I was wondering what would be Time-Life’s next complete series set after its successful mega-packages of Get Smart and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. I have to admit that “The Real Ghostbusters,” a late ’80s cartoon series based on the film, was not high on my list of shows I wanted to see in a big 26-disc(!) set. It wasn’t bad for an ’80s Saturday morning cartoon, and the choice of Lorenzo Music to voice Peter Venkman was the next best thing to actually getting Bill Murray (Murray and Music sound similar enough that Murray took over as the voice of Garfield the Cat after Music died), but any show that got re-tooled to focus more on Slimer is not a show that I’d pay Time-Life prices for. Still, it’s good that they’re continuing with the complete-series sets, I just hope their next project is a little less DIC-ish.
I was wondering what would be Time-Life’s next complete series set after its successful mega-packages of Get Smart and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. I have to admit that “The Real Ghostbusters,” a late ’80s cartoon series based on the film, was not high on my list of shows I wanted to see in a big 26-disc(!) set. It wasn’t bad for an ’80s Saturday morning cartoon, and the choice of Lorenzo Music to voice Peter Venkman was the next best thing to actually getting Bill Murray (Murray and Music sound similar enough that Murray took over as the voice of Garfield the Cat after Music died), but any show that got re-tooled to focus more on Slimer is not a show that I’d pay Time-Life prices for. Still, it’s good that they’re continuing with the complete-series sets, I just hope their next project is a little less DIC-ish.
By the way, most people who actually watched the show as kids know this already, but for those who didn’t: the reason this show was called “The Real Ghostbusters” is that after the Ghostbusters movie came out, Filmation rushed out an animated version of its identically-titled but otherwise unrelated ’70s live-action series “The Ghost Busters.” To distinguish itself from the other Ghostbusters (or Ghost Busters) cartoon, and indicate to kids that this was the show to watch if they actually wanted the character from the movie, the show called itself “The Real Ghostbusters.” This brings to mind Allan Sherman‘s statement that a show he worked on called itself “Your Surprise Package” because there was already another show with the title “Surprise Package.” “No one,” Sherman wrote, “could say anything if someone wanted to bring out a show called Your Beverly Hillbillies or Your Huntley-Brinkley Report.”