Lorenzo Music – Dr. Peter Venkman, Jim Venkman, various (season 1-2)
Dave Coulier – Dr. Peter Venkman, Jim Venkman (season 3-7)
Frank Welker – Dr. Ray Stantz, Slimer, Fred, Elizabeth, Manx, Mooglie (season 3-6), various
Maurice LaMarche – Dr. Egon Spengler, various
Arsenio Hall – Winston Zeddemore, Mooglie, various (season 1-2)
Buster Jones – Winston Zeddemore (season 3-7)
Laura Summer – Janine Melnitz, various (season 1-2)
Kath Soucie – Janine Melnitz (season 3-7)
Rodger Bumpass – Louis Tully (season 5-7)
Cree Summer – Chilly Cooper (season 4)
Jeff Marder – Rudy (season 4)
Jeff Altman – Professor Norman Dweeb (season 4)
Danny Mann – Bud (season 4)
Actor, comedian and singer Dan Aykroyd had one passion he had yet to bring to the screen:
the paranormal. Inspired by an article on quantum physics and parapsychology,
as well as his
own family history with the subject via his
father and great-grandfather, Aykroyd was determined to correct that. Wild with
imagination, Aykroyd conceived of an epic that followed a group of ghost
exterminators with SWAT-like gear across time, space and other dimensions to
battle giant ghosts and demons. It was meant to serve as another starring
vehicle for him and his friend, fellow Saturday Night Live alum and
bandmate John Belushi, to complement their 1980 hit, The Blues Brothers, before Belushi’s sudden
death in 1982.
 |
| Movie storyboards depicting the original uniform concepts. |
Presenting the script to director Ivan Reitman, Reitman realized that Aykroyd’s vision, in 1980s money,
would cost several hundred million dollars to create (remember, kids, this was
before CGI and big budget blockbusters were in vogue). Also, the script was
just non-stop action with very little in the way of character or story. At
Reitman’s suggestion, Aykroyd paired up with Harold Ramis, with whom Reitman had worked with before, to help ground
the script in reality and tone down the more elaborate sequences in order to
secure a more realistic budget.
The result was a movie about three washed-up
scientists who discovered how they could capture and hold a supernatural entity
indefinitely. Losing their jobs at a prominent university led them to turn this
knowledge into a business and become the Ghostbusters.
Aykroyd and Ramis would play scientists Dr. Ray Stantz and Dr. Egon Spengler,
respectively. Following Belushi’s death, the role intended for him was
reconceived and fellow SNL alum and Reitman collaborator Bill Murray was cast as Dr. Peter Venkman (incidentally, his
casting added weight to the project and helped the reluctant Columbia Pictures get behind it). Ernie Hudson was brought in as the everyman Winston Zeddemore, to
whom the more technical elements could be explained for the audience’s benefit.
Rounding out the crew was Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz, the no-nonsense secretary with a
crush on Egon. Serving as the innocent victims the Ghostbusters must rescue
from the threat of model Slavitza Jovan’s Gozer the Gozerian were Sigourney Weaver as cellist Dana Barrett and Rick Moranis as accountant and Dana’s stalker-ish neighbor, Louis
Tully. Operating out of a downtown New York firehouse, the Ghostbusters travelled to calls in a restored Cadillac ambulance
called Ecto-1 like emergency services; using wearable proton packs to fire energy beams that would capture a ghost and ghost traps to ultimately capture them for final transport to a containment unit. The film opened on June 8th, 1984 to critical and
commercial success; becoming the second highest grossing film of the year
behind Beverly
Hills Cop.
 |
| Ghostbusters vs. GhostBusters. Which do you like best? |
During production of the movie, the existence
of Filmation’s live-action television show, The
Ghost Busters, was somehow overlooked.
Similar in concept, The Ghost Busters centered on humans Jake Kong (Forrest
Tucker) and Eddie Spencer (Larry
Storch) with gorilla Tracy (Bob
Burns) working out of a shabby little office and
taking assignments issued by the unseen Zero (Lou
Scheimer, co-founder of Filmation). They
frequently encountered ghosts from literature of historical figures and sent
them back to the afterlife with a hand-held weapon known as a Dematerializer. Unsure if they could secure the rights to the name, alternate
titles were considered and used in multiple takes. That is until the filming of
the climax on Central Park West with crowds chanting “Ghostbusters”. Realizing
it would be too cumbersome to refilm all that with the alternates, a frenzied
push was made by the producers to get the studio to secure the name. Fortunately,
former Columbia studio head Frank Price—who had helped move the project into production—had just
jumped ship to Universal Pictures, then-owners of the “Ghostbusters” name, and made the
production a very generous deal to acquire it.
 |
| Character model size comparison sheet. |
While largely regarded as a kid-centric
franchise today, the original Ghostbusters was made for a general
audience. So, it came as a bit of a surprise at how many kids loved the film.
