Extreme Ghostbusters

Plot

Several years after the end of The Real Ghostbusters, a lack of supernatural activity has put the Ghostbusters out of business. The members have gone their separate ways except for Egon Spengler, who still lives in the firehouse, monitors the containment unit, takes care of Slimer, furthers his education, and teaches a class on the paranormal at a local college. When ghosts begin to reappear, Egon is forced to recruit four students as the new Ghostbusters: Kylie Griffin, a goth genius and expert on occultism; Eduardo Rivera, a cynical Latino slacker; Garrett Miller, a young wheelchair athlete; and Roland Jackson, a studious African-American machinery whiz. The cast also includes Janine Melnitz (the Ghostbusters' secretary, who returns to the job) and Slimer, a hungry ghost.

The series follows the next generation of Ghostbusters, who track down and capture ghosts throughout New York and (occasionally) beyond the city. A supernatural comedy, following the trend set by its predecessor, it has an updated, darker feel exemplified by a gritty, punk-inspired variation of Ray Parker Jr.'s song "Ghostbusters" as its opening theme. The song, written by Jim Latham, is performed by voice actor Jim Cummings. Throughout the series, the new team learns to work together despite their differences: Janine's largely-unrequited affection for Egon, the unresolved love-hate relationship between Kylie and Eduardo, and the Ghostbusters' frequent clashes with authority figures who are skeptical about their work.

Characters

Main article: List of Ghostbusters characters

• Slimer (voiced by Billy West) – Slimer, the least-changed of all the characters in terms of personality, has a less-cartoonish look. Well-meaning, he is often pushed around by the Ghostbusters because his constant eating gets in their way. Slimer tries to fix his mistakes, often with unintended consequences. He is heroic, wielding a proton pack in "Bird of Prey". Slimer is a rival of Eduardo, who (with the other Ghostbusters) cares for him despite his annoying traits. He has lived with Egon for over a decade, and they are closer than in the original series.
• **** (voiced by Rino Romano) – Lazy, sarcastic and apparently clueless, Eduardo is also determined and reliable; he and Garrett resemble original Ghostbuster Peter Venkman. Eduardo has a love-hate relationship with Kylie, of whom he loves. He has an older brother, Carlos "Carl" Rivera, an NYPD officer who resents Eduardo's not being a police officer like the rest of their family and thinks the Ghostbusters are a scam (the reason Eduardo kept his job a secret). Eduardo has a friendly rivalry with Garrett, and his apparent laziness is due to his fear of failure. In an interview and the book "Ghostbusters: The Ultimate Visual History," Rino Romano said: "Spiritually, and I know this sounds kind of stupid, but I thought I was born to play that role. Eduardo was basically the lovable character. He's in love with the girl but he's too much of a wuss to admit it. He's both the comic relief, the antihero, and the romantic foil. Extreme Ghostbusters was the best-written show, because it wasn't just about the ghostbusting, it was about the characters".
• Kylie Griffin (voiced by Tara Strong, credited as Tara Charendoff) – Kylie is the only member of the new team with prior paranormal knowledge; her friend, Jack, was a victim of the Grundel. In awe of Egon when the series begins, they shift to a more equal footing. Kylie's calm exterior often makes her a foil for Eduardo's brashness. Her parents are divorced, and she lives alone with her cat. She was close to her grandmother Rose, who died a year before the series begins; her interest in the paranormal and her goth appearance may be related to her grandmother's death. Kylie also appears in the IDW Publishing Ghostbusters comic books, where she works at Ray Stantz's occult book shop before becoming a Ghostbuster in 2013.
• Roland Jackson (voiced by Alfonso Ribeiro) – Roland is the most level-headed and mechanically gifted of the new Ghostbusters, helping Egon repair and improve the proton packs and Ecto-1; he joined Egon's class after seeing the Ecto-1 at an auto show. Wanting to become an Ivy League doctor, he is slow to anger. Roland, the oldest child of a lower-middle-class family, has a mischievous younger brother he refuses to believe is a troublemaker.
• Garrett Miller (voiced by Jason Marsden) – Garret has a jock-like attitude and is a fan of extreme sports and mad stunts. Born a paraplegic, he mocks his condition and feigns helplessness to convince two FBI agents to un-cuff him. Garret is studying to be a physical therapist, but secretly dreams of being an NBA star. Bob Higgins said that in a focus group of young children, the creators found that Garrett was the most popular character: "When we asked ... which of these characters would you want to be and they all wanted to be Garrett, they all wanted to be the guy that does the crazy things. They all wanted to be the guy that was the leader, and they all saw him as the leader of this group [even though he was not]."
• Egon Spengler (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) – The series' only original Ghostbuster, Egon mentors the new Ghostbusters team. He still lives in the firehouse with Slimer, enabling the building to become the Ghostbusters headquarters when paranormal activity resumes. Before the first ghost escaped, Egon taught classes on the paranormal at New York City College; four people took his class, double the usual number. He usually leaves field work to the new members (providing audio backup from the firehouse and information on their current adversary), but joins them when he feels that a crisis requires his presence. Egon is also interested in mold, and grows cultures in Eduardo's bathtub when they room together. His romantic tension with Janine continues.
• Janine Melnitz (voiced by Pat Musick) – The Ghostbusters' original receptionist is reunited with Egon in his Paranormal 101 class at New York City College. Like Egon, she supervises the new team and occasionally contributes to ghostbusting. Egon calls her the team's accountant and collector, and her attraction to him remains unrequited: "She's spent the last decade flitting from job to job ... trying not to pine for Prof. Spengler".

