS stories). But add all those together, it’s not really “We hate Dave Coulier” it’s “Lorenzo Music was about ten times better.”
Only ten? :lol: I kid. I do think Coulier did great on episodes such as The Grundel and The Copycat but as others have said it was overall the show going down the tubes. Personally I never really heard that much of Bill Murray in Coulier’s “impression” and I have seen most of Bill’s movies. If anything a little Carl Spackler as I’ve said but I guess I just don’t hear it.
Then I think you have mischaracterized what has been said. I’m sure some people will agree that he was one of the reasons the show wasn’t as good, but honestly, at least for me, it was simply the writing. Compared to Lorenzo, Dave was a huge step backwards, in my opinion. But it was just one of many changes made to the show that really was the death knell. A lot of the conflict was missing. Peter was no longer at odds with Slimer and Janine. Janine lost her edge. And the writers stopped finding their inspiration in mythology, folklore, science fiction and the like that made the show so fun and smart.
For instance, in Volume 4 the series really suffers, especially with the two mini episodes. Then they bring back JMS to write some episodes that are really smart and enjoyable. But sadly, some writers simply pitch ideas like, “Wouldn’t it be great if the Ghostbusters [went to space] [raced each other in a grand prix] [went camping] [traveled to the future].” And they throw in simple gags and remove the conflict. You can have both. The syndicated episodes did this very well. GHOST FIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL is a great example. The guys go to the old west, but it is written intelligently.
Finally, the show suffered a lot with the quality of animation. After the third season on ABC it really took a nose dive. Without reading the episode guide book, I immediately caught the bits of previous episodes that were spliced into the newer shows. The animation style was very noticeable.
Oh, I also just realized that most of Volume 5 is full of the Slimer! episodes, so I am almost done with the RGB cartoons. And I have no interest in watching the Slimer! cartoons. So I will just start RGB over from the beginning.
I think part of the reason Dave Coulier’s version of Peter came across the way he did was because of the voice direction. It’s how he was asked to deliver his lines. He might of just got away with it (the other reason: bad writing) if he had delivered his lines in a more subtle tone of voice like Lorenzo Music. That way he would of sounded more likable but still sound like Bill Murray.
I don’t get why people blame the voice actors for the series downfall. Watch “Janine, You’ve Changed” and “The Haunting of Heck House” and its clear the writer (In this case J.M.S.) has much more to do with it, as character development and the directions leads to more interesting results. I found that really only J.M.S. and Richard Mueller wrote good episodes towards the end of the show in seasons 6 and 7.
Richard Mueller pretty much held the show together in JMS’s absence - he wrote a heap of good episodes in the 1988-1989 seasons, under difficult circumstances. I believe Mee-Krah and Ed Zeddemore were his creations.
About Dave Coulier, eh, he’s alright. He was good at portraying the boisterous smart-ass side of Venkman’s personality but lacked the natural warmth of Music. However, from the interviews I’ve seen and everything, he seems like a real nice guy - the kind of guy you’d wanna have a beer with.
If anything a little Carl Spackler as I’ve said but I guess I just don’t hear it.