This presented Columbia with a solution to a problem. With Ghostbusters
being such a hit, naturally they wanted a sequel to follow up with and keep
that momentum going. However, it would take 5 years to get Ghostbusters II
into theaters. In the meantime, why not do the next best thing: tap into that
young audience and make an animated series. Reitman, who held part of the
ownership stake in the property, was initially reluctant to the idea. His past
TV experience was the production of Delta House, the
sitcom spin-off of the movie he produced, Animal House, and it
was a negative one full of battles with the network. In the end, the show was
cancelled after a single season. The Ghost Busters played a part in
changing Reitman’s mind.
 |
| Trade ad for Filmation's GhostBusters. |
According to Scheimer in his book, Creating
the Filmation Generation, once the Ghostbusters film became a
hit, he proposed to Westinghouse
Broadcasting (aka Group W Productions), the owners of Filmation, that they
should partner with Columbia to produce an animated series for the film since Herman Rush, who was once a
Filmation agent, was heading up Columbia’s TV division. Westinghouse head Ed
Vane countered that they should just produce their own based on the
property Filmation already had control of since the name alone would sell it. Scheimer
relented and the studio made their own GhostBusters cartoon, which followed the sons of the original
characters taking over the family business alongside Tracy (Scheimer).
Interestingly enough, Filmation’s GhostBusters was a lot closer in
concept to Aykroyd’s original treatment; dealing with alternate dimensions and
time travel, as well as having their jalopy imbued with spectral energy of its
own. Work on it began in July of 1984 and continued on into 1986.
Getting wind of Filmation’s production, Reitman
was worried about another property diminishing his own and allowed production
on Columbia’s show to commence. While Rush wanted to have the series air in
syndication to bypass the hassle of networks, executive Joe Indelli had pushed
for also airing on a network; in this case, ABC. This, in turn, secured a deal with animation studio DiC,
with whom ABC had worked with before and knew they could deliver episodes by
airdates; a must in television. To secure in advertisers and affiliates, a
short pilot was commissioned to give a general idea of the look and concept of
the series, storyboarded by Kevin Altieri and Eddie
Fitzgerald with no guide other than their own
ideas. The characters were eventually designed by Jim McDermott, but instead of trying to acquire expensive likeness
rights, they went for the embodiment of the characters themselves. To help
differentiate between the three Caucasian brunette characters in distance and
group shots, their hair colors were changed along with their bodies. Peter was
given brown hair and an average build; Ray was made a pudgy redhead; and Egon a
tall, slender blonde with a large hairstyle. To make them easier to animate,
the equipment and Ecto-1 were streamlined while trying to maintain the spirit
of what was seen in the film.
Set to a re-recorded version of Ray Parker Jr.’s
“Ghostbusters” performed by John Smith (a pseudonym for Carl Anderson, who had signed with Columbia Records), the pilot followed the Ghostbusters from their firehouse
all across the city as they battled random supernatural threats; including the
green ghost they first busted (dubbed Onionhead during the film’s production
due to the awful smell of the puppet used, but later named Slimer for the
series) and the final big bad from the film, Mr. Stay Puft (the only surviving
giant entity from Aykroyd’s original concept). Bits of the pilot were
used in promotional ads
before the show’s debut and were refined with the finalized designs for use in
the show’s original intro. The series would gain the title The Real Ghostbusters
in response to Filmation’s use of the term to try and sell their show to the
same stations that they were.
 |
| Promotional art featuring the refined designs. |
Final revisions were made to the designs as the
series proper entered production. To further distinguish the Ghostbusters—as
well as make them more appealing as toys—they were given new colored uniforms:
Egon in blue with pink trim; Winston in gray with red trim; and Peter in brown
with green trim. Ray’s was largely kept the same from the movies and pilot. The
equipment was further streamlined and simplified to ease up on the demands of
overseas animators, since they were still highly detailed. Their primary colors
were also changed from black to blue to allow them to better stand out against
darker backgrounds. The pack designs from the pilot, though, continued to live
on as they were used as the basis for the toys produced by Kenner. Slimer, having tested well in the pilot, was also
softened to look friendlier and became the Ghostbusters’ live-in ghost mascot
as a further draw for the kids. The containment unit, where a captured ghost
was stored, went from a small wall panel in the film to a massive room-sized
device in the basement of the firehouse.
