Ghostbusters: The Lean Years

A companion to "Star Wars: The Lean Years", and something else to add to my upcoming review of Ghostbusters (2016).
Or, GB16, as I like to abbreviate it.

Much as I love the shit out of Marvel and DC movies, my favorite film franchises are Star Wars, Ghostbusters, and Freddy Krueger.
In that order.

Ghostbusters are my favorite superheroes, because anyone can be one.
Even with Batman, you have to be a fucking billionaire.
Ghostbusters, you fill out an application, get interviewed by Janine, and Egon gives you a proton pack.
They're the Bob's Heating And Plumbing of heroes.
I get a huge kick out of that.

Anyhoo, down to business...


1984, 1989

The movies. Said it all in the link.


1986-1991

The Real Ghostbusters. Again, at the link.
And that got us to the 90's.

Then the world moved to to...I 'unno, Ninja Turtles, or somethin.

Then, a long drought, and....


1997

Extreme Ghostbusters.

Then, a huuuuge drought, and.....


2009

Ghostbuster The Video Game.

As I said and linked to here, it's Ghostbsuters 3 in every single way.
Enjoy.


2011-Present

The IDW comics series.
Fairly recently, last year I think, they did an arc called "Ghostbusters: Get Real", where the comics Ghostbusters dimensionally crossed over with the animated Ghostbusters.
I've been fuzzy for awhile if the IDW Ghostbusters were the movie Ghostbusters, a hybrid of the movie and animated, or what.
I guess this nails down, they're actually a third universe.
Also, they've added an IDW-verse version of Kylie from Extreme Ghostbusters to the crew as a helper for Janine. Fan popularity made her canon the way it did for Harley Quinn, I guess.
Oh, and they also did a crossover with the Ninja Turtles, which given how they're what superseded Ghostbusters in pop-culture importance in the 90's, is quite ironic.


2014

The 30th anniversary, and a reunion in Entertainment Weekly, and on the Today Show.
Dan didn't make it to the Today Show thingy with the rest of 'em, so here he is sometime later.

And, as you can see in those clips, they briefly hint towards what would become GB16.


2016

"Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters".
About the two movies, and with interviews with absolutely everybody, including Harold Ramis before he died.
They've been working on this for 8 years, and just got the final push from Kickstarter.
A real bitch that Harold couldn't see it. :-(

"Ghostheads".
About the fandom.
This one cleared its crowdfunding too.
Paul Feig, director of GB16, pops up in this one.
He might also be in "Cleanin' Up The Town", I dunno, but this one for sure.

And of course...

GB16.

And the controversy that's come with it.

This afternoon, the girls will be on Ellen.
Not an Ellen watcher, but I've followed every detail of this film, so I'll be checking it out.


So, that's been a timeline of the thin trickle of officially sanctioned stuff.
Now, here's stuff during the drought periods that were almost Ghostbusters.


1993-2012

"Ghostbusters: Hellbent".

So, from right after the cartoon ended, to almost now, Dan Aykroyd tried to get Ghostbuster 3 going with little to no success.

Over the years, he rewrote the shit out of it, but the central concept of the Busters going to a Hell dimension version of New York was always the core.

Chris Rock and Chris Farley were supposed to be in the early versions as new Busters, then one token female, then all new Busters with the torch being passed, then when it got really late in the game, Oscar, the baby from GB2, was supposed to be a new Buster, cuz he'd be an adult now, and it was going to be revealed he is in fact Peter's kid.

And all along the way, Bill Murray was the lone holdout.
Turns out Ivan Reitman, and the 4 guys share ownership of the property, and if any one of them doesn't agree, it doesn't get done.

At one point, Bill agreed to do it if he could be dead, and voicing himself as a ghost.
I think he was just dicking Dan around in hindsight.

The big stick in Bill's butt was apparently, GB2 wasn't as fun to make as GB1, and it was a traumatic experience after 1 was so magical, so he never wanted to go within a thousand feet of another sequel.

Anyhoo, an altered version of this finally ended up as the video game.
Which Bill was in as the voice of his younger self.
Dan still plugs away at the "Hellbent", version though.
Who knows, maybe it'll be that animated one that's coming after GB16.
If so, I hope they say Egon is on a honeymoon with Janine, and not, y'know, demised.
Give him a classy send-off.


1995

"Casper".

Dan Aykroyd makes a quick cameo as Ray Stantz.


1997, 2002, 2012

MIB trilogy.

It's essentially Ghostbusters with aliens, when you really think about it.

UFO culture exploded in the late 90's, so it's natural everyone went over to Alienbusters as their flavor for awhile.
Then, 3 was a nostalgia trip.


1997-2001

Men In Black: The Animated Series.

Said it in the link, it was up against "Extreme Ghostbsuters", and poor EGB got its clock cleaned.


2001

"Evolution".

See here, and here.

Directed by Reitman, has the same plot skeleton as Ghostbusters 1, and has a Dan Aykroyd cameo.
It's a sneaky Ghostbusters 2.5, really.
Cute flick, liked it at the theater, hasn't held up well, still okay though.

They were clearly aware that MIB was the competition, and tried to clone that success.
Literally.
Didn't work.
Ah, well, nice try though.


2001-2002

"Alienators: Evolution Continues".

A.K.A. "Evolution: The Animated Series".

Well, at least it didn't have MIB to compete with anymore, and it lasted a little longer than EGB.


2009

"Zombieland".

Bill Murray cameos as a parody version of himself, and plays "Ghostbusters", in his screening room, and re-enacts it with Woody and the girls.


2013

"R.I.P.D.".

Described by several critics as "Men In Black with ghosts".

Well, MIB was already GB with aliens, so MIB with ghosts is Ghostbusters again.
Except this time, the protagonists are also dead.

Anyway, this was awful, and bombed.
Good riddance.

So, as you can see, us Ghostheads have been jerked around for long enough.
Time for this damned movie already.

Month and a half left to go...*taps foot*