The Real Ghostbusters

The Real Ghostbusters is an animated television show based on the popular 1984 Ghostbusters movie.
The show had a strong team/friendship dynamic that lent itself to fandom, especially hurt/comfort and smarm.
==Canon Overview==
The animated series followed the first Ghostbusters movie, continuing the adventures of the Ghostbusters team of four, Dr. Peter Venkman, Dr. Egon Spengler, Dr. Ray Stantz, and Winston Zeddemore; along with their secretary Janine Melnitz, and their mascot/pet, Slimer. 
The characters were toned down somewhat from their movie characters, to be more child-friendly and more likable in general, but still retained their basic personalities. 
Most RGB fans consider the first movie to be part of the canon; the second movie (produced in 1989, after the cartoon was well underway, and acanonical to the show) is disregarded by some fans, as is the Extreme Ghostbusters cartoon.
While a Saturday morning cartoon, the first two seasons of RGB (78 episodes) featured writing by story editor J. Michael Straczynski (pre-Babylon 5), in regards to the comedy and the character development, as well as the ghosts and monsters, many of which were influenced by mythology as well as the likes of Poe and Lovecraft. 
The later seasons saw changes in the voice actor cast, as well as a general dumbing-down of stories and characters, something that was not popular with all fans.
==Fandom==
===Fandom Overview===
The first Real Ghostbusters fandom was pre-internet and zine-based, and early on, was possibly the only Western cartoon with a zine fandom. 
Several fan creators later shifted their activity to internet fandom, and posted their zine fanfiction and fanart online. 
In the 1990s and early 2000s, the fandom maintained a small but steady following, mostly on mailing listsIn 2000-2001, the RGB Slash list averaged 100-200 posts a month, and in 2001 RGBSmarm had between 250-700 posts a month (accessed 1/28/2009) and BBS boards. 
The fandom itself did not seem to have made the jump to livejournal.Only 7 lj comms list "the real ghostbusters" as an interest as of January, 2009. 
With the decline of mailing lists, as well as the losses of several major homepages, The Real Ghostbusters's role in media fandom fell mostly dormant during the mid-2000s. It has seen, however, resurgence in recent years due to an influx of newer fen. The new focus with more recent fans is less on fan fiction and more towards art, has moved away from the previously popular themes of smarm and h/c, and is more interested in the source material as opposed to fan interpretations. 
Activity has also moved to more active forums such as DeviantArt and Tumblr.
===Characters===
* Peter Venkman
* Egon Spengler
* Ray Stantz
* Winston Zeddemore
* Janine Melnitz
* Slimer
===Fan Comments===
Some common topics:
* Do you remember the show? It reminds me of being a kid.
* The characters in "The Real Ghostbusters" didn't look like the characters in the movie, what's up with turning Egon's hair blond and spoofy?
* Did you know that J. Michael Straczynski wrote some episodes?
* Janine was hot.
* The boggyman episode scared me as a child; I'm still traumatized.
====2007====
====2009====
====2022====
====2023====
===Pairings and Relationships===
The primary slash pairing is Peter/Egon, and the primary het pairing is Egon/Janine. 
Despite Janine's het pairing with Egon, many smarm authors felt she interfered with the relationship of the four male characters. As a result, her place was behind her desk and away from the Ghostbusters themselves, who in turn were written in a borderline romantic manner. 
There was some limited Peter/Dana Barrett (played by Sigourney Weaver in the movies), but as that character never appeared in the cartoon, she is found infrequently in fic and fanart.
===Gen, Het, and Slash Content===
A significant part of The Real Ghostbusters fandom was gen, particularly h/c and smarm-focused, and some of the earlier mailing lists and communities were strictly gen-only, even discouraging canonical het pairings. 
Slash fanworks were quite rare. This was illustrated at an discussion at the forum, Ghostbusters.net, which had a focus of the original film and the animated version. In 2002, the moderator of the site wrote: 
===Tropes and Themes in Fanworks===
* hurt/Comfort
* buddy themes
* female (often supernatural) tries to break up the team
===Fanfiction===
==== Sample Print Zines====
For all the zines listed on Fanlore see :Category:The Real Ghostbusters Zines
*Crossing the Streams
*PKE Readings
*Slime Trails
*Trap Open - FanQ winner
*Venkthology
====Sample Fanfiction====
* Beer Barrel Busters by Jeff Morris (1993)
* Hunting Ground by Birgit Stabler/Macx (1995)
* Some Enchanted Evening by Debra Hicks ("Janine is looking forward to a weekend away at company expense. She gets an even better trip than she had expected.") (1996)
* The Article by K. Hanna Korossy ("A scathing Times article about Charlie Venkman does far more damage to his son.") (2003)
====Crossovers====
The Queen of Crossovers in this fandom is Sheila Paulson.