 |
| The original uniforms being possessed by the energy of Gozer. |
While changes in a movie-to-television
adaptation are not unusual, what was unusual was the fact that most of
these changes were explained WITHIN the show. Specifically, the episode
“Citizen Ghost”, which took place in a flashback that immediately followed the
events of the first movie. It stated that the uniforms, covered in marshmallow
goop after the original defeat of Mr. Stay Puft, had become so infused with
spectral energy that they had to be destroyed. Luckily their new customized
uniforms arrived during all the chaos. Slimer was found while they were fixing
up the firehouse and Egon decided to keep him around as a guinea pig, much to
Peter’s chagrin (since Slimer slimed him when they first met, and would
continue to slime him throughout the series as a running gag). The episode
“Take Two” also established that the film actually existed in-universe,
inspired by the lives of the cartoon characters.
 |
| The animated version of the firehouse. |
Reitman, Michael C. Gross and Joe Medjuck—the latter two producers on the film, with Gross having
also co-designed the no-ghost logo with Brent Boates—served as
producers for the series; with Gross and Medjuck being more directly involved
as Reitman focused on other projects. Ernie Hudson was the only actor from the
movie to audition for the role of his character, but somehow lost out to then
up-and-coming comedian Arsenio Hall (it’s reported that
Hudson was told he didn’t adequately capture the
performance from the film that he gave). Hall also provided the voice
for the commercial bumpers spoken through Mooglie, the ghost in the no-ghost logo. Maurice LaMarche, a known
impressionist, was asked not to impersonate Ramis when auditioning for Egon. He
did anyway and still got the part; although he began the series with a much
deeper tone for the first few episodes than he would use for the remainder.
Lorenzo Music was cast as Peter, Frank Welker as Ray and Slimer, and Laura
Summer as Janine. Another unusual aspect of the show was that the cast recorded
their lines together to retain the ensemble feel of the film, whereas many
shows had their actors recording individually. Often, when someone was unable
to make a session, the other actors would have fun imitating them for the
duration of the recording.
 |
| The Real Ghostbusters soundtrack album cover. |
The producers wanted to feature music in the
series much like was featured throughout the movie. Ollie Brown, a friend of Ray Parker, Jr., organized a duo called
Tahiti comprised of Tyren
Perry and Tonya Townsend. They were brought on board and provided songs in 10 early
episodes, which were later released in a soundtrack album for the show by Polygram Records. However, as the series began to pick up steam on its own,
they decided the added expense and effort was no longer needed and kept to just
using the standard series score by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy.
Some re-airings of episodes would replace the Tahiti music with the score.
Animation was handled by Toei
Animation, Telecom Animation Film,
TMS Entertainment, Studio
Korumi, and KK C&D
Asia.
 |
| Early promo art for the series. |
The series was simultaneously produced for broadcast on ABC Saturday mornings with 13 episodes and syndication with 65 episodes, leading to a whopping 78 episodes made at once—an unprecedented feat at the time. Writers Chuck Menville and Len Janson were originally recruited to be the story editors for the series, but became intimidated at the prospect of overseeing both the network AND syndicated version simultaneously. Jean Chalopin, head of DiC, then recruited a fairly inexperienced J. Michael Straczynski (of Babylon 5 fame) to oversee the syndicated batch while Menville and Janson focused on the network one. Straczynski loved the movie and was hoping to just write some episodes for it.
 |
| Ecto-1 roaring out of the firehouse to a call. |
 |
| Big bad Samhain, the Spirit of Halloween, had nothing on Q5. |
Unfortunately, with success came extra
attention and the old Hollywood adage: “if it ain’t broke, fix it anyway.” ABC
had hired consulting firm Q5 to retool and “improve” their
children's programming; which included The
Real Ghostbusters. Straczynski, who held a PhD in psychology, would go on
to note that Q5 utilized a lot of pseudo-psychology that could result in their
getting desired results through gentle manipulation of focus groups utilized
and phrasing of questions. Their goal was not so much to improve the series,
but rather mold it to fit in within their own agendas. What their “research”
had told them was that each member of the team needed a clearly defined role (Egon
the thinker, Ray the builder, Peter the leader, and Winston the driver and mechanic);
they all needed to be less mean to Slimer and Peter less mean overall,
virtually eliminating any kind of conflict; Janine needed to become a more “nurturing
mother figure”, with a “less slutty” design and less angular glasses because
sharp objects “frighten children”; the comedy needed to contain less satire and
more sophisticated verbal humor; a group of children needed to be added in
order to give the audience characters they could identify with; additionally,
since children really liked Slimer, he should be pushed to the front more; and
even that the character of Ray should be eliminated entirely as he was superfluous.
