The Real Ghostbusters: Production, Voice Acting, and the Show’s Decline

This is the brain, and you're listening to the

GeekCast Radio Network. Yes! Hello and welcome

to the 65th episode of Tooncast brought to you

by the GeekCast Radio Network. I am your host,

TFGio and Mike, and today I'm joined once again

by Kevin Optimus Solo Thompson. Hello, sir. Hello.

And we are joined once again. It's been about

50 episodes or so since he's been on this show.

Mike the Birdman Dodd from This Week in Geek

and all the other shit he does. What's up, motherfuckers?

Sorry, I'm a little energetic. Yeah, well, if

you'd stop drinking those five -hour energy drinks

three at a time Fifteen hours is all I need Today

we are going to be talking about the real Ghostbusters

so Mike emphasis on real Yeah, so Mike how have

you been Doing okay, I mean constantly busy as

always the 20 -hour workdays are starting to

catch up with me So I'm trying to take a little

bit of advice out of men in black number one

where they say It's a 36 -hour workday. You either

get used to it or you go insane so I'm trying

to patent my life after Tommy Lee Jones aka agent

K, but I'm doing pretty good gonna be taking

a little bit of time off in August to attend

a wedding or two as well as the Toronto Fan Expo

and Play more video games for review a day because

that's how I roll you. When you actually gonna

start playing like some classic games like the

Mario games or the Zelda games or like good stuff

instead of dance dance Revolution ripoff I actually

have played several classic NES games such as

River City ransom Super Mario Brothers 3 the

original Mario Brothers and in fact I will be

doing a Mega Man week Sometime in the near future,

so don't worry I do not neglect the nest the

SNES the Super Nintendo or sorry I already said

that the Genesis and if I can get my Atari 5200

working We're going to take a real trip back

to the past and hopefully bust out my arcade

machine once I get it transported into a new

cabinet. Excellent. So what have you got going

on for this week in Geek? What kind of stuff

that you haven't told anybody yet have we got

coming up? I'm working on actually interviewing

Garrett Wong and you might remember him remember

him from Star Trek Voyager as Ensign Harry Kim

because I interviewed Robert Picardo from Star

Trek a little while ago I've also sent emails

out to Bill Nye the science guy who's actually

a friend of Bob's and I actually just got reached

out to To Katherine Hicks, you might remember

her as, I think she was the mother on Seventh

Heaven, but she was also the mother in the original

Child's Play, and evidently she loves doing podcasts

and other sorts of radio bits, and we may even

be talking to the weasel, Pauly Shore, as it

turns out my agent, my publicist, actually represents

him, so I'm gonna see if we can get Pauly Shore

on the show next month. Awesome. And Kevin, what

have you been up to? Well, just working like

crazy with BehindTheVoiceActors .com. Well, they've

been doing a lot of classic voice compares recently.

We got stuff up for, let's see, Winnie the Pooh's

up there now, Tigger, Sheer Khan. Some classics

like that, Ka from the Jungle Book. As far as

what I've been working on, I just recently put

all the voices up with sound clips for the PS1

Beast Wars Trans Metals game. And the biggest

thing I did this week was another top 10 list,

top 10 male voice actors of the 80s put that

list out there. But we have been getting a lot

more feedback from actual voice actors. Pat Fraley

stopped by the site this past week and had some

nice words to say as well. wasn't that the guy

from tuesday's new girls was that crying yeah

you're bringing up uh... backs for stockman i

think played one other role but if you stop by

and make some comments actually is funny because

the comments on his own voice compare so that

was kind of interesting it's always nice when

that's so uh... that's awesome yeah so i am and

marisa marsh and shon shumlin than the most recent

ones have stopped by so it's it's looking good

over there show more you know we got scared a

little bit with maurice though cuz holy crap

It's funny because he made a comment on his own

voice comparator. It was a on the Destro voice

comparing He said, you know, I like what you'll

call it better better than my my take on it,

too And everyone's like was that actually Marissa

Marsha said that? Nope, it's the real one I've

been Podcasting as always one of the things I

did not mention of course this episode won't

be going up until a week that we actually record

it uh... because unfortunately this is the only

time we could get my god to be on the show seeing

as though is to go to weddings that aren't his

own don't really matter unless your own i've

got a social life oh my god uh... you're a geek

you're not allowed to have a social life uh...

can't be busy in the evening hours. That's crazy.

The nighttime is the right time. If you catch

that reference, you're awesome. What the hell

was that? Where was I going with that? Something

about when this is going to air. Oh yeah, no.

One of the things I didn't mention in the nerd

news thing was we are recording this episode

of Tooncast Sunday, July 25th. uh... yesterday

saturday july twenty fourth i spent from around

noon until about six o 'clock yesterday evening

talking with brian killby in the radio free cybertron

crew we did like a random sdcc coverage even

though we weren't there we just like visited

all the news sites and spent like six hours podcasting

straight through i cannot sit through a six hour

podcast Well, unless you have random naked chicks

popping up going, look at my boobs. Maybe it's

a distinct possibility. But unless, Mikey, you

got some really quality titties there, I don't

know. Even then, that's only going to work for

like what? 20 minutes out of the six hours? Maybe.

Exactly. Really? It wasn't an actual podcast

episode that they're going to release on their

feed for iTunes, but it's over at their website,

tformers .com and tfradio .net. It was mainly

a Ustream audio recording, so you can just listen

to it through the website. It's not anything

that they were going to release through iTunes.

But yeah, it was a fun day, talking about the

different stuff that we... you know, saw news

items about from San Diego Comic Con. Other than

that, not much else is really going on, so I

think we're gonna go to Kevin with the history

lesson on The Real Ghostbusters. Alrighty then,

The Real Ghostbusters is an American animated

television series based on the 84 film, obviously.

