The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection (DVD) Release Date: November 20, 2008 MSRP: $179.99 Video: 4:3 Fullscreen and 4:3 Letterbox (intros & commentaries) Audio: Stereo Languages: English Subtitles: No Closed-Captioned: No Discs: 25 (including the bonus disc) Sides: 1 Layers: 2 (v2d5 & v4d5 are 1 layer) DVD-Rom Content: Yes (only v1d5, v2d5, v3d5, v4d5, v5d2, bonus) Regional Coding: All Video Format: NTSC

PLEASE NOTE: NO MUSIC WAS REPLACED IN THIS SET! To get the facts, read this note that I wrote on March 23, 2010.

The box set is comprised of 25 DVDs (that includes one bonus DVD), packaged in a specially-constructed firehouse-design box with lenticular panels, containing all 134 half-hour episodes of The Real Ghostbusters (including both 30-minute and 1-hour versions of "Deja Boo") and all 13 half-hour episodes of Slimer!. In total, that's all 140 The Real Ghostbusters stories, and all 33 Slimer! stories. The discs are collected in five separate volumes (each containing 5 DVDs, except for volume 5 which has 4 DVDs), each packaged inside an individual case, with specially-designed cover art. Also included is a 52-page book with episode synopses, trivia, and art. As if that's not enough, there is over 13 hours of bonus material, all of which is detailed below. The bonus DVD alone contains nearly three hours of extra materials, including extended interviews, the never-before-seen promotional pilot (with commentary and storyboards), and more.

Note #1: Volumes 1 through 3 were released individually over the course of two years, starting on March 31, 2009, and ending on August 3, 2010. These sets included all of the episodes and bonus content from the same volumes included in the box set, along with a booklet inside each case. Each volume's booklet contained the same content as the relevant section for that volume of the box set's book, and included the same liner essay (tailored to the individual releases) and credits page as well (so I'm credited in all three booklets). However, the box set is the only way to get Volumes 4 and 5 (they were not released individually, though some people might sell them separately on the Amazon Marketplace or eBay), the bonus DVD which contains the promotional pilot, the Firehouse box, and the complete 52-page book (though individual edited-down booklets were made for each retail volume).

Note #2: When the DVD box set was first released back in November 2008, the five smaller sets ("volumes") inside were each housed in a metal SteelBook™ case. When Vol 1. was released by itself in March 2009, it retained its Steelbook case from the box set. However, in early 2010 TimeLife begun the process of replacing the Steelbook metal cases with plastic cases that are of the same dimensions. It started with the individual release of Vol. 2 in January 2010, then within a few months after that the Complete Collection box set and the individual Vol. 1 started using the plastic cases, as well. The individual release of Volume 3 that followed was, of course, in a plastic case.

I, Paul Rudoff, am proud to say that I was involved in the making of this set as a design consultant and as a contributor of research and art materials. You will see my credits listed as such on the last page of the episode guide book and in the end credits of all five featurettes (view: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5) and all seven extended interviews (view: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7). Plus I received an extra credit in the back of the book for all of my hard work promoting the set. My four biggest contributions that are easily seen in the final product are: (1) It was my idea to use the firehouse for the outer box. (2) The containment unit background for Volume 5's cover. (3) Janine's color scheme on the Volume 2 cover. (4) Nine scripts on the DVD-ROM portions of all of the volumes.

• Complete Set Breakdown
• DVD Packaging & Presentation
• Comparison between Steelbook metal cases (as was originally used) and Amaray plastic cases (used currently)
• Episode Guide Book & Liner Notes Essay
• Episode Masters
• James Eatock's DVD Behind The Scenes Photo Diary

SPECIAL FEATURES

Episode Introductions
The talented people behind the series give you a special introduction to 88 select episodes.

Visual Commentary Tracks
Twenty-one select episodes (including the pilot); featuring producers, writers, artists, voice actors, and other series personnel. Watch the commentary participants as they interact, while inset screens show the episode and a dynamic slideshow.

Isolated Music & Effects Tracks
Twenty-four select episodes have an alternate audio track that contains the music and sound effects, but not the voices of the actors.

Original Series Bumpers
The bumpers are included in every episode that originally had them. Even the Slimer! Intros are included.