The production fought back and won some battles on these changes, but
ultimately ABC needed them to follow Q5’s guidance or else they would cancel
the show right then and there.
 |
| Janine Melnitz, deemed "too slutty" by Q5. |
So, Slimer was given a greater focus in
episodes and more intelligible speech patterns. Peter became less-hostile
towards him, even giving him the nickname “spud”. New recurring children
characters called the Junior
Ghostbusters were introduced; uber fans of
the Ghostbusters that would help them out on occasion with their own homemade
equipment and modified go-cart called Ecto-Junior. Janine
lost her feisty personality, had her hair softened and lengthened along with her
skirt, and was given round glasses. Summer ended up replaced by Kath Soucie,
whose softer vocal delivery would match the new Janine. The teeth the show’s
success was built on were effectively dulled. Under protest, Straczynski quit
the show and published an article lambasting Q5 and ABC’s Broadcast Standards
and Practices in Penthouse magazine
to force Q5 to have to “flip past pages of naked ladies to get to the article.”
Menville and Janson assumed control of the whole show from there.
Additional changes were happening behind the scenes. Music found himself replaced by comedian Dave Coulier (who would become famous as Uncle Joey on Full House). Two reasons for this persist: either Murray questioned why Peter sounded like Garfield (who was also voiced by Music, and whom Murray himself would go on to voice in two live-action movies) while Egon sounded like Ramis, or Medjuck or other producers wanted someone who could sound more like Murray. According to A Convenient Parallel Dimension by James Greene, Jr., voice director Marsha Goodman seemed to imply it was the former scenario. This created some confusion for viewers as earlier episodes would continue to be rerun on the network with Music and Summer in place. ABC did attempt to rectify this by re-recording some of these episodes with Coulier and Soucie replacing their characters’ dialogue. There was still one more departure to come; this time, though, of the actor’s own desire. Hall had begun development on the highly-successful first incarnation of The Arsenio Hall Show and left the series. He was replaced by Buster Jones, with Welker rerecording Mooglie in a Slimer-like voice.
For the 4th season, it was decided to capitalize on Slimer’s popularity and give him his own spin-off show. The initial concept borrowed heavily from the series Hotel, in that Slimer would be living on the 13th floor of the Hotel Sedgewick where he had first been encountered. Michael Diederich created all the designs, leaning into a horrifyingly funny tone. However, there was a complete pivot and the hotel concept was abandoned. Instead, it was revised to be a slice-of-life gag show with a more rounded and cartoony art style. The show was extended to an hour and retitled Slimer! And the Real Ghostbusters, complete with a new Slimer-centric opening sequence that was later given a new recording of the theme song. The Slimer episodes, ranging from 7 to 12 minutes in length, were designed to be paired with each other or with new or rerun Real Ghostbusters episodes. To help reduce production costs, many of the new Real episodes were no longer than 12-minutes, with only a handful being a full 22. The belief was that mixing new and old episodes together would create the illusion of the full hour being entirely new; especially if kids had missed a previous episode.
 |
| The Ghostbusters and some of Slimer's friends in the Slimer! animation style. |
Slimer’s segments had an all-new supporting
cast, such as ice cream truck driver Chilly Cooper (Cree Summer), con-man Rudy
(Jeff Marder) and Scottish Terrier Fred (Welker), who resided at Hotel Sedgewick. The
Ghostbusters and Junior Ghostbusters also popped up from time to time. Slimer’s
nemeses were a trouble-making alley cat named Manx (Welker), and deranged
scientist Professor Norman Dweeb (Jeff Altman) and his dog, Elizabeth (Welker),
who sought to capture Slimer and experiment on him. Dweeb and Elizabeth would
be the only Slimer segment characters to cross over into the main show
(although the other characters would be rendered in the main style for the
intro). Writers included Janson, Menville, Hickey, McCoy, Pat Allee, Ben Hurst, Dennis
O’Flaherty, Don Dougherty, Floyd
Norman, Temple Mathews, Bob Forward, Charles Kaufman, Tony Marino, Leo Sullivan, Robert Davenport, Francis Moss, Ted Mann, and even Gross. Animation duties for these segments were handled by a small
studio called the Great American Animation Company.
 |
| Ray has gone on a diet. |
Following the release of Ghostbusters
II, Louis Tully (Roger Bumpass) was added to the
cast in season 5 and Janine’s hairstyle was changed to resemble her movie
counterpart’s. The “mood slime”
that was central to the plot of the sequel also made an appearance; however, colored
yellow instead of pink. Character models
were changed to be simpler and cheaper to animate. Animation duties were
moved from Japan to South Korean studios Hyun Young
Animation Studios, Hanho
Heung-up Company, Dong Yang Animation,
and Daewon Media. Newly added
writers included Duane Capizzi,
Steven Roberts, Joe S. Landon, Stan Phillips (who also
directed and produced), Jules
Dennis, Sean Roche, Gordon Bressack, and Will Meugniot. The series’ music
underwent some changes as well due to a falling out between DiC head Andy Heyward and Saban. Heyward
had led a buyout of DiC from Chalopin, who then proceeded to make a new
company, Créativité
et Développement (C&D). To ease some of their acquired debt, DiC sold
the foreign distribution rights to their programs to Saban’s company, Saban Entertainment,
in 1987; who in turn sold them to C&D, putting them back in Chalopin’s
hands. DiC sued and Saban settled, but the working relationship between the two
companies was effectively done. As a result, Saban and Levy’s score was dropped
and they were replaced as composers by Thomas Chase and Steve Rucker with the 6th
season.