The series ran from 86 to 1991, was produced

by Columbia Pictures and Deke Entertainment,

and of course, Coca -Cola had their hands on

it as well. The real was added to the title after

a dispute with Filmation and its Ghostbusters

properties. The series continues the adventures

of paranormal investigators Dr. Peter Venkman,

Dr. Egon Spengler, Winston Zeddemore, Dr. Ray

Stantz, their secretary Janine, and of course

their mascot Ghost, Slimer. What do you remember

about the real Ghostbusters, Mike? Well, which

might yeah, exactly damn it Well, I actually

totally remember watching this when I was a child

actually this used to be on a local station up

here in Canada known as global part of the Cannes

West Media Group and I used to watch this every

morning. I mean it was syndicated on Saturday

mornings as well as weekday mornings for a number

of years up here and it was probably my favorite

cartoon of all time. I mean outside of like Ninja

Turtles and And I just remember getting all the

toys. One of my next door neighbors, Mark and

Arthur, they had the Ghostbusters firehouse.

And I just remember just being really excited

when my parents would buy me stuff. And I remember

one birthday they actually got me the proton

pack. But I remember sitting in my living room

with my Ghostbusters cereal, with my Ecto -1,

in my Ghostbusters pajamas, with my Ghostbusters

coloring book, watching this show for years and

years to come. I remember watching this show

and I remember thinking, and this is going back

to episode 60 of this podcast where we talked

about Garfield, I always thought Bill Murray

always did the voice of Garfield. And I know

it's not. It originally was Lorenzo music. And

when I heard this and I had seen the original

film and then saw this cartoon, I'm thinking,

oh, wait, that's Bill Murray. But no, wait, it's

actually Lorenzo music that does that voice.

uh... i don't know that this to me is more of

the definitive bankman voice than bill mary actually

i don't want to agree with actually uh... you

know well i have every respect for what marie

do with the films but as far as like a cartoon

type of deal uh... i prefer lorenzo music's voice

uh... I remember watching this off and on. I

think my favorite character, and I know I'm kind

of jumping ahead here, but as a kid my favorite

character was Slimer, even though he was gross

and disgusting. But he was just so funny. Yeah.

I was always a big fan of Ray, actually. What

about you, Kevin? Well, as far as which character

I liked the most, it was... probably toss -up

I mean I like slimer for his comedic stuff but

I was always connected more with Peter so I liked

Peter as a character but as far as like my memories

of the real Ghostbusters I remember the thing

that always sticks out for me with Ghostbusters

is there was two sets of toys that I never had

and one of them was the Ghostbusters toys and

the other was the the toys that came out with

Dick Tracy You know and I was a toy guru I mean

I had every toy that I could think of for most

of the other shows but I never had a single Ghostbusters

or Dick Tracy toy but I remember one of my sisters

she's a couple years older than me and one of

her friends had both the firehouse and then they

had like I can't remember what Dick Tracy's playset

was or what came with it or whatever but he had

both of those and I remember playing with those

a lot and for me I don't know I actually think

I liked the I liked the movies but I think I

actually liked the cartoon better than the movies

for some reason It's because the cartoon could

go places that the movies really couldn't which

I always thought was the appeal of this show

I mean especially when you had such a powerful

scriptwriter like J. Michael Straczynski Writing

a lot. I think it was I think he wrote the syndication

episodes or a good chunk of them and just I don't

know, it's funny just how much this guy would

follow me throughout my life, from this show

to Babylon 5, to the amazing Spider -Man, and

then the whole Lovecraftian influence. But I

guess we can talk about that later, though. Yeah,

I think you kind of hit on it, though. I think

this type of topic, this type of subject is just

more believable in part to inform. And while

they did a great job with the movie, it's just

something that you can buy into more when you

see it in an animated form. In my opinion in

my you know it see in the movie It's it's still

kind of a stretch for me even though they do

you know do good with the graphics and they do

good with stuff It's just like a little too supernatural

for me in like a live -action thing whereas if

you do that in a cartoon I'm totally on board

with it See I had seen the first film probably

I Don't know maybe a year or so after it came

out and Or five okay fair enough I was three

when it came out, so. Yeah, Kevin's young. Actually,

both of you are young. I'm old, anyway. No, I

had seen it like, I don't know, 85, 86, somewhere

around there. It was like two years after it

came out. And then I'd seen this cartoon, and

I'm thinking, wow. I kind of wish they had Rick

Moranis as the cartoon voice for Lewis, because

Roger Bumpus just doesn't do it any. Bumpass.

Yeah. i wouldn't say that he sucked but yeah

he definitely wasn't any rick maranis but let's

not forget he was doing honey i'd blew up the

kids or whatever stupid thing he was doing way

back in the day may well we can do an m wire

about those movies over your fucking hard core

but for a ghostbusters i don't think anybody

i blew up the kid and honey i'd inhaled the cater

whatever else it's uh... honey i shot the kid

yeah uh... those will be eventually down the

line uh... for m wire probably uh... i never

noticed that there was more than one when i was

a kid i never realize that i mean it's kind of

get ahead here but moving into the characters

a little bit but i never realized that there

was multiple voices for all these different characters

when i was a kid that's for sure well with the

exception of one Yeah, which was always Egon

aka Moe. One of the things that, well, and Frank,

I mean, because he did Ray and Slimer for the

entire run of the series. I did notice when they

changed Lorenzo music to Dave Coulier. I just

remember watching it once Saturday morning. I'm

like, hey, what the fuck, man? This doesn't sound

good. I think I actually said that out loud and

my parents just kind of looked at me. I love

Dave Coulier, though. Oh, yeah, like he's a man.

I should try and interview him for twig. He'd

be kind of fun But yeah, like like when like

the voice cast changed the chemistry of the show

changed and actually it's funny if you look at

the time life Complete box set for the series.

They actually kind of talk about this They don't

talk with a Dave Coulier, but they do talk to

Moe Maurice LaMarsh and he's just saying how

the chemistry changed and J. Michael Stravinsky

changed too because he said when like he was

writing the show he always had the hardest time

writing Peter because he had this very dry kind

of lazy kind of wit to him he always pictured

Lorenzo Musick's voice doing it because Lorenzo

was just playing himself when he did this show

more or less and I just remember when they changed

the voice cast. The writing changed, and then

when the show got into Slimer and the real Ghostbusters,

well, I'm gonna save that rant for later. But

really, a lot of the voice actors on this were

doing just their straight voices. This wasn't

something where people were going all out and

creating. I mean, Frank Welker, that's his. Fred

Jones' voice, that's his voice. Esrae Stantz,

basically. You know, Lorenzo Music, like you

said, that's his voice, basically, for Peter

Venkman. It wasn't a show where people were,

you know... creating these crazy voices, obviously,

except for Slimer. Well, Slimer is pretty much

Welker's animal speaking role type of deal thing.

