SLIMER SUBSERIES REACTION

Slimer Subseries

Original Air date: Fall of 1988

Writers: various

Director: various

Main Cast:

• Dave Coulier as Peter Venkman
• Frank Welker as Raymond Stantz
• Maurice LaMarche as Egon Spengler
• Buster Jones as Winston Zeddemore
• Kath Soucie as Janine Melnitz
• Frank Welker as Slimer

(Rating 1 of 5)

In the fourth season of The Real Ghostbusters a decision was made by ABC executives in order to ease the younger portion of the audience, for whom the main show might be often scary, to retitle the show: Slimer! And the Real Ghostbusters.  It would now be an hour long program that feaure a regular RGB episode along with this sub-series that focused only on Slimer.  This was worst decision made during the franchise's run and did permanent damage to the way the show was perceived by the general audience causing ratings to drop.  There is no getting around it the sub-series is outright terrible. 

Characters are drawn very differently!

                Now I know what you are thinking, “But Jeremy this made for little kids! Of course you as an adult don’t like it.”  I want to make this known I hated this when I was seven. At the time I was really put off by the change in the animation.  It didn’t have same feel as the main show and it bothered me. I should point out at the same age I was not put off by the Ghostbusters looking different from live action to animation, but everything in Slimer series bothered me.   The strange thing is I like Slimer as character and always have.  I thought the idea of the Ghostbusters adopting a pet ghost was great and stated so a numerous occasions on this blog.

                Let me clear about this, I know The Real Ghostbusters is a cartoon.  But not all cartoons are the same.  There is huge difference between the classical Batman: The Animated Series and Loony Toons.  They are both cartoons.  One is an adventure series that takes place in a universe that is close in most respects to the real world and the other is an outrageous comedy where characters can defy gravity, space, time, and their series own per-established rules.  

The odd part is in the second season the episode “Who Are You Calling Two-Dimensional” helps distinguish between the two types of cartoons.  In that episode the Ghostbusters were trapped in a cartoon universe and the episode kept showing common animated troupes that were not part The Real Ghostbusters normally.  Our heroes are based on the logic of a self-contained universe, which was basically a universe mostly like ours but with ghosts, where the other cartoons ignore any and all logic on purpose.  The Slimer sub-series goes ingonres they way the RGB universe works and instead is like a cartoon that features Bugs Bunny.  It has characters who are supposed to be humans but have Mr. Fantastic/Plastic Man type powers, can hide behind regular telephone poles, can fit inside a food container, and regularly survive falls from high distances off the ground.  

In the episode “It’s a Jungle Out There” a talking dog sends Slimer flying in terror to Peter for protection, in his own show Slimer has a friend name Fred who is very human like even wearing boxer shorts under his fur.  We see this when Fred's fur flies off when being yelled at by the giant dog, Bruzer, later the little dog catches up with his fur.  Bruzer walks on his hind legs and uses his front ones like arms as if Rall had returned.  His owner is a super masculine woman who has every security, nurse, and rescue job in New York City.  

Slimer's main rival seemed to be a cat named Manx, who played the Coyote to Slimer’s Road Runner.  Manx would often be dropped from great heights, actually be physically flattened, and be caught in explosions.  Yet he would always be fine.

I can’t stand the main villain, Professor Dweeb and his poodle Elizabeth who behaves and acts like a person in all but speaking ability.  Dweeb is a self-absorbed “scientist” who thinks the Ghostbusters are fakes and Slimer needs to be caught.  Dweeb is well named but that is it.

Dweeb and Elizabeth

The only character emerging from this series that I liked was the singing ice cream truck driver Chilly Copper.  The idea of Slimer befriending an ice cream truck driver is something that would be very consistent with the character.  Her warm personality would bring a nice presence to the show. 

Dog with a job!

So the main question is this.  Is any part of this cartoon salvageable with main series?   The answer is yes but only in a very disturbing way.  All the main Slimer characters that were created for the subseries are ghosts but they are ghosts who aren’t aware they're dead.  This would explain why they can disappear behind small objects and can change their overall shape.  Not to mention survive impossible things. 

So how do you like that kids?