The Wild Battle Over The Real Ghostbusters: How A Studio Almost Killed A Hit

after riding the wave of popularity following two feature films it turns out you can't have too much of a good thing the question is once you've realized it do you double down on what started the wave in the first place or do you hand off to a new generation a new perspective cross your fingers and hope for the best hi i'm dan larsen and this is the history of the real ghostbusters [Music] thank you to adcs.com for sponsoring this video click the link in the description below and use code toy galaxy to get 30 off your order today if you like the 80s and all the stuff inspired by it then you're going to love 80stees.com it's the kind of story we would have shopped at back when all this stuff was actually airing for the first time the future means being able to dress today like we wanted to back then whether you're into movies cartoons video games superheroes music wrestling garbage pail kids they have it in fact they aren't even limited to just the 80s 80stease.com covers five decades of pop culture excitement you can save ferris talk to me goose strike fast strike hard show your friends you're the cream of the crop and that you love it when a plan comes together without saying a word just point to your chest free worldwide shipping on orders fifty dollars and up click the link below and use code toy galaxy for thirty percent off your order today again that's code toy galaxy for thirty percent off your order thanks again to 80st.com we have previously covered elements of the real ghostbusters in a video that focused almost exclusively on the kenner toy line while it allowed us to touch on general aspects of the brand it left out a whole lot of basic stuff we're revisiting it here to tell a more complete story that will unfortunately barely touch on things like the ghostbusters movies and the spin-off series the extreme ghostbusters they will get their own videos eventually but not today the real ghostbusters is a 140 episode animated series that ran seven seasons from 1986 to 1991 kind of a sequel to sort of a spin-off of the 1984 movie ghostbusters borrowing a lot but still doing its own thing the series follows new york's foremost supernatural eliminators egon spengler ray stance peter venkman and winston zedmore in a world where ghosts and ghouls are a very real potentially dangerous part of everyday life the ghostbusters are simultaneously regular workaday schlubs like you and me and superheroes with experimental technology defending the city the world and this dimension from the most dangerous threats we could possibly imagine but take heart nothing is so terrible that the ghostbusters can't resolve it within roughly 22 minutes and there won't be anything so earth-shattering that it would impact the greater ghostbusters franchise long term because as much as the real ghostbusters drove the brand on a daily basis it was never steering the ship the franchise was of course the movies the feature filmed ghostbusters released in 1984 was produced by ivan reitman and written by dan aykroyd and harold ramus it was produced and distributed by columbia pictures it starred bill murray dan aykroyd harold ramus and ernie hudson as the ghostbusters it earned nearly 300 million dollars in its initial run in theaters and more importantly became a pop culture sensation the success of the film fast tracked the production of an animated series or rather series not just one series is what i'm trying to say series is more than one series from more than one production company because before there was ghostbusters there was the ghostbusters a completely unrelated 1975 live-action television sitcom produced by filmation that ran for a single season of 15 episodes about a team of paranormal investigators one of whom was a gorilla years later during the production of the 1984 movie ghostbusters columbia pictures licensed the name from universal studios the then owner of filmation's 1975 the ghostbusters the agreement did not guarantee universal or filmation the rights to create a cartoon based on the 1984 film ghostbusters at any point regardless of performance that job ultimately went to deke entertainment within a year of the release of 1984's ghostbusters deke was already racing to get a series in production and sold to a network with almost no lead time deke produced a segment just short of four minutes long that showcased what a ghostbusters cartoon would look like the short was storyboarded on the fly by eddie fitzgerald and director kevin altiri working with character designs that were still evolving producers joe magic and michael c gross both served as associate producers on the 1984 film and made sure that there was a tonal consistency in the cartoon while the creators wanted to retain the spirit of ghostbusters the movie the intent was not to reproduce the characters literally deke was intentionally trying to avoid any issues with likeness rights that said even in the finished pilot venkman still looks more like bill murray than he does in the actual series deke needed the freedom to develop these characters independent of the movie versions keep the voices without using the actual voices for example ernie hudson himself auditioned for the role of winston whom he played in the movie but lost the part to arsenio hall venkman was played by lorenzo music who was also the voice of garfield at the time egon was played by maurice lamarche janine was played by laura summer and frank megatron welker played race dance slimer the stay puft marshmallow man mayor lenny cloth and a bunch of other characters filmation was denied the opportunity to work on the ghostbusters cartoon but that didn't prevent them from making their own cartoon based on their 1975 tv show the ghostbusters which they did they started their race to broadcast