Ghostbusters through the years
The new Ghostbusters is opening in Singapore this week! Here’s a look back at the last 32 years of ‘busting.
Note: This opinion piece was first published on 13th July 2016.
The new Ghostbusters movie is opening in Singapore this week!
As an 80s kid, I’ve been waiting for this moment for the longest time. While the original movie and team will always have a special place in my heart, it still feels like there are more Ghostbusters stories that can be told.
Ghostbusters (1984)
With the Ghostbusters reboot, I thought it’d be fun to go back and relive the various Ghostbusters through the years, starting with the first movie in 1984.
Who could forget Bill Murray’s classic lines like; “Back off, man. I'm a scientist,” “Cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria!” and “So, she’s a dog.”
(Did you know? Dan Aykroyd’s original Ghostbusters pitch was bonkers; it was set in the future and involved ‘ghostmashers’ traveling through time and space with magic wands.)
The Real Ghostbusters (1986 — 1991)
The Real Ghostbusters was a cartoon series that ran from 1986 to 1991. You’d hardly recognize the characters, who had similar names but looked completely different from the movie — the one ‘person’ that appeared the same was Slimer, who became the series’ version of Casper the friendly ghost. I remember buying the UK comic series as a kid, and trying to draw my own ghostbusters shooting proton streams.
(Did you know? J. Michael Straczynski, who created Babylon 5, wrote for the first season of The Real Ghostbusters.)
Ghostbusters II (1989)
After the massive success of the first movie, we got Ghostbusters II five long years later in 1989. It was so lackluster I wish they’d never made this one. Apparently neither Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ivan Reitman wanted to make a sequel, but Columbia Pictures eventually managed to convince them.
Extreme Ghostbusters (1997)
Extreme Ghostbusters was the follow-up cartoon series to The Real Ghostbusters. Airing in 1997, it featured an older Egon Spengler who led a new generation of younger Ghostbusters. Extreme Ghostbusters had a pretty diverse cast; it introduced the first female ghostbuster, Kylie Griffin, into the team, and Garrett Miller, who ‘busted in a wheelchair. I never got into this series though, and no wonder, as it had a pretty short run.
Fans had been praying and hoping for a Ghostbusters III since the second movie, but odds were long. While Aykroyd, Ramis and Reitman were keen to make a follow-up, Bill Murray kept demurring.
Only in 2015 did Murray explain why, in an interview with Variety. Apparently he never saw a script he liked. With Ramis’ passing in 2014, it looks like the original team will never get back together again.
(According to Uproxx, there might have been another reason for the rift: Working strains on the movie Groundhog Day may have split Ramis’ and Murray’s relationship for good, making Ghostbusters III all but impossible.)
Ghostbusters: The Video Game (2009)
There is one version of Ghostbusters that some fans bill as the third and final sequel to the original. Ghostbusters: The Video Game, was a video game released in 2009 to critical acclaim.
The game was set two years after Ghostbusters II in 1991, with the original cast of Ghostbusters training the player’s character. Aykroyd, Ramis, Murray and Ernie Hudson lent their likeness to the game, and voiced the in-game characters. Aykroyd and Ramis also worked on the script, with Aykroyd saying, “This is essentially the third movie.”
I’m not much of a gamer, so I never tried the game, but there are people who’ve cut the game into a movie ... time to queue that up for the weekend.
Ghostbusters (2016)
The new Ghostbusters reboot arrives 32 years after the first one. There’s been a lot of negativity about it from the beginning, but I’m open to reboots that aren’t directed by Michael Bay.
Some people don’t like how the new team is all female, but so far the only gender I’ve heard complaining is male. I’ve got to admit that I did a double-flip when I first heard that it was an all-female cast — was this some kind of marketing gimmick? — but I realized nobody ever asked why the original team had to be all male. It’s one of those gender stereotypes that I hope gets some ’busting of its own in this movie.
I can’t wait to see it.
Meanwhile, check out this long discussion in our forum on people's perception of this movie, fanlore, etc., and a more light hearted movie review for those who just caught the movie at the cinema halls.
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