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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/7deadlycinderella on 2024-08-31 21:44:48+00:00.
So, Ghostbusters. Back to the 80’s right?
Not quite. Our story here starts in 1975.
In the 70’s the idea of Saturday morning cartoons was well established, but the kid oriented weekend block also occasionally included some live action series among its animated brethren. In 1975, one of these was the Ghost Busters on CBS, a live action series starring two bumbling detectives and a gorilla who investigated paranormal events, full to the brim of slapstick and references to classic film (the two human main characters are “Spencer” and “Tracy” and the gorilla is “Kong”). It lasted 15 episodes, and while a modest ratings success (second in its timeslot, losing to the Shazam/ISIS hour) it did not get a second season and faded into obscurity.
Despite the earlier series lack of staying power, Columbia Pictures still had to pay a fee to Filmation to use the name for their unrelated smash hit 1984 classic staring Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Harold Raimis and Ernie Hudson as the titular exterminator/collectors of paranormal apparitions of all kinds. And a smash hit the movie was, being the second highest grossing film of 1984, and at the time, the highest grossing comedy ever made.
And it was especially popular with kids (it’s quite common for adults rewatching to be surprised by how adult some of the humor was- it came out before the PG-13 rating existed and would easily make PG-13 today). And in the 80’s era of Wall Street and cocaine, what do you do with a property popular with kids? Well, one scenario at least, is you turn it into a Saturday morning cartoon. These were even bigger in the 80's than they had been in the 70’s- this was the era of He-Man, the original My Little Pony and Ninja Turtles, among dozens of other series supported by sales of toys, breakfast cereals and other merchandise. A very profitable opportunity indeed, especially since as an era, it wasn’t one burdened too much by “quality animation” or “artistic merit” (also not uncommon nowadays, rewatching your favorite 80’s cartoon and finding absolutely nothing of substance beyond your childhood nostalgia)- cheap, formulaic and easy to mass produce were the rule until almost the 90’s when Disney came onto the afternoon cartoon scene and became a significant challenger.
And it turned out, Columbia got beaten to the punch. The smash success of their film convinced Filmation, a studio well entranced in the TV cartoon biz (possibly second only to Hanna Barbera), to revive their nearly forgotten 1975 series as a cartoon as well, and capitalize on the confusion the identical name would cause. Premiering on September 8, 1986, and airing 65 episodes in daytime syndication over the next 4 months. Nearly universally always referred to as “Filmation’s Ghostbusters” in retrospect to differentiate, it was a flop (TV animation could be cheap enough that yes, a 65 episode series could still be considered a flop), but it did exactly what it was supposed to- confused the viewers as to whether or not it was related to the film. But it ended up being a double edged sword- namely, kids were confused and upset that the series contained none of their favorite characters, and they by and large did not continue to watch. There are even stories of accusations of racism for making Winston, the film character played by black actor Ernie Hudson, into a ape for the series. And most painfully for Filmation, this confusion hit them where it hurt the most- the toy sales!
Not that Columbia would admit defeat. On September 13, 1986, only five days after Filmation’s series began airing, Columbia’s premiered on ABC Saturday morning its own offering (animated by rival studio DIC), utilizing the title that was meant to guide kids watching also taking a swipe back at Filmation- the REAL Ghostbusters.
Despite the name, the animated series was not without it’s speed bumps among devoted franchise fans. Namely, while it contained all their favorite Ghostbusters from the movie, they didn’t look or sound anything like them. To avoid having to pay to use the actor’s likenesses, the animation team completely overhauled the character designs- behold, the poster in which Peter Venkman looks like Bill Murray probably wishes he did: and instead of having the actors voice their characters, the cast was instead filled with professional voice actors, including names like Maurice LaMarche, Frank Welker and Dave Coillier, making the resemblance to the movie characters even more distinct- even the uniforms weren’t quite the same! In terms of writing, many early episodes had plots that had multiple demographic appeal and humor more in line with the movie (the head writer in the first two season was J Michael Straczynski) though these were always toned down for the kids show time slot- primarily by removing the swearing and sexual innuendo. This slowly ended too, most notably after season 2, and the writing became far more typical of a Saturday morning cartoon, primarily as a result of ABC’s attempt to retool the show to be more successful- this also resulted in some changes to the character designs and personalities, and increase in focus on Slimer (eventually including him in the show title!). It sort of worked. The show continued on for several more seasons, but fans are quite critical of these later seasons
In spite of these controversies, the Real Ghostbusters ran for seven seasons, totally over 140 episodes, and produced two spinoffs: a series of shorts focused on Slimer and 1997’s Extreme Ghostbusters, as well as (most importantly in the studios minds) selling mountains of toys. The cartoon is reasonably well regarded among fans, though this affection is primarily restricted to the first two seasons (and bolstered by later interest in J Michael Straczynski’s early work). Filmations’ attempt to capitalize on their original use of the name can’t even say this (though I will admit, its theme song is also quite catchy).
That was hardly the end of the controversies that the franchise faced- including several attempts to get a third movie made, the 2016 gender-flipped remake and the two later reboot sequels, but as so ends what I can write about, being that I never even got around to watching Ghostbusters 2 (and one of these days, my brother might start speaking to me again!).