at the same time as deke the simultaneous development of two competing ghostbuster themed cartoons meant that deke had to make it very clear right up front in the title that the show they were producing was the one based on the movie the real ghostbusters cartoon so they called it the real ghostbusters filmation's ghostbusters managed to air their first episode a few days before the first episode of deke's the real ghostbusters ultimately the attempt to piggyback off the popularity of the hit film created far more confusion for filmation than for deke despite being older there was little to no public awareness of their 1975 tv show with a gorilla filmation's ghostbusters was a well executed and perfectly entertaining show in its own right with peter optimus prime cullen playing a feature role but it seemed like a knockoff attempting to steal a few minutes of fame due to the naming similarity the show and thereby the toy sales related to it struggled filmation producer lou shimer would later admit that it was probably a bad business move from the start abc ordered an initial batch of 13 weekly episodes of the real ghostbusters from deke for the first season but didn't stop there they also wanted 65 daily episodes for use in syndication to be broadcast on network affiliates at the same time and you know i won't go so far as to say that j michael strzinski is a friend of the show but i did meet him at a convention in connecticut once and he said he knew about our show i was very nervous to talk to him because he's kind of a big deal so i nervously said hi it's very nice to meet you then just kind of walked away whatever that is that's our relationship with him and not many people know this but j michael strozinski was one of the main writers and story editors for the real ghostbusters the additional 65 syndicated episodes presented strzinsky and the other writers at deke with a lot more work to do than they originally thought they had and different circumstances under which they were going to produce all those episodes the 13 season 1 episodes that would be airing weekly on abc were going to be held to a higher standard for children's television content they had to adhere to strict broadcast standards and practices tone down the violence the demonic imagery everybody put a seat belt on please the 65 syndicated season 2 episodes were almost uncompromised practically aired as originally conceived and written demons vampires werewolves an episode inspired by cthulhu and samhain itself that's how it's pronounced in the show save your samhain and sowhen takes for your halloween parties season one aired on saturdays from september to december of 1986 a year later in september of 1987 thanks to these 65 syndicated episodes and in order for 13 more weekly episodes for season three kids got real ghostbusters cartoons six days a week monday through saturday ghostbusters was hot [Music] joey would you please get the real ghostbusters from the cupboard [Music] real ghostbusters ghostly pasta in a delicious tomato sauce this ghost is history you ghostbusters love real ghostbusters new from heinz if you said that today in 2021 your network was number three in the ratings that would actually be okay there's a ton of networks and entertainment choices beyond television but in 1987 with only three networks to choose from in many markets third place was last place and somebody's gonna get fired abc reached out to a consulting firm called the q5 corporation q5 was a collection of psychology phd's marketing advertising and research professionals according to that same article in the la times from 1987 their objective was to quote determine product payoff the level of product payoff is the degree to which a product and its attributes match the needs and wants of the consumer essentially they compiled statistical data from scientific studies that they stored in computers and then developed a recommendation respective to the specific product and the intended customer they had worked with companies like hallmark marvel productions 20th century fox mattel and fisher price if you had a problem they claimed they could solve it abc was looking to q5 for insight into how they could improve their saturday morning performance overall against nbc and cbs some of that guidance landed on the real ghostbusters season three was when things started to change some of the character designs were modified subtly some drastically rey was a bit slimmer slimer got a tail aesthetic things that didn't really affect who they were janine on the other hand janine got a full makeover out with a spiky hair and in with a softer-spoken more reserved character overall the result was a janine melnettes with softer features smoother hair big round glasses and no jewelry knee-length skirts instead of minis as drazinski put it in 1987 q5 wanted us to knock off all the corners janine was a strong vibrant character they wanted her to be more feminine more maternal more nurturing like every other female on television the writers weren't on board feeling that q5 was trying to engineer creativity instead of employing imagination and challenging the audience that q5 wasn't trying to match the tastes of the youthful audience but that their methods were practically letting kids create the show q5 recommended eliminating rey altogether as in their opinion he served no purpose jeannie tryus vice president of children's programming abc countered reassuring everyone that q5 was just another objective voice in the room and that a lot of what q5 recommends is just reinforcing what they already knew about their products and customers and besides they aren't necessarily going to act on it anyway rey isn't going anywhere legend has it that bill murray didn't like venkman sounding like garfield and that he pressured producers to recast whether it was murray or