The Real Ghostbusters Animated Episodes Uploading Free To YouTube Every Week

The Real Ghostbusters animated episodes are being made available for free on YouTube. Released in 1984, the movie Ghostbusters was not only a pop culture phenomenon and huge box office hit, it also launched an entire franchise that is still going strong almost 40 years later.

Of course that franchise included a sequel movie released in 1989, but folks who grew up in the ‘80s also well-remember the animated Ghostbusters spinoff show that arrived in 1986. Titled The Real Ghostbusters to distinguish it from another animated show called Ghostbusters (that was itself a sequel to an earlier British live action show called The Ghost Busters), the series came with a voice cast that didn’t include the original movie’s actors but did feature performers like Arsenio Hall, Dave Coulier and the legendary Frank Welker. In its first incarnation the show ran until 1987, then continued on as Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters to take advantage of the popularity of the Slimer character (as voiced by Welker). A sequel series called Extreme Ghostbusters followed in 1997, running for one season of 40 episodes and featuring the voice talents of Futurama’s Billy West.

With Ghostbusters set to return to movie screens with Jason Reitman’s upcoming reboot Ghostbusters: Afterlife, fans young and old can now enjoy the animated antics of Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler, Winston Zeddemore, Slimer and the rest of the gang as The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters are now being released on YouTube. As revealed by the Ghostbusters Twitter account, a new episode of The Real Ghostbusters goes up on the Ghostbusters YouTube channel each Saturday, while each Thursday sees the arrival of a new Extreme Ghostbusters episode. These episodes are currently free to watch.

The arrival of The Real Ghostbusters on YouTube (and for free no less) certainly represents a great chance for older fans of the franchise to go on a nostalgia trip, but it’s also a terrific promotional opportunity as live-action Ghostbusters gets set to return via Reitman’s film, which brings back older versions of original Ghostbusters characters while also establishing a new generation of ghost-fighting heroes.

Reitman’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife may not be the real Ghostbusters 3 that fans of the original movie have been longing for (such a thing is now sadly impossible after Harold Ramis’ death), but it promises to be a more positive experience for older fans than 2016’s much-maligned Ghostbusters reboot. As for The Real Ghostbusters, the show may not have featured the actual voices of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ramis, but it certainly boasted plenty of legitimate talent and did a good job dreaming up new and wacky kid-friendly adventures for the Ghostbusters crew every week. The less-well-remembered Extreme Ghostbusters also arriving on YouTube – for free – is just an added bonus for fans who love exploring every nook and cranny of the long-running franchise.