RetroBlasting examines Filmation's 1986 attempt to secure its hold on Ghostbusters in this classic cartoon review. #RetroBlasting #FilmationGhostbusters
Glad to see Filmation Ghostbusters getting acknowledgement, positive or negative. I was one of the rare kids that enjoyed the cartoon, and even had some friends who liked it too... or they just humored me. We used to do the jump in the air and high five thing, and normally ended up hitting each other in the face by accident. And I loved the Gobots cartoon too so I guess I enjoyed all the "rip-offs".
It was all I had for many years. _Filmation_ and _Real_ had the same problem, but at opposite ends: With _Real,_ the toys were a dime-a-dozen, but the tapes were rare. _Filmation,_ the toys were rare, but the tapes were common! So I had to settle until I found the _Real_ episodes on RU-vid some time later. I wouldn't mind a revival of FGB, with heavy _Rocketeer_ and _Sky Captain_ vibes. My only demand for such a thing is that the Ghostbuggy must be a gorgeous red Duesenberg Model J.
I didn't like this show much. The Real Ghostbusters was shown on another station. I remember some kids imitating the jump in the air on trampolines. The original TV show was released on video in 1985. I hired it from the video store. I didn't think it was very good.
Actually, Futura always reminded me of the girl, Kimberly Russell, who played Sarah Nevins on the ABC sitcom Head of the Class and vice versa! Must've been the whole 80's vibe for me! Either way, they both were HOT!!!
I used to watch this show every morning before going to school. I loved this show. I liked the 'real' Ghostbusters better but I enjoyed this show. It was silly but fun.
“Filmation Ghostbusters” will always hold a special place in my heart. Columbia Pictures really ripped Filmation off of their own idea! As much as I love “The Real Ghostbusters” distributed by DIC - I can only imagine the Ghostbusters cartoon if Columbia Pictures went with Filmation instead... Like Columbia Pictures were supposed to! I WANT A FILMATION GHOSTBUSTERS LIVE ACTION MOVIE AND I WANT IT SOON!
I remember watching some of the Filmation Ghostbusters cartoon. Obviously, being obsessed with the 1984 Ghostbusters movie, I watched and loved The Real Ghostbusters way, way more. But I sure do remember the other one. Wasn't too bad.
I remember being given a VHS of the Filmation version of Ghostbusters when I was a kid. I looked the cover and wondered where "the REAL Ghostbusters" were! As awful as this cartoon was, it still holds a special place in my heart, as I did enjoy the fun side of it. Also, as mentioned, the artwork was so cool!
I've heard that "BraveStarr" villain Tex Hex was originally designed to be one of Prime Evil's minions on this show - the Filmation staff working on "BraveStarr" basically stole him when they couldn't come up with a main villain. Can anyone confirm/deny this?
SuperSongbird21 actually sounds pretty plausible as he’s a magic using ghost character, and as most of the villains in this show seemed tied to a specific time period or style, having a Western themed ghost would have made sense. Whether true or not, it’s possible he was inspired by elements of this show, if nothing else.
Apparently Lou Scheimer liked him a great deal and thought he had potential outside of _Ghostbusters._ This is all because he's such a *deadly serious-looking* character: most of the Ghostbusters villains have some degree of humor about their design, but not Tex Hex. ...Which displays a lack of outside-the-box thinking on Lou's part, I'm afraid. I'd certainly have used him as a guest villain whom _no-one_ will consider, not even Big Evil, unless they had absolutely nothing to lose by calling him. He is a game-changer, and his services exact a terrible cost. Prime Evil has him in his contact book, on the last page, sealed by a dual-control spell requiring him and Big Evil to break. The whole five-episode finale (five-episode pilot, five-episode finale, to bookend the series) would be Filmation's own Ragnarok, an epic full of blood and thunder, as the Ghostbusters race to stop Prime Evil and either run from or try to fight Tex Hex. They, of course, succeed, but it changes them in some irrevocable way, and, with Prime Evil finally defeated and Tex Hex dispersed, Ghostbusters shuts down for good.
