[VIP] Disc Preservation Project - The Real Ghostbusters Blockbuster Promo & Ghosts R Us Redubbed

The Spook Central VIP Exclusives Area is the home to content that has been made exclusively available for supporters who pledge a monthly donation through the Spook Central Patreon page. Said content is either downloadable through the VIP Exclusives Area here or on the Patreon page, though I link to some exclusive content throughout Spook Central where appropriate. You can learn more about the Spook Central VIP Area in this blog post. The VIP articles that are posted on Spook Central, which are easily distinguishable by the "[VIP]" at the start of the article title, are readable by all visitors, but contain download links that will only work for VIP members. If you wish to download this content, become a supporter through the Spook Central Patreon page. With that out of the way, let's continue...

For many years, Spook Central has spearheaded the Ghostbusters PDF eBook Preservation Project, an effort among fans to preserve out-of-print Ghostbusters books so that pieces of the franchise's history are available to all, and are not lost to time, or held hostage by price-gouging aftermarket sellers. Thanks to the gracious amount of webspace provided by Raffaele, Spook Central is able to do the same with selected fan-made and promotional digital disc content. I have a few discs that are suitable for the Disc Preservation Project, though if the primary content from them ends up on an official, commercially-available, easy-to-obtain Blu-ray/DVD/whatever, then I won't include it in the project (or will remove it if it's already been included). This is about preservation, not piracy.

Originally, the plan was to make .ISO images files available, which could be downloaded and burned onto DVD-R discs, which would give you an exact copy of the original DVD. However, even with the gracious amount of webspace provided to Spook Central, I find that that may not be completely feasible in the long-term. Most of the disc images are 4GB each, and that adds up pretty quickly. Also, some people may not be able to to download files that large. There's also the concern that there may not be many dinosaurs like me left, who would prefer a "physical disc"-suitable file. With all of that in mind, I felt that the best thing for the project is to proceed with DVD-ripped .MKV video files of selected content from each disc. These files would have the same quality as the video on the disc (I won't recompress them), but they could be immediately played without the need to burn a disc or mount an image file. Anyone who does want the .ISO image files for all of the discs in the project, can buy the limited-edition physical flash drive release, which is a copy of my master flash drive for the small amount of people who may want those files.


Continuing with my look at The Real Ghostbusters, I'll start at the very beginning. It's a very good place to start. In late 1985 - about a year before "Ghosts R Us" hit the airwaves - Kevin Altieri and Eddie Fitzgerald were tasked with coming up with a quick "pilot" reel that DiC could use to pitch a show based on the hit motion picture Ghostbusters to ABC. Prior to the release of the Time-Life DVD box set in 2008, Ghostheads only got to see glimpses of this pilot 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 pilot was used in its entirety in the Syndication promo and in the Blockbuster Video promo, but with different narration.

The late, great Doreen Mulman had a copy of the Blockbuster Promo on VHS. A long time ago, she made a copy of it for me on DVD-R. This disc also included a copy of the episode "Ghosts R Us" with the redubbed voices of Dave Coulier as Peter and Kath Soucie as Janine. The Blockbuster Video Promo with a "More Real Ghostbusters" bumper runs 1:30 (102 MB), and the "Ghosts R Us" Redubbed Version runs 22:25 (1.4 GB).


Disclaimer: No copyright infringement is intended with the content on this page. The presentation of disc content is done solely to preserve materials that are no longer being published, or in the case of fan-made discs, may have never been made available for public purchase in the first place. These materials will be lost and gone forever if the fans don't properly preserve them. Please note that the money paid to me as a Spook Central supporter is for my hard work in bringing this material to you since August 1996. You are not paying for the content itself. The money I receive is used to fund Spook Central and to pay for my living expenses.