The Ghost Busters (1975) User Reviews (17)

Thr original, genuine, first, and best of all Ghost Busters

[GwynnaL · 8/10 · 27 July 2007]

I wasn't a kid when this aired ... I was in my 20s, and recognized it as the hippest kids TV around. You couldn't possibly have preferred Sid and Marty Kroft or Bob Denver's sad attempt at kid TV.

Full of bad puns, slapstick humor for kids, and the best gorilla suit in show business. Bob Burns was brilliant as Tracy. The file drawer schtick was good every time. My husband and I to this day still quote episodes, like Abby Dalton and Marty Ingalls with that campfire. "How'd you make coffee when there ain't no fire?" "I just left it on a little longer."

No, it's not sophisticated, and makes no apology for its silliness. But if you're intelligent, you can see how hip it is.

Spencer, Tracy and Kong!

[gazzo-2 · 8/10 · 19 November 2000]

I remember this show very fondly, it came on right after 'Far Out SpaceNuts' on CBS Sat. Mornings in '75-76. Basically it was the same old thing-you got to see them do the Scooby doo routine with co-star monsters Marty Engels or whomever with a guy(Bob Burns) in an ape suit. I kid you not, as kids me and my two brothers were Sure that it was a real ape! The show was easy to take, well intentioned and fun. I have NOT seen it since, but it hangs in the memory quite well.

*** outta ****, not bad.

Rather liked it

[khyranleander · 6/10 · 8 May 2007]

The 1975 show of Ghostbusters ("The Original Ghostbusters") was an entertaining diversion for young children. Silly, in the campy style of the live-action Batman and other shows of the time, but the interaction between the old F-Troop chums did an admirable job of making up for the (serious, real serious) lack of plot. And this was enough, as it was a show aimed at little kids.

The briefly-run live-action show was left on the shelf for about a decade until the movies starring Ackroyd & Murray became popular enough to spin off a cartoon series. After two or three seasons of THAT series, the original show was dusted off and reborn into its own cartoon, featuring the sons of both Storch & Tucker -- along with the ape & a female character. "The Original Ghostbusters" cartoon also ran but briefly (believe it was put out by a group calling itself "KBN"); still, it ran long enough to apparently spur its competitor to change titles from "Ghostbusters" to "The Real Ghostbusters".

We're "The GHOOOOOST BUSTERRRRS"!!!

[Mister-6 · 12 September 2002]

He's Spencer! He's Tracy! I'm Kong! YAAAAAHH!!!!

Sorry.

"The Ghost Busters" (not to be confused with the 1984 film with Bill Murray) told the live action Filmation tale of the three chronically slapstick-ish busters of the title (Storch, Tucker and Burns as the gorilla) tackling all manner of ghosts - which all seem to have come from the same graveyard. Hmmm....

Anyway, even though the trio bumbled from episode to episode and seemed just a little south of competent, they ended up putting the ghosts back where they came from, with all manner of vaudeville routines and even some fast-motion running thrown in from time to time.

For the whippersnappers who didn't watch "F-Troop" way back when, here was the perfect way to see the chemistry between Storch and Tucker, and with a gorilla mixed in, to boot!

Do they even have this on video anymore? Probably not. Oh well, I'll always have memories - and that theme running through my head forever....

Ten stars. "The Ghost Busters" DO IT AGAAAAAAAAAAIN!!!

Another gem of my lost childhood memories... retrieved!

[webkroozer · 10/10 · 14 December 2008]

I remember watching this show on Saturday mornings and I think it rocked (I was 4 at the time). Spenser, Tracy and Kong the Ghost Busters (known here in Mexico as 'Los Cazadores de Fantasmas' fighting all kinds of specters, ghouls and critters with their feared 'ghost de-materializer'. I recently got the complete series on DVD and am not ashamed to admit I shed a few tears of joy after watching these long lost episodes and listening to the catchy theme song again after so many years. It's still silly after all this time, but still wholesome fun as well. On a side note, F-troop was broadcast here too but I didn't realize it had the two stars of The Ghost Busters in it until recently! Forrest Tucker, Larry Storch and Bob Burns were all great in their roles and so were the guest stars (Bernie Kopell from The Love Boat, Marty Ingels, Billy Barty). I remember the cartoon too but this show holds a special place of my childhood memories. Thank you Filmation, for producing this fun series; and thank you Digital Ink and Paint for bringing us this classic on DVD. THE GHOST BUSTERS DO IT AGAIN!!

Until today, I never realized this was F-Troop with special effects.

[dawnredwoods · 7/10 · 29 November 2008]

I remember fondly, this show on Saturday mornings. I even remember part of the theme song: "... with Spenser, Tracy and... The ghost busters do it again - do it again - the ghost busters do it again." The effects were awful (drawn-in circles for their ray guns), and Tracy was always (predictably) counting down in preparation for yet another explosion, but it was cool to a 7 y/o.

When the movie, Ghostbusters, came out in 1984, I was in high expectation of a movie version of the series I knew from a decade earlier. I was highly disappointed. It was nothing but a ripoff on an earlier name. I was thrilled when the first cartoon came out with the original cast.

