The server migration is on hold. Check here for more info. |
The Real Ghostbusters
| The Real Ghostbusters | |
 | |
| Premiere | September 13, 1986 |
| Finale | October 5, 1991 |
| Based on | the motion picture "Ghostbusters" characters created by Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis |
| Network/Provider | ABC (seasons 1, 3-7)
Syndication (season 2) |
| Style | 30-minute childrens animation |
| Company | DiC Entertainment, Columbia Pictures Television (seasons 1, 3-7), Coca-Cola Telecommunications (season 2) |
| Seasons | 7 |
| Episodes | 134 |
| Origin | USA |
After the huge success of the 1984 movie, Columbia Pictures hired DiC Enterprises to make a cartoon series based on the hit movie Ghostbusters. J. Michael Straczynski helped develop the project (as well as write some of the most popular episodes) and The Real Ghostbusters premiered on September 13, 1986, quickly becoming a huge hit.
The series continued where the first movie left off, with the four Ghostbusters facing forces of the supernatural. Helping out the Ghostbusters would be their secretary, Janine Melnitz, and eventually Louis Tully. Also joining in would be the green ghost busted at the Sedgewick Hotel in the first movie, which was given the name Slimer.
Hoping to further the success of RGB, a spin-off was created in the 1988-1989 season titled Slimer!. It was shown with RGB in a 1-hour programming block titled Slimer! And the Real Ghostbusters. The spin-off was aimed at a younger audience and starred Slimer and showed his adventures with his own group of friends. The spin-off was ultimately a failure, however, lasting only a single season. Meanwhile, RGB continued on for the next couple years, but began losing quality in stories and animation. Complaints from parents about violence, as well as lack of interest ultimately ended The Real Ghostbusters.
As for why the series was titled The Real Ghostbusters, it was discovered during production of the first movie that Filmation Associates owned the name (they had produced a short-lived live action TV series titled The Ghost Busters in the 1970s). Columbia and Filmation came to an agreement about it, but Filmation kept the cartoon rights, so Columbia just named the cartoon series, The Real Ghostbusters. At the same time, Filmation had a syndicated cartoon version of their original series, which was simply titled Ghostbusters (later known as Filmation's Ghostbusters).
After the first season, Dave Coulier (Full House) took over for Lorenzo Music (Garfield and Friends) as the voice of Peter. A season later, Buster Jones replaced Arsenio Hall as the voice of Winston. Janine's voice (and appearance) was changed in season 3. It was lampshaded in the episode "Janine, You've Changed."
Contents |
Cast
| Actor | Character | Duration | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Billed Cast | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | |
| Lorenzo Music | Peter Venkman | * | * | |||||
| Dave Coulier | * | * | * | * | * | |||
| Maurice LaMarche | Egon Spengler | * | * | * | * | * | * | * |
| Arsenio Hall | Winston Zeddemore | * | * | * | ||||
| Buster Jones | * | * | * | * | ||||
| Frank Welker | Ray Stantz | * | * | * | * | * | * | * |
| Slimer | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | |
| Laura Summer | Janine Melnitz | * | * | |||||
| Kath Soucie | * | * | * | * | * | |||
| Rodger Bumpass | Louis Tully | * | * | |||||
Seasons
| Season | Premiere | Finale | # | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | ||||||
| Season One | September 13, 1986 | December 13, 1986 | 13 | |||
| Syndication | ||||||
| Season Two | September 14, 1987 | December 11, 1987 | 65 | |||
| ABC | ||||||
| Season Three | September 12, 1987 | December 12, 1987 | 13 | |||
| Season Four | September 10, 1988 | November 19, 1988 | 8 | |||
| Season Five | September 9, 1989 | 1989 | 15 | |||
| Season Six | September 8, 1990 | 1990 | 16 | |||
| Season Seven | September 7, 1991 | October 5, 1991 | 4 | |||
In-Depth
- At a Glance: Additional information about the series
- Characters: A listing of characters in the series
DVD Releases
| Title | Release | Discs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Complete Series (Region 1) | ||||||
| The Complete Series | November 25, 2008 (Time Life) September 29, 2009 (General) |
purchase | 25 | |||
| Episode Collections - Chronological (Region 1) | ||||||
| Volume 1 | March 31, 2009 | purchase | 5 | |||
| Volume 2 | January 26, 2010 | purchase | 5 | |||
| Volume 3 | August 3, 2010 | purchase | 5 | |||
| Episode Collections - Themed (Region 1) | ||||||
| Volume 1: Creatures of the Night | February 28, 2006 | purchase | 1 | |||
| Volume 2: Spooky Spirits | February 28, 2006 | purchase | 1 | |||
| Volume 3: Slimefighters | February 28, 2006 | purchase | 1 | |||
| Episode(s) as Special Features (Region 1) | ||||||
| Ghostbusters 2 | March 14, 2006 | purchase | 1 | |||
