The Ghost Busters

The 1975 show of Ghostbusters ("The Original Ghostbusters") was an entertaining diversion for young children. Silly, in the campy style of the live-action Batman and other shows of the time, but the interaction between the old F-Troop chums did an admirable job of making up for the (serious, real serious) lack of plot. And this was enough, as it was a show aimed at little kids.

The briefly-run live-action show was left on the shelf for about a decade until the movies starring Ackroyd & Murray became popular enough to spin off a cartoon series. After two or three seasons of THAT series, the original show was dusted off and reborn into its own cartoon, featuring the sons of both Storch & Tucker -- along with the ape & a female character. "The Original Ghostbusters" cartoon also ran but briefly (believe it was put out by a group calling itself "KBN"); still, it ran long enough to apparently spur its competitor to change titles from "Ghostbusters" to "The Real Ghostbusters".

As a kid I saw a couple episodes of the cartoon, but never knew there was a live action version, when I found that out I watched it on YouTube where you can find all the episodes.

The comedy in this is very strange, they do this one file cabinet gag like every other episode, and I dont think it always works but for what doesn't work there are 5 things that do, this show is ridiculous, why does the gorilla have a bottomless bag? I dont know, why do the ghost busters get there missions from a secret guy with self destructive tapes? I dont know, but that's the part of the show I like, it's so crazy you are bound to laugh at something.

The best part is when spencer and the gorilla interact with one another, it's fun to laugh at how stupid the Spencer character is.

Overall if you like comedy from this time period, and a supernatural setting, or if you just like goofy gorillas, give this a shot.

I remember this show very fondly, it came on right after 'Far Out SpaceNuts' on CBS Sat. Mornings in '75-76. Basically it was the same old thing-you got to see them do the Scooby doo routine with co-star monsters Marty Engels or whomever with a guy(Bob Burns) in an ape suit. I kid you not, as kids me and my two brothers were Sure that it was a real ape! The show was easy to take, well intentioned and fun. I have NOT seen it since, but it hangs in the memory quite well.

*** outta ****, not bad.

I wasn't a kid when this aired ... I was in my 20s, and recognized it as the hippest kids TV around. You couldn't possibly have preferred Sid and Marty Kroft or Bob Denver's sad attempt at kid TV.

Full of bad puns, slapstick humor for kids, and the best gorilla suit in show business. Bob Burns was brilliant as Tracy. The file drawer schtick was good every time. My husband and I to this day still quote episodes, like Abby Dalton and Marty Ingalls with that campfire. "How'd you make coffee when there ain't no fire?" "I just left it on a little longer."

No, it's not sophisticated, and makes no apology for its silliness. But if you're intelligent, you can see how hip it is.

'Fraid the other comment has it all wrong. This was not a cartoon, but a live action Saturday morning program. "Spencery, Tracy, and Kong" were the original Ghost Busters, and they were played by real live TV stars Forrest Tucker (Keeper of the Flame) and Larry Storch (Koko the Clown), and famous sci-fi movie buff Bob Burns (as the Gorilla, Tracy - Forrest Tucker was Kong). Tucker and Storch had appeared together before in F-Troop. It was pretty silly, but for 8-10 year olds relatively entertaining. For a live action kids show in the 1970s it was pretty dang good - consider what else we had then: Sigmund and The Sea Monsters, and a bunch of psychedelic Kroft fantasies.