Why was he replaced?
 

I hope this hasn't been asked already, but I didn't come across it anyplace. This is a question pertaining to the OT series.

I know how for the original series, that they had alternates that took over for the characters when the voice actors weren't available. The one I'm curious about is Rob Paulsen for Raph. I know of the alternate, but for the last season of the OT series, that wasn't an alternate, but just a whole other voice actor, so I don't consider Michael Gough to be n alternate. He wasn't bad, but I was wondering if anyone here knew why Rob couldn't voice Raphael for the final season of the series.

while i dont no the answer to this i can guess. I think maybe hes contract ended?

I read somewhere (forgot where it's from) that Rob left the show so he'd focus more on his role on The Mask the animated series.

I heard he was holding out for a raise...and was told that he could and would be replaced...*shrugs*

I thought you told us, onceuponatime, that he left so the other regulars could get raises.

*shrugs* I dunna....I asked on Twitter, have yet to hear back. I'll give you the horse's mouth story when I do...if I do.

From a Rob Paulsen interview posted on the late, great NinjaTurtlesNetwork.com:
He may mention some more details about this on the Season 7 (Part 3?) DVD special feature.

Ahhh....So I was right! My Paulsen fan-ness remains intact.

I liked Hal Rayle way better than Michael Gough. He was just boring. 'Course, I was always partial to Groucho impressions. *goes to find some Glassic pickles to munch on*

I must watch the Red Sky eps again, I always thought Paulson still did those? But I have heard that he was replaced during those vacation episodes. I'll see those episodes someday.

Take my advice: Cover your wrists and remove every object sharper than a rolling pin from your house. Trust me on this. If this is the ONLY advice of mine you ever take, that's fine, but for f*ck's sake listen.

That bad huh? :lol: :lol: :lol:

Pure Dogsh*t.

I don't love the show like I did at 7. I admit a lot of it is bad, objectively. I think it's dumb when people try and claim that it wasn't; they're speaking from nostalgia, not sound reason. BUT. It has charm. It can be fun to watch one or two episodes of at a time. I disagree with people who say the show has no redeeming value at all.

But those European Vacation episodes are just the sh*ts. Legit, I can't do a full marathon of the show BECAUSE of those episodes. Like yeah, the whole entire show is a mixed bag and incredibly inconsistent. But that set of episodes was physically painful to endure and I just don't think I have it in me to even try again. You have to LOVE that f*cking show more than Jews love Chinese food to get through the European Vacation episodes.

I mean, do what you feel you must but for f*ck's sake call me before you snap and do something regrettable.

I can already see the Obituary. "Whateverthef*ckhisnameis passed away this weekend. As with so many others before him, tragically, those European Vacation episodes of Ninja Turtles were simply too much to overcome. In lieu of flowers, please send a donation in his name to the Watch Literally Anything Else Foundation."

Season 8 is pretty good and has Paulsen in top form.

Also...

Ron Paulsen only isn't in Season 10. He was in all of Seasons 8-9

So he wasn't in the final season? Now I really gotta rewatch those.

The guy they replaced Rob Paulsen with sounds very similar to him. So it's probably why you don't remember.

I made a thread about this not much later though specifically about the European Vacation episode recordings.
https://forums.thetechnodrome.com/sh...ad.php?t=39223

One thing I don't understand is why they all had to record together. With technology even then actors I thought could record their lines separately. Obliviously it was done with Sam Riegel in the 2005 when he moved to the east coast and recorded his lines separately. Even if a decade and a half later I am sure it could have been accommodated.

I have read that Rob Paulsen was not happy that their pay was cut for the final season so he mutually walked away as he was already in the prime of his recording career by then. Come to think of it even Voice Lessons did not include the departure after season 9 nor his absence from the European Vacation episodes. I think we concluded he was overbooked with voice gigs and could not make it when it was recorded.

Hats off to Townsend and Cam for their perfect attendance!

So, was TMNT(1987) the only cartoon that used sub actors( not replacements) during its production? It's the only one I am familiar with enough to know that did. I get on Saban for milking everything they can and penny pinching when Power Rangers was on top of the mountain, well this is an example that TMNT at least Fred Wolf Productions was not too different.

I actually just got done watching the Europe episodes recently. I think the guy who voiced Raph in those episodes actually sounded closer than the guy who voiced him in the final season.

I don't know. Good question. Let's not forget that 1987 TMNT was an unusually long cartoon series. Nearly 200 episodes long and, I believe, was the longest ever running American cartoon series when it ended in 1996. The Simpsons beat it for that title a year or two later, I believe.

So yeah, it's not so surprising that voice actors would miss an episode or two, considering the series went on for a decade and they also worked on other projects. Rob Paulsen had Mighty Max, James Avery had Fresh Prince, etc.