I mean, it's him doing sound effects. I'm going

to have to go back and watch, though, an episode

from season one and an episode from the last

season to see the difference in Janine, because

I just guess I never realized I was different

people when I was a kid. I'm very surprised to

see and again I hadn't really paid much attention

to the voice actors outside of the ones that

we've kind of already talked about but I'm shocked

as hell to see Arsenio Hall listed as the voice

for Winston. And you know what's fucked up? Arsenio

Hall beat out Ernie Hudson for the role of Winston.

Ernie Hudson is Winston. Yes. No. You sound too

black. We can't have that. That doesn't work.

I know it was just so weird but I guess Arsenio

Hall was like this up -and -coming comedian and

he was just you know just kind of getting his

like kind of feet wet and I was really happy

with his voice in the first couple seasons I

mean not that Buster Jones did a bad job just

Arsenio Hall when I think of Winston it's a tie

between Ernie Hudson and Arsenio. Man what the

hell is Arsenio Hall doing these days? Dead.

Nothing probably. Same thing MC Hammer and Vanilla

ISI. They're all hanging at celebrity rehab with

dr. Drew. That's right No, but it's just all

these 80s references are just compounding into

my head and there's just awful awful awful thoughts

That's glorious. You got to raise the roof with

Arsenio Hall and go wolf wolf wolf and raise

your fist in the air That's right. That's a little

bit of weird owl reference if you guys get that.

Um, yeah Yeah, we are going everywhere and we're

going into the behind -the -scenes segment Did

you guys know that a short pilot episode was

produced but never aired in full I actually did

and if you actually have the time liner or sorry

the time life collection for this box set They

actually have it on there. You can just see how

the character designs actually evolved from before

I mean, they didn't have the original color -coded

jumpsuits. They just had the typical ghostbusters

uniform and looking at Egon and Peter those are

the two biggest differences you can actually

see from the final version but it was really

cool and actually they also have a visual commentary

that plays along with the original four minutes

pilot which is tremendously cool and then once

they showed this and the whole kind of network

picked it up they had to go back and do some

like um kind of character design because I had

to change what Peter looked like to look a little

bit more like Bill Murray, but at the same time

they couldn't because the actors didn't want

their likenesses in the show, but they had to

be recognizable enough that you knew that's Egon,

that's Ray, et cetera, et cetera. So it was kind

of cool just how they kind of did a lot of the

pre -production on the show and a lot of the

original artwork. Is it's just so radical. I

can't remember the artist's name, but I remember

there's this one picture and this guy and it

was the original pitch artwork and it shows the

force the four ghostbusters staring down this

little demon who's like the side who's like comes

up to the guy's knees and it's just all them

pointing the proton passes little innocent demon

creature. And that was kind of what snowballed

into the series getting made later. I think it

was odd that they went the lengths that they

did to try to make it. not seem like the movie.

You know, most of these cartoons that are made

based on a live action movie, you know, they

do everything they can to copy everything about

it. And, you know, from not letting Ernie Hudson

have, you know, being the only actor from the

films who auditioned, not giving him a part,

to telling, you know, like Maurice LaMarche not

to impersonate Harold Ramis, to, you know, all

this stuff. It seems like they went... as far

as they could to try to make it as different

or as unique as they could, and that just seems

kind of odd to me. I mean, it worked, but it

just seems like that was an odd choice for them

to try to stray away from what the live -action

film was. Yeah, and see, that's funny because

they didn't really stray too far. I mean, obviously

you've got Ray Parker Jr.'s theme as the theme

song. You've got the same kind of title sequence

with the whole state puff in the... in in in

the uh... no smoking sign thing there and then

you know there's a known here it says lamar's

also noted that bill murray complain that uh...

lorenzo music's voice of peter vanckman sounded

more like garfield well hello he is garfield

uh... this is a very wanted to be exactly like

him but then that you know well if that's the

case the more you should have addition for the

role i don't think they would again it seems

like they didn't want anyone to be exactly as

i mean as much as they have everything like the

movie it seems like when it came to those main

characters they didn't want the voice actors

or the you know everything be in the impersonation

or a mimic of the movie characters, which I don't

see what harm that would have done. Like Mike

was saying, what harm would it have done if Ernie

Hudson had gotten that role? Yeah. And it says

in here also that although some of the concepts

were tinkered with, the finalized show still

features a lot of the tie -ins from the films.

So why did they go ahead and try to make it completely

unlike the films and yet ... The final product

was pretty much an animated series of the film

see and the reason I think that is because the

writer J Michael Strudinski, I think he wanted

to create his own universe within the film's

context and one of the things he says during

the interviews is he wanted to find the perfect

blend of horror and Comedy and I really think

he accomplished that because if you look at the

shows that went into syndication Like after the

original kind of network shows the original 78

or something like that. You just see a whole

lot of different themes here, I mean like they're

dealing with the Necronomicon, they're dealing

with... Possession aliens at one point the boogeyman

and stuff like that And it's just it's really

cool at the fact that they got a chance to explore

this world And I'm really glad they straight

away from the films I mean you kind of get hints

of it in Ghostbusters 2 where Rey runs the occult

bookshop and you hear a mention things like Tobin's

spirit guide they also mentions a few other occult

books and in this one they deal with just more

mature themes and I think The film universe and

the cartoon universe are two separate entities.

And I'm glad that it's like that, just because

you can do so much more within the context of

an animated show that was aimed not at just children,

but adults, too. And that's why this show wrote

so high in ratings for so long, is because adults

could really get into it. There's an episode

in one of the later seasons where they deal with...