Production

Showrunner Bob Higgins told Ability that the decision to create a new Ghostbusters was made by the studio, which hoped to reinvigorate a lucrative franchise.

The show's creators decided "to put together a team of misfits in a way, people that you would not necessarily associate with being superheroes on television"; Eduardo is a slacker, Roland is a "square," and Kylie is moody and sarcastic. Garrett provides balance, "an adrenaline junkie, who could kind of kick start the team." Barlow imagined Egon as "an ambassador to the ghost realm trying to stop an impending war on the other side."

During production, Lucy/Garrett was bland until producer Jeff Kline suggested putting the character in a wheelchair; Higgins said that this made Garrett more interesting to write, as he was now "one of these guys that takes what he is given and makes the best of it and lives up to any potential that he has." When the character was Lucy, she was given proton-blasting calipers and crutches. Producer Richard Raynis requested a wheelchair instead; although Barlow attempted to show that a female character could "be fearless and gung ho," Raynis requested the gender change. The series received an award from the Los Angeles Commission on Disabilities for its depiction of Garrett.

Other elements were changed during production: Egon replaced Janine as the teacher, Slimer lost a goblin sidekick called Gnat, and Garrett was originally Lucas. Roland was originally a clumsy "gentle giant," and Eduardo dreamed of running in the Olympics. "Lucas" had a hair-trigger temper. The team which helmed Extreme Ghostbusters consisted of a number of producers and writers who had worked on The Real Ghostbusters (including Raynis), and the series was a sequel of the earlier show. It was one of the few sequels of a 1980s cartoon series; Masters of the Universe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles opted for series relaunches, but Extreme Ghostbusters opted for a more realistic passage of time. Maurice LaMarche was brought back to voice Egon Spengler, but Frank Welker and Laura Summer did not return as Slimer and Janine. The series had more explicit tie-ins to The Real Ghostbusters as it continued. "Slimer's Sacrifice" referenced Egon entering the containment unit in the Real Ghostbusters episode "Xmas Marks the Spot"; "Grundelesque" is a sequel of the Real Ghostbusters episode "The Grundel," bringing back the villain and revealing that Kylie lost a friend during its first attack. "Back in the Saddle," the two-part finale, featured the remaining original Ghostbusters joining their successors; Dave Coulier (the second voice of Peter Venkman), Buster Jones (the second voice of Winston Zeddemore), and Frank Welker (the voice of Ray Stantz) reprised their roles.

Episodes

In 1997, during excavation of a new subway, three construction workers find skeletons and antiquities in a tunnel. As they discuss what to do, a green vapor seeps out and a multi-armed ghost appears.

At New York City College, former Ghostbuster Egon Spengler is teaching a class on the paranormal. His students include Garrett Miller, a young paraplegic athlete; Kylie Griffin, a genius and expert on the occult; Eduardo Rivera, a cynical Latino slacker; and Roland, a mechanical whiz. Janine Melnitz is also in attendance. After she was downsized, Janine continued her education. She and Egon catch up, and Egon says that he still lives in the old firehouse. When the ghost Achira appears in the city and declares that the 11th prophecy will be fulfilled, Egon drafts his students to help him stop this; Achira possesses Kylie.

In Part 1 and most of Part 2, the XGB uses the original equipment in The Real Ghostbusters. In this episode, Egon and the team design and build new equipment.

Broadcast

The series initially aired on the syndicated Bohbot Kids Network (BKN) in 1997, and was aired on ABS-CBN in the Philippines two years later. It aired in the Republic of Ireland on RTE Two from 19 February 1998 to 1999. The channel broadcast a short rerun in the summer of 2007. In 2021, for the upcoming release of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, episodes of The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters were posted on the Ghostbusters YouTube channel.

Home media

In 1999, Columbia TriStar Home Video released three VHS volumes of the show. The videotapes were available to purchase separately or as a boxed set of all three volumes. The episodes included in the VHS volumes were:

• Volume 1: "Darkness at Noon, Part 1", "Darkness at Noon, Part 2"
• Volume 2: "The Infernal Machine," "Grundelesque"
• Volume 3: "Back in the Saddle, Part 1", "Back in the Saddle, Part 2"

A two-disc DVD set with the first thirteen episodes of the series was released in Australia on June 2, 2009, and in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands on June 15 of that year. The UK release was edited to remove scenes of horror and threat. The series was re-released in the UK on June 27, 2016, with the first 13 episodes.