Documentaries/Featurettes:

1. Ain't Afraid Of No Ghosts: Creating The Real Ghostbusters
2. Animating The Real Ghostbusters
3. Who You Gonna Call? The Heroes of The Real Ghostbusters
4. Something Strange In Your Neighborhood: The Creatures of The Real Ghostbusters
5. He Slimed Me! The Green World of Slimer And The Real Ghostbusters

Exclusive Interviews
In addition to the interviews in the featurettes, you'll also get extended interviews recorded in June 2008 with Joe Medjuck (executive producer), Michael C. Gross (executive producer), J. Michael Straczynski (writer & story editor), Len Janson (writer & story editor), Maurice LaMarche (voice of "Egon Spengler"), Laura Summer (voice of first "Janine Melnitz"), Kath Soucie (voice of second "Janine Melnitz"), and Kevin Altieri (director & storyboard supervisor).

Image Galleries:

1. Promotional and Development Art
2. "Night Game" Design Gallery
3. Background Art
4. Headquarters Art
5. "The Man Who Never Reached Home" Design Gallery
6. Character Designs of The Heroes
7. Equipment Art
8. The Creature Designs of Everett Peck
9. Slimer! Character Designs
10. Title Cards

The Original Promotional Pilot
Included by itself, and also with a visual commentary track featuring director Kevin Altieri and artist Dan Riba.

Alternate Textless Series Credits
Two versions of the closing credits without text on top of them, though the second one is the same as the first series opening. (Video of this can be found on the Real Ghostbusters Multimedia page.)

DVD Promo Trailer
This short one minute trailer was shown at the San Diego Comic-Con in July 2008. It features an interview clip of J. Michael Straczynski interspersed with footage from the series opening. It is also known as the Comic-Con Teaser Trailer. (You can view it in the Multimedia section below.)

DVD-ROM Material (PDF format):
All of the bibles and scripts, including the ones that I contributed, can be on The Real Ghostbusters and Slimer! script pages. All of the storyboards can be found on The Real Ghostbusters Storyboards page.

1. Series Bibles - ABC Season One, Syndicated Series, ABC Season Two-Three
2. Episodic Scripts - for 29 RGB & Slimer! Episodes
3. Storyboards - for 15 RGB Episodes, inc. two for the Promo Pilot

Notes & Comments

• Filming of the bonus materials was done on seven consecutive days: Tuesday June 17th to Monday June 23rd, 2008. (source: James Eatock's Behind The Scenes Photo Diary)
• The menus and episodes and featurettes are 4:3 fullscreen, the intros and commentaries are 4:3 letterbox, and the extended interviews on the bonus disc as 4:3 fullscreen within a "tv set" frame. If the set was done 100% right, the intros would be 4:3 fullscreen, the commentaries would be 16:9 anamorphic widescreen, and the extended interviews would be 16:9 anamorphic widescreen with no framing - as all interviews and commentaries were recorded with HD 16:9 cameras. Interestingly, on the Special Advance Promotional DVD (sent out to press outlets in advance of the box set's release), the Comic Con trailer, Take Two visual commentary track, and four introductions are all properly presented in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen. Obviously, that DVD was produced by a different team than the one working on the final set.
• The current Sony Pictures Television logo screen replaces the original Columbia Pictures Television logo screen at the end of all episodes, except for "Ghostbuster Of The Year" (Vol. 2, Disc 5). You can also see the Columbia Pictures Television logo screen at the beginning of the promo pilot, and at the end of the two alternate series credit sequences, all of which can be found on the bonus disc.

Defects & Errors

James Eatock has shown me conclusive proof that he spotted many of these defects. He provided me with the extensive spreadsheet that he wrote while working on the set. You will note his comments in the *first* "Intros" column for the Season 4 episodes (on Vol. 4, Discs 2 & 3): "correct - vocals - slow" and "correct - vocals - fast". This means that the other members of the team working on the set KNEW there was something wrong with the playing speed of these episodes, and didn't do anything to correct it - and then tried to make it seem like I didn't know what I was talking about when I brought it to light upon the set's release.

For a list of more defects and errors, read this blog post - especially the user-submitted comments section.