Cthulhu from HP Lovecraft, and they deal directly

with the Necronomicon, which they couldn't use

that name because execs at ABC were like, you

can't mention that book. It's real. And they're

like, no, no, it's not. No, it's real. Why? I've

got a copy. Really? Show me. And J. Michael and

they're like, uh, so thank you, Sam Raimi and

HP Lovecraft. But like I said, there's so much

more that could have been done here. Yeah, and

I do agree with what you're saying. However,

I have to point out in the listing writing credits

here for J. Michael Straczynski, he only wrote

21 out of 140 episodes. I mean, Dan Aykroyd and

Harold Ramis wrote all 141 episodes for the most

part. So how can you expect someone to not make

it like the films when you have two of the film's

stars writing the series? Well, I think J. Michael

had a very big, I think he was like, the story

editor or something like that at like one point

where like everything had to go through them.

But I don't know like it's weird just to think

that there could have been a lot that just the

fact that Dan Aykroyd and Ramis did write some

stuff here and yet the series was toned down

in certain places. I always found that kind of

interesting. Yeah, but I think I think one thing

one reason why I like the show as much as I did

was kind of what you pointed on because it was

a more mature Feel to a cartoon and it hit me

at the right time I mean not everyone obviously

would have been the same age but for me it was

it was the time where I started to get into more

mature subjects because you know being Seven

or eight compared to being five or six when you

know that you just want to watch your You know

your goody -two -shoe cartoons or whatever. So

I mean, I think that was not only did it hit

Adults well, but I think it hit a good group

of children as they were getting to the age where

they were wanting more mature subject matter

as well Yeah, totally I and the fact when things

change kind of later on I I mean after the series

changed to be slimer in the real Ghostbusters

the ratings just bottomed right out and I think

J. Michael Stravinsky I think he came back for

a couple episodes later on saying you know what

if we're if you're gonna invite me back then

I'm gonna do it the way that I want to do because

a lot of ABC execs I think were saying well kids

want to be in the show more I mean they want

to pretend and they're like and J. Michael was

saying so where's your evidence? Where's your

dad on this? Well, you see and you know, they

just kind of trail off or they'd say can you

make Janine more of a nurturing mother care?

She shouldn't be picking on the boys and that's

when things happen because when Janine got changed

in the show You notice there's a distinct different

feel to that and I hate it. Slimer grew a tail.

Yeah and Professor Dweeb, first off fuck that

guy Just you know, they just they changed so

much here that you could tell the series was

a different creature and then that kind of led

into I don't know just As the series wore on,

you could just see animation was starting to

change. You couldn't get away with the stuff

that you could in the 80s. I mean, the 80s was

all about cutie cartoons that were meant to sell

toys. Ghostbusters was ahead of its time in the

fact that it did deal with more mature subject

matter. Not necessarily a continuing story arc,

so to speak. Because, like, you would see that

in, like, kind of later animations from Fox,

specifically Spider -Man, X -Men, Fantastic Four,

etc., etc. And when Ghostbusters started to cater

to what the execs wanted, that's when the series

went right down the shitter. I think it's an

example of something that was at its peak in

its initial season. And every season after that,

it got gradually worse until it was basically

killed itself off. A shadow. Yeah, it was a shadow

of its former self by the time the last couple

came around. And in fact, there are some episodes

that weren't even aired. Right. I mean like it

got killed pretty quickly I mean, I think there

was like seven or eight episodes on aired if

I'm reading the booklet that comes with the box

set, right? Listen, there's about seven or eight

of them that just weren't aired and like for

a show like Ghostbusters to fall off Really because

this would have been right after Ghostbusters

2 came out this should have been fighting significant

height it doesn't make really a lot of sense

either because the first season was the one that

had the best ratings and or at least I don't

have any evidence of that in front of me, but

that's what I'm understanding. And the second

season immediately is when they start changing

things. So, cause you know, second season's when

Slimer gets a tail, that's when they change Janine's

look. That's when they change, you know, they

start to fiddle with the voice actors. You know,

third season Slimer comes in real big time. That's

also the last season that Jay Michael was involved

So it seems like I don't I don't quite understand

why such immediate changes were made when it

seems like the show was a hit during the first

season Because if something so I'm sorry Kevin

go ahead No, I just gonna say it seems like a

typical if it's not broke why fix it type thing

it's kind of like with like every show if it's

Successful. I'm pretty sure a coven of witches

comes together and thinks hmm. How can we it's

up exactly here uh... we've seen so many examples

of it must be true uh... yeah uh... do we have

any other notes on the behind the scenes of the

production stuff yes or bring up on i guess my

file thing with the production of it is just

a fact there seem to be a lot of politics at

play there for a long time and and i think you

could actually hear it come through Through some

of the like, I don't know. It just seemed as

the series went on, like the actor started to

have less and less fun with it. That's what it

came across to me as. I mean, just watching the

documentary on this, just things just didn't

seem the same. And right near the end of its

run, I'm pretty sure everyone was just getting

ready to move on. It just seems like it just

seems like there was a lot of stuff going on

like you're saying behind the scenes because

Nothing else can explain the weird decisions

that were being made by the powers of B as far

as this show goes and it just there's The stuff

that they decided with the voice actors with

characters with different influences, etc Etc.

It just so much stuff doesn't make sense that

there had to be a lot of stuff going on behind

the scenes Yeah, well there was that whole Dispute

with film ation uh... because filmation had created

a series or was re -releasing a series called

ghost filmations ghostbusters and that's why

that this show is called the real ghostbusters

because they had to actually add a real to the

name in order to not piss off the filmation people

well we're not going to see a lot of the real

ghostbusters how it kind of worked out is during

filming they didn't have and names for the for

the actual movie and then they were filming the

Ghostbusters scene where they're outside of the

Gozer building and they're all yelling They're

yelling, ghost breakers, ghost breakers. They're

like, no, no, no. All right, guys, try yelling

ghostbusters. And it worked. So someone had to

call legal and say, you need to make this fucking

happen right now. I don't care what kind of money

you have to throw at it. So the movie got titled

Ghostbusters. But when it came down to the animation

thing, it became a whole legal mess. And I think

there was some kind of a settlement. But they

said, fine, you can use Ghostbusters, but you

have to do something else different with it.

