Let me be honest right now...this might not be one of my better reviews, qualitywise...being it's been so freaking long since I last done a proper one. Hopefully, I'll get into the groove to do more in the future. at any rate, here's my review of The Real Ghostbusters: Vol.1, courtesy of Time Life and Sony Pictures Television.

The Show

Based on the hit 1984 comedy, the animated series follows the chronicles of the Ghostbusters, a group dedicated to protecting New York City--and sometimes the world--from ghosts, ghouls and all sorts of supernatural phenomenon in-between. Following the events from the first film, the group consists of Peter Venkman, the slick talking leader of the team, paranormal enthusiast & big kid-at-heart Ray Stantz, the brains behind the operation Egon Spengler, Winston Zeddemore, who serves as the team's voice-of-reason, their long suffering secretary Janine Melnitz, and Slimer, their own supernatural mascot. Airing in syndication Monday thru Friday, as well as being part of ABC's Saturday Morning lineup, the series has enjoyed a very successful run on TV, spanning a total of 147 episodes in 6 years, from 1986-1991. This set was originally only available as a complete box set spanning 25 discs when it was released this past holiday season. Now, it's being released as five separate volumes for those who don't have the $200 dollars for the whole thing at once. Volume one covers the entire first network season (13 shows), and part of the syndicated series, for a total of 30 episodes:

Ghosts R Us - a trio of ghosts decide to ruin the Ghostbusters' reputations by posing as a rival ghost elimination service.

Killerwatt - a powerful specter has an army of ghosts draining the city's power supply--which brings the Ghostbusters' containment unit dangerously close to being destroyed.

Mrs. Roger's Neighborhood - the team are called to investigate the home of a sweet old lady, who isn't what she seems.

Slimer, Come Home - After ruining Winston's surprise birthday party, Slimer decides leaves the firehouse for good--and winds up running with a pack of vicious ghosts.

Troll Bridge - A troll living under the Brooklyn Bridge decides to leave home for the nightlife of the city. But when his tribe threatens to tear the city apart unless he's returned, the Ghostbusters have to find him...fast.

The Boogeyman Cometh - When two children come to the firehouse claiming that the Boogeyman is living in their closet, Egon's childhood fear of him is reawakened, but is nevertheless determined to stop him.

Mr. Sandman, Dream Me A Dream - The Sandman decides to put to an end to humanity's ills with a 500 year long nap. The downside is that his sleep dust is causing people's dreams to literally come to life.

When Halloween Was Forever - When ancient ruins are put on display at the museum, the powerful spirit Samhain is released. He plans to turn Halloween into an everlasting night unless the team shuts him down.

Look Homeward, Ray - Ray is invited back to his hometown for a celebration in his honor, but someone is trying to make him look bad in front of his childhood sweetheart and the Ghostbusters.

Take Two - The Ghostbusters head to Hollywood as consultants to a movie being made about their epic battle with Gozer, but they first must contend with nasty spirits causing havoc at the studio.

Citizen Ghost - When a news reporter looks to interview the Ghostbusters, Peter tells the story on what has happened to them after their fight with Gozer--and how the ugly little spud known as Slimer became a member of the team.

Janine's Genie - After her first ghost busting job, Janine takes a brass oil lamp as payment and winds up releasing a genie and his minions.

Xmas Marks The Spot - Transported back to 1837 England, the team unknowingly traps the ghosts of Christmas, sparing Ebenezer Scrooge form his scheduled rehabilitation-and changing the future as a result. Now, they must try to find a way to release them from the Containment Unit and set things right.

Knock, Knock - Subway workers discover--and accidentally open a doorway to Hell, releasing all sorts of evil into the world. The team must quickly find a way to close it before the planet becomes a literal hell-on-earth...even if it means trapping themselves in the process.

Station Identification - Ghosts are coming out of television sets across the city, taking the shape of various TV characters. The team needs to stop them before they're the ones who wind up being cancelled.

Play Them Ragtime Boos - While on vacation in Louisiana--and without their equipment--the Ghostbusters must contend with the spirits of dead jazz musicians who are trying to turn the clock back to the 1930s.

Sea Fright - A crew of supernatural pirates have arrived in New York, looking to reclaim their recently unearthed treasure from a museum. Outnumbered...and at times outsmarted, the situation could be more than what the Ghostbusters can handle.

The Spirit of Aunt Lois - Despite his protests, Ray's eccentric Aunt Lois hires a fraudulent "psychic medium" to conduct a séance at her home. The end result: once friendly spirits living at her home become seriously ticked off.

Cry Uncle - Disappointed with his nephew's line of work and unbelieving of ghosts, Egon's uncle Cyrus requests that he return with him to his research institute in the Midwest. The guys try to prove to Cyrus that what they do is legit, but things don't go as planned.

Adventures In Slime And Space - Egon's latest invention causes Slimer to break down into thousands of mini versions of himself, which is quickly covering the city in a layer of green slime. To make matters worse, the solution to the problem winds up being worse than what they started with.