 |
| The Ghostbusters examine the mysterious changes in Janine in "Janine, You've Changed." |
The changes made to the show proved unpopular
and viewership steadily declined. Medjuck had, at one point, asked Straczynski
to return as story editor and salvage the show, but he declined. He did,
however, contribute several scripts with the proviso that he be allowed to do
them the way they started out doing things. His contributions included “Janine,
You’ve Changed”, which gave an in-story explanation to Janine’s constant
redesigns, and the show’s only prime-time special episode, “The Halloween Door.”
 |
| Professor Dweeb and Elizabeth. |
It wasn’t just the Q5 meddling that did the
show in. The entertainment industry had to deal with the financial
strife of 1987 and the Writers
Guild of America strike in 1988 over syndication residuals, resulting in
networks and production companies becoming more cost-focused. The Real
Ghostbusters, while a valuable asset, was an expensive show to produce and
incurred a lot of licensing fees. Satanic
Panic still had a foothold in America; especially with parent groups
concerned over the content of the supernatural found in episodes of Ghostbusters.
The new Children’s
Television Act was set to hit in 1990, providing stricter regulations for
networks in regards to children’s content. Stations would be required to air 3
hours of educational content per week, which they would often relegate to
Saturday mornings. Ghostbusters did not fit that description. Further,
the audience for the show was beginning to age out of watching it, the response
to Ghostbusters II was a bit more lackluster than
expected since it was influenced by the show to be more kid-friendly than the
first, and the once-popular toyline’s sales had begun to slump. With no Ghostbusters III
on the horizon despite Aykroyd’s best efforts, the Ghostbusters franchise was
effectively dead by 1991.
 |
| Promo card for the series on Fox Family Channel. |
Reruns of the series began airing on USA Network’s USA Cartoon
Express programming block from September 16,
1991-September 11, 1994. It joined the Fox Family Channel (now Freeform) line-up
from August 17, 1998-October 1, 1999. In August of 2012, it joined Fearnet’s weekend Funhouse block of horror-themed kid shows that included Tales
from the Cryptkeeper, Eerie,
Indiana and Dark Oracle. In 2017, the series started making the rounds on
streaming services that included Netflix, Prime, Crackle, and Tubi, and
was made available to purchase on Apple
TV and Google
Play. As part of the promotion for the upcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the official
Ghostbusters
YouTube channel began uploading complete
episodes of the series on a rotating basis. In
2024, retro program network MeTV announced the launch of a new classic cartoon-centered
network called MeTV Toons on June 25th. The Real Ghostbusters was
featured as one
of its launch programs.
 |
| Ad for a competition to win Real Ghostbusters toys. |
As if to make up for the lack of merchandising
for the film (due to the name issue being resolved too late to launch a decent campaign),
The Real Ghostbusters’ name was slapped on virtually everything. There
were doorknob
covers and miniature gumball machines by
Superior; flip-up
watches, magnets and shoelace holders by Hope
Industries; a
streamer kite, yo-yo and windsock by Spectra
Star; makeup
kits, rubber “Ghost Balls”, a Slimer rubber mask, a dangling Slimer decoration,
and a “Spook Bag” featuring the logo and Slimer
by Spearhead Industries; a
poster and pen coloring set and rub and color set
by Craft House; a
ceiling fan and vehicle sun shades by Amercep; stickers by Scorpio
Products International LTD and glow-in-the-dark
ones by Jotastar; costume
sets by Josman S.L., who also reused the Kenner
PKE Meter design for a Batman and Jurassic
Park set; bath
towels by R.A. Briggs; themed
eyeglasses by Dollond & Aitchison Group; sweets by Alma; Slimer
toothpaste, anti-cavity
rinse and dental floss by Perio Products; ghost-themed
hygiene products by Grosvenor in the UK and more general-themed
ones by DuCair Bioessence Inc. in North America; Slimer
bubblegum by Amurol Products and by General De
Confiteria S.A. in
Spain; a fruit-flavored
Slimer snack bar by Squirrel; stickers