To younger viewers, Bill Murray may be the hero of Ghostbusters, but to those of us born a decade earlier, we know who the real heroes were.

Actually Funnier Than the Famous Film

[reymunpadilla · 8/10 · 5 August 2023]

The film had some laughs, but was as concerned with being kind of scary the way old horror films of the 30s to 50s are. Then followed by a terrible sequel and two terrible remakes.

But this series was just fun, and funny. A lot of slapstick, silly old jokes, puns, word play, and general goofiness. It only ran for half a season. But when they reran the series again I was happy to watch it.

"You are now being held prisoner using the strongest substance known to man...library paste!" That kind of joke, Silly and dumb on one level, but unexpectedly clever at the same time.

Far far superior to some of the other unfunny garbage on Saturday morning like Tom and Jerry, or later commercials posing as shows like Transformers or GI Joe.

Surprised I just found this

[harybobjoebob · 7/10 · 31 December 2020]

As a kid I saw a couple episodes of the cartoon, but never knew there was a live action version, when I found that out I watched it on YouTube where you can find all the episodes.

The comedy in this is very strange, they do this one file cabinet gag like every other episode, and I dont think it always works but for what doesn't work there are 5 things that do, this show is ridiculous, why does the gorilla have a bottomless bag? I dont know, why do the ghost busters get there missions from a secret guy with self destructive tapes? I dont know, but that's the part of the show I like, it's so crazy you are bound to laugh at something.

The best part is when spencer and the gorilla interact with one another, it's fun to laugh at how stupid the Spencer character is.

Overall if you like comedy from this time period, and a supernatural setting, or if you just like goofy gorillas, give this a shot.

Don't be confused by all of the different Ghost Busters Shows

[kamesama · 2 February 2006]

I just read someone else's comments about this show and apparently they were confused. THIS SHOW WAS NOT A CARTOON, IT WAS A LIVE ACTION SERIES. Filmation released a cartoon based on this show in the 80s. This program was on TV in the 70s.

As a kid, watching this on Saturday morning Television, I thought that it was the greatest show. Seeing episodes (available on a discontinued VHS tape from Continental Video) more recently, I found that the humor really didn't survive my growing up. It can still be fun to watch for its campy horror\comedy and Bob Burns did great as the Gorilla member of the Ghost Busting team! For those not familiar with the series, every week the characters would receive a message sending them on a ghost busting mission. The message would alway self destruct after they listened to it and Tracy the Gorilla would always get caught in the explosion. The characters would usually end up in a haunted house\mansion where they would solve whatever problem was going on in that episode, then find the ghost and send it on to the next plane of existence. Lots of silly jokes and guest stars that were familiar to 70s TV audiences.

Wonderful

[dtucker86 · 12 September 2003]

Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker did a wonderful job on F Troop. It is a cult comedy classic and they were as good as Bud Abbott and Lou Costello when it came to comic chemistry. This show holds a special place in my heart. I remember watching it as an eight year old and it brought me a lot of laughter and enjoyment. I watched it on Saturday morning cartoons (a golden memory of my childhood in West Virginia) and I also watched Far Out Space Nuts with Bob Denver and Chuck McCann. Storch and Tucker were a couple of bumbling ghost busters who had a guy in a gorilla suit as a partner. The thing I remembered was always the spoof of Mission Impossible that they did where they got blown up every time. Kids need innocent, fun programming like this now more then ever before and I wish they would put this show back so that new generations can have some good and innocent laughs as well. It was only a few years ago that I saw a video of this show in a Blockbuster at Fort Riley, Kansas. It has been so unfairly forgotten. Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker both served our country well in World War II. Tucker served in the Army and Larry Storch was a Navy submariner. They are heroes in real life as well as on the screen. I write to celebrities as a hobby and wrote to Mister Storch recently. I praised his fine services to our nation and he sent me a beautiful signed picture he said "To Sergeant David Tucker, thank you for the greatest letter I have ever recieved".

Live action show, Not a cartoon

[SpaceComics · 16 May 2005]

'Fraid the other comment has it all wrong. This was not a cartoon, but a live action Saturday morning program. "Spencery, Tracy, and Kong" were the original Ghost Busters, and they were played by real live TV stars Forrest Tucker (Keeper of the Flame) and Larry Storch (Koko the Clown), and famous sci-fi movie buff Bob Burns (as the Gorilla, Tracy - Forrest Tucker was Kong). Tucker and Storch had appeared together before in F-Troop. It was pretty silly, but for 8-10 year olds relatively entertaining. For a live action kids show in the 1970s it was pretty dang good - consider what else we had then: Sigmund and The Sea Monsters, and a bunch of psychedelic Kroft fantasies.

Hilarious!

[Op_Prime · 9 October 1999]

Back in the 1970s, this hilarious show aired. It starred Larry Storch and Forest Tucker of F-Troop fame. Teamed up with Tracy the Gorilla, believe it or not, they would go after ghosts with their Ghost Dematerializer or something like that. The show seemed kind of stupid with old vaudeville jokes but hey it was from the seventies. Some of the episodes can be found on video these days, I suggest you rent it and check it out.