To be honest, maybe because he doesn't come off as very unlikable. He needs to smile more and his attitude with reviewing shows comes across like an asshole to tell you the truth. He should take lessons from Toy Galaxy.
I remember seeing previews of this show on Celebrity Just for Kids VHS tapes (ANYONE REMEMBER THOSE?) but never saw the show until much, much later...like until I was an ADULT but the previews ALWAYS stuck in my mind because I had no idea there was another Ghostbusters show and thought it was a rip off of the more well known movie. The animation, the music, back then it screamed rip-off to me but then I learned it was a CONTINUATION of a live action show that was much older. When I learned that, it was just...well, a surprise. Man, I still remember that preview. "The ghost spray will get her!" "BUSTED!"
I remember learning about the Filmation Ghostbusters from the Sears Wishbook and wondering, "Huh....who are these guys and what's this all about?" The show came on WGN a few months after that and, oddly enough, I preferred it to The Real Ghostbusters. Sure it was goofy, but in a slapstick, fun kinda way....I wasn't searching for deeper meaning or higher concepts of life, I was looking for something that made me laugh
In the Filmation Ghostbusters Episode Father Knows Beast, the villain actually says *I can't believe it! It's them! The REAL Ghostbusters!* I guess that was Filmation's way of showing just how much they hated Columbia Pictures for snubbing them and changing the title of their more popular animated series.
I didnt really remember this show until you showed footage of the robot skeleton villian then I started having flashbacks. I used to watch this on Saturday morning cartoon blocks most probably. Thanks for the video, have a good day.
Great job, as always! I used to watch this show all the time. It was just a time waster for me in the mornings, but it still is an 80's cartoon. Back then, I didn't even know they had toys for this cartoon! Otherwise I would have gotten some of them. Can't wait for the next part! :)
Filmation was screwed from minute one trying to make a cartoon based on their 1975 show due to a lack of re-runs; I have only seen episodes of the Larry Storch-Forrest Tucker show on RU-vid. If you were an '80s kid you knew NOTHING about the background of the cartoon and why the heroes were goofballs (because their fathers were goofballs.) In my area it was hard to catch the Filmation cartoon because it ran on Saturdays against the popular shows and got wiped out (it didn't help that it ran on a distant station so the signal was weak.)
I found a few episodes of the live-action one in a local VHS rental place around 1989-90. I honestly thought it was a Sid & Marty Crofft joint, like Far Out Space Nuts, or Doctor Shrinker or Electra Woman & Dyna Girl.
When I was a tiny wee person, I REALLY LOVED this series, where my brother whom was only two years older thought it was goddamn stupid. Looking back on it, he had a point. :v
I recall this show quite well.. I was general manager of a Best catalog store and these guys sold about as good as the Real Ghostbusters!! Surprising as this was obscure as shit!!
I remember these guys. At the time, I had no idea that there was a Ghostbuster television series in the seventies - I only found about that one a few years later on a TV themed gameshow called Remote Control - and the only Ghostbuster I knew about were the ones from the movie, so of course, to me, the Real Ghostbusters were the real deal, while Filmation's Ghostbusters were the fake ones. And of course, the problems stated within this video also put me off as well. I remember a scene were Prim Evil has the titular heroes trapped within a machine he invented that could turn them into ghosts. Even then I was thinking that such machines had already existed - and that they were called guns.
I remember watching this as a kid back in 1987. I always felt this was to goofy. Plus they had a terrible time slot in my area of CA(730am Mon -Fri). Pop's was taking me to school so i would miss the show.
I remember being given a book of (Filmations) Ghostbusters when I was little and being totally and utterly confused by it (and dare I say it, disappointed too). Furthermore, being in the UK, I'm 99.9% sure Filmations Ghostbusters has never been shown on British television - so I had no background to the Filmation TV show at all. I assumed the Ghostbusters book was a 'bootleg/cheap cash in' riding on the back of the Real Ghostbusters popularity until I found the Internet later in life and discovered the Filmation show. It's strange how the Filmation Ghostbusters merchandise was sold in the UK with no accompanying TV programme? Useless information over! Thank you both again for yet another brilliant video.