So that's why it is the real Oh, yeah. It seems

to be one of those things that Filmation had

to look back at in retrospect and be like, we

should have just let them call them Ghostbusters,

because now they're calling them real Ghostbusters,

which even makes it sound better. Exactly, because

they seem like pussies. The problem, honestly,

it's more of a generational gap, because the

Filmation series was done in the 70s, and then

they were going to re -release it in the 80s.

as as after the movie came out and then this

whole car to this old this series here is what

they they should have come up with this is the

kind of suits because they're the ones trying

to capitalize on the movies. Yeah true and with

that we're going to move into the actual show

the series follows the continuing adventures

of the ghostbusters secretary janine accountant

louis and their mascot slimer as they chase capture

rogue spirits around new york and across. other

areas of the world so basically they are ghost

hunters looking for carmen san diego yeah more

or less i i mean they were always confined to

new york which i always thought was like kind

of cool actually yeah yeah version of the ghost

whisper no no no no no i said again no by any

time i can get a general up to it uh... but i'm

gonna do it i just want to see her boobs just

saying But yeah, you're right. It was maybe more

or less, let's wander the world, busting ghosts.

And one of the things that I did notice about

this series is think about how much they never

really talked about death. Because, alright,

I mean, the literal definition of a ghost, it's

a spirit of a person or something that used to

exist, right? Notice how they almost never encountered

humanoid ghosts. Right, I mean true humanoid

ghosts and I always found that very interesting

I mean looking at the philosophy of the series

and if you even talked to Dan Ackroyd about this

movie and series today he is He's an interesting

fellow to say the very least when it comes to

some of his theories and the applications of

his stuff But yeah, I mean, they would go to

haunted castles. They'd go into the sewers and

fight monsters. And then it just seems like they

dealt with less ghosts as the series went on.

They're always dealing with monsters. And I remember

specifically one episode where they actually

brought back the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. But

he was no longer an avatar of Gozer. He was his

own being. guess because he was held within the

containment unit and he helped Slimer get out

and there's all those creatures in there I mean

what was the name of the Halloween bad guy with

the friggin pumpkin head something Stein pumpkin

Stein wasn't that shoot I'm gonna drive me nuts

now but a way to do our research guys He's the

voice of everything if if the human race is somehow

white from existence and aliens find technology

They're gonna assume we all sound like Frank

Welker. Yeah He is the voice of nature. I Think

yeah, I think that's one thing though that they

had to be careful of we're talking about talking

about real ghosts or humanoid ghosts or stuff

like that I think with just given the time period

and the subject matter You know, I think they

were they're wary of the fact of going too far

with it and having the parental units go crazy

on them. It was a different time. Nowadays, if

you had this type of thing in the 2000s, everyone's

okay with all that type of, you know, we have

ghost shows on the TV all over the place. But

the 80s was a much different time, and I just

don't think it was as accepted to have cartoon

go, make it seem too real for the kids. That's

just... And yet kids seem to take the show with

like a grain of salt it's like they understood

these were Creatures and they were different

that they were real ghosts out there because

even the very name implies death when you think

about it. But you're totally right, though. I

mean, this show today would be like nothing.

I mean, you could show this on Saturday morning,

no problem. And back then, I can only imagine...

It'd be an improvement of what they're showing

now on Saturday morning. Oh my God, don't even

get me started. But I would like to see this

show revived in some form, because Extreme Ghostbusters,

as far as I'm concerned, never happened. In fact,

what am I talking about? Like there's just so

much I think could have been done with the series

and I think they did a lot of really good that

I mean don't get me wrong I mean this is a hundred

forty plus episode legacy to our childhood But

to me it always felt like it was cut short like

well like the show died before its time Yeah,

well it did run what seven seasons? Yeah seven

seasons, but it seems like it was really more

like one season and then it was like That's it.

Yeah, and yet you would go into other shows like

Ninja Turtles that would run for nine or ten

seasons and a season would quote -unquote be

like ten episodes I'm thinking what the flying

fuck with the Ghostbusters. It was always consistent

quality I mean, I at least I felt animation wise

the show never slacked off but storylines would

be up and down and things that get changed and

post and I don't know like It's, and it's weird

though, there's one story that was being related

by one of the producers, and he was saying how

things would get lost in translation from the,

from Korea to here. J. Michael wrote on a script,

ghostbusters run out of room hauling ass, and

that meant they're supposed to run out of the

room, like really friggin' fast. Yet, in Korea

when they animated it, they ran out of the room

holding their butts. Really weird things like

that which I think I wouldn't say led to the

downfall of the show But you could definitely

tell there was a little bit of a disconnect and

it's kind of funny though because J Michael would

sometimes sit in on Meetings with the voice actors

and castings air not cast in voice sessions in

case they needed to learn how to pronounce things

or know what the significance was. In fact, when

I interviewed Maurice LaMarche myself with David

Double D Dennis a couple of years ago, I remember

the reason Moe could do so well in Egon's role

is the fact that his father was a pharmacist.

So he was used to pronouncing these ridiculously

long names. And it just seems to me after he

left the show that you didn't it just it didn't

quite feel right. Let's say he never left the

show. maurice and frank are the only two people

that are on the entire show on in forty episodes

and i mean when people like him yeah when like

jay michael left you all really big supernatural

influences in the more yeah and we'll see what

someone had a passion for what was going on well

yeah and as much as i'm asin j michael's d here

i mean there were other good writers on the show

and you dealt with some really cool episodes

i mean one of the big ones one of my favorites

and it's one that everybody talks about is one

called citizen ghost which explains what happened

after the ghostbusters movie and in fact even

in later season they do make references to ghostbusters

too but i don't think they ever had the slime

throwers did that i'm not sure i don't remember

that i do remember a lot of those was a two references

but i don't Remember the slime throwers, but

you did mention that you know there were other

writers. We kind of Skimmed by that, but you

know Michael Reeves and Lawrence de Tileo I mean

there was a lot of you mean Larry de Tileo not

Lawrence de Tileo. He was credited as Lawrence

sometimes too In the as far as IMDB goes sometimes.

