Spook Central: The Ghostbusters Companion - Established August 1996 By Paul Rudoff
Real Ghostbusters DVD Set at TimeLife.com
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TV Series > The Real Ghostbusters
The Real Ghostbusters
THE ORIGINAL PROMO PILOT

To help sell the series, a 3 minutes and 50 seconds long promo video was created. This video features the characters and buildings in their original forms, which varies greatly from how they look in the series. Footage from this video was used in: an ABC promo to announce the premiere of the series in the Fall of 1986, a Blockbuster Video promo to announce the original Magic Window home video VHS release of the series in 1987, a Syndication promo to announce the premiere of the series in syndication in the Fall of 1987, and in the opening credits of "The Halloween Door" primetime special in 1989. The first 54 seconds of the promo was used in its entirety in the Syndication promo and in the Blockbuster Video promo, but with different narration. Once the Ghostbusters start sliding down the firepole in silhouette, that's when the Blockbuster Video promo cuts to other footage, while the Syndication promo continues the shot up to the point where the Ecto-1 comes racing out of the firehouse, at which point it stills on the logo on the side of the car.

Below you will find video and images from the pilot, as well as the ABC, Blockbuster Video, and Syndication promos. The full complete pilot can be found on The Real Ghostbusters: Complete Collection DVD box set. If you enjoy the low quality copy of it seen below, buy the high quality DVD. The text description of the promo was written up by James Eatock. The ABC promo was given to me by Lanny White, and the Blockbuster Video promo was given to me by Doreen Mulman. All files have been digitalized by me, Paul Rudoff, except for the Syndication promo which was uploaded by an unknown YouTube user.

A woman drops her groceries, a painter nearly falls off a scoffold, and people run and scream in fright. Dissolve to the No Ghost ghost walking down the street ala John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. He turns and gets trapped in the red circle.

The alarm goes off at the firehouse and the Ghostbusters get out of bed to answer the call. They don their equipment, slide down the pole, and zoom off in Ecto-1.

Ecto-1 races down the streets with Winston driving, Egon looking at his PKE meter, Peter reading a magazine and Ray on top. The camera swoops under Ecto-1 and into the van driven by no one with Slimer eating marshmallows in the back. Ray fires his gun (falling off Ecto-1 with Peter grabbing him) and his blast destroys the van. The explosion of marshmallow covers the windshield. When Winston and Egon wipe the windshield Slimer is driving Ecto-1!

Slimer drives them up the wires of a bridge and they soar into the air, crashing into a woman's apartment surrounded by ghosts. The car skids throwing Egon and Winston clear, but into the path of Slimer and his ghost buddies...

Meanwhile Peter and Ray chase a small ghost bothering a guy in a phone booth. As they give chase a monster pops out of the sewer, then an even bigger monster lands behind that one cracking the floor and sending the pair into the subway. They are about to be a hit by a train when the Marshmallow Man "saves" them. Just as he holds them up a skeleton in a plane takes them and they swoop through the air. They are left hanging on a drainpipe...

Meanwhile Egon and Winston are running through the corridors of the hotel chased by the ghosts. They manage to run out through the front door and crash into Peter and Ray who've fallen off the drainpipe onto the street below. They all get up and see Stay Puft and the others looming over them. Egon tosses out a trap and then they draw their weapons and fire (like in the intro). Slimer zooms past Stay Puft, but they catch him and all the ghosts are captured. but not before Slimer reaches his hand out of the trap to grab his fallen hot dog. Very pose!


ABC Promo


Blockbuster Video Promo

   

-- EXTERNAL LINKS --

Blockbuster Promo then ABC Promo (one second of GB2 newscast at very end)
* Windows Media (MegaUpload) - Download (11.2 Mb, 1:36)
* Flash (Daily Motion) - Streaming / Download (6.0 Mb)

Blockbuster Promo (poor quality)
* Flash (YouTube) - Streaming / Download