Retro Weekend Rewind: The Real Ghostbusters
Since it's that spooky time of year I thought I'd dedicate this month's Retro Weekend Rewind to the The Real Ghostbusters just in time for Halloween! So dust off your Kenner Proton Pack and lets join Peter, Ray, Egon, Winston & Slimer as we remember this ghostly cartoon from our childhood.
THE CARTOON
The clip above is an amazing promo video for The Real Ghostbusters cartoon to promote season one and to show what the scope of the show would be. You’ll notice the Ghostbusters wore tan jumpsuits similar to their movie versions. When the finished show aired, in 1986, the guys got their own color coded uniforms. Another thing you’ll see, in the promo, is the original design of Peter Venkman having a more rounded face to resemble Bill Murray. It’s a little jarring to see Slimer being a more menacing spirit rather than the fun loving “spook” we all loved when the show aired. Thanks to the awesome animation and story in this promo The Real Ghostbusters ran for 6 amazing seasons with 147 episodes. It even spawned two spin-off cartoons: “Slimer ” in 1988 and “Extreme Ghostbusters” in 1997.
Slimer and The Real Ghostbusters Intro
The cartoon was changed to "Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters" in 1988. The show expanded to a one hour block of cartoons at that time. It featured the regular Ghostbusters cartoon and then a half hour of Slimer's adventures while the guys are away from the firehouse.
Comic book writer and Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski was story editor, for the series, and wrote 21 episodes of the show. A few of my favorite episodes, he wrote, are “Slimer Come Home”, “Mr. Sandman, Dream Me a Dream” and “When Halloween Was Forever” from season 1. Before working on The Real Ghostbusters, Straczynski worked on She-Ra: Princess of Power for Filmation which brings us to our next Retro Rewind entry.
Filmation Ghostbusters Intro
In 1986, producer Louis Scheimer and Filmation, released their own show about supernatural hunters called, that’s right you guessed it, “Ghostbusters”. It was later changed to “Filmation’s Ghostbusters” and ran from 1986-87 with 65 episodes. Columbia Pictures actually had to get the rights to use the name from Filmation, for the 1984 film, because they owned the name from a live action series they produced in 1975. The Filmation cartoon was about the son’s of the characters from the 70’s live action show continuing in their father’s footsteps with the help of Tracy the talking gorilla from the original show. Like most Filmation cartoons, like He-Man & The Masters of the Universe, these Ghostbusters had one main villain, Prime Evil, who they fought in every episode along with his cast of colorful henchmen. One thing I remember about this cartoon was that instead of an Ecto-1 these guys had a car, that looked like Archie's jalopy, that could fly.
THE TOYS
First toy commercial for The Real Ghostbusters
Kenner created the Real Ghostbusters toy line in 1986, to go along with the cartoon. The toys hit shelves in January of 1987 and had ten waves of figures and vehicles lasting until 1991. The line included the original 4 Ghostbusters, Slimer, Stay Puft, and a slew of freaky ghosts. Later lines had variations of Ray, Peter, Winston, Egon, and added Janine Melnitz in full ghost busting gear. The ghosts and ghouls got even freakier with figures of regular people, like a mail man, construction worker, a grandma, with others that transformed into monsters. Of course they offered the Ecto-1 and the Firehouse playlet also. I had the Ecto-2, which was an awesome one-man helicopter that transformed into a three wheeler. Of the original 4 Ghostbusters I only had Peter Venkman. My favorite ghost figure from the line was the Bug-Eye Ghost with a 3rd eye that would pop out when you squeezed the figure. This was a great line of toys that had a lot of crazy figures, even for the 80s, that still brings a smile to my face just thinking of them.
Ghostbusters Ecto-1 Toy Commercial
THE CEREAL
Ghostbusters Cereal Commercial
“There's a new cereal in the neighborhood
with O's and ghosts
(Tastes real good... Ghostbusters!)”
That’s right, The Ghostbusters had their own sugary cereal for kids to enjoy while watching their popular cartoon and playing with their action figures on Saturday mornings as part of a “balanced breakfast”!
The cereal was released by Ralston, in 1985, and consisted of marshmallow ghosts and fruit flavored O’s. Like any good cereal of the ‘80s it, of course, came with prizes like the Ghostbusters Ghost Flyer, Posters, Stickers, and more that would make us dig through to the bottom of the box to get our haunted treasure!
We hope you enjoyed this spooktacular edition of Retro Weekend Rewind. Be sure to let us know what you think and what you’d like us to look back on in future posts. Happy Halloween and we’ll see you geeks next time!!