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40 Years Ago: The Real Ghostbusters Premiered with “Ghosts R Us”
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Forty years ago, on September 13, 1986, The Real Ghostbusters premiered on ABC. Two years after Ghostbusters became a blockbuster, Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler and Winston Zeddemore made the jump to Saturday morning television alongside Janine Melnitz and a newly friendly Slimer. Over the coming weeks, we're looking back at the first season as it originally aired 40 years ago, beginning with the series premiere, "Ghosts R Us."
The episode opens with the Ghostbusters investigating a haunting at Conrad's chocolate factory, where they capture a family of three Class 5 ghosts: Slug, Snarg and Zonk. After Slimer accidentally releases them from the Containment Unit, the trio decides to get revenge in an unusual way by starting their own ghostbusting company. Calling themselves Ghosts R Us, they create hauntings themselves and then arrive before the real Ghostbusters to "solve" them, slowly making Peter, Ray, Egon and Winston look like they have lost their touch.
Their scheme eventually gets out of control when the three ghosts go looking for a powerful Class 7 phantom named Turlock and instead awaken something far worse inside an abandoned toy factory. Egon ultimately identifies the creature as a Full Magnitude Class 10, leading to a chase through Brooklyn and the first appearance of Ecto-2, the Ghostbusters' two-man helicopter. Ecto-2 doesn't exactly have a long and successful debut: by the end of the episode, Egon intentionally overloads it to help destroy the creature.
There's also a great bit of real-world history behind the idea of rival Ghostbusters. In 1986, Filmation was producing its own animated Ghostbusters series based on the company's 1975 live-action Ghost Busters television show. Columbia and DiC's series therefore became The Real Ghostbusters, and story editor J. Michael Straczynski later acknowledged that having fraudulent competitors appear in the very first episode was a deliberate little shot at the competing show. It makes "Ghosts R Us" an especially appropriate way to introduce a series literally called The Real Ghostbusters.
Interestingly, "Ghosts R Us" wasn't technically the first regular episode in production. It carries production number 75002, while the following week's "Killerwatt" is 75001. "Ghosts R Us" was simply ready first and became the episode audiences saw on September 13. Even so, nearly everything that would define the animated series is already here: the Ghostbusters' distinct personalities, Slimer as part of the Firehouse family, increasingly detailed ghost classifications, specialized equipment, and the combination of comedy and genuinely strange supernatural threats that would become a hallmark of the show.
There's much more to the episode than we can cover in a short anniversary lookback, including production history, voice credits, trivia, ghost classifications and behind-the-scenes details. Check out the complete "Ghosts R Us" episode guide on the Wiki, and then come back next week as we continue through Season 1 with "Killerwatt," originally broadcast September 20, 1986.
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