The Original Ghost Busters are Back!

Rating: 8/10 (28 August 2008)

Before the movie, before Dan Akroyd and Bill Murray went beyond Saturday Night, there was the live-action Saturday Morning Series called The Ghost Busters. Originally from Filmation's live-action library, The Ghost Busters starred famous F-Troop team Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch as Jake Kong and Eddie Spencer, and Tracy their gorilla. Unlike most of Filmation's live series, The Ghost Busters focused a bit more on humour than just being action with comedy relief. Basically, loosely using the 'Mission Impossible' schtick (heavily used in Saturday Morning spy shows) to obtain their assignments. Jake, Eddie and Tracy would deal with the likes of demented spirits, wacky vampires and other spectre and ghouls from haunting the mortal world. Humour was used a lot in the show, sometimes through classic visual stunts or puns. Case in point, when dealing with a vampire, Jake finds out one thing they fear is a wooden 'stake', whereas Tracy pulls out a wooden 'steak.' And when Eddie attempts to disclaim Tracy's attempt, he ends up getting a splinter from the 'steak.' However, because it was Saturday Morning TV, The Ghost Busters normally vanquished rogue spirits with a Polaroid-esquire device called the Dematerializer. As the name suggested, when fired at a ghost, the screen would appear with a blue screen effect and the ghost would 'dematerialize' out from the mortal world. Though I believe it only had one season in 1975, the series was often ran in syndication on Sunday mornings as well. Ironically, though the name was used for the film, there was no real connection between it and the series. Despite well-box office reviews, many still felt the Akroyd and Murray film did not capture the same fun as the original series. So in 1986, Filmation revived the series in animated form: Filmation's Ghostbusters. Here, however, the offspring of the original Ghost Busters and Tracy dealt with a nemesis called Prime Evil (think Terminator merged with a specter) and his ghoulish legion of ghosts. Whereas in the original series, the Ghost Busters simply obtained assignments from the mysterious Agent Zero. What really made Ghost Busters appealing for it's time, as with most Filmation Live Action, was it did have great storytelling, and really made the limited special effects work. Also for F-Troop fans, the comedy stilings of Tucker and Storch made the show enjoyable, and it was a wonder Filmation didn't consent with Hanna-Barbera for a spot on the Scooby-Doo Movies (since they aired about the same year). I'd definitely recommend this product for not only fans of the classic series, but for those who loved Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch, as well as a new generation of viewers.