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The Real Ghostbusters was a long-running animated mid-Saturday morning
series, set after the original Ghostbusters movie plot.
Based
on the four characters of movie fame, Ray Stanz [Frank Welker],
Peter Venkman [Lorenzo Music, Dave Coulier], Winston Zeddmore [Arsenio
Hall, Buster Jones] and Egon Spengler [Maurice LaMarche] had their
hands full with a plethora of ghosts, goblins, plagues, mythical
figures and other oddities that haunted the city of New York. They're
aided by the secretarial prowess of Janine Melnitz [Laura Summer,
Kath Soucie] and their babbling and always hungry pal, Slimer [voiced
by Frank Welker], who proves to be a total annoyance to Peter --
sometimes seen as Slimer's disciplinarian. The show itself was a
genius mix of humor, intrigue, grit, satire and suspense. Taking
place after the events of 1984's live action film, the Ghostbusters
went on calls around the NYC area (and occasionally elsewhere, as
seen in an episode set in France). Researching hauntings based upon
ancient folklore - Egon would study the subject while Peter foolishly
blew off his warnings. Ray typically looked at all scenarios with
an open mind, and Winston followed along as the backup.
Although
the characters (except for Slimer) are drawn to look nothing like
their movie counterparts, the cartoon features various other differences
between the two sources - ranging from the jumpsuit colors, proton
pack stylings and personalities.
The
series featured intriguing and stimulating background music, as
performed by the incredible duo of Shuki Levy and Haim Saban, who
have contributed so much to cartoon music scores. Additionally,
music composed for specific series were produced by John Smith's
rendition of the Ray Parker, Jr. "Ghostbusters" theme,
and the 80s pop group "Tahiti" (Tyren Perry and Tonya
Townsend). Additional music talents included Michael Straczynski
and Brian O'Neal.
Season
5 of the Real Ghostbusters made its premiere in being hosted by
cast members of "Family Matters" on the Friday night variety
series "TGIF."
From
September 10, 1988 to April 8, 1989, the series continued on as
"Slimer! And the Real Ghostbusters," an attempt to target an even
younger audience with more slapstick-style comedy. This mini-series
was shown alongside abridged viewings of Real Ghostbusters episodes,
but was drawn in a more "cartoonish" or slap-stick style. The Real
Ghostbusters introduction screen featured the words "Slimer! and
the..." once the firework struck the upper left part of the title.
Although it did not feature the four Ghostbusters as main characters,
the series followed Slimer's daytime life when not at the firehouse.
It featured it's own short introduction sequence, as well - where
slimer begins the episode by popping a tape in the VCR (one of which
is labeled "DiC"). The episodes featured the 'Junior Ghostbusters:'
Donald [Danny McMurphy], Jason [Katie Leigh] and Catherine [April
Hong] - a trio of aspiring busters who Slimer was friends with,
Fred - a stray dog, Luigi [Danny Mann] - a pizza maker, Chilly Cooper
[Cree Summer] - an ice cream truck driver, and Bud [Danny Mann],
a bellboy from the Sedgewick Hotel. He avoided characters such as
Manx the cat, Morris Grout [Alan Oppenheimer] - super of the Sedgewick
Hotel, Bruiser - a fierce dog, and Professor Norman Dweeb [Jeff
Altman] - who tried to catch Slimer and use him for experimentation
purposes. The series ran for 31 episodes across 2 seasons, then
was no longer to be seen due to poor ratings.
Sony
Pictures began to release various episodes of the "Real Ghostbusters"
on DVD in 2006.
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