and an activity book from Jell-O (which there’s
always room for); potato
chips (or crisps) by McCain Foods; board games by
Triotoys, Milton
Bradley, and Casper; Milton Bradley
also made a line
of puzzles and a Lite-Brite
set; a switch
plate and Slimer night light by AmerTac; cassettes
and read along books published by Rainbow
Communications Limited; Shrinky
Dinks by both Colorforms and Milton
Bradley, with the former also making several
sticker playsets; a number of story
and activity books published by Simon & Schuster; a card game
by Waddington and Cromy; a plastic carrying case, called Kids
Katchalls, by Creative Plastics Industries, Inc.;
Halloween
costumes by Ben Cooper; various
radios and a walkie talkie from Justin Products
Inc.; pins offered by Holland store Speelboom along with purchases of
the toys; fruit
snacks by Grist Mill Co.; canned
pasta by Heinz;
a duffle
bag by ERO Industries in America and Imperial in
Canada; a big
wheel tricycle by Coleco and Playskool; a snack
tray by Marshallan Products Inc.; a projection
driving game by Parker Brothers; projected
mini-reels with episode clips by Mini Movies And
Tiny Hands; a telephone by Remco; a sleeping
bag by Brainchild; water-squirting
balls by Entertech; lunch
boxes by Thermos; party
favors by Ja-ru; party
supplies by Hallmark; plush
dolls of Slimer and Stay Puft by I.M.I. Imperial
Corp sold at Universal Studios Florida; rubber
figurines from Argentina; a bedsheet set and
window curtains by J.P. Stevens; a marshmallow
cereal by Ralston; and much more. McDonald’s would
also offer two promotions: school
supplies in 1987 and bike
accessories in 1990, and Kellogg’s Rice
Krispies offered glow
stickers as a premium for use on the back of
their boxes.
Kenner would produce action
figures, vehicles, a firehouse playset and child-sized roleplay equipment from 1987 through 1991 for North America, Germany, Italy,
France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Internationally, the toys were produced by Estrela in Brazil, Jocsa in
Argentina, and Auriken in Mexio. Each wave of the line featured a series of
Ghostbusters with different paint jobs, accessories or actions. Janine was
featured in four of the waves before being replaced by a Louis figure for the
remainder of the line. Aside from the looks of the Ghostbusters themselves,
very few of the ghosts produced were featured in the animated series; instead,
Kenner’s designers were allowed to let their imaginations run wild (within
budgetary constrictions, of course). It wouldn’t be until Mondo began
offering premium
high-end figures in 2024 that fans could get
their hands on some of the more notable ghosts from the series—Samhain, Boogieman, Sandman, Ghash, Grundle, Drool the Dog-Faced Goblin, Charles
Foster Hearse and Louie the
Gangster—and screen-accurate equipment (although
there are some exceptions for Samhain, discussed below). For a number of
reasons--including the ultimate cancellation of the toy line due to declining
sales--a number of figures, ghosts, vehicles and equipment were in various stages
of planning and production that never
saw release. Tara Toy Corporation
would release a companion carrying
case that could hold a number of the figures.
 |
| Kenner Classics Ecto-Glow Ecto-1. |
Beginning in 2020, Hasbro, current
owner of Kenner’s molds and franchise licensee, released a Kenner
Classics line that reproduced the first wave of action figures and ghosts, some ghosts, Ecto-1 and the Ghost Popper roleplay toy. In 2024 the next
wave was finally released, reproducing the
“Fright Features” line (without Janine) initially as a Target exclusive before becoming widely available that April. In
2025, a third wave reproducing the hard-to-find glow-in-the-dark Ecto-Glow
Heroes was released as a San Diego Comic Con
exclusive before being offered on Hasbro
Pulse. Additionally, they added to the line with
original creations including a glow-in-the-dark Stay
Puft and Slimer two-pack and an Ecto-1. They expanded it further in 2026 by finally producing the
cancelled Ecto-Glow
Copter Vehicle and re-releasing the Louis
figure. For the 40th anniversary of
the show, Hasbro released a Louis
and Janine two-pack using their Power Pack Heroes molds (the only
wave that included both of them) with original uniform coloring and proton
pack accessories.