• SERIOUS: Volume 4, Disc 2 - Almost all episodes on Disc 2 play at a slower than normal speed, resulting in slower/long drawn-out audio (the theme and background music are most noticeable), audio defects (the mechanical/echo/hiccupy sound in the dialogue), and a runtime that is considerably longer than that of the original ABC broadcast! For example, excluding the opening title sequence and end credits, the ABC broadcast of Partners In Slime runs 21:20 (11:58 before commercial + 9:22 after commercial = 21:20); the DVD runs 24:04 (1:06 start - 25:10 end = 24:04). The DVD is 2:44 longer than the original ABC broadcast! (In case you're wondering, no new footage was added to the episode on DVD.) This is the same exact problem that plagued the episode on the Ghostbusters II 2005 DVD, which means that the currently available master is screwed up. Click on the thumbnails below to watch the first minute of "Partners in Slime". As you can see, what equates to 59 seconds in slow speed equals 52 seconds in normal speed. The Normal Speed clip from Sony's Volume 9 DVD.
  
  

  Slow Speed

  Normal Speed

• SERIOUS: Volume 4, Disc 3 - Almost all of the two-story episodes on Disc 3 play at a faster than normal speed.
• Vol. 1, Disc 1 - Ep #02 - "Killerwatt (at 1:02) The title card is missing, even though it is included in the title card gallery on the bonus disc, and was in the episode master used. It seems it exclusion was accidental. NOTE: The title card is present on the "Creatures of the Night" DVD that Sony released in 2006, which also contains the series music version of "The Bird of Kildarby".
• Vol. 2, Disc 2 - Ep #39 - "Drool, the Dog-Faced Goblin - (at 1:09) Before the title card appears, there is a very minor tape defect during the commercial bumper turning himself the right way up and announcing, "We now return to the Real Ghostbusters". (found by Steven Reed)
  
  
  
• Vol. 2, Disc 3 - Ep #48 - "Janine Melnitz, Ghostbuster - (at 17:25) When Janine and Slimer are in the elevator, the scene changes to the keypad on the wall and the picture goes snowy for a few seconds (due to a tape defect) before carrying on as normal. (This error is NOT present [at 17:04] in the episode on Sony's Volume 4 DVD. Since the episode is missing the title card on that disc, I do not find it to be a suitable replacement.) (found by Steven Reed)
  
  
  
• Vol. 2, Disc 4 - Ep #53 - "Scaring of the Green - (at 1:14) The title card jumps a tiny bit and contains some slight VHS-like horizontal lines. (found by Steven Reed)
  
  
  
• Vol. 3, Disc 5 - Ep #90 - "The Copycat - (at 13:43) The picture drops out for a second when Peter zaps the alarm clock. (This error is NOT present [at 13:36] in the episode on Sony's Volume 8 DVD. THIS COPY CAN REPLACE THE ONE IN THE BOX SET.) (found by Steven Reed)
  
  
  
• Vol. 4, Disc 1 - Ep #97 - "Short Stuff - (at 6:01) When Winston turns his head, the animation shows his head in turned AND still looking at Peter at the same time. This is a defect in the episode itself, and not in the master or DVD set. (This error is also present [at 6:01] in the episode on Sony's Volume 9 DVD because it's a permanent animation error in the episode.) (found by Steven Reed)
  
  
  
• Vol. 4, Disc 4 - Ep #119 - "Mean Green Teen Machine - (at 8:02) After the Mean Green Teen Machine attack the Ghostbusters, who are disguised as workmen and mobile pizza sellers at Washington Square Park, one shot shows Ray in his female disguise running past a tree with his pack on. At the very start of this shot, for one frame, is a timecode at the bottom of the screen. This also appeared in the episode when it aired on the Fox Family channel in the late 1990s. (This error is NOT present [at 8:03] in the episode on Sony's Volume 10 DVD. THIS COPY CAN REPLACE THE ONE IN THE BOX SET.) (found by Steven Reed)
  
  
  
• Vol. 5, Disc 1 - Ep #128 - "Stay Tooned (at 13:34) When the bull traffic officer is on screen, there is a very slight tape flutter right before the texi cab enter the shot from the bottom of the screen. (This error is NOT present [at 13:33] in the episode on Sony's Volume 10 DVD. Since that disc lacks the Music & Effects track, and this is an extremely minor error, I don't find it to be a suitable replacement.) (found by Steven Reed)
  
  
  

Below is a partial list James Eatock gave to the other members of the production team listing errors he found and the solutions to fix them. I don't know how many, if any, of these errors were actually fixed.