WOOHOO! What perfect timing for a new Retroblasting video! Just the thing I need on this cold stormy night together with hot soup and cold Mountain Dew. =D I think you summed up all the points on why this show isn't as popular as the other. Even when I was a kid, shows with needlessly goofy characters and tone never really appealed to me. For example, I love Bravestarr more than He-Man because the characters knew when to get serious with the action, dialogue and tone.
While I didn't get to see this as a kid since I was in school when this was show, I managed to get to see it years later. I have the whole series of this on DVD and I thought it was good. While I watched The Real Ghostbusters as a kid, I didn't get to see the other one. I liked this show just as much as any other Filmation show like He-Man, Bravestarr, She-Ra, or just about any show they've done. And I like both Ghostbusters series for different reasons.
I enjoyed watching this cartoon as a kid. It wasn’t as good as the DIC series, but with GB at its height, I wasn’t going to say no. The artwork was great and the theme song was simple but catchy. I had one friend with a Ghost Buggy, which was by far my favorite character. I never had any of the figures as other lines took center stage. But I remember comparing the Scared Stiff figure with the Droids version of C3PO in the store. I wish I had grabbed them both.
I was a big fan of The Real Ghostbusters cartoon. The animation, soundtrack, and story line was very well done. By comparison the Filmation Ghostbusters show was a poor attempt at cashing in on one of the 80's most popular films. The one complaint I had about The Real Ghostbusters was the voice acting of Lorenzo Music. He was the voice of Garfield in the Garfield Cartoons. So whenever I hear his voice as Peter in The Real Ghostbusters, I always think, that's Garfield!
I remember watching these Ghostbusters and thinking this show was the ripoff. I like the Gerald Ford joke in this episode too btw. Although having a Ronald Reagan joke might of been good as well because of the ape in this series. In any case keep up the good work, I love this channel!
I was never into the live action movies when I was a kid. This was actually my first introduction to Ghostbusters and I loved it. Past tense obviously.
Despite the fact since the 1967 I was into hard core serious Science Fiction Filmation's Ghost Busters was a great show because it thought outside the box. I liked all of the characters and the plots were bigger than life.
It's inferior to the "Real" series, but I remember enjoying this one too as a kid. The setting and monsters were really bizarre and stimulated my child imagination.
Great video! I never saw this here in the UK, and so was perplexed as to why the one I did see had the 'real' prefix. I concluded that they were trying to differentiate the cartoon from the movies...which made no sense(!) Thanks for clearing that up!
If I remember correctly this show came out on WGN in my neck of the woods. I remember only watching this show when other channels had reruns going on. It was a third option.
As per the not knowing about Prime Evil being trapped in the mine shaft in the future, well Let me tell you a story. In the early 1970's NASA build Skylab, the U.S. one and only space station. There is a question about the connection segment for the "Windmill" solar panels. NASA might have use a left over decent stage from a LEM for that part, but no one is sure about that, and this question has been around since the 1980's, because no one can find the records!!!
Lol, every single negative point you made is what made me adore this series more than Columbia's. I watched it as a small kid and the general incompetence from both parties reassured me they were kinda playing a game among two teams.
As a huge fan of the Ghostbusters movie I remember watching this cartoon but never getting into it like the movie and the movie-based cartoon. As a kid I never knew about the original TV show and I always thought they were trying to rip-off the Ghostbusters movie. I can appreciate it now as an adult. Armless Darth Vader is my new favorite character.
I figure this has been said but since this was a gripe in both this video and the "real Ghostbusters" video, wouldn't the "real" be referring to the fact that the "real Ghostbusters" was based on the actual movie kids had seen and were excited about? That was, in all likelihood, the only one they even were aware of. Whereas Filmation Ghostbusters is an unrelated property created/repurpused purely to cash in on the success of the Colombia's film? If anything I think Filmations antics in this come of far more scuzzier. Essentially trying to cash in on a name someone else has made famous.