 |
| Real Ghostbusters handheld game by Renco. |
In 1987, Data East produced a Real Ghostbusters arcade game that was a 360-degree top-down shooting game later
ported to various home consoles. Because of licensing agreements, the game
couldn’t be released in its native Japan; instead, it was reworked into Meikyuu Hunter G
(the “G” standing for Ghostbusters). Many mistakenly believe The Real
Ghostbusters game was the remake as Hunter G was able to be released
first. In 1988, Remco released two LCD handheld games that featured Peter
having to repel a horde of ghosts as they descended down on him. Remco also
produced a table-top
video game, an electronic
pinball game, and two “water
challenge” games. In 1993, a Game Boy game was developed by Kemco and
released by Kotobuki Systems in Europe and Activision in
America. The game had very little to do with the show or concept as it was
originally developed as a Mickey
Mouse game in Kemco’s Crazy Castle series of games called Mickey Mouse IV: the
Magical Labyrinth. Various licensing
agreements meant that Mickey needed to be replaced as the main character for
the game to be released in other territories. In Europe it featured Garfield while
the American version featured only Peter and the theme song. Each version involved navigating
an enemy-filled maze to find all the level’s stars within the time limit and
getting the key to the exit.
 |
| The Real Ghostbusters omnibus from IDW, collecting the first half of NOW's run. |
In 1988, licenses for a comic based on the show
were granted to Marvel’s United Kingdom division for international
publication while NOW Comics obtained the domestic rights. The Marvel books were magazine-sized and ran weekly until
its last few issues, featuring several short comic strips and a prose story.
Many prominent creators worked on the series, including Richard Starkings, Phil Hester, Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Al Williamson. Marvel also made a point of including many of the
vehicles, equipment and suits that only existed as toys in their stories.
Additionally, Marvel would run Ghostbusters strips in the anthology
titles It’s
Wicked! and The Marvel
Bumper Comic. NOW’s series featured a more
mature tone than the Marvel books and typically had only one story per issue;
except when they would import and reprint some stories from Marvel’s books. It
was primarily written by James
Van Hise with art by future Mortal Kombat co-creator John Tobias. Because of NOW’s monetary troubles, the original comic
series ended after 28 issues but was relaunched with a new series shortly after;
lasting four issues and two specials before ending once again. Occasionally
during their runs, Marvel and NOW would share stories and cover art, and both
books featured the only time the character of Dana would be rendered in The
Real style as she never appeared on the show. NOW would also publish a
Slimer! spin-off comic rendered in a cartoony style similar to the Slimer!
episodes. Hickey and McCoy would write some issues, along with animation writer
Larry Parr. Marvel published reprints of the book for their own Slimer!
series. The comics all outlived the show, ending in two years later in 1993.
In 2006, Titan
Books reprinted some of the Marvel UK strips
in four
digest-sized collections. In 2012 & 2013, then-license
holder IDW Publishing released two omnibus collections of the first volume of the NOW comics.
The last vestige of the series came from the
most unlikely place. In a promotional tie-in to the show and sequel film, Hi-C began
production of a flavor called “Ecto Cooler”: a green-colored orange and
tangerine drink that featured the animated Slimer on the packaging. However,
this wasn’t a new flavor, but an attempted rebranding of their poorly-selling Citrus Cooler which already had its distinctive green color due to a
fascination with colorful drinks in the 1970s. The drink was popular enough
that it ended up outliving the show. Despite Slimer’s removal from the
packaging in 1997, likely due to the license lapsing, the flavor continued on.
In 2003 it was eventually renamed “Shoutin’
Orange Tangergreen”, then almost reverted to its
original name “Crazy Citrus Cooler” in 2006, before being discontinued
altogether the following year. Along with trying to petition Coca-Cola, the makers
of Hi-C, to bring the flavor back, fans of the drink have taken to figuring out
the recipe for it and making
their own. Ecto Cooler did return for a limited time (still without Slimer) in 2016 as part
of a promotion for Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, and were handed out at the
2021 New
York premiere for Ghostbusters:
Afterlife.
 |
| Extreme team: Slimer, Garrett, Kylie, Eduardo, Roland and Egon. |
In 1997, Sony, now owner of
Columbia and its properties, sought to revitalize the Ghostbusters brand with a
new animated series entitled Extreme Ghostbusters (originally Super
Ghostbusters, both popular adjectives to add to the titles of things
throughout the 80s and 90s). The Ghostbusters had disbanded and Egon (still LaMarche)
remained behind to monitor the containment unit with Janine (Pat Musick) and Slimer (Billy West,
who was led to believe that his friend Welker had to turn down the role, but in
reality was too expensive for the production’s liking) while he taught at the
university. Circumstances led to Egon’s only students—cynical slacker Eduardo
Rivera (Rino Romano), intelligent and gifted Roland Jackson (Alfonso Ribeiro), brilliant goth Kylie Griffin (Tara Strong)
and wheelchair-bound jock Garrett Miller (Jason Marsden)—to
reform the Ghostbusters. While many things were similar to The Real,
the designs for the show were owned by DiC necessitating some redesigns (some
explained in-story) as the show was now produced by Sony's own Adelaide Productions. The series, despite having some of the same writers and
producers from the previous show, failed to achieve the same success and was
cancelled after only one season; but not before the original Ghostbusters
(portrayed by their Real actors) made an appearance in the
two-part series finale. Notably, Samhain would receive his first action
figure as part of the line produced by Trendmasters; despite only appearing in
the show’s intro.