The timecodes listed below take into account that every episode episode starts from 10:00:00:00

Vol. 1, Disc 3 - Ep #18 - "The Spirit of Aunt Lois" - Missing audio on second from last bumper at 10:25:40:00
SOLUTION: use audio from episodes 17 or 19

Vol. 2, Disc 1 - Ep #36 - "Hanging by a Thread" - TOP OF PICTURE drop out from 10:28:14:00 onwards
SOLUTION: use end credits from episodes 35 or 37

Vol. 2, Disc 2 - Ep #44 - "The Thing in Mrs. Faversham's Attic" - TOP OF PICTURE drop out from 10:17:09:00 onwards
SOLUTION: source new master

Vol. 2, Disc 3 - Ep #47 - "The Bird of Kildarby" - WRONG END CREDITS
SOLUTION: use end credits from episode 26

Vol. 2, Disc 3 - Ep #48 - "Janine Melnitz, Ghostbuster" - COMPLETE PICTURE drop out at 10:22:15:00
SOLUTION: source new master

Vol. 3, Disc 2 - Ep #71 - "The Devil To Pay" - TOP OF PICTURE drop out from 10:20:55:00 onwards
SOLUTION: source new master

Vol. 3, Disc 2 - Ep #72 - "Slimer, is that you?" - TOP OF PICTURE drop out from 10:03:27:00 onwards
SOLUTION: source new master

Vol. 3, Disc 3 - Ep #77 - "Dairy Farm" - COMPLETE PICTURE drop out at 10:16:51:00
SOLUTION: source new master

Vol. 3, Disc 3 - Ep #91 - "Transylvanian Homesick Blues" - WRONG END CREDITS
SOLUTION: use end credits from episode 79

Vol. 3, Disc 5 - Ep #89 - "Camping It Up" - INTRO ENDS ABRUPTLY
SOLUTION: source new master OR insert intro into authoring from episode 88

Vol. 3, Disc 5 - Ep #92 - "Flip Side" – WRONG INTRO
SOLUTION: use intro from episode 94 onwards

Vol. 4, Disc 1 - Ep #93 - "Poultrygeist" - WRONG INTRO
SOLUTION: use intro from episode 94 onwards

Vol. 4, Disc 1 - Ep #98 - "Follow That Hearse" - TOP OF PICTURE drop out from 10:00:06:00 (and from 10:19:21:00 onwards)
SOLUTION: source new master

Vol. 4, Disc 2 - Ep #102 - "Elementary My Dear Winston" - TOP OF PICTURE drop out from 10:26:27:00
SOLUTION: use end credits from episode 103

Vol. 4, Disc 2 - Ep #106 - "Jailbusters" - TOP OF PICTURE drop out from 10:22:45:00 onwards
SOLUTION: source new master

Vol. 4, Disc 2 - Ep #107 - "Live! From Al Capone's Tomb" - TOP OF PICTURE drop out throughout episode
SOLUTION: source new master

Vol. 4, Disc 3 - Ep #108 - "Trading Faces" / "Transcendental Tourists" - TOP OF PICTURE drop out from 10:13:12:00 and throughout remainder of episode
SOLUTION: source new master

Vol. 4, Disc 3 - Ep #112 - "Revenge of the Ghostmaster" / "Loose Screws" - TOP OF PICTURE drop out from 10:25:14:00 and WRONG END CREDITS
SOLUTION: source new master and use end credits from 113

Vol. 4, Disc 5 - Ep #122 - "Very Beast Friends" – LINE throughout episode notable at 10:22:50:00 onwards
SOLUTION: source new master

Vol. 5, Disc 1 - Ep #127 - "My Left Fang" - LINE throughout episode notable at 10:06:40:00
SOLUTION: source new master

Missing Alternate Episodes

Although this is the "Complete Collection" in the sense that one version of every episode is included, it is not complete in the sense that every known version of every episode is included. All of the known alternate episodes were left out, except for the one-hour version of "Deja Boo". The full list of missing alternate episodes is below, categorized by type.

Please don't ask me for copies of these episodes. You can try the forums listed on my e-mail page, and maybe someone there will be able to help you. Thanks.

