The Real Ghostbusters | |
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Also known as | Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters (seasons 4–7) |
Genre | |
Based on | |
Developed by | Joe Medjuck Michael C. Gross |
Voices of | |
Theme music composer | Ray Parker Jr. |
Opening theme | "Ghostbusters" |
Composers |
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Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 7 |
No. of episodes |
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Production | |
Executive producers | |
Producers |
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Running time | 14–24 minutes |
Production companies | |
Original release | |
Network |
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Release | September 13, 1986 – October 5, 1991 [2] [3] |
Related | |
Extreme Ghostbusters |
The Real Ghostbusters is an American animated television series, a spin-off and sequel of the 1984 comedy film Ghostbusters . [4] The series ran from September 13, 1986, to October 5, 1991, and was produced by Columbia Pictures Television and DIC Enterprises, and distributed by Coca-Cola Telecommunications. [5]
The series continues the adventures of paranormal investigators Dr. Peter Venkman, Dr. Egon Spengler, Dr. Ray Stantz, Winston Zeddemore, their secretary Janine Melnitz and their mascot ghost Slimer. [6]
"The Real" was added to the title after a dispute with Filmation and its Ghost Busters properties. [7]
There also were two ongoing Real Ghostbusters comics, one published monthly by NOW Comics in the United States and the other published weekly (originally biweekly) by Marvel Comics in the United Kingdom. Kenner produced a line of action figures and playsets based on the cartoon. In 2023, events from the series would be adapted for the canon video game Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed , in particular the character of Samhain.
The series follows the continuing adventures of the four Ghostbusters, their secretary Janine, their accountant Louis, and their mascot Slimer, as they chase and capture rogue spooks, specters, spirits and ghosts around New York City and various other areas of the world. [8]
At the start of the fourth season in 1988, the show was retitled to Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters. [5] It aired in a one-hour time slot, which the show had begun doing under its original name earlier that same year on January 30, 1988. [9] In addition to the regular 30-minute Real Ghostbusters episode, a half-hour Slimer! sub-series was added that included two to three short animated segments focusing on the character Slimer. Animation for the Slimer! cartoons was handled by Wang Film Productions. At the end of its seven-season run, 147 episodes had aired, including the syndicated episodes and 13 episodes of Slimer!, with multiple episodes airing out of production order. [10]
Season | Segments | Episodes | Originally aired | |||
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First aired | Last aired | Network | ||||
1 | — | 13 | September 13, 1986 | December 13, 1986 | ABC | |
2 | 65 | September 14, 1987 | December 11, 1987 | Syndication | ||
3 | 13 | September 12, 1987 | December 12, 1987 | ABC | ||
4 | 8 | September 10, 1988 | December 3, 1988 | |||
Slimer! | 33 | 13 | September 10, 1988 | December 3, 1988 | ||
5 | — | 21 | September 9, 1989 | December 23, 1989 | ||
6 | 16 | September 8, 1990 | November 24, 1990 | |||
7 | 4 | September 7, 1991 | October 5, 1991 | |||
Crossover | April 21, 1990 | ABC NBC Fox CBS USA Network Syndication |
At the same time The Real Ghostbusters was being created, Filmation was making a cartoon revamp (Ghostbusters) of their 1975 [11] live action series The Ghost Busters , due to disagreements with Columbia over animation rights.