These Ghostbusters videos have untied a knot in my brain I wasn't even aware of. I remember coming home and seeing the first episode of Filmation's Ghostbusters after having watched the movies and thinking, like everyone else, What the F*$%& is This?! Once "the Real Ghostbusters" came out, Filmation's travesty combined with the weird character design of the Real Ghostbusters turned me off of the franchise and I never gave the show a chance. I did see one episode somehow, and I remember thinking that the animation was tight and the story was genuinely scary. I also DID go to see Ghostbusters II only to be disappointing again, but not for the most obvious adult reasons. It was my first time seeing Peter MacNicol since "DragonSlayer," so the see the hero from DragonSlayer recast as the gross toadie villain broke my heart a little bit.
This show was complete crap. when I was a kid I used to hate when this one came on, always wishing it was the other one. I appreciated serious situations in cartoons, even when I was a 6 year old kid.
Father AxeKeeper that’s the problem with a lot of action movies today, they’re so full of jokes and humor, the stakes seem to no longer matter. I always liked shows with real threats and stakes.
The show failed because of bad timing. It would have been a success if it came out around 1980-82 because that was the style(goofy) of cartoons back then, by '86 kids already had seen Transformers, GI. Joe and the Ghostbusters movie which made this show dated already after Episode 1.
As a kid born in 1984 watching this in 1989 till 1993ish I preferred this show over the real ghostbusters I can’t remember a single episode of the the real ghostbusters but I remember many many episodes of filmation ghostbusters
I remember when it came on TV. I was about 10 or 11 years old and read it in the TV Magazin, that Ghostbusters is on. Since it was on that cartoon channel I was eager to find out how this ghostbuster cartoon might look like. I remember seeing that filmation ghostbusters sign and was waiting for a red line to be drawn over that ghostface (completely ignoring that this face didn't even look like the other ghost in the other ghostbusters sign). So it was pretty clear, that these guys weren't the Ghostbusters I knew from the movie. Fortunately (for that show) 'The real Ghostbusters' hasn't aired yet, so I gave that show a chance and kinda liked it. But once the real ghostbusters appeared, one year later... well guess what happened...
This is nuts. I only found out about this show about four years ago when the cable went out, and all we had was DTV. It wasn't that bad, but it wasn't great either. 😨
I think an accurate way to consider it and explain it is this, .. . the ORIGINAL 1975 show was PRE-Poltergeist ( which is what pretty much changed the popular idea of what ghosts were ) where's the 84 movie and both cartoons were POST-Poltergeist. And of course the 86 Filmation cartoon got caught in a kind of tug of war in the middle, ya know trying to be like BOTH at the same time.
IMO Filmation's show was better than the more popular movie/series. The live action show should be required viewing if you're watching it, as it provides pretext for a lot of the show's sillyness.
God I remember they played this cartoon at the ass-crack of dawn on some godforsaken high number on the UHF dial... at least where I lived. I remember my older brother once saying Eddie sounds like "Optimus Prime on qualudes"
Always loved this toon. Great theme song. I liked the villains and my favorite good guy was Tracy then Eddie. And the transformation scene was always one of my favorites. Wish I had gotten the toys especially the car(loved that thing). Guess I was too busy collecting MOTU then joes & tmnt. And yes I was a fan of the real ghostbusters(toon & films) too and I did have their toys.
I liked someone competent in control too, which is why I always fucking hated Inspector Gadget. That show at least had Penny. This show has no one shooting, rather than just choking.
Finally!! Can't wait for the next episode. There was one episode of Fimlation Ghostbuster that wasn't bad at all. The wolf-dude found a mystic bone that gave him power to over throw prime evil or something but Eddie managed to steal it and turned Eddie into a wolf dude.
The Ghost Buster tech makes sense if you take ectoplasm into account. In most Ghost media ecto would effect ghosts as it's what they're made of. Also the Spectral Snare's function isn't that far off a Proton Pack.