In February 2021, the episodes were uploaded weekly to the Ghostbusters YouTube channel in high definition.

On March 19, 2024, Sony released the complete series as a 9-disc DVD set.

Reception and legacy

In a series retrospective, SFX said that the "consensus that any extension of the Ghostbusters brand requires a whole new team of newbies to take on the mantle", and that Extreme Ghostbusters was its first application. The series' failure, blamed by its showrunners on poor US scheduling and the decline of non-educational children's syndication in favor of networks such as Fox Kids and Kids' WB and cable channels (although some American stations carried the series in the 3:00–5:00 pm after-school slot), was seen by SFX as demonstrating that "the appeal of Ghostbusters was only partially the concept, and that it's the characters we love above all must be a sobering thought for anyone charged with rebooting Ghostbusters again." The series was also noted for aiming at "a slightly more adolescent audience with a tougher edge," "clearly intended to test the boundaries of child-friendly horror." The Eduardo/Kylie relationship pushed the edge of the ratings.

Merchandise and other media

The series generated a line of action figures manufactured by Trendmasters. The line included Roland, Eduardo, Kylie, several ghosts, and updated versions of Egon Spengler and the Ecto-1; Garrett did not have a figure, although collectors have found a prototype figure that went unreleased. Deluxe versions of the four Ghostbusters figures were also released, featuring electronic light and sound. A role-playing proton pack & plasma blaster, standalone plasma blaster, and ghost trap with positron blaster were released alongside the action figures.

Website

The original website included a Flash tour of the firehouse, character profiles, descriptions of ghosts fought, and a Flash game. "Spengler's Spirit Guide" contained journal entries by "Egon" about haunted areas and the how-to of ghostbusting. Two entries, "The Bermuda Triangle" and "The Jersey Devil", appeared in episodes.

Video games

Three video games based on the series were created: Extreme Ghostbusters for the Game Boy Color, Extreme Ghostbusters: Code Ecto-1 for Game Boy Advance, and Extreme Ghostbusters: The Ultimate Invasion for the PlayStation. There are two PC games: Extreme Ghostbusters: Zap The Ghosts! and Extreme Ghostbusters Creativity Centre.

References

References

1. Perlmutter, David. (2018). "The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows". Rowman & Littlefield.
2. Erickson, Hal. (2005). "Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003". McFarland & Co.
3. (2014). "The Complete [[SFX (magazine)".
4. "Extreme Ghostbusters.com – Eduardo".
5. "'Ghostbusters' Gets New Recruits This February In IDW's Ongoing Series – ComicsAlliance | Comic book culture, news, humor, commentary, and reviews". ComicsAlliance.
6. "Extreme Ghostbusters". [[Ability (magazine).
7. "ExtremeGhostbusters.com – Egon".
8. "Extreme Ghostbusters – Janine".
9. "Spook Central: "Extreme Ghostbusters – The Original Version"".
10. Barlow's DeviantArt section: [http://filbarlow.deviantart.com/art/XGB-Early-Concept-Female-Characters-367108793 XGB: Early Concept ~ Female Characters] {{Webarchive. link. (2014-10-29 , [http://filbarlow.deviantart.com/art/XGB-Early-Concept-Julia-367189053 XGB: Early Concept ~ Julia] {{Webarchive). link. (2014-10-29)
11. (March 2012). "Egon: Conceptual Design XGB".
12. (11 April 2013). "DeviantArt: "XGB: Early Concept ~ Lucy ~ Part 1 by filbarlow"".
13. (11 April 2013). "Lucy – Part 2".
14. AJ Quick. (2010-01-11). "GB Fans "Killjoys"". Gbfans.com.
15. "Shannon Muir, Production Supervisor of Extreme Ghostbusters fills Ghostbusters HQ on some little-known EGB tidbits".
16. {{list journal. [[RTÉ Guide]]. (14-20 February 1998 edition and subsequent dates)
17. {{list journal. [[RTÉ Guide]]. (14-20 July 2007 edition and subsequent dates)
18. Squires, John. (February 10, 2021). "Classic Episodes of "The Real Ghostbusters" and "Extreme Ghostbusters" Officially Coming to YouTube Each Week!".
19. Squires, John. (February 10, 2021). "Classic Episodes of "The Real Ghostbusters" and "Extreme Ghostbusters" Officially Coming to YouTube Each Week!".
20. (19 March 2024). "Extreme Ghostbusters: The Complete Series [DVD]".
21. ''The Complete SFX Guide to Ghostbusters'' (2014), "Extreme Makeover" (pp. 118–122)
22. "Extreme Ghostbusters.com: Spengler's Spirit Guide".