A short pilot episode was produced, but never aired in full. The full 4-minute promo was released on Time Life's DVD set in 2008. Scenes of the pilot can be seen in TV promos that aired prior to the beginning of the series. Among differences seen in the promo pilot, the Ghostbusters wore beige jumpsuits as in the film and the character design for Peter Venkman bore more of a resemblance to actor Bill Murray. The character designs by Jim McDermott were dramatically different, with color-coded jumpsuits for each character. [12] When he auditioned for the voice of Egon Spengler, Maurice LaMarche noted that while he was asked not to impersonate Harold Ramis, he did so anyway and eventually got the part. [13] LaMarche also noted that Bill Murray had remarked off-handedly to producers that Lorenzo Music's voice for Peter Venkman sounded more like Garfield (who was also voiced by Music at the time). Murray went on to voice Garfield in Garfield: The Movie and its sequel in the 2000s after Music died in 2001. [14] Dave Coulier took over the role of Venkman from Music starting in the third season. Coulier explained that Joe Medjuck, a producer on both the original 1984 film and the animated series, wanted the character to sound more like Murray. [15] Ernie Hudson was the only actor from the films who auditioned to play his character in the series; however, the role was given to Arsenio Hall and later Buster Jones. [16] [17] [18]
Although the Ghostbusters concept was tinkered with, the finalized show does feature many tie-ins from the films. In the season 1 episode "Take Two", the Ghostbusters fly to Hollywood to visit the set of a movie based on their adventures, which is revealed to be the 1984 movie at the end of the episode. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man makes numerous appearances. During the third season, Walter Peck, the Environmental Protection Agency antagonist from the original film, reappears. The uniforms and containment unit are redesigned, and Slimer is changed from a bad ghost to a resident and friend, events which are explained in the episode "Citizen Ghost" that flashes back to what happened to the Ghostbusters right after the film's events. Gozer is mentioned repeatedly throughout the series, usually in comparison to a ghost they are currently battling (e.g. "Cthulhu makes Gozer look like Little Mary Sunshine").
In the third season, some of the character designs were modified. Ray's character design was slimmed down to give the character a less overweight appearance and Slimer was given a tail instead of the formerly rounded bottom (he reverted to a stub in Season 6). The biggest change was to the character of Janine, whose hair was completely changed from being short and spiky to long and straight. Her overall design was softened, as was her personality. Her voice was also softened with Kath Soucie taking over the voice role from Laura Summer. ABC also went back, and redubbed Peter's and Janine's dialogue in several episodes of the show with Dave Coulier and Kath Soucie, respectively. [19] Changes to Janine's character were eventually addressed in the season 6 episode (#118) entitled, "Janine, You've Changed".
Most of these changes were the result of ABC hiring a consulting firm called Q5, in an attempt for guidance on improving the network's low ratings for their Saturday Morning lineup, a move strongly criticized by show writers J. Michael Straczynski, who was a story editor on the series and wrote episodes for every season except 4 and 7, and Michael Reaves. [20] Many of the changes brought on by Q5 were even criticized by Straczynski as being racist and sexist, [20] such as having each Ghostbuster have a specific role (such as a body, Peter being the mouth, Ray the heart, and Egon the brain) but making Winston (the only main African American character) the driver saying he is "the hands". [21] Another example would be stating how the character of Janine needed to be "more nurturing", put her in more "dress-like outfits" [22] and "making her less harsh and slutty". [20]
At the start of the series' fourth season in 1988, the opening was completely redone to center around Slimer. Eventually the episodes were expanded from their original half-hour format to last an hour, and the overall feel of the show was changed to be more youthful, with episodes having a lighter tone to be less frightening. [23]
By season 5, Louis Tully was added to the show following the character's appearance in Ghostbusters II .
Recording for the show took place in Los Angeles, California. The cast always recorded together, instead of separately as is custom. [22] After recording of the dialogue was completed, sound tapes, storyboards, backgrounds, and character designs were then shipped to Japanese animation studios for animation and filming. South Korean studios were also used during the final two seasons. [24]
The show originally aired on ABC for its full run, except for the second season, which ran in syndication at the same time as the third season ran on ABC. Later, reruns of the show appeared on the USA Network's USA Cartoon Express from September 16, 1991 [25] to September 11, 1994. [26] Fox Family Channel also reran the series from August 17, 1998 [27] to October 1, 1999. [28] In August 2012, reruns began airing on Fearnet during the weekends, part of their "Funhouse" block, and on April 1, 2017, the show began to stream on Netflix, but was removed two years later. [29] Then the show aired in Spanish on TeleXitos from 2022 to 2023. [30] As of June 25, 2024, the show is currently airing on MeTV Toons. [31] It aired on ITV in the U.K. in February 1988.
