David Wise or Steve Murphy?

[CyberCubed]

The reason I am comparing these two is they both primarily wrote for a TMNT universe that was somewhat similar and shared a view of lots of mutants that co-existed with the Turtles.

Overall, who do you think was the better writer for the Turtles?

As much as I enjoyed the Archie series, I honestly think I prefer David Wise. Say what you will, this man knew how to writer clever banter between the Turtles, the Channel 6 news crew, and Shredder/Krang/Bebop/Rocksteady. He made me laugh. His plots was so absurd that they entertained me because they were so ridiculous.

Lastly Murphy's political agenda of shoving Captain Planet messages down our throats got old very quickly. Although when the Archie series really did kick off, it got really good.

I honestly like both, but I give the slight edge to David Wise.

[Powder]

For me they're too far apart to be compared, plus they were writing for different forms of media. So I vote "I like both equally".

[Spitfire]

Most of that banter was improv from the voice actors I can't really credit Wise with that.

[gobo]

Methinks Wise was the saving grace of his respective series whereas Murph was just one of several competent writers for his. So, by skill, I dunno. But, I find Wise's contributions more impressive.

[LeoNerdo]

It's kind of hard to compare while they are similar and based in similar universes they two media are soooo different. On the whole body of work I would say Wise because there is more content there and I enjoyed the series as a whole more. On the other hand when Archie was really good (Future shark and beyond) it's light years ahead of the cartoon in terms of quality.

[BentonGrey]

Like many of y'all, I have a pretty hard time picking between them. They are doing extremely different things, they're both very creative writers, and they both helped shape the imaginative life of my childhood with their work. However, since I feel like the Archie series holds up slightly better now that I'm an adult, I'll give my vote to Mr. Murphy by a nose.

[Sage Ninja]

I thought Francis Moss was the head writer of the old series?

Any way I picked David Wise because well, he wrote the five part pilote episodes. And those are just awsome. Some of my favorite episodes were written by him and he didn't just write absurd storylines he wrote some trully entertaining and engaging stories for the series.

He handled each character well and was one of the writers who wrote with a sense of continuity and respected already established details. I noticed that alot of the things he wrote about he would carry on from episode to episode. Like the elderly millionaire entrepreneur.

If their was ever a question of quality of stories between archie comics and the classic series it was just a matter of what was allowed by the powers that be for each medium. Had the old toon been allowed to get away with the same plots and issues the the archie comics were allowed to I have no doubt that David Wise would have written with the same quality or better as the archie comics.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by Sage Ninja

I thought Francis Moss was the head writer of the old series?

David Wise wrote over 70 episodes of the OT, he wrote the 5-episode Season 1, and was clearly the main guy who decided the tone and direction of the series throughout its entire run.

He also essentially created all the personalities for the characters. The OT Turtles act the way they did because of him, same for the villains.

[Sage Ninja]

ok...I just I thought saw in the neding credits several times Francis Moss as being top guy some where. I don't know my bad.

He also essentially created all the personalities for the characters. The OT Turtles act the way they did because of him, same for the villains.

and if this is supposed to be a rebuke to my remark on the quality writing, I still think even if he created the personalities he still had higher ups dictating what how they should handled. I think I saw an interview some where that had Divid Wise saying he orginally intended Michelangelo to be more of a "street" personality and address people with "home boy" but the higher ups thought it would be confused with "homosexuality" (calling some body "home boy") so it was changed to a surfer persona.

**waits for people to comment how "stoner" persona is less offecsive than a potenticial homosexual/street one**

[gobo]

Francis Moss was only the writer of the eps with Zach in 'em (his son).

[Slap-Happy]

Not being that much of an Archie fan, I never saw much of Murph's work past the early issues of Adventures, so I'd say I like Wise more. I find season one of that show especially well written.

[Jester]

They're about equal for me. The tone is very different, and both have their strengths and weaknesses.

[Powder]

Originally Posted by Sage Ninja

and if this is supposed to be a rebuke to my remark on the quality writing, I still think even if he created the personalities he still had higher ups dictating what how they should handled. I think I saw an interview some where that had Divid Wise saying he orginally intended Michelangelo to be more of a "street" personality and address people with "home boy" but the higher ups thought it would be confused with "homosexuality" (calling some body "home boy") so it was changed to a surfer persona.

**waits for people to comment how "stoner" persona is less offecsive than a potenticial homosexual/street one**

What the hell? Someone at Fred Wolf musta mixed up homie & homo. I enjoyed that the turtles were kinda "street" in the first few eps.
Seemed fitting for urban teens in the 80's.

[CyberCubed]

You know its kind of funny how Murphy used so many animal mutants, yet David Wise hardly used any. David Wise opted to simply use Shredder/Krang/Bebop/Rocksteady and the occasional one-shot robot and that was it.

Granted Wise did give us Groundchuck and Dirtbag for 2 episodes, Rahzar/Tokka in animated form, and he did write several Baxter, Slash, Rat King and Leatherhead episodes. He also gave us the Triceratons for an episode.

People act like the original cartoon constantly shoved mutants down our throats, when its the exact opposite. The Archie series was the one with all the mutants, the original cartoon wasn't.

[willtupper]

The correct answer is Steve Murphy.

Spoiler:

It doesn't matter what the question is .

[gobo]

Q: Who is the antichrist?
A: Steve Murphy

I think some rewording might be in order, Tup-Tup.

[Sage Ninja]

Originally Posted by gobo

Q: Who is the antichrist?
A: Steve Murphy.

that makes...a scarey amount of sense.

[CyberCubed]

You know I realize Murphy's Turtles were never very funny. I think there only a few things in the Archie series I found amusing, but not much.

[Spitfire]

Well it wasn't really supposed to be funny. It was a more serious take.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by gobo

Methinks Wise was the saving grace of his respective series whereas Murph was just one of several competent writers for his. So, by skill, I dunno. But, I find Wise's contributions more impressive.

Without Murphy, Archie TMNT Adventures probably would have been cancelled by the tenth issue due to Mirage/Archie production/communication problems getting the book out on a deadline. Before Murphy, they just adapted Fred Wolf scripts, which apparently FW wasn't too comfortable with them doing. Murphy really saved the whole series by shouldering the responsibility, so I'll give him all the credit for that. The Fred Wolf toon would have gone on with or without David Wise (it actually did for a while), but Wise was the single most influential person (who wasn't named Kevin Eastman or Peter Laird) in creating the popular TMNT mythos.

So... I just appreciate both of them for those reason. This could only be a legitimate comparison if Murphy tried to write cartoon scripts and Wise tried to write comic books.