Following on from the hit 1984 Ghostbusters movie, The Real Ghostbusters was an American cartoon than ran for seven seasons (140 episodes) from September 13th 1986 to October 5th 1991. It documented the further adventures of Dr. Peter Venkman (voiced by Lorenzo Music in Seasons 1-2, Dave Coulier in Seasons 3-7) , Dr. Egon Spengler (voiced by Maurice LaMarche), Dr. Ray Stantz (voiced by Frank Welker), Winston Zeddemore (voiced by Arsenio Hall in Seasons 1-3, Buster Jones in Seasons 4-7), and their secretary Janine Melnitz (Voiced by Laura Summer in Seasons 1-2, Kath Soucie in Seasons 3-7). Slimer (voiced by Frank Welker once again), the hungry green ghost from the movie, was added as their and their pet/mascot. It was produced by Columbia Pictures Television, DiC Enterprises, and Coca-Cola Telecommunications. The story editor for the show was J. Michael Straczynski – who wrote every episode for every season apart from Season 4 and Season 7.
It should be noted that “The Real” part was added to the title following a rights dispute with Filmation and its original Ghost Busters properties. When initially making their film, Columbia Pictures had to obtain rights to use the name from Filmation. They initially neglected to do so and Filmation, who had already produced a live-action comedy series with that same name in 1975 filed legal action. Eventually Columbia agreed to license the name from Filmation for $500,000 plus 1% of the profits. Since Columbia did not really want to license Filmation the rights to the movie Ghostbusters when they were looking to produce an animated series they added “The Real” to distinguish the carton and thus not have to pay Filmation anymore. Filmation had even gone as far as to attempt to work with Columbia Pictures and had completed initial design work for a cartoon to be based on the movie but Columbia changed its mind, deciding not to work with Filmation (they chose DiC instead), prompting Filmation to create the cartoon based on its former live-action series.
As the series began we joined The Real Ghostbusters battling ghosts in New York. Most episodes were a ghost of the week type episode with their accountant Louis also popping up in their adventures. This continued until the fourth season (1988) when the show was renamed Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters. Episodes now included a thirty-minute The Real Ghostbusters episode and a 30 minute Slimer series. The Slimer part of the show was often in two sections that helped break up the main story.
In the Slimer parts, we see Slimer haunting the Sedgewick Hotel and we meet Slimer’s friends Chilly Cooper the singing ice cream truck driver named Chilly Cooper, Luigi the Italian pizza chef, Luigi’s boss Rafael the restaurant owner, Bud the bellhop, hotel manager Morris Grout, socialite Mrs. Van Huego and her dog Fred, and odd-job worker Rudy. Slimer spends his episodes trying not to be captured by mad scientist Professor Norman Dweeb and his pink poodle Elizabeth. Other enemies of Slimer include The Sleaze, Manx the alley cat, Bruiser the dog, Mrs. Stone, and the ghost gangsters Goolem, Zugg and their boss Scareface.
A sequel carton, Extreme Ghostbusters emerged in 1997 from Columbia TriStar Television and Adelaide Productions. It premiered on September 1st 1997 and ran for forty episodes. Extreme Ghostbusters was set many years after The Real Ghostbusters and it is explained that The Real Ghostbusters have disbanded due to a lack of supernatural activity. Egon is the last Ghostbuster left (along with Slimer) who stays at the firehouse to monitor the containment system. As a day job, Egon now teaches at a local university. When supernatural events begin occurring in New York, Egon recruits four of his university students as a new team of Ghostbusters, and Janine, now one of Egon’s students, returns to manage the office. In the two-episode season finale the original Real Ghostbusters return for the to celebrate Egon’s 40th birthday, which of course is interrupted by supernatural activity. This results in the old and new team having to put their differences aside to solve one last case.
Ogun Bat is a Japanese superhero created by Takeo Nagamatsu in 1931 and is considered to be the first Japanese superhero. The anime ran 52 episodes between April 1st 1967 and March 23rd Read more
Released in December 1980, Zork: The Great Underground Empire - Part I aka Zork I was an interactive fiction video game written by Marc Blank, Dave Lebling, Bruce Daniels and Tim Read more
Zoolander is back but a lot has happened since 2001! Rest assured the Ben Stiller comedy features familiar faces and a few new ones with plenty to get you excited. Read more
At a dinner party with their wives, NASA scientist Dr. Keith Ritchie (Tony Huston) reveals to his colleague Dr. Curt Taylor (John Agar) that he has secretly been in communication Read more
In Italy during World War II, an American military patrol discovers a spaceship that has crash-landed in the woods, along with its alien crew. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm9fnNfLg8M A nearby Nazi unit also Read more
Zone Fighter was a tokusatsu science fiction/superhero television series produced by Toho Company Ltd. It aired from April 2nd 1973 to September 24th 1973, with a total of 26 episodes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdhcjsVLDQY The series follows Read more
When the government's latest crime deterrent, obmoz, goes completely off the rails and starts to destroy everything from the underfunded super team Planetronix to the president himself, who ya gonna Read more
Tony Todd is back in an all new zombie movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBlWz-n-nec When the world is in shambles, plagued by a zombie outbreak, only the strong will survive, but just how Read more
Directed by Chris Watson and distributed by Troma Entertainment, Zombiegeddon begins as Satan creates a human-like race called zombies. When the zombies begin taking over the world, dirty cops Jeff Read more
Zombie Hotel ran for twenty-six episodes in 2006 and focuses on Fungus and Maggot - two child zombies who pretend to be human to get into their local school. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzXhCDspKxU Read more
After surviving the 'Multipocalypse', Ben tries to live a normal life, hiding the fact that he is infected with a zombie plague. His new friends have just found out ... Read more
A dutiful Samurai, a madcap Ninja and a bizarro Zen Monk team up to battle the undead in Feudal Japan. Can these unlikely allies stay friends long enough to stop Read more
Based on Marilyn Sadler and Roger Bollen's book of the same name, Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century was directed by Kenneth Johnson and set in the year 2049. It Read more
Arriving in 2010, Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City was the sequel for 2004's Zebraman, and starred Show Aikawa once again as Shinichi Ichikawa/Zebraman. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqnYJugzaiU As the film opens it Read more
Directed by Takashi Miike, Zebraman follows Shinichi Ichikawa (Shô Aikawa), a man whose life is unravelling before his eyes. At work he is a failing school teacher and at home he Read more
Ryan Reynolds announced via Twitter that Zazie Beets (Atlanta) will play Domino in the upcoming Deadpool sequel: https://twitter.com/VancityReynolds/status/839947701487796224 Deadpool 2 will be directed by David Leitch (John Wick), with original Deadpool scripters Rhett Reese Read more
Zardoz, often referred to as "the one where James Bond is in his pants," is set in a future post-apocalypse Earth in the year 2293. By this point in history Read more
Zapped is a British sci-fi/fantasy sitcom that takes place in both in the real world and in a town called Munty which exists in a medieval fantasy world. The series Read more
A prequel set in the world of Syfy's #1 scripted hit zombie series Z Nation, Black Summer is as bad as the apocalypse gets. A worldwide drought and famine when Read more
Brett Summers
Founded Cult Faction in 2014. Some would describe him as a teacher, writer, dream weaver, and visionary... some would not...
More Stories
Bubblegum Crisis
Once Upon a Time… Space
ACCEL WORLD: INFINITE BURST