The Simpsons

[9 to 5]

Not sure, maybe @He Got A bicycle would like to weigh in?

[Warhawk8492]

Older but funny video

[Benji]

They did a good job recasting Carl in The Simpsons, the voice actor sounds similar enough that it works. I don't know why they did such a bad job with Dr Hibbert.

[Skummy]

12 hours ago, Benji said:

They did a good job recasting Carl in The Simpsons, the voice actor sounds similar enough that it works. I don't know why they did such a bad job with Dr Hibbert.

Dr Hibbert's original voice was based on Bill Cosby, so I imagine they've made a conscious effort to move away from that.

[lanky316]

That was my thinking on it. Simpsons characters are among the most recognisable voices and probably amongst the most impersonated. I would expect that it wouldn't be too hard to find someone close enough, especially with the fact it's a "two for one" impersonation. It is jarring after all these years but I think it is a deliberate switch, as weird as it is to hear in feeling "wrong".

[Benji]

1 hour ago, Skummy said:

Dr Hibbert's original voice was based on Bill Cosby, so I imagine they've made a conscious effort to move away from that.

I can't say I ever noticed that, even with you now saying it, but that's as good a reason as any. Entirely fair play.

[Colly]

I'm not overly convinced by that to be honest, especially given the vast gulf between Hibbert's voice and the Cosby voice they've used several times on the show itself in the early years. Good excuse I suppose.

[Skummy]

1 hour ago, Colly said:

I'm not overly convinced by that to be honest, especially given the vast gulf between Hibbert's voice and the Cosby voice they've used several times on the show itself in the early years. Good excuse I suppose.

If you see any scene of the Hibberts at home, it's very explicitly modelled on the Cosby house, he always wears sweaters when not at work, the random laughter is meant to be a Cosby reference, and I think Cosby's character on The Cosby Show was even a doctor.

So I don't think it's a stretch that the voice was pulling from the same source material - if anything, when they more explicitly reference Cosby, the voice they do is likely so much more of an outlandish parody because they already have Dr Hibbert's voice on the show. 

I can't see any other reason they'd re-cast and not even try and get close to the original voice, as they have done with Carl. 

[Benji]

I quite liked the Carl episode where he discovers his parentage. Anything that brings the badass that is Bass Reeves to more peoples attention works for me.

[Chris2K]

On a similar note, the replacement voice of Cleveland on Family Guy is also right on the money. I think they found him doing Cleveland impressions on YouTube, which seems like the best way to find someone these days.

This does leave the question of why they can't find someone to voice Kermit the Frog that sounds like Jim Henson or Steve Whitmire.

[TheGrandAvatar]

1 hour ago, Chris2K said:

This does leave the question of why they can't find someone to voice Kermit the Frog that sounds like Jim Henson or Steve Whitmire.

This reminds me about thinking recently on Zippy from Rainbow.

Roy Skelton added a lot of charm, character and fun to Zippy and George, not to mention the work he did on Doctor Who over his career.  However understandable the recast is with his death. The character has just hardly felt the same on the fleeting small moments he might pop up on TV these day's. A lot of that is down to how different he sound's to me, since I'm used to Skelton. Unfortunately I guess some character's will always lose their unique way in a recast, especially when we are used to certain people providing that voice. 

One recast I'm always pleased with, is how a lot of the classic cartoon character's that have always been around, still sound not a day of tune. Be if Daffy, Bugs Bunny, Sylvester, Mickey, Goofy and Donald. They all manage to really still feel the same character, even with a different voice actor.

This used to escape me as a child. Now I find myself being able to notice if the voice isn't the one I know, or it seems changed from before. 

I'm happy the voice cast in a few places has changed for actual heritage and background to be better represented by someone who can do that, most of all who should be filling those roles. 

As the industry changes for the better, hopefully, the day's of non suitable act's are thing's of the past, and being replaced by proper representation of background, heritage, race and nationality.

I'm often pleased that some shows change how the formula used to be with actors playing roles not suitable for them shall we say. 

[Colly]

2 hours ago, Chris2K said:

This does leave the question of why they can't find someone to voice Kermit the Frog that sounds like Jim Henson or Steve Whitmire.