q5 abc did recast both janine and venkman replacing lorenzo music and laura summer with dave coulier and kath soucy furthermore they re-recorded the dialogue for both characters from the previous season for consistency the reality is that the changes q5 recommended were only intended for the weekly abc episodes and did not affect the episodes that were shown in syndication which was the bulk of the series trezinski would get the last laugh in an episode during season six called janine you've changed that episode directly addresses her change in appearance and personality by the characters in the story janine was both under influence of a demon and had attempted to start a relationship with egon by becoming what she thought he would be interested in that is change would be a constant with the real ghostbusters the longer any series goes the more they will have to adapt to quickly shifting tastes of the audience and developments behind the scenes some characters will inevitably be more popular than others season four saw arsenio hall leave the show to be replaced by buster jones it also brought a change of episode format and series name in 1988 the real ghostbusters was changed to slimer and the real ghostbusters episodes went from a half hour to a full hour that hour was one of eight new regular episodes teamed up with a series of either two or three shorts focusing on breakout character slimer a total of 33 slimer shorts broken into 13 episodes introduced a host of new characters tangential to slimer's adventures independent of the ghostbusters themselves and the new york firehouse in 1989 columbia pictures released ghostbusters 2 the real ghostbusters had done a fantastic job keeping the franchise alive long enough for a sequel to hit theaters but that didn't necessarily help the performance of the film itself it took in just over 215 million dollars which resulted in colombia dismissing it as a financial and critical failure i can say now from the future that it was the definitive end of the movie franchise for the next three decades but the real ghostbusters wasn't done yet and also didn't need the movie franchise to keep its audience coming back 21 season 5 episodes take place after the events of the second film airing from september to december of 1989 a sixth season would add 16 more episodes in 1990 and a seventh season would finally finish out the original series with four more episodes in 1991. ghostbusters was a pop culture phenomenon and incredibly popular with kids we absolutely can't cover everything that was produced heck we can't even cover all of the toys that were produced kenner released a line of action figures vehicles playsets and role-play toys beginning in 1986 the designs and packaging were aesthetically tied to the animated series but obviously could also work as toys for the films themselves all of the ghostbusters were represented as were characters like janine melnitz luis tully slimer the stay puft marshmallow man and all the ghost zombies monsters mutants and specters you could need the firehouse came with a containment unit a working fire pole parking for the ecto-1 sold separately and vents at the top that facilitated slime interactivity green ooze dripping down through the entire facility canter's ghostbusters toys were an immediate hit beginning with the holiday season in 1986. each character featured in their cartoon colors jumpsuits with a proton pack and neutrona wand with a stream of energy emanating from the tip each figure packed with a ghost accessory so they have something to catch subsequent waves would introduce fright features with engineering that elicited exaggerated expressions of fear from each of the characters when you squeeze their legs together screaming heroes that screamed when you wound them up and attached their ghost accessory super fright features that doubled down on the expressions of terror from the previous fright features characters power pack heroes slimed heroes and even glow-in-the-dark ecto-glow an astounding 10 waves were officially released but kenner had plans for even more by 1991 not only had the series come to an end with no more movie sequels in sight but kenner was also purchased by hasbro shifting priorities and consolidating budgets the real ghostbusters hit comic shelves in 1988 through now comics and marvel uk now released 32 issues a 3d special and two annuals in 1989 when the second film hit they released a three-issue mini-series called real ghostbusters starring in ghostbusters 2. marvel uk put out nearly 200 issues along with four annuals and 10 special issues it was published weekly and even rolled in some of the previously published stories slimer got his own series with both publishers as well most of these books have been collected into trade paperbacks for easy reading you could play as the real ghostbusters in the arcades thanks to 1987's the real ghostbusters a shoot em up style game released by data east in the us it's actually a re-skinned japanese game called may q hunter g but that shouldn't diminish your enjoyment of it at all it still sings the ray parker jr version of the theme song the real ghostbusters was also adapted for home systems like the amiga the amstrad cpc commodore 64 and zx spectrum but you'd have to wait until 1993 for another home system game based on the cartoon that's when chemco released the real ghostbusters for the nintendo game boy yes it's another reskinned game that depending on the international market you're in might feature peter venkman mickey mouse or garfield but again that shouldn't diminish your enjoyment of the game especially since the ghostbusters version has 10 more stages than the others that said it was not without controversy according to game developer traveling bits the real ghostbusters game design and mechanics along with the alternate versions