I want to hear Tim Curry as the Joker
Most of you probably already know this but Tim Curry was the original voice of the Joker in this classic series. He recorded 7 episodes worth of dialogue before they replaced him with Mark.
3 different reasons have been given for his dismissal from the role.
1/ That his take on the character was too dark and frightening. Paul Dini claims this in the companion to the series. He says that they wanted a Joker who could be silly and scary where as Curry's was similar to Pennywise, a total, absolute monster.
2/ According to Hamill Fox felt Curry was on too many shows and didn't want him to be seen as the voice of the studio so they ordered he be taken off that series.
3/ Bruce Timm says the role put too much stress on his vocal chords due to his smoking habit and that he would gag and cough badly between takes so he left for practical and health reasons.
Whatever the case it was seemingly an amicable agreement as he left the team on good terms and later worked with them again on the sequel series Batman Beyond. IMO it seems more like that it was probably a combo of all 3 reasons as to why he left.
Now I am glad that Mark got the gig. Tim Curry is one of my favourite ever actors but I think Mark is the best Joker and I think it meant more to him as he was such a big comic book geek and I think that it really helped revitalize his career, where as I don't think it would have made any difference to Tim's career as he was an already established villain/voice actor. So it all worked out for the best.
Still is anyone else anxious to hear those tapes he made? Since each episode is over 20 minutes and he did 7 episodes then that means he did roughly over 2 and a half hours worth of material as the Joker. That's as long as Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger player the role.
They HAVE to let us hear those tapes if they still exist. I worry that they were just junked however. Though I know that they did survive when Mark took over the role as he heard them and a small snippet of Curry's Joker laugh appears in one episode. Still I want to hear them. I asked Paul Dini if they still exist on Twitter, but he didn't answer. Maybe he didn't get my tweet but still I'd love to see them released on a DVD special feature that allows you to watch the eps with either Mark or Tim's recordings.