Did Townsend Coleman channel Sean Penn?
 

I was driving home from work today and it dawned on me, as I was doing my worst OT Mikey impression, Michelangelo sounds a lot like Jeff Spicoli, the surfer/slacker played by Sean Penn in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. So I ask you: Did Townsend Coleman channel Sean Penn, or did the two actors just some up with similar stereotypical surfer voices?

Egads, I hope not :x

Whoa, that's like a totally righteously mondo spectacular Q you're posing there, dude!

It was probably the stereotypical thing to do back then; remember Alex Winters and Keanu Reeves in "Bill & Ted"? I don't know though, I was born in '83 so maybe Penn started the whole thing?!

I never thought of it that way before, but Michelangelo was very similar to Spicoli.

Now that makes me disappointed that they never did a scene where Vinnie's Pizza was being robbed, and Michelangelo walks out complaining that there's no paper towels, distracting the thief and allowing the pizza chef to throw coffee on him.

Then Michelangelo would say "totally awesome", and it would be the best ending to a TMNT episode ever.

Methinks it was just the stereotypical 'surfer dude' thing to do at the time. Now that you point it out tho, I'm seeing ALOT of similarities. It would be fun to see an OT redub on Youtube where Mikey talks with Spicoli's voice. Especially the parts with 4-letter words.

actually something I'm noticing as I rewatch the old series is that michaelangelo surfer-ness seems to get toned down as the series goes on. He still uses the surfer lingo but in season six and on (especially the Red Sky seasons) Michaelangelo seems to lose of that wacky surfer intonations and his voice becomes slighly more subdued and versitle as far as emotion goes.

Michaelangelo's surfer dialect
 

In the 80's toon Michaelangelo speaks like a surfer dude and uses all those surfer boy lingo. Through out the series does Michaelangelo ever lose the surfer lingo or does it become less pronounced in later seasons?

I've seen season one and season six, and I have to admit that 80's Michaelangelo did sound like he had an over powering surfer accent in season one. I've been watching season two recently and I'm noticeing Michaelangelo has a hard hitting over the top surfer dude voice with the surfer lingo, but compared to season six I didn't think his surfer accent seemed more toned down and he sounded more normal. And I was wondering in later seasons does Michaelangelo lose the surfer voice completely or does it just become less prominent over time?

Michaelangelo in the old toon is always featured with the surfer voice, that just part of his character in the old toon. Though it does lessen in RedSky...

He's often seen surfing in the sewers.
 

Michaelangelo is often seen surfing in the sewers in the 1987 TMNT cartoon.

Michaleangelo in the OT had the surfer voice because it was the 80's and the surfer persona was considered hip and trendy back then and because they wanted Mike to be the "cool" turtle they gave him that persona, I guess because they wanted him to appeal to youngsters. I don't know if this was decided on by the Fred Wolf people or if the actor that voiced him just decided to give hive him a surfer voice but they did so it happened. I think in the long run it was a bad idea since to the younger generations he's dated now.

Who does OT Michaelangelo's voice any way?

Townsend Coleman. He also did the voice of the Rat King.

and the funniest thing...surfers dont really talk that way...

If you say so... I met a few people that do speak that way....

you mean surfers now a days?

Thats a good question. Does any one here know if Townsend was instructed to have a surfer dialect by the directer or if he just decided on his own to use a surfer voice to portray OT Michaelangelo?

in any event if Michaelangelo's surfer dialect started to fade in later season it could have been just a result of the actor(s) just settling into the role of the character over long course of time and just useing a voice he was more comfertable with, which happens with actors if they do a role long enough. It happened in the New toon with Raph with his in your face New York accent. Go watch some of season one and then some recent seasons and you'll see Raph had much stronger New York accent than he does now.

Lemme just say, I HATE when people who are unfamiliar with the TMNT (including various business partners) all blend them in and give them Mikey's Surf Dude talk. I've seen it too many times, even in TMNT projects. I do NOT recall Leo ever saying "dude." Totally out of character.

That said, Mikey was my favorite when I was a kid, and I had a one year phase of thinking I was a surfer dude. Of course, both Mikey and the initial version of Bart Simpson talked like that... and then came Bill and Ted...

Ahem, read my sig.

what I hate is when they take other Michaelangelo's from other versions and give him the surfer accent. I don't mind Michaelangelo in the OT having it because at least that was orginal to his depiction in the toon so it's his; but was it necessary to have Mikey in the live action movie with a psudo surfer accent or the next mutation? Why couldn't they make these versions their own Mikey instead of copying OT Michaelangelo? And what worse is that they had Mikey in the new movie--the one in the present day, far, far away from the eightes, with a surfer lingo. WTF!? I not like Mikey or his voice in the new toon but at least he doesn't use dude all the time and use s=dated surfer lingo.

so wait a minute, 80's Mikey has more than one actor voicing him? Does the orginal actor leave the show?

I have noticed that other versions of Mikey have the surfer dialect, like in the new movie. I just thought it was apart of his character and he always had it. Since the new movie was supposed to be more like the orginal comics I thought they where making the characters fit the comic roots as well. When Did Mikey as surfer get started? Was it the old mirage comics?

I have never met a surfer here in SoCal who talked like OT Mike.....I grew up on the beach. It's all stereotype. Most folks even think if yer from SoCal, you talk like a valley girl...they don't talk like that! They talk like little spoiled .....*insert inappropriate words*....

I dunno how surfers talk nowadays but back in the 80s...it was all media, not real life. Yeah we said dude, rad, bitchin'...but we didn't sound like Mikey.

I'm Pretty sure that Mikey, allong with Leo, was the only turtle that didn't have an alternate voice. In fact, didn't Townsend Coleman actually do some of the replacement voices for Krang and Shredder at one point?

I'd say, the fading effects of the surfer dude lingo may have been due to the fading interrest by the writers. In certain episodes, they seem to be accentuating his stupidity instead of his dudeness.

We call that a stereotype. A few well publicised surfers may have talked like that, but that doesn't mean they all did.

It was definately the cartoon. Same time they decided to make Raph a sacrastic goofball. It was clearly to "spice up" the character. Much like making Donny a technogeek.