 |
| The Real Ghostbusters complete series DVDs by Time Life. |
At the conclusion of Extreme, all
was quiet on the animated Ghostbusters front until two movie-centric episodes,
“Citizen Ghost” and “Partners in Slime”, were included as special features on
the 2005
re-release of Ghostbusters II. The following year, three bare-bones
collected DVDs were released with four
episodes on each. This was the first time The Real had been
available on home video since the original VHS
releases during the show’s run. Sales were
sufficient enough that Time Life produced a full series collection in 2008, which
included steelbook cases (replaced with similar plastic cases in later
releases) with design sketches inside, an episode guide and a bonus disk of
additional content. Fans got the chance to vote for the set’s packaging: a slimed black box with some images on it, or a
reproduction of the firehouse (pitched using an image of the real New York
firehouse). The firehouse packaging won out, resembling the cartoon firehouse
with two lenticular holograms. The steelbooks within were later individually
released as season sets. The set was further
broken down in 2016 by Sony Home
Entertainment into 10
volumes, each containing a dozen or so episodes
and reusing some of the Time Life artwork. The first five volumes were put
together in a
box set at the time of their release, and in 2017
all 10 volumes were gathered together into a single
box. The pilot was restored and included as a
special feature on the limited edition 35th
anniversary re-release of both films. In 2018,
the complete
series was released in Germany by Turbine with both
English and German audio tracks available.
 |
| The RetroAction figures on display with the included Firehouse backdrop. |
In 2011, five sets of Minimates figures based on the series were made, while Mattel produced
a line of Reto-Action
action figures (7” dolls with cloth uniforms
modeled after Mego figures) and their Hot Wheels
division released a die-cast
animated Ecto-1 in 2015. Beginning in 2018, Diamond Select Toys released new action figures based on the cartoon as part
of their Ghostbusters
toyline; both with and without a piece of a
Firehouse diorama. A special
box set of the Spectral
Ghostbusters from “Citizen Ghost” was released as
a San Diego Comic-Con 2019 exclusive. Although the show has yet to return to its
own comic series, several references have been made to it in 88MPH’s Ghostbusters:
Legion and throughout IDW’s ongoing Ghostbusters series. IDW also had a couple of back-up features set in the
animated world and crossovers in Get
Real and 101. The 2022 first-person shooter video game Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, developed and published by IllFonic,
received an update in early 2023 that allowed players to customize
their characters to resemble the Ghostbusters and
Janine from the animated series. A
2nd wave of free downloadable content
added the option to utilize the coloring of the Power
Pack Heroes figures. A 4th
wave introduced the ghostly villain Samhain (Ryan
Colt Levy), as well as skins based on the Molecular
Destabilizing suit from “Xmas Marks the Spot” and
the Screaming
Heroes Egon action figure. It was also possible
to use provided cosmetics and colors to create an approximation of Fright
Features Ray. In 2024, Magnoli Clothiers began offering high-end
flight suits modeled after the cartoon’s. In
2025, Dark Horse Comics published
The
Real Ghostbusters: A Visual History written by Troy Benjamin and Craig Goldberg.
Season 1:
“Ghosts R Us*” (9/13/86) – Slimer accidently frees a ghost family that seek to get revenge on the Ghostbusters by being better Ghostbusters.
“Knock, Knock” (11/6/87) – Construction workers accidentally find and open a door that unleashes a horde of supernatural entities seeking to transform the entire world.
“Baby Spookums” (9/12/87) – Slimer decides to take care of a small, friendly ghost that has wandered into New York, not knowing his parents have come looking for him.
“The Joke’s on Ray” (9/10/88) – Ray inherits a joke store and releases two imps that feed off practical jokes.
“Something’s Going Around” (9/9/89) – A ghost supplies the guys with a snack that makes people allergic to ghosts.
“Russian About” (10/27/90) – The guys must stop a Russian cult from awakening one of the Old Ones.
“The Treasure of Sierra Tamale” (9/7/91) – Ray and Slimer join Peter’s father to find a treasure in Mexico.
“Slimer for Hire / Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’ / Nothing to Sneeze At” (9/10/88) – Slimer helps Rudy with his dog-walking business, but Dweeb is after him. / Slimer tries to get Fred past Bruiser to attend a BBQ. / Slimer is in charge when the guys are sick and has to deal with Manx.
Originally posted in 2014. Updated in 2026.