featuring mickey mouse and garfield are stolen from their 1991 game pp hammer and his pneumatic weapon and it is entirely unauthorized don't ask it's on the list ghostbusters and the real ghostbusters were the inspiration for licensed merchandise across the spectrum of consumable goods from sleeping bags to watches to walkie-talkies to bubble bath to color forms backpacks handheld games from remco a board game from milton bradley and literal consumable goods like slimer and the real ghostbusters cereal episodes of the real ghostbusters were released in 2004 and 2006 there were even a few episodes included on the dvd for ghostbusters 2 in 2008 time life released a comprehensive set in 2016 sony began re-releasing the series in batches of 10 to 12 episodes however nearly 30 episodes and the slimer shorts were left out in 2017 those same episodes were released again in a still incomplete collection as of this video 56 episodes are available to stream for free on crackle.com or you can purchase it digitally from google play or amazon prime some episodes are available at the ghostbusters youtube channel and others can be purchased six years after the last episode of the real ghostbusters a new series attempted to carry on the bustin legacy 40 episodes of extreme ghostbusters pick up years after the team has gone their separate ways leaving only egon and slimer to care for the firehouse the containment unit and the last of the petty cash egon is back teaching at the university where he recruits a new team of teenagers with attitude to fight back against the recent influx of spectral activity as the ghostbusters taught us from the beginning nothing stays dead forever not so long as there is value in the license and especially if there's a movie to create spectacle the real ghostbusters is not immune to that the children of the 80s are adults now many with kids or grandkids or cats of their own the nostalgia for the media and toys we grew up with and the desire to share it with the next generation has ushered in the return of so many brands that had languished and it has been very good for a variety of businesses not that there's anything wrong with that in 2015 idw comics published a four issue mini-series featuring the ghostbusters characters that had been in their ongoing comics since 2011 crossing over with characters inspired by the real ghostbusters the mini series called ghostbusters get real saw a collision of two universes worth of ghostbusters teaming up to fight against a villain called proteus in 2018 diamond select released a set of real ghostbusters figures built on the previously existing bodies and accessories of their movie-inspired series of ghostbusters figures each individual figure had a cartoon-inspired head and paint deco and came packed with a piece of a firehouse diorama in 2019 they released a san diego comic-con exclusive box set that featured those same characters repainted and molded with translucent green plastic as the spectral ghostbusters an homage to the episode citizen ghost which explains how slimer came to live with the ghostbusters after the events of the 1984 film as well as the reasoning for the new ghostbusters uniforms hasbro purchased kenner in 1991 and has since owned the real ghostbusters as part of the marketing push for ghostbusters afterlife the second sequel to the 1984 film currently scheduled for release in november of 2021 hasbro released kenner classic the real ghostbusters toys that were modeled almost exactly after the original vintage figures and packaging surely there is more planned for the future afterlife box office notwithstanding ghostbusters exploded into pop culture in 1984 inevitably inspiring a cartoon related action figures as was the way of the 80s reaching an audience larger than anyone could have predicted even surviving the meddling of analysts and consultants it was one of the longest running most popular cartoons of all time even after the movie franchise itself had burned out it's likely that many fans of the show especially in later seasons didn't even know or care about the movies their ghostbusters were the ones they spent six days a week with the ones whose adventures they followed in the comics and created for themselves with the toys to them it wasn't just a cartoon about the ghostbusters it was a cartoon about the real ghostbusters thanks for watching please like hit subscribe if you're not already a subscriber thank you very much to those of you who already are thank you again to 80sts.com for sponsoring this video head over there to buy a shirt just like this one or thousands of other designs if you haven't heard we started streaming on twitch find us at twitch.tv toy galaxy if you're in the position to help the channel grow please visit our patreon or become a youtube channel member and let us know in the comments down below if you are troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night do you have feelings of dread in your basement or attic have you or any of your family ever seen a spook spectre or ghost do you believe in ufos astral projections mental telepathy esp clairvoyance spirit photography telekinetic movement full transmediums i didn't read this at a time the loch ness monster in the theory of atlantis my uncle thought he was st jerome [Laughter] cut

Channel: Secret Galaxy

Views: 301,045

Keywords: the real ghostbusters, the real ghostbusters intro, the real ghostbusters halloween, the real ghostbusters full episodes, ghostbusters 1984, the ghost busters cartoon, slimer ghostbusters, slimer and the real ghostbusters, toy galaxy, ghostbusters documentary, ghostbusters commercials, ghostbusters promo, saturday morning cartoons, janine melnitz ghostbuster, janine melnitz real ghostbusters

Id: Q7uCXGkqMi4

Length: 21min 10sec (1270 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 21 2021