Even shows with much higher budgets than the TMNT cartoon weren't letting people record from home or remotely or anything like that. Up until the late-90s/early-2000s it was still expected that the voice cast would all record out of one central location most of the time.

See the incident with the Maude Flanders voice actress. The studio wouldn't let her work remotely and they wouldn't cover the travel expenses of flying her in to do the recording, so they let the actress go and killed her character off out of spite just to save a few dollars.

The Simpsons had a much bigger budget than FW TMNT so if they still were requiring people to record out of a central location then I assume that was the standard practice everywhere. Regardless of available technology, a lot of business stick to the method of "We've always done it this way, we're keeping it this way" simply out of habit and routine, even if it causes them back-end problems they didn't foresee.

those are some of my favorites in the series. HOWEVER, Elementry, My Dear Turtle, ranks as one of the worst. characters act out of character, it feels like entire scenes got dropped due to budget reasons (a top of train chase that could have been fun isn't there, but gets mentioned, making no sense)... and the whole thing just kind of moves slow for a time travel episode.

April Gets in Dutch is probably a highlight. some good Krang jokes in that one.

from what I remember, the voice director, or someone higher up, pretty much treated the cast like cattle. he said something along the lines of 'we should be treated nicer than this" the person being the prick said , 'don't like it? leave' and that's what he did.

I have a feeling the same thing probably happened with James Avery, although when I asked him direct, felt like he was skirting around it saying his contract just ended. which you'd think was a simple thing to fix, and they usually don't end mid season.

To be fair, I think the guy who replaced Paulsen in season 10 did an alright job. At least compared to previous replacement VAs who were all pretty much terrible.

didn't realize how old this thread was...whoopsie.

I think 96 Raph and Euro Raph where my Favorite Replacements. I can't watch the episodes in 1989 with that Replacement Raph. Who, IIRC, I think also voiced a nuetrino. It's way too high pitched and grating. The other two got the acting and the voice right, without trying to be a direct copy.

The thing is production did not even try to hid it. I remember pretending Shredder was prone to seasonal allergies as James Avery was the most missed voice actor. Dorian Haywood who voiced him in 1989 episodes like Leatherhead: Terror of The Swamp, The Making of Metalhead and Bye, Bye Fly was just miscast.

Also actors who have another notable character he/she voices should not use the exact same voice for another character. Greg Berg voicing Donatello for a half dozen episodes using his Skeeter voice, makes me think Fred Wolf thought, 'oh, you voice a computer nerd so you should fill in for the computer nerd on my show'.:trolleye: His Bebop voice was fine though.

Barry Gordon became the Screen Actors Guild President around the time he missed a few episodes. I wonder if that is what caused him to miss. It was just around the time of the 1989 episodes that he missed unlike Paulsen and Avery.

VAs been gettin' disrespected for eons now :trolleye:

I still find it surprising he didn't voice Raph for the final season, especially since that season was a few episodes. Like who even tells him 'Raphael can be replaced' when the show is on its final run.

Fun fact, Maggie Roswell is married to Euro Raph himself Hal Rayle.

Interesting to see that this thread has some momentum again after I originally started this so many years ago. It was around the time I first joined this board after becoming re-hooked to the series and back into the fandom.

Anyway, I really didn't like Hal's voice as Raph and Donatello had some stinkers too, but whoever voiced Raph in the last season wasn't so bad. I didn't mind him. Given how long the show went on, it's not surprising that they did have to have stand-ins on occasion. What I do find amazing, though, is that Leonardo and Michelangelo never had alternates, as Cam Clarke and Townsend Coleman was around for the entire run.

Now, I will say this....the European Vacation ep voices (not counting Leo and Mikey) were just awful...terribly awful. The voice work was ear-grating. I don't recall if Avery was voicing Shredder for those eps...my mind is a blank. lolYeah, they have. When it comes to movies, I blame the original Lion King for that trend. I didn't think anything of it back then, but they did advertise all of the celebrities doing roles in that film. There was so much star power. I'm even a bit guilty of wanting to see the movie because Jonathan Taylor Thomas was voicing Simba and I was a JTT fangirl at the time. IMO, this ruined how voice actors were treated, and come on! Look at Jim Cummings for that film! Amazing work taking over some of Irons' parts almost impeccably! Look at how animated films are now...they're so focused on the celebrities as opposed to the movie's plot and stuff. I miss having voice actors in these films, not a bunch of celebrities.

I did see an interview or article many years ago, where the dispute ended with:

V: You know the voice of Raphael IS replaceable (as heard in the few S3 episodes with an alternate VA and of course the European episodes).

I of course don't know the reason Rob was replaced in the above episodes and the same happened with Barry's Donatello in those same circumstances. But it just shows that there's always a plan B. Just like S2 Power Rangers.