Oh, yeah, I don't like yeah, yeah, but Michael

Reeves I mean I've seen a lot of stuff done by

him. You know there was a quite a few different

writers, but I guess my main point was it seemed

like as far as From what Mike's saying that you

know J Michael was the one that had the passion

and it seems like a lot of other people were

just doing it To do it or you know yeah doing

it to make money or pass the buck and you got

to have someone That's gonna have a passion if

you want it to be successful Yeah, you know I

agree So do we have anything else we want to

say about the actual show or any other episodes

we want to bring up? it is totally worth picking

up i mean i think the show in some regards holds

up really well even today just because it's such

it's such an iconic show that dealt with a lot

of themes that weren't even get dealt with until

i guess the show Inhumanoids and that's just

because it dealt with really weird spooky shit.

Um, but yeah, I mean, I don't know about the

actual show. It's very entertaining. Dave Coulier

does a passable job. He's no Lorenzo music, but

he does make the role his own Maurice LaMarche,

obviously fantastic. Frank Welker, aka the voice

of nature never puts in a shitty performance

at all. So, uh, my overall thoughts on the show

is fricking fantastic. Alright, and now we are

going to hear the original Ray Parker Jr.'s Ghostbusters.

It is now time for the music segment. And yeah,

that original song, the theme song to this cartoon

is awesome because it's kind of a takeoff of

the original. It's not really a remix, but it's

the original song in cartoon form. But that original

song by Ray Parker Jr. from the film was awesome.

Well, yeah, I mean, you I mean, you hear the

first three seconds or even just a bar of that

song, you know exactly. what that song is and

i don't know i mean it's kind of funny because

i know there was a big musical tie -up when it

came to rey parker junior and the ghostbusters

franchise for a long time which is why he didn't

come back for the second one or so i've heard

uh... but one of the things i liked about the

real ghostbusters they just had these really

catchy incidental music stings. And what I mean

by that is, and maybe Kevin, you might remember

this a little bit more clearly than Mike, do

you remember whenever they'd show an exterior

shot and you just hear that synthetic organ and

it'd be very happy, kind of catchy, that... This

series just had a lot of really catchy stings

that I thought, even Slimer had his own theme.

You made that you made a comparison earlier to

to a show that was going on at the same time

basically and we've talked about a couple times

but it's kind of like turtles in that respect

uh you know turtles had a lot of different like

character type themes or a little different music

when they did like a panoramic like landscape

view type thing you know both of these shows

did very well and not just having a great theme

song but but sporadically putting not just different

versions of the theme song, but different music

all together throughout the show, you know, for

different types of shots. I think they both did

an excellent job with that. And the other thing

is, a lot of, like, really classic cartoons and

a lot of current cartoons, well, not really current,

but, like, between the ages in the 90s, they

would always put in the theme song whenever the

good guys or the heroes or the villains showed

up, like X -Men, the X -Men 92 cartoon. Every

time that jet came out of the mansion, you would

hear the first two or three beats of the instrumentals

of that theme song. Same thing here. Whenever

the Ghostbusters would show up or come onto a

scene, you would hear bits and pieces of the

Ray Parker Jr. music. Which I always thought

was something that a lot of cartoons today don't

really use music as effectively as they could

because half of any visual medium is Music it's

audio in fact turn off like turn off the visuals

to a horror movie and just listen to the sound

design And I think a lot of cartoons from the

80s really kind of understood The fact that,

hey, we have to use music in the right way. And

I think it just really punctuated well with a

lot of 80s cartoons just using incidental stings

like that. And like I say, even just the stock

music for this show was pretty awesome. I think

you almost implied that there's something that

cartoons today do do effectively. Yeah, I mean.

I find sound design is one of those things that

isn't really looked at as closely. Maybe that's

because I come from an audio background, but

the next time you watch a TV show or watch a

cartoon, just listen. That's something too. They

talk about that on the G .I. Joe and the Transformers

Matrix sets when they talk about the voice actors

talking about going through and watching a show

without the sound. You know either just watching

it or just listening to it and seeing the differences

and it is a it's a it's a great experiment to

do You know one time mute it and watch it without

the sound and then one time turn away and listen

to it without watching it And see how valuable

the sound is Over the animation over anything

that's visual It's just it's incredible how much

you can watch a whole show almost without seeing

it just by listening to it But you can't watch

it even by looking at it without hearing it.

Yeah And I think sound design is a lost art when

it comes to network television or specifically

when it comes to animation. I mean, yeah, it's

just it's just it's changed. And I'm not sure

I like the way that it's going. It's just like

animation has gotten lazy. And I'm not saying

these shows are like all Academy Award winning

sound designs. I think a lot of the cartoons

these days would have decent stories, would have

decent they're decent writing the drawing and

the sound and all that just seems like you said

it's lazy yeah there just isn't as much there

as there should be and that's really unfortunate

but i i i mean i guess to get back to the music

here one of the things i think the real ghostbusters

or sorry the ghostbusters franchise did is that

the soundtracks themselves i mean i'm talking

about the film soundtracks here Both of them

were amazing and Ghostbusters 2 is a really underappreciated

soundtrack. Ghostbusters 2 is a really underappreciated

film. I wouldn't go that far. I love the second

one. See, the thing I love about the second one

was the music. I mean, this is back before Bobby

Brown was a Coke head wife beater, but he also

had new addition on there. You had, not John

Lennon, Elton John. You had Glenn Fry. You had

Dougie Doug on there. You had... There's Sunil

Hall making an appearance. Yeah. What's his favorite?

Run DMC. Unless it just go back and listen to

the Ghostbusters 2 soundtrack is it friggin Fantastic

and there's one song. I love called. We're back,

which is just a fantastic Bobby Bout Bobby Brown

track, but I would have liked to like after Ghostbusters

2 I mean because rap was the hip thing in the

1990s it would have kind of fun if they tried

a little bit like maybe experiment with the end

credits theme, maybe play with that and do a

rap or something with it, but that may be considered

blasphemy. Okay, let's never talk about that

bastard again. That's two vanilla ice references

in one episode, wow. All right, that's Kevin

doing cold as ice on the next amp wire. Like

I said, man, I really wish a lot of shows would

use more soundtracks. I mean, from films and

movies. And here's a really good example of it.