To celebrate the upcoming release of Ghostbusters: Afterlife , both The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters were released onto the official Ghostbusters YouTube channel. [32]
The Real Ghostbusters soundtrack was released in 1986 on CD, records, and cassette by PolyGram Records. All songs were performed by Tahiti (Tyren Perry & Tonya Townsend). [13]
From 1986 to 1989, several episodes were released by Magic Window, the children's imprint of RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video. The episodes on the cassettes were from the first season of syndication.[ citation needed ]
In 2004 and again in 2006, Sony released bare bones episode compilations in the United Kingdom and United States, respectively. The DVD release of Ghostbusters II also included two episodes of the series as bonus features, "Citizen Ghost", a story focusing on events set immediately after the first movie, and "Partners in Slime" (this episode has the original broadcast version and the original end logos—DiC "kid in bed" and Columbia Pictures Television (1988) logos, respectively), which featured the psycho-active slime from Ghostbusters II and a brief mention of its villain Vigo the Carpathian. [33] [34] [35]
Time Life acquired the home video rights to the series in May 2008 and released a complete series on DVD in the Fall of 2008. [36] That July they allowed fans the chance to vote between two variations of an outer box for the set [37] —one designed to look like the main characters' firehouse headquarters and the other all black with different images on each side. Both featured lenticular printing, the firehouse version to show the Ecto-1 and the black version to have oozing "slime". [38] Released on November 25, 2008, [39] in the "firehouse" casing, [40] the set spans 25 discs containing all 147 episodes of the series. [41] They subsequently began releasing the individual volumes on March 31, 2009, but only the first three were released. Volumes 4 and 5 were not released due to poor sales. The Time Life releases have been discontinued and are now out of print.
Sony began re-releasing the series on DVD in Region 1 in 2016. Volumes 1–5 (each containing 11 or 12 episodes) were released on July 5, [42] while Volumes 6–10 (with 10 or 11 episodes each) were released on September 6. [43] Unlike the previous Time Life edition, the Sony release is incomplete, missing 29 episodes that were inexplicably omitted, as well as the entire Slimer! sub-series. Additionally, title cards were removed from all episodes in the first five volumes (title and writer credits were superimposed over the animated opening). [44] All 10 volumes, spanning 10 discs containing 111 episodes, were released in a slim plastic box set in October 2017 (comprising 80% of the series).[ citation needed ]
The complete first season was released on DVD in Australia on June 3, 2009,[ citation needed ] and in the U.K. on June 15. [45]
In 1997, a sequel cartoon entitled Extreme Ghostbusters was produced by Columbia TriStar Television and Adelaide Productions. It premiered on September 1, 1997, and ran for forty episodes until its conclusion on December 8. Set several years after the end of The Real Ghostbusters, the series opened by saying the team has disbanded due to a lack of supernatural activity. Only Egon remains in the firehouse, along with Slimer, to care for the containment system while teaching classes at a local university. When supernatural events begin occurring in New York, Egon recruits four of his university students as a new team of Ghostbusters, and Janine, also one of Egon's students, returns to manage the office. The original Ghostbusters return for the two-episode season finale to celebrate Egon's 40th birthday, leading to them reluctantly working together with the younger generation to solve one last case.
