The first two seasons feature the late Lorenzo Music (RIP) as the voice of Peter Venkman (Lorenzo is perhaps best remembered as the voice of Garfield and the drunk doorman on Rhoda), while Winston Zeddemore was voiced by Arsenio Hall (who beat out Ernie Hudson, the live action Winston, who auditioned to reprise his part - the only actor from the films to do so), Frank Welker voiced Ray Stantz, Maurice LaMarche (better known perhaps as the Brain from "Pinky & The Brain" and also known for his dead on impression of Orson Welles) as Egon Spengler, and Laura Summer as Janine Melnitz. Under the command of J. Michael Stracyznski (can never get his name right) and featuring the talents of others such as Michael Reaves and Richard Mueller, the first 2 seasons featured many episodes based on classic myths, urban legends, H.P. Lovecraft and even an episode where the Ghostbusters were consulting a movie based on their life story. It was brilliant & beautiful, even if the animation quality did yo-yo wildly from pitch perfect to down right weak (as was the case with many beloved 80s cartoons). In short, it was good times. The characters personalities were mostly the same as their film counterparts except and differed mostly in physical appearances due to copyright issues, but this was relatively minor. Peter's womanizing was toned down somewhat (had to be done, there were kids watching, but he was still quick to approach beautiful women), Ray's passion for his work became more child like, Janine's romantic attraction to Egon became more pronounced and, perhaps the most controversial move of all, Slimer defected from evil ghost to good ghost and lived with the Ghostbusters ostensibly as their "experiment" but acted more like a pet. All in all, it was good times with off-beat humor and outlandish end of the world adventures.
And then it all came crumbling down. As season 3 approached, the network executives handling the show felt the show needed to be tweaked even though it had absurdly successful ratings. They brought in "consultants" and tried to "knock the edges off" as as RGB writer J. Michael Stracyznski (of Babylon 5) put it. The suits and their consultants wanted to soften Janine's personality, make her more of a mother figure to the guys instead of a sassy, sarcastic career girl and also demanded changes to her character design (she went through at least 5; this later became the basis for the "Janine, You've Changed" episode, one of the last written by J.M.S.). Additionally, they wanted to play up Slimer, who was allegedly popular with kids after being Snarfized (in reference to Snarf, the obnoxious sidekick of Lion-O on Thundercats), so the show started featuring way too much Slimer, to the point that it became "Slimer & The Real Ghostbusters" alternating between kid friendly Slimer adventures and standard episodes about the Ghostbusters. Most of the creative staff disliked these demands and left. Voice actors were changed as well, with Kath Soucie replacing Laura Summer as Janine, Buster Jones replacing Arsenio Hall as Winston and, perhaps the most controversial of all, Dave Coulier of FULL HOUSE fame replacing Lorenzo Music as Peter Venkman.
It has been alleged that the reason Coulier replaced Music was because Bill Murray (the live action Venkman) had complained about his character sounding like Garfield instead of like himself (oh the irony), so Coulier, a gifted voice impersonator, was hired to replace Music and told to give the cartoon Peter a voice similar to Murray's, and the result was that Coulier's Venkman sounded like Murray's Nick the Lounge Singer character from SNL (although why Murray would care what his cartoon counterpart sounds like in the first place is anyone's guess). Coulier is often pointed to by fans as the guy who ruined Peter, since during the Coulier-era Peter became noticeably more arrogant and full of himself (even when compared to the first 2 seasons). While I admit Lorenzo Music was the superior Venkman, I feel that it is not completely fair to blame Coulier entirely for this, as Peter's preferred personality did not change right away when Coulier came on board. The decline in quality of the writing didn't do Coulier any favors, as Coulier would have to suffer through many bad episodes, some of which were so bad that even Lorenzo Music could not have saved them, such as "VENK-MAN". Peter was never exactly the 'sensitive male' among the Ghostbusters, but in later episodes the writers seem hellbent on making him look as stupid and foolish as possible. Like Homer Simpson of THE SIMPSONS, Peter was reduced to an insert-random-joke-here kind of character and, though Dave had his moments, Venkman never fully recovered. Considering how poor the writing became (along with the decline in animation), Coulier didn't stand a chance.
Similarly, Kath Soucie, herself a gifted voice actress, would also suffer as Janine, since she was not really allowed to play the Janine fans knew & loved.
Considering all the off camera problems, it's amazing this show lasted as long as it did. But in the end, network stupidity caught up with them, and the Ghostbusters phenomenon faded from the public view in the early 1990s. Oh yes, it was a sad & tragic end for the beloved Ghostbusters. In the late 90s, a sequel series, "Extreme Ghostbusters" was produced, but it failed to reignite the Ghostbusters renaissance. Because of this, I can only award the series 8 stars out of 10, because the first two seasons were just that good to garner 8 out of 10. Oh, to think what could have been had the suits just left well enough alone. As a Ghostbusters fan, I'm still hoping that one day the entire series (yes, the ENTIRE series) will get the DVD treatment it deserves so that we can all enjoy the brilliance of the early years - and learn from the mistakes of the later years.
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