While most fans are familiar with the Ghostbusters thanks to the classic 80s movies and Paul Feig’s 2016 reboot, the truly dedicated know that there have been a number of animated series over the years. The one that hews closest to the live-action cast was 1986’s The Real Ghostbusters, a show that’s somewhat oddly named thanks to the similarly titled Filmation animated series, The Ghost Busters. (Columbia Pictures actually paid Filmation a licensing fee for the rights to use the name in their 1984 movie.) Then, in 1997, a very 90s reboot came about named Extreme Ghostbusters, featuring a more diverse cast of heroes. The one thing they all have in common: some absolutely bizarre episodes.
We’ve put together a list of the 10 strangest and craziest episodes from across the animated ghost-busting spectrum for you to enjoy. You’ll get a taste of them all, whether it’s the terrible Filmation series (thank you, Columbia, for buying the naming rights), the classic 80s cartoon, or the 90s extremified version. They might not be the episodes you remember best, but they’ll most certainly be hard to forget. - Dave Trumbore
The Real Ghostbusters: "The Ghostbusters in Paris"
As you might have guessed, The Ghostbusters are flown to Paris, along with Ecto-1, and treated as guests of honor … as long as they can solve the haunting of the Eiffel Tower.
If you thought the scariest thing about this episode was the bad “French” accents, you thought wrong. They are bad, of course, but not as bad as the montage of horrific transformations of otherwise kindly Parisians. A man’s face melts off his skull in front of tourists attempting to take his photograph, an elevator operator grows wicked fangs that are long enough to trap a passenger within them, and a host of shimmering spectres chase the gang throughout the tower. How will the guys escape? Well, by using the Eiffel Tower’s ghost-containment properties, part of its original 19th-century design, of course! - Dave Trumbore
Extreme Ghostbusters: "The True Face of a Monster"
I love a good Golem story as much as the next guy, but I certainly wasn’t expecting one to show up in the short-lived Extreme Ghostbusters series. Call me pleasantly surprised!
When two vandals get covered in a mysterious clay substance that seems to be alive, the Ghostbusters get called in for their expertise. That clay leads them to a synagogue that’s been vandalized, but they soon come up against the Golem itself. The rabbi there is clearly viewing the vandalism as a hate crime and might be taking retaliation into his own hands…
Elsewhere, some of Garrett’s friends from the old neighborhood are hanging around the basketball court … but they’re super racist and avoid shaking his pal Roland’s hand. Great pains are taken to show that these guys are all muscle-heads and adrenaline junkies who want to “pay back” the synagogue for their buddies’ injuries by smashing the place up. Unfortunately, Garrett gets caught in the middle. Yeah, this one’s less about the supernatural and more about a bunch of racist, violent youths who take their aggression out on anyone who isn’t like them. As for whether or not they get their just deserts – and to find out who’s behind the Golem – you’ll just have to check it out. - Dave Trumbore
The Real Ghostbusters: "Ghosts R Us"
An issue that is rife throughout this series is the increasing lack of interest in the actual Ghostbusters. In this particular episode, they are diminished in favor of Slimer learning not to lie and, ultimately, that he’s part of the team no matter what, to my tremendous chagrin. Slimer isn’t the only problem here though. After the team traps a trio of familial ghosts in a chocolate factory, Slimer accidentally lets the triptych out of the containment unit and they go onto haunt numerous people like ghosts do create the competing business of the title. The trio takes their cues from The Three Stooges episodes, if there was nothing funny about Larry, Moe, or Curly, and that goes for adults and children alike. There’s even a bit where the father ghost tells the diaper-clad baby ghost that he needs to lose weight; yes, a phantasmagorical being has health issues. The family of foolish specters goes on to unleash a strange creature that goes from a one-eyed cloud of dust and farts to a monstrous toy-store amalgamation to something like an elderly, somehow uglier Sarlak beast. - Chris Cabin
The Real Ghostbusters: "Knock Knock"
When subway workers discover some weird writing on a door – along with a horned demon with a ring through its bull-like nose – they inadvertently trigger the end of the world. As the door demon warned them, the doors themselves were not to be opened until doomsday … whoops! Now that doomsday is unleashed upon New York City, the Ghostbusters have to respond to bizarre creatures and evil transformations spreading through the subway system itself.