Dim, fond memories

[caj-5 · 5 January 2003]

I also remember seeing this show, but vaguely. Where I was -- in Cincinnati, Ohio -- it came on Sunday mornings. I, of course, watched it religiously because back in those days there were no Sunday morning cartoons and stuff (only Wonderama and U.S of Archie), and there was always serious withdrawal after the beloved Saturday morning cartoon binge.

I'm sure Storch and Tucker must have felt like they were at the tail end of their careers, but they were the dudes to me then. And the gorilla? I don't know, I just bought it at the time. I don't remember much of the show, but I remember really liking it. Would love to watch it again just to see how much I recognize.

Silly , but for its time frame kinda the norm for kids shows

[tshodan · 4 February 2005]

This Show, (Not a cartoon in anyway that I'm familiar) was designed to target 7 year old. For that age group it was entertaining and a lot of laughs. It lacked the wit of some modern Child targets shows that still have a level of interest to adults. Basically like comparing Teletubbies to Jimmy Neutron here. This show , more like the Teletubbies level. At least it reunited Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker from F-troop who tried there best in this environment. I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it now, but if it were in re-run I might turn it on to see why i actually liked it as a child. Probably the monsters, the inside jokes where so bad I remember them fighting a vampire with a wooden T-bone steak. Lucky for them it game the vampire a splinter. Got where this show was going.

We were told it was a real ape!

[richard.fuller1 · 16 June 2001]

This lame excuse for a real life Saturday morning show starred Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker, both of F Troop, as Spencer and Kong, respectively and they were ghost-chasers, as in Scooby doo, where are you? No one seems to recall the ghosts, but everyone recalls the gorilla more than any other gorilla on a tv show or in a movie. If you were to poll for filmdom's top ten apes, this guy would show up hands down. BUT WE THOUGHT IT WAS A REAL GORILLA! The show was forgettable, but the rumour was the gorilla was real. Like Sid and Marty Krofft shows and a trio of other real life shows (McDuff the Talking Dog, Big John Little John, Monster Squad with Fred Grandy), this was yet another addition. The two F Troopers knew how to work with each other and the gorilla, you had to see to believe. Years later, when a film with the same name came out, these guys began surfacing again. To the film's chagrin, they began calling their version with Saturday Night LIvers the REAL ghostbusters. I can still sing that song. Always remembered the names came together to form Spencer Tracy's name. lol!

Oh My God! This was the worst of the worst!!!

[raysond · 7 March 2004]

By the way,the 1984 Bill Murray,Dan Ackroyd version doesn't even compare to this piece of Saturday Morning dung that ran for more than a year on CBS-TV(from 1975-1976) and was produced by the same company that brought you the live-action fiascos "Shazam",and "Isis",and was better known for its lame and hell cartoons too,"The New Adventures Of Gilligan","My Favorite Martians",and "Lassie's Rescue Rangers",and others to name a few. The company that produced this show and others was known as the WORST animation studio in the world-Filmation Productions!!! Oh yes,"Ghostbusters" was just as lame as it came,and again I'm not talking about the Bill Murray,Dan Ackroyd,Harold Ramis version from the 1980's,but the lame mid-1970's version which starred Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch,better known for their antics from the mid-1960's TV series "F-Troop",as ghost hunters along with their pet gorilla named Tracy(yes whoever said that was a real monkey,they were sick,but we kids of the 70's knew it was a man in a gorilla suit,and it was too)taking on the supernatural,but in a unfunny sort of way that was suppose to be appealing to children,but let's face it,children weren't buying it,but in some of the segments the chemistry that Tucker and Storch had was brilliant,but it couldn't save this series which CBS-TV pull the plug of a lot of Saturday Morning silliness by the summer of 1976,and the network did the same with other shows of that era too including "Far Out Space Nuts",and also a show entitled "Wacko",not to mention "The Harlem Globetrotters Show",which was a live-action show that featured the globetrotters and Rodney Allen Rippy,and also "The Hudson Brothers Razzle-Dazzle Show",and not to mention a 15-minute news program called In The News with Christopher Glenn and Dan Rather were also gone by the summer of that same year,1976. As for the series itself,it was just that,the worst of the worst of a example of shows produced by Filmation Productions.

Also re-ran as a cartoon in 1985....

[mklan · 20 May 2006]

At the success of the movie "Ghost Busters", they remade this crud of a premise into a cartoon, forcing the MOVIE version of the cartoon to call themselves "The REAL Ghost Busters"... Reitman actually had a really hard time licensing the name from these guys, they actually shot a huge scene of 300 NY extras chanting "Ghost Busters" before the had the rights.

The animation company that did the monkey version was the same that did "He-Man".

I personally hate this old '70s show. Mainly due to the fact that purposefully misleading video packaging tricked my eight-year-old self into renting this... like 3 times...