The series has received critical acclaim since its premiere. The first season received an approval rating of 100% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on five reviews. [46] Common Sense Media gave the series a three out of five stars: "Parents need to know that The Real Ghostbusters is an animated series spun off the mega-popular 1984 movie Ghostbusters (the "Real" was added to avoid confusion with an unrelated cartoon of the same name). The core characters remain the same, though the cartoon is skewed toward younger kids and as such, drops the swearing, the smoking, and the sexual innuendo. While the Ghostbusters do spend their days vanquishing evil, the monsters and phantoms they encounter are often quite silly (some of them even make wisecracks) and not too scary". [47]
Courage the Cowardly Dog is an American animated Black Horror Comedy television series created by John R. Dilworth for Cartoon Network. It was produced by Dilworth's animation studio, Stretch Films. The eponymous character is a dog who lives with an elderly couple in a farmhouse in the middle of Nowhere, a fictional town in Kansas. In each episode, the trio is thrown into bizarre, frequently disturbing, and often paranormal or supernatural adventures. The series is known for its dark, surreal humor and atmosphere.
Ghostbusters II is a 1989 American supernatural comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The film stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Ramis, Rick Moranis, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts. It is the sequel to the 1984 film Ghostbusters and the second film in the Ghostbusters franchise. Set five years after the events of the first film, the Ghostbusters have been sued and put out of business after the destruction caused during their battle with the deity Gozer the Gozerian. When a new paranormal threat emerges, the Ghostbusters reunite to combat it and save the world.
Extreme Ghostbusters is an American animated television series, based on the Ghostbusters franchise, which initially aired from September 1 to December 8, 1997. A sequel to The Real Ghostbusters, which aired from 1986 to 1991 on ABC, Extreme Ghostbusters is set after that series' finale. The 40-episode series initially aired on the syndicated Bohbot Kids Network's "Extreme Block" in 1997, and featured a team of college-aged Ghostbusters led by veteran Ghostbuster Egon Spengler. In some TV listings, the series was called Ghostbusters Dark.
The Ghost Busters is a live-action children's sitcom that ran on CBS in 1975, about a team of bumbling detectives who investigate ghostly occurrences. Fifteen episodes were produced. The show reunited Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch in roles similar to their characters in F Troop.
Defenders of the Earth is an American animated television series produced in 1986, featuring characters from three comic strips distributed by King Features Syndicate—Flash Gordon, The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, and Mandrake's assistant Lothar—opposing Ming the Merciless in the year 2015. Supporting characters include their children Rick Gordon, L.J., Kshin, and Jedda Walker.
Peter Venkman, PhD is a fictional character from the Ghostbusters franchise. He appears in the films Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and in the animated television series The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters. In those four live action films, he was portrayed by Bill Murray, and was voiced in the animated series first by Lorenzo Music and then by Dave Coulier. Dan Aykroyd originally wrote the script with John Belushi in mind to play the role of Peter but Belushi died of a drug overdose on March 5, 1982, leading Murray to get the role. Peter is a parapsychologist, initially a skeptic on the paranormal despite being a scientist on the subject, and the leader of the Ghostbusters.
Raymond Stantz, PhD, is a fictional character from the Ghostbusters franchise. He appears in the films Ghostbusters (1984), Ghostbusters II (1989), Casper, Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024), the animated television series The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters, and the video games Beeline's Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters: The Video Game (2009), Planet Coaster (2019), Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed (2022) and Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord (2024). He was portrayed by Dan Aykroyd in five live action films, and voiced by Frank Welker in the animated series. He is a member of the Ghostbusters and one of the three Columbia University professors of parapsychology, along with Dr. Peter Venkman and Dr. Egon Spengler.
Egon Spengler, PhD is a fictional character from the Ghostbusters franchise. He appears in the films Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, and Ghostbusters: Afterlife, in the animated television series The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters, and in the video games Ghostbusters: The Video Game and Ghostbusters Beeline. Egon was portrayed by Harold Ramis in the films and voiced by him in Ghostbusters: The Video Game and Lego Dimensions, and voiced by Maurice LaMarche in the cartoon series. He is a member of the Ghostbusters and one of the three doctors of parapsychology, along with Dr. Peter Venkman and Dr. Ray Stantz.