A possessed subway train full of skeletal ghouls is one of many subterranean horrors in this episode, which also includes a skeletal lady ghost that catches Peter’s eye temporarily. Luckily, there’s a stone with ancient Sumerian carvings (in the New York City subway…) warning against opening the door; unluckily, Netherworld energy is pouring out of the open door and slowly transforming the whole world. - Dave Trumbore
Filmation's Ghostbusters: "Rollerghoster"
Controversial opinion: I think the Filmation Ghostbusters is a better cartoon pound for pound than The Real Ghostbusters or Extreme Ghostbusters. Where there’s usually the hint of sobriety in The Real Ghostbusters, Filmation Ghostbusters is just plain beguiling. “Rollerghoster” is a prime example of the stunning, giddy lunacy that’s going on wall to wall is this long stretch of riotous dreck: ghostbuster Eddie Spencer brings his watch-the-world-burn nephew into a living room where a clothed gorilla is fixing a series of toys and giant skeleton television that they refer to as Skelevision. I could go on to tell you about how the gorilla, Spencer, and Jake Kong Jr. go on to save their fellow citizens and the world at large, how a flying pink pig-bat and a floating rat-lizard figure into all of this, but we’d be here all day. For the love of Moses, don’t try to make sense of any second of it. Just witness. - Chris Cabin
The Real Ghostbusters: "When Halloween Was Forever"
You probably wanted a cartoon to explain to you the Celtic origins of Halloween right? That’s where this episode more-or-less begins, after the routine opening bust, and the episode goes onto introduce us to an ancient Halloween spirit that has a pumpkin for a head that conjures all sorts of goofy hell. The trajectory of the story is similar to the movies, to the point of annoyance, and this another prime example of the central quartet being used just to push along the story instead of being funny or getting into actual scrapes. There’s even a preposterous stand-off between the gang and the spirit of Halloween that is distinctly familiar to the face-off with Zuul at the end of the first movie. Highlights include Winston playing chess with Slimer…for some reason, a peek inside the containment unit which could double as a animated White Zombie video, and a variety of ghouls that the animators invent worship Samhain, the pumpkin-headed villain. - Chris Cabin
The Real Ghostbusters: "Take Two"
Movies about making movies have an inherent personal element to them that often stirs up a fascinating study of the director’s unique process and work ethic, whether in Robert Altman’s The Player or Vincente Minelli’s The Bad and the Beautiful. This is less true of cartoons for kids that decide to take on Hollywood, as evidenced by this heaping load of nonsense. The Ghostbusters are sent to Los Angeles to help with the production of a movie about their adventures, and inevitably encounter a dwelling malevolent ghost in the studio who takes over a gigantic prop robot.
There are plenty of groan-worthy lines, including the big wink given when the Ghostbusters have no clue who Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Dan Aykroyd are. More inexplicable is how the episode opens with the disintegration of a local news anchor’s career as he awaits the arrival of the Ghostbusters at the airport, and the focus on the angry, self-entitled director who the boys butt heads with. The possessed robot turns into some sort of weird dinosaur-type thing that requires silence because it wants to go back to sleep rather than deal with the Ghostbusters, because ghosts definitely sleep. Like so many other episodes of this show, this is one of those things you simply need to see to believe and then probably never see again. - Chris Cabin
Extreme Ghostbusters: "The Sphinx"
“So, I’ll bet you guys think you’re pretty smart, don’t you?”
There’s no dodging this one: it straight-up starts with a slightly-larger-than-human-sized Sphinx flying around the city, accosting local intellectual folks and turning them into drooling simpletons. Luckily, the Sphinx is leaving physical evidence behind: dog hair, lion hair, snake scales, and a feather from a bird wing. Meanwhile, Egon’s going through a mid-life crisis of sorts (at 39…sigh), so the team doesn’t readily believe him when his first deduction is: Sphinx!
While the idea of a Sphinx appearing in New York City may seem kind of silly, Egon’s description of it as a force of malevolence, consuming its victims if they could not answer his riddles, is terrifying. This version is even scarier thanks to superbly creepy voice work and a mysterious character design that hides the monster’s true, horrific face behind a mask. Luckily, Egon regains his confidence just in time to answer the Sphinx’s riddle … but do you think you’re smart enough to risk it? - Dave Trumbore
The Real Ghostbusters: "Troll Bridge"
Now, you might think that the Ghostbusters’ job title has a pretty narrow and specific job description: bustin’ ghosts. For the sake of argument, if anything beyond the spectral showed up, it probably shouldn’t be the Ghostbusters’ responsibility to take care of it, right? (Unless it happens to be Bigfoot) After all, you don’t call the plumber when the cable’s out. But when a clan of trolls - who look like they walked out of a Mad Max movie - starts wreaking havoc in New York City and make a new home on the Queensboro Bridge, the Ghostbusters answer the call just the same.
To be fair, the NYPD does try their best to handle the trolls, but their S.W.A.T. team tactics and use of tear gas only enrage the creatures further. Luckily, Egon speaks troll and agrees to track down their missing member; if they fail, a squadron of terrifying firebirds will lay waste to the city. Neat!
This may have been the first time the Ghostbusters defeated trolls, but it certainly wouldn’t be the last. - Dave Trumbore
The Real Ghostbusters: "Sweet Revenge"
The Real Ghostbusters always had a weird way of showing off its setting of The City That Never Sleeps, and in “Sweet Revenge”, we get one of its most unneeded reflections of NYC. When a nefarious nerd – living in his mom’s basement, naturally – goes out trick or treating as Slimer, he encounters a duo of dimwitted phantasms that speak with a stereotypical New York Italian accent and more-or-less act like gangsters. These creatures are out for Slimer’s blood, whatever that would be, but get sidetracked by the squeaky-voiced geek and his canine companion. Venkman shows up for a cameo, and Slimer is the fulcrum of the whole thing, but really the whole episode is mostly following the two ghastly goons and the pathetic young man around. No fair spoiling how these crossed wires come together, but even for a show as weird as this one, “Sweet Revenge” is such a complete diversion from the idea of what a regular episode of this show would look like that it has to be witnessed. - Chris Cabin
[Note: This feature was initially published at an earlier date.]