Just in time for Halloween, let’s take a look back at one of the most popular paranormal animated series of all time– The Real Ghostbusters.
Obviously, this was based on the 1984 blockbuster Columbia Pictures film Ghostbusters and even recycled the hit theme song for the opening credits. What’s interesting is that The Real Ghostbusters didn’t arrive until two years after the film, on September 13, 1986.
This may have been because the film wasn’t specifically targeted at children. It just so happened to appeal to kids, even though the humor and other elements were clearly intended for an adult audience. It also wasn’t that common for every big summer movie to get a tie-in cartoon (or even toy line) back in the early-mid-80s. It probably took a while for Columbia to decide that Ghostbusters was a property that could translate to Saturday mornings.
As I discussed in my last Saturday Morning Superstars column, Filmation has created a live-action series called The Ghost Busters which aired on CBS Saturday mornings in 1975. When Columbia Pictures had the Ghostbusters film in development, they had to strike a deal with Filmation to use the name, since they were so similar. Reportedly, part of the agreement was that Filmation would get the first crack at making a Ghostbusters cartoon, should Columbia decide to go that route, but clearly that didn’t happen. I don’t know the backstory, but The Real Ghostbusters was created by DIC. Filmation went back and revived its original The Ghost Busters concept and gave it a modern (for the time) makeover and released its own syndicated series, although this time, the name was smooshed together as “Ghostbusters” the same way that the movie’s title was spelled. That show is normally referred to as “Filmation’s Ghostbusters” these days, but that isn’t how it was originally aired.
As for The Real Ghostbusters, originally, DIC produced a four-minute pilot of sorts which bore a closer resemblance to the film, with the four main characters in beige jumpsuits. Short clips from the pilot were used in some TV promos and were released in full on the Time Life DVD release of the series.
But for the actual series, each character was given a uniquely colored jumpsuit to make them stand out more and probably to make more appealing toys. Also, the character’s facial features were made more generic and their hair colors were altered. I have no proof of this, but this was likely to avoid paying the original film actors to use their licenses. This is the same reason why Ginger’s hair is colored platinum blonde on the two different Gilligan’s Island animated series to avoid legal action from original actor Tina Louise.
Lorenzo Music, who may be better remembered for voicing Garfield, replaced Bill Murray as Peter Venkman. Ironically, Murray voiced Garfield in 2004’s Garfield: The Movie. Music left The Real Ghostbusters after Season 2 and was replaced by Dave Coulier, best known for playing Joey Gladstone on Full House.
Ernie Hudson actually wanted to voice his movie character, Winston Zeddemore, but ultimately the role went to Arsenio Hall, who co-starred in Coming to America and went on to host his own long-running late-night talk show. Hall left after the third season to be replaced by Buster Jone for the duration of the series.
Maurice LaMarche voiced Egon Spengler for the entire run of the show, with animation legend Frank Welker voicing Ray Stanz, as well as Slimer, the “Green Ghost” from the film, who was recast as the gang’s comedic sidekick.
Their receptionist, Janine Melnitz was voiced by Laura Summer in Seasons 1 & 2 and Kath Soucie for Seasons 3-7. DIC actually had Soucie and Coulier go back and redub the dialogue for their characters in previously aired episodes.
Rick Moranis’ character, Louis Tully wasn’t originally part of the cartoon but was introduced after the release of Ghostbusters II, in which he returned in a bigger role. Rodger Bumpass provided his voice on the show.
The first season of The Real Ghostbusters aired on ABC Saturday mornings in 1986-87. This series ran for SEVEN seasons, which is too much to really dive into too in-depth. But one unique development is that beginning in the fall of 1987, The Real Ghostbusters also began airing original episodes in syndication on weekday afternoons. This is a real rarity, as most cartoons are either Saturday morning shows or syndicated afternoon shows– not both.
Airing just one day a week, Season 1 consisted of the typical 13 episodes, whereas 65 episodes were created for the syndicated season, which is considered Season 2. That season aired concurrently with another Saturday morning season, which is considered Season 3, and also consisted of 13 episodes. Eight additional episodes were animated for Season 4, which began airing in 1988.
Also in 1988, the Saturday morning series was expanded to an hour-long and renamed Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters, with 13 new shorts that showcased the silly sidekick character whose popularity had exploded thanks to the popularity of the cartoon. While the Slimer shorts were also created by DIC, the art style is noticeably different from that of the main Real Ghostbusters episodes– being much more cartoony with anthropomorphic animals and such, and the Ghostbusters themselves only made cameo appearances. Usually, the stories revolved around Slimer hanging out in the Sedgewick Hotel, which is where the Ghostbusters first encountered him in the movie and going on comedic adventures with a new cast of supporting characters, most of whom were animals or small children.
Ultimately, 33 Slimer shorts were created.
Back to the main show, interestingly, even though efforts were taken to make the Ghostbusters NOT look like their live-action actors, after the release of Ghostbusters II, Janine was redesigned with a bob haircut to emulate Annie Potts’ appearance in that film.
One unpleasant sidenote of the whole The Real Ghostbusters story is that according to writer J. Michael Straczynski, consulting firm Q5 wanted Janine to be “less harsh and slutty.” That could be behind certain changes made to her character over the years.
As stated, The Real Ghostbusters aired for seven seasons, split between Saturday mornings on ABC and in syndication. There had not been toys made based on the Ghostbusters live-action films, but Kenner produced a popular line of toys based on The Real Ghostbusters. That line ran from 1986-91 and replicas have recently been released by Hasbro, which is also now making toys based on the movies.
A sequel series, Extreme Ghostbusters, was released in 1997 with 40 episodes that aired in syndication.
The entire series was released by Time Life in 2008 as both a complete series boxed set and as individual volumes. The entire series was released on Youtube in anticipation of the release of Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Extreme Ghostbusters is also available.
Which do you prefer? The live-action Ghostbusters movies or The Real Ghostbusters?
