Before their could ever be episodes of The Real Ghostbusters something had to be created to show how an animated Ghostbusters series would work. What would the characters look like, what about their personalities? How about the environment around them? What would the equipment look like? What would the ghosts look like?

Prior to September 1986 when an animated spin off was a logical progression (or so it would seem) to the blockbuster Ghostbusters a short pilot was made. This promo, (also later used to advertise The Real Ghostbusters for Saturday mornings) began to give us the universe of The Real Ghostbusters with a short story. All in less then 5 minutes.

As this was before a single episode had been made, their isn’t any dialogue. ‘Ghostbusters’ plays throughout.

With September 2016 marking the 30th anniversary of The Real Ghostbusters I revisited the less than 5 min promo, took a lot of screen caps, and organized them for Ecto-Containment. They are accompanied by my review.

Part of The Real Ghostbusters promo was used to advertised The Real Ghostbusters was coming to ABC in September 1986.

Sources:

• Sony Pictures
• TimeLife The Real Ghostbusters Complete Series Bonus Disc.
• John Seitz RGBs 1986 Promo (YouTube Channel)