Janine Melnitz is a fictional character in the Ghostbusters series. She is the Ghostbusters' secretary and confidante and occasionally, a ghostbuster herself. She was played by Annie Potts in the first two movies, and in The Real Ghostbusters, she was voiced initially by Laura Summer and later on by Kath Soucie. In Extreme Ghostbusters, she was voiced by Pat Musick. Potts reprised the role for 2009's Ghostbusters: The Video Game, 2021's Ghostbusters: Afterlife and 2024's Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and had a cameo as a similar hotel receptionist in the 2016 remake.
Winston Zeddemore, PhD is a fictional character appearing in the Ghostbusters films, TV series, and video games. He is played by Ernie Hudson in the films Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and was voiced by Arsenio Hall in the first three seasons of The Real Ghostbusters. Buster Jones provided Winston's voice in the remaining seasons, and he reprised the role in a cameo on Extreme Ghostbusters. Hudson returned to provide his appearance and voice to Zeddemore in 2009's Ghostbusters: The Video Game and 2022's Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed.
Slimer, originally referred to as "Onionhead" and sometimes "the Mean Green Ghost" and "Ugly Little Spud", is a character from the Ghostbusters franchise. He appears in the films Ghostbusters (1984), Ghostbusters II (1989), the remake Ghostbusters (2016), and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024), in the animated television series: The Real Ghostbusters, Slimer! and Extreme Ghostbusters, and in the video games: Ghostbusters: The Video Game (2009), Beeline's Ghostbusters (2013), Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed (2022) and Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord (2024). Slimer was voiced by Ivan Reitman and Adam Ray in the films and by Frank Welker in the animated series. In The Real Ghostbusters, he is the Ghostbusters' mascot and friend.
Ghostbusters: Legion is a 2004 comic book mini-series published by the Quebec-based publisher, 88MPH Studios run by Canadian Sebastien Clavet. It was written by Andrew Dabb, with pencils by Steve Kurth and inks by Serge LaPointe. The series ran 4 issues from February through May 2004. It was collected as a hardcover collection in 2005 by 88MPH and was supposed to be released via a Diamond Comic Distributors "Previews" exclusive. However, the hardcover never came to pass due to the company's financial problems. It was reprinted as a softcover trade paperback that year, for the UK market by the British Titan Books.
The Ghostbusters franchise consists of American supernatural comedies, based on an original concept created by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis in 1984. The plot follows a group of eccentric New York City parapsychologists who investigate and eliminate ghosts, paranormal manifestations, demigods, and demons. The franchise expanded with licensed action figures, books, comics, video games, television series, theme park attractions, and other branded merchandise.
Ghostbusters: The Video Game is a 2009 action-adventure game based on the Ghostbusters media franchise. Terminal Reality developed the Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 versions, while Red Fly Studio developed the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Wii versions. The game was released after several delays in development and multiple publisher changes. In North America, all versions of the game were published by Atari Interactive, while in Europe, the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and PlayStation 3 versions were published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. A separate game for the Nintendo DS with the same title was developed by Zen Studios and released at the same time, albeit with substantial differences in the gameplay and story.
Ghostbusters is a 1986 American animated television series created by Filmation and distributed by Tribune Entertainment, serving as the sequel to Filmation's 1975 live-action television show The Ghost Busters.
Lego Ghostbusters is a Lego theme based on the Ghostbusters franchise created by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It is licensed from Columbia Pictures and Ghost Corps. The Lego Ghostbusters theme was first introduced in 2014. The first set was released in June 2014 as part of the Lego Ideas theme. Later, a set based on the Ghostbusters' firehouse was released and one set based on the Ghostbusters: Answer the Call. The Lego Group also used this license for character and level packs in the Lego Dimensions toys-to-life video game. In 2018, a set was released as part of the Lego BrickHeadz theme. In 2020, another set was released in November 2020 and based on Ghostbusters: Afterlife film.
Ghostbusters is an action game developed and published by Beeline Interactive for iOS in 2013.
The real original Ghost Busters appeared in a short-lived television series that aired on CBS for a single 15-episode season in 1975.