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Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87
To further your point Moth, there is also the incident with Man Ray/Ray. Laird and Eastman stepped in again in 1991 when Man Ray was going to be the gnetic experiment stooge of a mad scientist in Rebel Without A Fin. They did not want the character depicted as evil but did not care when the less memorable Zack And The Alien Invaders made Wingnut was Screwloose's lacky hypnoizing boys as thier personal army. Leatherhead was the most diversely portrayed character and still is within the franchise best remembered for the cajun bully from the Florida swamp portrayal.
The problem with making Shredder a renagade utrom is it makes fans even if knowing better think Shredder and Krang melded into one character. Its far from intended but what it ultimatly comes across and makes me feel that we did not have an actual Shredder but variants of the character.
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I recall Ryan Brown stepping in with Man Ray, but I didn't know if Eastman/Laird were involved, as well. (I remembered it, but I didn't post on it originally, because I didn't think it was germane, as I thought that didn't involve Eastman/Laird.) Although, Ray, as a character, had a nice nonchalant attitude and proved that having all the abilities of sea life at your physical command isn't so lame, either.
Ironically, 87 version is my least favorite of Leatherhead, mainly for lack of nuance, I suppose. Though, his Southern-ism was a nice touch. Win some, lose some, and Archie did a good job with him in the end.
Someone on the TMNT Entity blog, had a nice snarky comment that 2003 Shredder was made to be like Krang, and Mirage Shredder was made to be like Wyrm. But was the change worth it for the character's sake or for the sake of change itself?
It's all easy to muse such things, as hindsight is 20/20 or whatever. Laird and Eastman both made their share of calls, good or bad, going with what they knew at the time. Had to do something right, even if they did make their share of mistakes along the way. Wonder how the Turtlemania would have been like or what the media products would have been, had Eastman and Laird knew then what they know now.
Edit: Read Jester's post after my posting, so until I get direct evidence otherwise, I'd just presume it was all on Brown's part. Or, after seeing Eastman and Laird doing it with the Mona Lisa episode, he better follow suit or, in all likelihood, would have stepped in, anyway?