The Real Ghostbusters!

[Gojirob]

Both The Ghost Busters and its animated sequel are available on DVD. I've seen the trailer for the live-action show on another Filmation DVD. It was pretty cheap-looking, shot on videotape with fake-looking sets and dreadful effects.

WOW! Fake and cheap-looking is an understatement. Learn something new everyday though...

Yeah, but it brought back Tucker/Storch for one last hurrah.

As to RGB, I always liked it, up until the very last season, when Moranis' character joined up. Slimer! I enjoyed for what it was. I always felt that the Old Ones Arc could have been the basis for a 3rd Movie.

Murray : (Sees Ramis holding Necronomicon) We're not going into the woods with that, are we? Cause I knew some college chums did that, and it just DID NOT go well. Couldn't even find their car.

 

[Reverend]

I used to love the cartoons as a kind (and still a huge fan of the films) however I've had a look at some of the old RGB eps recently and time hasn't been kind. Though I must confess to being surprised to see JMS in quite a few of the credits, especially the better written ones.

P.S. When did Louis turn up on the show? I must have missed the later episodes when I was a nipper.

 

[Aurian]

I watched it, but i remember that I didnt like it too much.. was just filler while I waited for other shows to start.

 

[Christopher]

I used to love the cartoons as a kind (and still a huge fan of the films) however I've had a look at some of the old RGB eps recently and time hasn't been kind. Though I must confess to being surprised to see JMS in quite a few of the credits, especially the better written ones.

In terms of the writing, it was really only the syndicated season that had the strongest writing. The first two network seasons were okay, but subject to more restrictions than the syndie season. And after JMS left, the writing plummeted.

As far as animation goes, it was pretty crude for the first couple of seasons, but some of the later network seasons had much better animation, even as the writing deteriorated. I guess that's because the seasons were far shorter and they had more time to do a good job on the animation.

P.S. When did Louis turn up on the show? I must have missed the later episodes when I was a nipper.

In the fourth network season.

 

[Chaos Descending]

^I'm ashamed to say it, but back in the day, I was more a fan of the "fake" Ghostbusters than The Real Ghostbusters (which were actually on at competing timeslots in Arizona for a time; Ghostbusters on channel 45 & The Real Ghostbusters on FOX15).

You talking about in reruns?

Because on the original runs, Channel 15 wasn't Fox yet.

Sorry, I've just been hit with a giant pedantry bug today.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

^I'm ashamed to say it, but back in the day, I was more a fan of the "fake" Ghostbusters than The Real Ghostbusters (which were actually on at competing timeslots in Arizona for a time; Ghostbusters on channel 45 & The Real Ghostbusters on FOX15).

You talking about in reruns?

Because on the original runs, Channel 15 wasn't Fox yet.

Sorry, I've just been hit with a giant pedantry bug today.

This would have been around 1988-'89. Where does that fit in the timeline?

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Both The Ghost Busters and its animated sequel are available on DVD. I've seen the trailer for the live-action show on another Filmation DVD. It was pretty cheap-looking, shot on videotape with fake-looking sets and dreadful effects.

WOW! Fake and cheap-looking is an understatement. Learn something new everyday though...

Man! That looks crappy even by the standards set by old school Doctor Who & Mystery Science Theater 3000.

 

[Ethros]

Anyone remember the episode where the Ghostbusters went to a farmhouse for the weekend, and in the middle of the night all these zombies/ghosts of dead farmers rose out of the fields?

Because it used to really scare me as a kid!

 

[Chaos Descending]

^I'm ashamed to say it, but back in the day, I was more a fan of the "fake" Ghostbusters than The Real Ghostbusters (which were actually on at competing timeslots in Arizona for a time; Ghostbusters on channel 45 & The Real Ghostbusters on FOX15).

You talking about in reruns?

Because on the original runs, Channel 15 wasn't Fox yet.

Sorry, I've just been hit with a giant pedantry bug today.

This would have been around 1988-'89. Where does that fit in the timeline?

It fits into my big BRAIN FART!

Ch. 15 became Fox 15 in '86 or '87, which means you were right, of course.

For some reason I read your comment and mentally inserted "Fox 10" (the current network/channel combo) where you wrote "Fox15", even though I even directly quoted you by typing "15" instead of what I was thinking, which was "10".

Fox of course switched from Ch. 15 to Ch. 10 in (IIRC) 1995.

I miss Wallace and Ladmo. (I know, I know, that was Channel 5!)

 

[Reverend]

I used to love the cartoons as a kind (and still a huge fan of the films) however I've had a look at some of the old RGB eps recently and time hasn't been kind. Though I must confess to being surprised to see JMS in quite a few of the credits, especially the better written ones.

In terms of the writing, it was really only the syndicated season that had the strongest writing. The first two network seasons were okay, but subject to more restrictions than the syndie season. And after JMS left, the writing plummeted.

As far as animation goes, it was pretty crude for the first couple of seasons, but some of the later network seasons had much better animation, even as the writing deteriorated. I guess that's because the seasons were far shorter and they had more time to do a good job on the animation.

P.S. When did Louis turn up on the show? I must have missed the later episodes when I was a nipper.

In the fourth network season.

