When they redubbed episodes from the first season, did they actually redub Arsenio Hall’s voice with that of Buster Jones’, or did they leave it as is?
To the best of my knowledge and recollection, they never redubbed Arsenio. The redubs aired in 1987 on ABC, and Arsenio was still Winston’s voice then–Buster Jones didn’t assume the role until the episodes that aired in 1988.
Yeah Season 4 when Slimer and The Real Ghostbusters began.
They left Winston’s voice alone, since Arsenio Hall didn’t leave under controversy, he left because his talk show took off and he didn’t have time to voice Winston anymore. Janine and Peter however were under fire for being too abrasive and/or not sounding enough like their movie counterparts. So when the censors moved in, they tried erasing all traces of Laura and Lorenzo in an attempt to sanitize the show.
Funny how these things turn out. Kath Soucie is a very-respected voice actress these days, yet her voice acting career began with the voicing of the much-hated second version of Janine Melnitz.
Not exactly. She was on a lot of 80s Saturday morning cartoons like My Little Pony and Pound Puppies before RGB came along.
In Soucie’s defense, she’s a very talented voice actress and, if she’d been given instructions to “Sound like Annie Potts” and the kind of material Laura Summer was given, she probably would have done a great job with the character. But she was hired to be a bland, meek “Mommy” figure–and that’s what she gave us. The blame is on the morons at ABC who ordered her character lobotomized.
Pretty much. She’s even mentioned outright that she didn’t understand or agree with why they changed Janine, but she had bills to pay so she took the job.
I take more offense with Coulier’s portrayal of Peter. Yes, he was hired to imitate Bill Murray, but I mean, that’s all he did! Coulier didn’t take any time to really understand the character, his delivery was awful, and half the time it was obvious he was just reading the lines. I remember him from Muppet Babies and Full House, so I know he was capable of acting and emoting. But for whatever reason he didn’t bother to do any of that with Peter, so Peter came off very wooden and flat and unintelligent.
At least with Kath Soucie, she took time to understand her portrayal of Janine 2.0 and bring what she could to the character.
As a kid, I loathed Coulier for what he did to Peter… but, being older and understanding how things work, I REALLY blame the directors for not, well, DIRECTING him and being okay with his performance. But yeah… fuck that focus group that forced these changes. With a rake… that’s on fire.
On YouTube, someone suspected that there may be a version of “Transylvanian Homesick Blues” with the original voices of Peter and Janine tucked away somewhere, and that the version with the new voices is the redubbed one.
I doubt it. All signs in that episode indicate that it was made AFTER the Q5 changes (title card and establishing firehouse shot are the same as the 2nd ABC season, Slimer has a tail in some shots and talks full sentences, and the production code is of the 2nd ABC season; the 1400XX series, instead of the 760XX series of the Syndicated season).
If anything, I’m more frustrated with it now than I was when I was younger. Because when I was a kid, I knew Peter was “off” in more than just voice, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Now that I’m older, I know what the problem is.
Q5 was a huge problem. (So was the show’s director, as from what I understand, Bill Murray’s comment about the cartoon not sounding like him wasn’t meant to be taken seriously, but folks were on a hair trigger over it.) Peter’s voice wasn’t even a good impression of Bill Murray to start with, but coupled with the writing and increasingly contrived plotlines, ended up sounding more and more like Goofy.
But Coulier still holds a chunk of the blame, since he didn’t bother to take the initiative with Peter and do anything to give him any life. Yes, the directors dropped the ball with coaching or directing, but everyone else, from Welker to even Buster Jones took care with their characters. Coulier didn’t.
In a similar vein, I wonder if Coulier even liked Peter. In interviews, he dismisses RGB as just doing a Bill Murray impression, and leaves it at that. But he springs to life when he performs the Muppet Babies or cartoon characters like Bullwinkle, that he actively enjoys.
She was Sheila in Dungeons & Dragons. Hmmm…Sheila. :mrgreen:
I forgot to ask, but was Slimer also redubbed in those seven episodes? Originally, Slimer talked in unintelligible gibberish, not unlike Frank Welker’s voicework in Gremlins.
I don’t think so, but I could be remembering wrong.
No he wasn’t, mainly because he was still voiced by the same person, and if he talked too intelligibly, it wouldn’t match the lip movements.