Night Game - A centennial battle between the forces of good and evil has taken place inside a baseball stadium. Winston has been selected to play alongside the forces of good...and the grand prize of this game--one human soul--goes to the winner.

Venkman's Ghost Repellers - Peter's con artist father arrives in town, peddling fake ghost repelling ponchos. In the meantime, various freighter ships are vanishing in the New Jersey Parallelogram (the local version of the Bermuda Triangle). The Ghostbusters must venture into this unknown dimension to rescue the ships, and Peter's father.

The Old College Spirit - a group of fraternity ghosts are causing trouble at the university, and the only way to get rid of them is to have the Ghostbusters help them graduate.

Ain't NASA-sarily So - The Ghostbusters are sent into space to an orbiting space station to help dispose of a particularly nasty creature. Meanwhile, Peter is salivating about the possibly huge payday as a result of working under a government contract.

Who're You Calling Two-Dimensional? - Disturbances are coming from an animation studio, whose founder has been missing since the 1940s. When the Ghostbusters investigate, they find themselves pulled into a dimension where cartoons are real.

A Fright At The Opera - Egon and a bored Peter attend an opera at the Met, where they discover that a group of supernatural Valkyeries are stealing the show.

Doctor, Doctor - A skirmish at a chemical factory leaves the Ghostbusters covered in a contaminated ectoplasmic chemical, which is rapidly causing drastic changes in their bodies.

Ghost Busted - A serious decline of supernatural activity puts the boys in dire financial straights. But when they prevent a robbery, they decide to become crime fighters-for-hire.

Beneath These Streets - What is believed to be an earthquake sends an eager Ray into the city's sewer system to investigate. Turns out that an army of ghosts are planning a massive attack against the city.

Boo-Dunit - While investigating the home of a recently deceased mystery writer, the team discovers that ghosts haunting the place are actually characters from her final, unpublished book.

Growing up in the 1980s, there was no shortage of cartoons based on movies, Teen Wolf, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures and Rambo (Yes, there really was a Rambo cartoon, which proves Rick James was right when he said "Cocaine's a heluva drug") to name a few. The problem with a lot of them is that of them really don't pay a lot of attention to the source material, or just don't translate very well to the small screen. After hearing that this series was coming out on DVD long after a good number of old school cartoons have already made their debut, I was doubtful that this wasn't going to be as good as I remembered it to be. However, after watching this set, I was pleasantly surprised that this show is still fun to watch 23 years after it originally aired.

For starters, the show expands on the mythos of the Ghostbusters that the first film laid out and expands on it, while giving fans of the movie a reassuring nod that the show will remain faithful. The episodes Take Two and Citizen Ghosts are prime examples of this, especially. Another aspect is of course, the production. A large number of writers and animators who have worked on this show have gone on to other critically acclaimed animated series such as Batman: The Animated Series, Duckman, and others.

Some of the episodes fall a little on the silly side as opposed to being creepy, but in their defense, these are the first batch of episodes that were produced and the writers needed some time to find their stride. Fortunately, there are a lot more hits than misses in this set. The quality of the animation itself isn't bad; some of them have an anime look to it. One of the big changes is obviously, the look of the characters. The reason for this is because of likeness rights issues, but it's a relatively minor issue.

For those who were big fans of this show growing up, you'll find yourselves still enjoying this show after all of these years. And for those who have never seen it before, here's good a place to start as any.

Visuals

The show is presented in a standard full frame television format. The picture quality has been remastered, but some of the episodes have some traces of scratches and dirt. These episodes ARE over 20 years old, after all.

Sounds

Audio quality has been cleaned up as well. You probably won't blow the roof off your sound system, but there's no pops, hisses or otherwise notable distortion. There are also music-&-effects only audio tracks on select episodes.

Extras

This is a finely produced set. The packaging comes in a steel book case, which houses all five discs. There are five on-camera commentaries, featuring the show's producers, writers, artists, voice actors and other personnel involved in production. They might not be everyone's cup of tea, but for those interested in what goes into making a cartoon, it's worth a listen. There's also two image galleries which showcase promotional artwork and early character designs. There's an episode length featurette, which explains in detail the origins of the cartoon, the struggles of producing the large amount of shows, interviews with the voice cast and production teams, and much more. To round the set off, there are also episode scripts and storyboards available in PDF format if you put disc five in your PC.

The Last Word

If this set is any indication of what Vols. 2-5 will have in store, it'll be a set worth completing. You should be able to buy this set for less than $30 (even less through Amazon, or Time Life's website), but what you get is a great set for your money. With the release of the upcoming video game and 25th anniversary Blu-Ray DVD on June 16, this will keep fans of the movie happy in the meantime. This is a show that'll appeal to longtime fans, and newcomers alike.

Final Score: 8.0 out of 10