Syndication? Network? You do realise that on this side of the pond we only had 4 channels at the time?
I suppose it's possible the Beeb or ITV just never bought the newer ones, or I'd grown out of it by the time they did. I had a quick google and found some screen grabs of the later seasons and it doesn't ring a bell at all. Plus Janine looks really weird.
As far as the animation quality goes, it's a shame the shows themselves weren't up to the standard of the title sequence, since that still looks rather well done for it's time.

 

[P0sitr0nic]

If you get the GB 2 pack DVD, (movie 1 and 2) there are a couple animated eps as part of the extras. I watched em, found em refreshingly rewatchable after so many years.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

I used to love the cartoons as a kind (and still a huge fan of the films) however I've had a look at some of the old RGB eps recently and time hasn't been kind. Though I must confess to being surprised to see JMS in quite a few of the credits, especially the better written ones.

In terms of the writing, it was really only the syndicated season that had the strongest writing. The first two network seasons were okay, but subject to more restrictions than the syndie season. And after JMS left, the writing plummeted.

As far as animation goes, it was pretty crude for the first couple of seasons, but some of the later network seasons had much better animation, even as the writing deteriorated. I guess that's because the seasons were far shorter and they had more time to do a good job on the animation.

P.S. When did Louis turn up on the show? I must have missed the later episodes when I was a nipper.

In the fourth network season.

I suppose it's possible the Beeb or ITV just never bought the newer ones, or I'd grown out of it by the time they did. I had a quick google and found some screen grabs of the later seasons and it doesn't ring a bell at all. Plus Janine looks really weird.

I'm almost certain, from memory alone, that ITV never showed this Slimer/Ghostbusters thing. And when Jetix repeated The Real Ghostbusters in the UK a few years ago, they didn't either.

 

[Christopher]

I had a quick google and found some screen grabs of the later seasons and it doesn't ring a bell at all. Plus Janine looks really weird.

The network mandated a redesign and recasting of Janine to give her a prettier face and more pleasant voice. In a late season, Straczynski actually came back and wrote an episode called "Janine, You've Changed," in which the gang discovered that a ghostly "fairy godmother" had been granting Janine's wishes to make herself more attractive while making everyone around her forget how she'd originally looked and sounded. It was a commentary on our society's obsession with superficial looks, as well as a critique of what the network had done to Janine's character. Egon finally broke Janine free of the ghost's control by admitting that he loved her and always had, even before the changes. (Unfortunately this major step forward in their relationship was ignored by the Extreme Ghostbusters sequel series in 1997.)

 

[Trekker4747]

In that episode -which I just watched last night- Egon (IIRC) even points out that Janine had and annoying Brooklyn accent.

 

[Ethros]

I'm almost certain, from memory alone, that ITV never showed this Slimer/Ghostbusters thing. And when Jetix repeated The Real Ghostbusters in the UK a few years ago, they didn't either.

As mentioned by P0sitr0nic on the combo Movie 1&2 DVD there are two episodes of TRG. The second one is from "Slimer and the Ghostbusters"
Now I used to love TRG as a kid and have seen prob every ep. But when I played this I thought "what the fuck is this?!" at the title sequence, and the shite that came after.
Pretty sure then those laters seasons ever aired in the UK

 

[HappyDayRiot]

I'm not sure I even want to look them up to be honest, but are they as bad as Extreme Ghostbusters? I watched the episode of that where they reunite with the Real Ghostbusters yesterday and it was really, really bad.

 

[Hermiod]

Actually, I was thinking about a particular episode of The Real Ghostbusters recently. It had one of the biggest "oh shit" cliffhangers of all time, where someone broke into the firehouse and released all of the ghosts from the containment facility. At the end of the episode, Ray summarized their totaly screwed plight, "Well, the firehouse is gone, Ecto-1 has been destroyed, we're out of ghost traps, and we only have a couple more hours left on our proton packs." Did that cliffhanger ever get resolved? I don't recall ever seeing the conclusion.

This got me curious, but I can't find a single thing about it other than somebody using the quote as a signature line on a Ghostbusters fan forum.

 

[Christopher]

I'm not sure I even want to look them up to be honest, but are they as bad as Extreme Ghostbusters? I watched the episode of that where they reunite with the Real Ghostbusters yesterday and it was really, really bad.

I thought Extreme Ghostbusters was moderately good, and I enjoyed it more than the later seasons of RGB on ABC. But I'm not sure whether Ethros is referring to the normal RGB episodes that aired under the Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters title, or to the actual Slimer cartoon shorts, which were a separate entity, much more cartoony and in the vein of your standard funny-animal chase cartoon. The former were more or less straight Ghostbusters adventures that just weren't as sophisticated in their writing and more kid-friendly than the JMS seasons. The latter was a completely separate beast.

 

[Ethros]

^ To the former. It was still TRG but had the name "Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters" in the title seqeunce (which was awful as well.)

And there's a different voice for Peter too. Who isn't as good at all

 

[Christopher]

And there's a different voice for Peter too. Who isn't as good at all

Yeah. Dave Coulier replaced Lorenzo Music by network mandate, because the network had heard that Bill Murray had remarked on RGB's Peter sounding nothing like him, and they overreacted, misinterpreting it as a demand for Music's replacement.

Winston's voice also changed at around the same time; Arsenio Hall was replaced by Buster Jones. I think this was because Hall's career was starting its upswing around that time and he'd become too famous for them to afford. And of course Janine was recast as discussed above.