With Ghostbusters: Afterlife hopefully hitting theaters this year (barring any more delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic), Sony is drumming up hype for the upcoming movie by releasing two classic cartoon series inspired by the original films.
The beloved '80s animated series The Real Ghostbusters and its follow-up the Extreme Ghostbusters are both headed to YouTube, with the first episode of the former already uploaded to the official Ghostbusters channel.
Starting today, episodes of The Real Ghostbusters will be uploaded every Saturday morning. The pilot episode, "Ghosts R Us," which first premiered September 13, 1986, was the first to be shared this morning. The episode follows a ghost family of Class Fives looking to get revenge on the Ghostbusters by driving them out of business.
The Real Ghostbusters ran for seven seasons from 1986 to 1991, with reruns of episodes running well into the '90s. The series even appeared on Netflix briefly in 2017. A total of 140 episodes were produced, continuing the adventures of Dr. Peter Venkman, Dr. Egon Spengler, Dr. Ray Stantz, Winston Zeddemore, their secretary Janine Melnitz and their mascot ghost Slimer. Since Ghostbusters: Afterlife is technically a sequel to the original two Ghostbusters films, this series is a great way to introduce younger audiences to the original cast of characters, or for older generations to relive the glory days of Saturday morning cartoons.
In addition to The Real Ghostbusters, episodes of the follow-up animated series Extreme Ghostbusters will also be coming to YouTube every Wednesday. The Extreme Ghostbusters premiered in 1997 and ran for 40 episodes.
The series follows the "next generation" of Ghostbusters led by veteran Egon Spengler after the original Ghostbusters were disbanded due to lack of supernatural activity. But when ghosts start to reappear, Egon recruits a group of his college students to help bust 'em.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife is currently slated to hit theaters on November 11, 2021. In the meantime, you can watch episodes of The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters on the official Ghostbusters YouTube channel.