I mean, there's a show by Deke Entertainment

called Kid Video. And I guess that might have

been produced in association with MTV back in

its infancy, way back when it didn't suck. And

you'd have popular songs inserted in the television

zones. And in Captain and the Game Master, you'd

have the same thing. You had Bob Seeger shakedown

in one episode where it was mega trouble in mega

land. And you would just get really cool things.

And the Ghostbusters didn't do that. But they

had their own popular song built in which they

could use to affect whenever they wanted to which

I thought was cool I mean this show But then

again, I guess if you did that you might date

the show a little too much I mean if you heard

sunglasses at night, you know exactly when this

Show's like hey that was top of the charts back

in 1986 Sort of thing, but I don't know I mean

I think I guess my final thoughts on this is

the real Ghostbusters did a lot of good things

with music incidentally Sound design was fantastic

on this show voice acting. We've already talked

We've already basically given these guys complete

oral is how awesome they are, but there wasn't

any real negative thing to say about the show

sound wise moving into the legacy segment uh...

it's because just much like roger here it has

become a running joke over on and why are we

we can review the idea in top one hundred best

animated tv shows has become a running joke and

again kevin hates them people over there in january

two thousand nine i do you name the real ghostbusters

the twenty second best show in the top one hundred

best animated tv shows Well, what are their top

five? You wanna know what their whole list is?

Their whole list is Adult Swim or Primetime Shows.

If you're the Simpsons, Family Guy, Futurama,

all that stuff, which is nothing wrong with that,

but that's their whole list. I mean, what was

the one that didn't... Did Yogi Bear not even

make the top 100? Yeah, it didn't make it. That's

kind of surprising actually yogi didn't make

it huckleberry hound and there was a bunch of

people I'll see if I can find a link and I'll

email it to you Mike Garfield made it. No, I

don't think so either. There was an animal. Yeah

There's two spinoffs, of course at the start

of the third season it became Slimer and the

real Ghostbusters never happened And then there

was And then there was the true spinoff, which

we will most likely do some sort of discussion

about it in maybe another podcast, maybe in a

future podcast for Tooncast here, The Extreme

Ghostbusters. Never happened also. Mike, go ahead

and give your rage. Uh, this show, okay, a Ghostbuster

in a wheelchair? Okay. First off, I have friends

who are mentally and physically disabled, and

I'm all for that. And I really think this show

was a direct response to the fucking Burger King

kid in the wheelchair. And just, it was just,

it was just bad. I mean, this show, there was

nothing memorable about it. Hell. You wonder

how bad this show is? I used to come from a town

called Owen Sound. This is a very small town

up in Northern Ontario, like 20 ,000 people.

I swear to bloody God, there were still Extreme

Ghostbusters toys on the shelves up until 2006.

This is how fucking batshit terrible this show

was. And I think Egon and Ray were the only ones

left, I think, I can't even remember. Just Egon

I think. Oh my god, what the fuck? That's the

point though, like if you're sitting, if you're

in the boardroom, not that they were in the boardroom,

but if you're at the table, you're pitching this

idea, and you say, I have this idea, we're gonna

make a spinoff of the Ghostbusters and Egon is

gonna be the only character we bring back, shouldn't

you just be laughed out of the room? Yes, yes

you should. Fucking bad idea. Yeah. He didn't

even offer any real explanation for it. Yeah,

that's what kinda really sucked about it. and

um due to a lack of supernatural activity is

why they disbanded oh like oh yeah things are

really boring now because you know hell doesn't

exist so tell me when when the when the supernatural

activity picks back up wouldn't they all come

back together like and come on why would you

recruit children to fight death dealing monsters

like i'm sorry why are you giving a kid who is

a social fucking misfit an unlicensed nuclear

accelerator here kid who could potentially have

a mental deficiency down the road here please

take something that could blow up the city you

fucking idiot i think it's a conflict of interest

too you can't have your teacher recruiting four

students to work as a ghostbuster team you're

gonna give those students preferential treatment

in the classroom hey you're right says the teacher

that gives the kids preferential treatment in

the classroom Moving on, because we have to kind

of wrap this up, moving on, on May 27th, 2008,

TimeLife announced that they would be responsible

for a complete series release on DVD in the fall

of 2008. That July, they allowed fans the chance

to vote between two variations of Outer Box for

the set, one designed to look like the main characters.

Firehouse Headquarters and the other all black

with different images on each side. Both featured

lenticular printing, the Firehouse version to

show the Ecto -1, and the black version to have

oozing slime. And I believe, thank God, the Firehouse

version won. Released on November 15th, 2008,

the set spans 25 discs containing all 147 episodes

of the series. later changed to the november

twenty five uh... twist firehouse case winning

the fan uh... voting which holds five steelbook

volumes the company then began releasing the

individual volumes with the first released march

thirty first two thousand nine now i did not

get a chance to pick this up yet i've got to

get this said i know you've got it mike it's

totally worth it like however though i'm glad

i got it for free because i had an awesome guy

over at pro at proton charging dot com chris

stewart helped me out with this so thank you

chris even years later um when do i get shit

for free you're always getting shit for free

damn it because i'm on national radio my friend

um but at the same time this set is really expensive,

like 200 bucks. I'm not sure how much it is right

now, but I know it was an extremely limited edition.

But yeah, you can still go and buy the individual

volumes, but it's good just to have them in the

Firehouse case. Plus, you get a bonus disc, which

you can't get anywhere else. Can you give us

a rundown of what special features and bonus

stuff is on there? On each volume there is like

on the last disc of each volume. There's like

animating the real Ghostbusters created the real

Ghostbusters and There's like something on that

on every disc and it's basically excuse me. It's

like a legacy Looking back talking to people

like the producers story writers artists inkers,

etc. Just Talking about their memories and they

talked to Jay Michael a few times. They talked

to Mo a few times They talked to both of the

Janine voice actors. They also have galleries

on there for some of the Promotional artwork

some of the toys. I think I haven't gotten quite

that far yet But the bonus disc has all the extended

interviews and all the extended interviews are

at least 20 minutes apiece Jay Michaels is really

good to listen to but also the executive producer

and the story editor really worth kind of listening

to as well and uh... The reason I was happy about

this box set is not just for the cartoon, but

the fact I would pay $40 for a 20 minute documentary

on a cartoon. And I really think that's the real

strength of this set is the bonus features. I

mean, aren't the fact that the cartoons look

pretty good. I mean, they're about as clean masters

as you can get. I would argue that the Warner

Brothers Saturday morning cartoon collection

looks almost a little bit better depending on

the show, but It's seriously worth it. I mean,

the bonus disc alone, just for over two hours

of extras, totally worth it. Yeah. Excellent.