 
* Marginal Error by Mary Jean Holmes (crossover with Star Wars) (1987)
* The Way To Go Home by Sheila Paulson (crossover with Blake's 7 (post-1988)
* The Janus Factor by Cindy Rancourt (1995)
* Brothers in Limbo by Emilie Renée Karr (crossover with The Sentinel) (1999)
* The Food of the Gods by Sheila Paulson (crossover with Stargate: SG-1) (2003)
* The Shape of Familiar Things by Sheila Paulson (crossover with Shadow Chasers) (2012)
* The Book of Fate by Sheila Paulson (crossover with The Lord of the Rings) (2015)
====Online Sources====
* The Real Ghostbusters works at AO3
===Fanart===
====1990s====
File:Ectocontain.jpg|The Ecto-Containment Grid]], artist is Aurora Black (1994)
File:Ecto3.jpg|from Ecto #3, artist is Ann Larimer (1994)
File:Canwegohome.jpg|from Can We Go Home Now?, artist is Marty Siegrist (1995)
File:Lastlaugh.jpg|from The Last Laugh, artist is Marty Siegrist (1996)
File:Slimetrails5.jpg|from Slime Trails #5, artist is Eddi Fey (1996)
File:Buster.jpg| from Buster and the Beast, artist is Lyrade (1997)
File:Lostdavyart.jpg|from Lost Davy, artist is Sandy Schreiber (1997)
File:Xanadu.jpg| from Xanadu, artist is Kris Lee (1998)
File:Repodemon.jpg|from Repo-Demon, artist is Joy Riddle (1999)
====2000s====
File:Anachronismrgb.jpg|from Anachronism, artist is Sandy Schreiber (2000)
File:Hungryones.jpg| from The Hungry Ones, a riff on a Beatles album cover, artist is Sandy Schreiber (2000)
File:Ghostly.jpg|from Ghostly Affairs, artist is Geli (2001)
File:Trapopen2back.jpg|from Trap Open! #2, artist is Sandy Schreiber (2003) 
File:Trapopen2.jpg|from Trap Open! #2, artist is Sandy Schreiber (2003) 
File:Asothers.jpg|from As Others See Us, artist is KAM (2010)
====2010s==== 
File:Donotghost.jpg| from Do Not Go Gentle, artist is Babs Magera (2015)
===Fan Sites===
There are no resources on the cartoon alone, though the below sites include the cartoon shows, in addition to the movies and franchise as a whole.
Sites active as of 2016:
*Ghostbusters Fans (Newsfeed, message board and overview of the Ghostbusters universe. Includes a large community section with chat room and message board.)
*Ghostbusters News (updates about the movies and related merchandise of the Ghostbusters franchise)
*Spook Central (ep guide, production info)
Historical/less active sites:
*The Real Ghostbusters Fanpage (gen fanfic archive + zine listing)−
*Ghostbusters.net (gen fan fiction, message board and episode reviews. Closed July 2003, but archived online.)
*Ghostbusters livejournal comm (includes the movies, RGB, and EGB)
===Mailing Lists===
They are mostly inactive now, but have members-only message archives, as well as open-access fic archives.
*RGB General Fanfic list (for all ages) and fic archive RGBfanfic fic archive (last updated 2002)
*RGB Adult Fanfic and its fic archive RGBAdultfic fic archive (last updated 2002)
*Real Ghostbusters Slash List and its fic archive RGBS-List Archive (last updated 2002)
*RGBSmarm (gen-only) and its fic archive RGBSmarm fic archive (last updated 2003)
===Meta===
* Who remembers "The Real Ghostbusters" ? (2022 discussion on Reddit) 
* Who else loved The Real Ghostbusters growing up? (2023 discussion on Reddit)
==References==
Category:The Real Ghostbusters