FULL-LENGTH ALTERNATE AUDIO
   * The Boogieman Cometh - Redubbed
   * Ghosts 'R Us - Redubbed
   * Mr. Sandman, Dream Me A Dream - Redubbed
   * Mrs. Roger's Neighborhood - Redubbed
   * Slimer, Come Home - Redubbed
   * Slimer, Is That You? - Redubbed
   * Troll Bridge - Redubbed
   * Short Stuff - Production Tape (voices only, no music or effects)

SMALL PORTION OF ALTERNATE AUDIO
   * Knock Knock - Alternate Tahiti Music (AVAILABLE ON VHS: Vol. 1 - Knock Knock, which can be purchased in the Store)
   * Venkman's Ghost Repellers - Alternate Tahiti Music (AVAILABLE ON VHS: Vol. 4 - Venkman's Ghost Repellers, which can be purchased in the Store)
   * A Fright At The Opera - Alternate Series Music
   * Play Them Ragtime Boos - Alternate Series Music
   * The Bird Of Kildarby - Alternate Series Music (AVAILABLE ON DVD: Creatures Of The Night, which can be purchased in the Store)

SMALL PORTION OF ALTERNATE VIDEO
   * Attack Of The B-Movie Monsters - Bridge Version
   * Don't Forget The Motor City - Grey Gremlins Version
   * Lights! Camera! Haunting! - Victorian Skyscrapers Version (AVAILABLE ON DVD: Sony's Volume 4, which can be purchased in the Store)

Note: The "Short Stuff" Production Tape isn't an official alternate version, per se, but since it exists in fan circles, and does provide an audio track different from the final version of the episode, it's considered an alternate version by the fans.

Multimedia

Regarding the early cut of the Direct Response Commercial - It was given to me on November 19, 2008, and is the commercial that was to (or did) air nationally in early 2009 to sell the individual release of Volume 1. The notes I was given on the changes still to be made in this cut were: "sound fx still to be added. text moved up for #800 space. '1980's' reference to be removed. add line, '11 hours of digitally mastered spooky shows.'" This is the two-minute long version. I cut off the last seventeen seconds as it was just a black screen with the theme playing low in the background (this would have been replaced with the ordering information). I was told that a one-minute long version was also going to be made. The voice over is done by Wally Wingert, who also did the narration for the featurettes in the DVD set.

In mid-April 2009, five months after I was given the exclusive private sneak peek at the commercial, I decided to ask Jeff Peisch at Time Life what was going on with it. Volume 1 was released to retail outlets on March 31, 2009, and I hadn't seen this commercial air on television at ANY time in the five months prior, so I thought that maybe Time Life decided to scrap this advertising method. According to Jeff in an e-mail dated April 15th, "the DR-TV spot aired for a few months, but is now off the air." I don't know how I could have missed it. I never saw it on TV, and it's gone completely unnoticed by the community, so apparently no one else saw it either.

TimeLife uploaded the final version (dated 12/11/2008) to YouTube on March 18, 2009. That link is now dead, so you will be unable to watch the early cut first, then check out the final to see what was changed.

The ad is pretty cool, but there is one thing that irks me about it. At 1:16 the announcer says, "Digitally mastered for picture and audio clarity", while the on-screen text says, "11 hours of digitally mastered episodes", and the video does a "before and after wipe" showing the unrestored footage which is then wiped into the restored footage. Although I'd hate to call Andy, Jeff, or anyone else a liar, especially since I didn't personally see the masters myself, I have to call shenanigans on the "before and after wipe". In all my years of tape trading, I have never seen copies that looked as bad as the "before" footage, and that includes VHS copies that were MANY generations removed from the original. Heck, the copies that Fox Family aired, which were the most recent airings here in the United States, looked infinitely better than the "before" footage, and I'm sure that no restoration was done on the masters that Sony gave them to air. To better give you a look at the supposed restoration, here are some frames from the original video file I was given. The "before and after wipe" goes from left to right, so that's the "unrestored masters" on the right and the "cleaned masters" on the left in each shot.

• DVD Promo Trailer (shown at Comic-Con in July 2008) (0:54) (This is included in the DVD box set on the bonus disc)
  * Ghostbusters Fans - Download (480x360)
  * YouTube: Ghostbusters.net (with GB.net logo before it)
• Full-Length Trailer (distributed online on October 2, 2008) (1:26)
  * YouTube: DVDGuyTSoD
  * YouTube: Ghostbusters.net (with GB.net logo before it)
  * Ghostbusters Fans - Download (altered with his personally-registered url at the end)

REVIEWS:

• Paul Rudoff - Promo DVD Review (10/10/2008)
• Paul Rudoff - First Hands-On Review (11/21/2008)
• Phil Pirrello - IGN (12/2/2008)

OUTSIDE LINKS:

• The original press release (dated July 24, 2008) - Not an outside link, per se, since it points to one of my blog posts, but I didn't have anywhere else to put this. Most of this has been changed as production on the set progressed.
• Spook Central Facebook: Various Images