Slimer! And the Real Ghostbusters

As much as I am a fan of The Real Ghostbusters, sometimes, a show can fall from grace real hard thanks to any reason. In season three, they had to recast Peter from Lorenzo Music to Dave Coulier (best known as Uncle Joey from Full House) because Bill Murray complained about Music making Peter sound too much like Garfield, and even Janine was recast, even to the point where past episodes started to be redubbed with those two new VAs (which if people had the two versions taped back then, they can see Dave's voiceovers did not have the same emotion as Lorenzo's did).

However, before the fourth season, a focus group named Q5 came along and started laying out plans that they say would save the show (even though at the time, it was the number one show on Saturday Morning). ABC approved of it, but not without resistance from some staff members (including writer J. Michael Stratzynski, who would make good on his threat to leave the show after ABC chose Q5's side).

The result is Slimer And The Real Ghostbusters, a full hour continuing the adventures of The Real Ghostbusters, but now, Slimer has a bigger role thanks to Q5. Each episode from season four onwards has Slimer in a bigger role, operating the ghost trap and Peter being nicer to him. Speaking of Peter, he was dumbed down for this incarnation. For rescasts, Arsenio Hall is out as Winston, being replaced by Buster Jones, and now, restricted to just driving the Ecto-1.

Also added are short Slimer cartoons. These shorts are basically done as a different animation company, these shorts are basically Slimer engaging in Looney Tunes-style slapstick with the Ghostbusters as well as new characters created specifically for said shorts. Some episodes have Slimer helping a friend while dodging Professor Dweeb, an insane scientist who wants to capture and study him, while others have him at odds with Manx, a orange cat who causes trouble for Slimer. While this series had some good episodes, I think they would have been better as their own show, as they serve as nothing more than a reminder that The Real Ghostbusters lost what made it great (even going as far as to have Professor Dweeb appear in a couple of TRG episodes, in which he was still the same as the Slimer shorts).

Yeah, this was bad, as adding Slimer in the name caused the ratings to drop. It also didn't help that some episodes either parodied other TV shows (one episode had the Ghostbusters deal with a trio of ghosts parodying the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, while another involves a ghost family who are inspired by The SImpsons), but it did have some good episodes (hence the two star rating). One of the being the prime time special The Halloween Door, which was written by J. Michael Stratzynski after he was brought back when they agreed to his terms), which didn't have the Slimer moniker and because it was a prime time special for Halloween, it didn't have the restrictions ABC placed the shoe under for Saturday Morning. Also, Janine You've Changed is worth a watch, as it is written by JMS and was done as part of his terms to return to the show (which was to restore Janine to the way she was before season 3). But yeah, this is a classic example of how focus groups can cause a great show that is number one at the time to fall far from greatness.

I don't know what made the producers think that Slimer was the star of the Real Ghostbusters. Slimer was very annoying and I always hoped the team would bust him and put him in the containment unit. Seriously though, the Real Ghostbusters was already on life support long before this show started. This show was little more than a desperate attempt to keep this franchise going.

Watch the first two seasons(AND ONLY THE FIRST TWO SEASONS!!) of the Real Ghostbusters instead. >

In the late '80s, there was a crop of new shows that took classic characters and dumbed them down for a younger audience. "The New Archies," "The Flintstone Kids" and "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" were all moderately successful, so creators decided to take the popular Slimer character out of his element and create a new show for the kiddies with the ghost as star. That in itself wasn't the problem with this series -- if it had been a syndicated weekday morning show aimed at a preschool audience, it has the potential to have been quite successful. The problem is it was paired with episodes of "The Real Ghostbusters" once a week on Saturday mornings as an hourlong series titled "Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters." The audience watching the cleverly-written series when it began two years later were growing up, and it was a very disconcerting thing to suddenly see their favorite characters drastically dumbed down.

In the 12 1/2 episodes of "Slimer," Janine and the Ghostbusters are secondary background characters in Slimer's adventures. Everyone's character design is drastically different and there's a 1940s cartoony American animation feel to them, as opposed to the more popular "Real Ghostbusters" show, which was very Anime in design. Good reason for that too, it was cheaply and quickly animated in the USA.

The show introduced other people Slimer interacted with while the Ghostbusters were off on missions -- most of whom were villains. Professor Dweeb was a bespectacled mad scientist who stalked Slimer along with his pink poodle sidekick Elizabeth. Manx the cat (who had a long tail) and Bruiser the dog were constant comic foils. Gargoyle-looking, mobster demons Goolem and Ziggy were always on the hunt for Slimer, whom they felt had wronged them. Slimer sometimes hung out at The Hotel Sedgewick, run by crotchety, dignified manager Grout; and Bud was a stoner, surfer-dude type who worked as a bellboy at the hotel. Fred was a little Scottie dog who sometimes accompanied Slimer on adventures; and Chilly was a sweet black lady who drove an ice cream truck. The Junior Ghostbusters, who originated in the earlier series, also made a few appearances.

The gags were juvenile in nature, hearkening back to Bugs Bunny and the early days of Hanna-Barnera, when stories/jokes were simple and characters could be blown up or flattened and bounce back to their normal shape a moment later. Unfortunately, network meddling is obvious, as all of the jokes are insipidly tame. 33 segments were produced, ranging from 7 to 14 minutes in length, and the final half hour was rounded out with a retitled segment from an earlier episode.

The episodes are separated on the final two discs of "The Real Ghostbusters" complete DVD set. It hasn't aged as well as episodes of the other series, either in content or visuals. The prints are very scratchy and some are dubbed from a slightly worn video source. As for the content, the show is very cutesy, simple and it just doesn't have enough weight or non-visual humor to it to hold the attention of older viewers. It's fairly mindless entertainment, and the crew wasn't allowed to push the envelope as much as on "Tiny Toon Adventures," which many crew members subsequently worked on. "Slimer" quickly vanished into oblivion, though Professor Dweeb made a few additional appearances on "The Real Ghostbusters" and NOW Comics released 20 issues of a tie-in comic book series before the company filed for bankruptcy in 1990.

This series focused more on the Ghostbusters' pet, Slimer rather than the Ghostbusters themselves. Basically, Slimer had a much larger role and had more adventures. The problem with this show was how it became to much like any other Saturday morning show. Silly and filled with pointless cartoon violence. The show has it's moments but doesn't live up to the original Real Ghostbusters.

After the popularity of the Ghostbusters movie came The Real Ghostbusters, which due to the 'addition' of Slimer as a main character led to his popularity among kids in the late 80's. After the main ghost with the most (besides Beetlejuice) gained a lot of kid's affection it led to Slimer becoming a main "title" character. The newer Ghostbusters cartoon featured more of the slimy spud, but the show was still basically The Real Ghostbusters.

The cartoon that was released after the first movie (The Real Ghostbusters) is still considered the "best" although aside from the intro there is not much more of a difference. Slimer was fun for awhile, looking back, but at the time his being an addition to the team was excellent. Even thought this version of the show wasn't great it still trumps a lot of the future Ghostbuster spin-offs... That being said, I hope the new game captures the original feel.

Who ya gonna call? Precisely!