This has soured me on all the recent Muppet things. It's so annoying.

[Chris2K]

It's even more annoying that Whitmire is willing and able to re-take the role, but Disney seem to have a vendetta against him and won't back down.

[Benji]

I wonder how old The Simpsons writer room is these days because I'm in my mid 30s and I find their consistent treatment of any one time or non-regular character involving people younger than me to be very "okay, boomer".

Guys did you know younger generations listen to different music, dress different and have their own slang? Wild concept.

Occasionally you'll have a good episode and I can't help but feel that most of them probably come from the younger writers a lot of the time.

Mind you, Al Jean is still in charge and despite a great first run, his return as showrunner basically coincides with the drop of the show going from "can't stop with the hits" to "every other episode might maybe be watchable".

[GoGo Yubari]

10 hours ago, Chris2K said:

This does leave the question of why they can't find someone to voice Kermit the Frog that sounds like Jim Henson or Steve Whitmire.

tbf it's not as simple as it might be with voiceover because not only would that person have to do the voice but they'd have to basically be a puppeteer good enough to not just be working for the Muppets but also playing the main Muppet. Of course, Kermit is in kind of that Randy Savage category of voices that a lot of people basically do for fun so you'd imagine there'd be a puppeteer good enough out there that they could have found.

With Whitmire my gut feeling is a) he was in fact probably annoying to work with from Disney's perspective because of his constant notes/complaints about what is or isn't in-character for Kermit to do and b) he's probably right about much of it if not all of it. The Muppets are definitely worse off for not having a good Kermit, Matt Vogel just sounds like a guy doing a Kermit voice.

[Skummy]

15 hours ago, Benji said:

I wonder how old The Simpsons writer room is these days because I'm in my mid 30s and I find their consistent treatment of any one time or non-regular character involving people younger than me to be very "okay, boomer".

Guys did you know younger generations listen to different music, dress different and have their own slang? Wild concept.

Every time I try and watch a newer episode of the Simpsons, it seems to be some variant on "Homer and/or Bart do something that goes viral online" or "Homer and/or Bart and/or Lisa befriend some hipsters", and they're always pretty mean-spirited in the way they treat those concepts. And by the way, did you know that you can get flavoured coffee now? What a concept. Only the trendiest of posers must be ordering that.

By contrast, I always find the way King of the Hill dealt with characters that we might think of as "hipsters" today to be the best - Hank was usually shown as unreasonable for refusing to accept them the way they are, but by the end of the episode they were usually revealed to be hypocrites or grifters anyway, so ultimately nobody ever learns anything. 

[GoGo Yubari]

I do think the Simpsons' writers room has gotten a lot younger in the last couple years but there's just kind of an uncanny valley aspect to watching stuff where Homer has a smartphone for me. I watched two episodes from the last couple seasons a couple months ago and liked them -- the one where Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers go on a road trip to an education conference is a really fun use of their bench/probably a calculated response to Steamed Hams becoming a big internet meme format (though they don't actually reference it from what I can recall in the episode) -- but even a Simpsons that functions a lot better than it did in the '10s still feels like an odd endeavor.

[Skummy]

The last time I saw an episode with Chalmers in it, Skinner called him "Gary", and that feels like such a fundamental misunderstanding of their relationship. 

Everything I see about new episodes is always weirdly referential of older stuff, too

 

[angeluzcr]

16 hours ago, GoGo Yubari said:

 the one where Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers go on a road trip to an education conference is a really fun use of their bench/probably a calculated response to Steamed Hams becoming a big internet meme format (though they don't actually reference it from what I can recall in the episode) 

in a scene where they are driving there is a Steamed Hams restaurant in the background.

[Benji]

Continuing the rewatch after a break, and up to season 19. It's really good season.

Homer of Seville, Little Orphan Millie, Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind, The Debarted, E Pluribus Wiggum, That 90s Show, Dial N for Nerder, and Mona Leaves-a are all really good episodes, and I don't think any really falls below an "average" episode of any non-early Simpsons show. It definitely starts slowly improving season 17 to end of 18 at the very least.