One thing Richard Pryor could never be accused of was keeping his act clean. During his heyday, the irreverent comic was highly rewarded for his blue humor, and it remained a part of his live performances for the rest of his life. Naturally, when Pryor’s film career took off, the profanity that was a staple of his stand-up shows came along with him. The only problem with that was that when his movies eventually made their way to television, Pryor’s dirtier lines had to be dubbed over.
In true Pryor fashion, he refused to do the dubbing himself, so others had to imitate his voice for the clean edits of his films. One such movie that needed to be toned down for TV was 1987’s Critical Condition, in which Pryor plays a con artist who fakes being crazy to avoid going to prison.
As a result, Pryor’s character is sent to a hospital for evaluation, where he’s mistaken for a doctor. When a major hurricane causes the power to go out, he finds himself tending to the facility’s patients as best as he can so as not to blow his cover.
The Weird Story of How Dave Coulier Became TV’s Clean Richard Pryor
So, who was tasked with making Pryor’s dialogue more family-friendly for the viewers at home, you ask? Well, as he was doing some impressions on The Oprah Winfrey Show back in 1991, Full House star Dave Coulier (a.k.a. Uncle Joey) revealed that he was actually the one chosen for the gig since he’s always been able to do a pretty good Pryor.
The actor then joked to Winfrey, in Pryor’s voice, “And it was really weird because, like, no one knew that I was, like, a guy with, like, blonde hair and this face.” You can check out the segment from Winfrey’s show right here:
Interestingly, that’s not where the connection between Critical Condition and Full House ends. Bob Saget also appeared in the film as an intern at the hospital named Dr. Joffe. Years later, Saget told Joe Rogan that he and Pryor bonded on the set of the movie over the tragedies each had endured, and that the two would go out to dinner frequently in those days. To hear Saget’s full recollection of his time working with Pryor, take a look at the clip below.
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