So we are going to cut to some ads or some sort

of promotional stuff and we will come back with

the outro. Actually a tapeworm. Did you know

that Gargamel was really a cat lady? Did you

know that Billy Zane is the only man to ever

be Chuck Norris? If you didn't know any of these

things, then you should be currently listening

to Chicken Pop Pod Retro Comedy Podcast. Catch

it at chickenpoppod .com. This is Dr. Wily, and

I will destroy Mega Man while listening to Tooncast!

Do not be alarmed. This transmission is being

jacked by The Lunchroom. We are here to tell

you that The Lunchroom has been rebooted. It

is now a part of the GeekCast Radio Network and

is still available at thelunchroom .net. It debuts

every Monday or Wednesday or whenever we see

fit to give it to you. Any further information

can be found at thelunchroom .net. We will now

return you to your regular program. Sword of

Omens, give me sight beyond sight. I see a new

episode of Tooncast coming this week. Well, that's

Tooncast! So guys, final thoughts on The Real

Ghostbusters. Kevin, you can go first. Um, you

know, it's one of those shows that I definitely

remember watching. I definitely remember enjoying.

Um, like I said, I think I like the cartoon even

better than I like the movie, and I did like

the movie. I'm not as... maybe not as big as

Mike is on it, because I wouldn't necessarily

say it's my favorite cartoon of the 80s or anything

like that, but it definitely was a solid cartoon

that I enjoyed watching as a kid. It's unfortunate

that they made some of the production decisions

that they did. Otherwise, maybe it would have

been even better or been a higher quality for

more of the tenure that it was on. But it's definitely

worth watching, even if you only watch the first

season. It belongs in any top 80s list, that's

for sure. Yeah, what about you, Mike? I would

say, without a doubt, if you're a fan of 1980s

animation and nostalgia in general, honestly,

if you can find this set at a good price, get

it. Even at the $200, it is worth it. Especially

if you're a huge Ghostbusters fan. I mean, there's

just so much from this series that brings back

what was good and positive about 1980s animation

that it really deserves to be in every collection.

out there that it can be and i completely agree

with kevin it needs to be on more top eighties

animation lists and uh... what can i say i mean

who are you gonna call yes uh... i agree uh...

and i'm probably gonna try to find a way to get

this said eventually hopefully by christmas time

this year uh... so uh... michael what's coming

up for twig this week Well, uh, this week, I'm

not too sure because we're broadcasting from

the future! Um, I'm pretty sure I'll have some

kind of a wacky interview. I mean, as always,

if you want daily content, you can go to reviewaday

.ca, where I'm likely taking on the shittiest

of the shit or the best of the best in the world

of video games. But, uh, I know I've got, uh,

I -I know the -the Twig Topics Show for the month

of August is gonna be Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,

which comes to us from Edgar Wright of Hot Fuzz

and Shaun of the Dead fame that's being released

on - August 13th. So we'll be talking about that

with Pierce DePone Durgs, David Double -D Dennis,

and all the other Pilgrimites on the Twig crew,

me among them now, because I'm reading the first

five volumes before I pick up volume six. And

yeah, that's pretty much coming out. Like I said,

we're also going to be at the Toronto Fan Expo

where you can get your very own Mike the Birdman

Dog Geek Fight card from DivingDragonGames .com.

So trust me, if you have me in your deck, you

shall become more powerful than you can possibly

imagine. Because he actually has a real laser

lightsaber. That's right, man. You don't fuck

with the bird -mang -mang Why don't you tell

everybody about that? What the bird the the mang

-mang or no? The lightsaber. Oh, yes There was

a company called wicked lasers calm produced

something called the Arctic C2 laser and it is

actually It looks like a lightsaber and it will

actually burn flesh melt plastic burn paper burn

wood and is generally very bad for your health

But I haven't received it in the mail yet that

should be coming this week or early next or actually

I should have time this show airs so It's gonna

be an interesting piece I'm definitely bringing

that up on the nerd news network and I may talk

about it on a few of the other radio outlets

across this great land of ours you have to do

a YouTube video whenever you get it. Oh, you

bet. Trust me. Mr. Potato Head's going to die.

Optimash Prime is going to get killed by a laser.

I'm going to kill the Bumblebee one because it

looks fucking terrible. And you know, he's going

to be killed by Tony Starch in his experimental

unibeam. What's going on over behind the voice

actors, Kevin? Um, not much. I think there always

is a lot of stuff going on, but not much from

my end. Um, voice compares going up every day.

The biggest thing that we're working on right

now to get added to the site, which should be

within the next couple of weeks, if not the next

month is we're going to start adding commercial,

um, commercial section to our behind the voice

actors .com. So you can come. compare the voices

of different commercial icons like Captain Crunch

or those types of things. So that's Tony the

Tiger and all those fun things. So hopefully

within the next month I'll spearhead that and

we'll get that going on the site. I would like

to mention that because this is the real Ghostbusters

episode of Tooncast, I looked at the M -Wire

schedule and coming this Halloween 2010, episode

70 of M -Wire will be the Ghostbusters film franchise.

I would like to be on that, just saying. Yes.

Cool. Thank you for joining us here on Tooncast

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did receive some iTunes feedback. I think it

was somebody praising us. I don't remember, and

I'm not going to look it up off the top of my

head. It was positive. Yes, it was positive.

I didn't prepare for that. Sorry, people. Follow

us on Twitter. The show name there is GCR and

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We hope you enjoyed this episode of Tooncast,

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be reminiscing on Dennis the Menace. For now,

I am TFG1 Mike with... Mike the Ber - Oh, sorry.

Sorry, Kevin Optimus Solo Thompson. And I've

been Mike the Birdman Dodd from ThisWeekendGeek

.net. Thank you for listening until next time.

I'm so leaving that in.