**Does anyone know the story behind why there was another version of the theme song recorded; debuting midway through season four? Was it intended to separate the Slimer! series from the original RGB series? If that was the case, why didn’t it premiere in the first episode when the show was rebranded?
Btw, I absolutely hate this version—even more so because this one was chosen over the original for the Time Life dvd menus. There’s something not all that interesting about the singer’s voice (it sounds like he’s almost yelling the lyrics at the audience) & the instrumentation is insanely annoying. It doesn’t have the same slick coolness like the original, but I’m still curious about why they thought this version was necessary.**
It may’ve been for the rebranding, but it may also have been to give them a fresh version of the theme… By 1988 the familiar version of the cartoon’s theme song would’ve been used quite a bit thanks to it’s use in a lot of the action sequences, and as the audio would probably have been reel-to-reel, it’s possible that after two years of use the copy they were using may have been wearing out.
We saw how the series progressed they updated the music selection twice, the first time around 1988 (where they had a mix of new stuff and the more familiar music from when the cartoon first started in '86), and then they updated it again around 1990 (this time, discarding all of the decent music in favour of unintelligible audio garbage).
So, the generic-sounding theme was basically a sign of things to come. lol. Though I knew the music had drastically changed, I don’t think I ever really paid attention to the credits in the later seasons. Who took over the music duties after Shuki Levy’s brilliant score was scrapped? They should be dragged across hot coals.
I knew what you meant, hence the “a sign of things to come.” The crappy revamped theme song was an omen that (musically) things for the show were going to get a lot worse.
Me too. This is the theme and intro I recognize. I don’t recall seeing many of the episodes before it became “Slimer and…” as a kid so this causes a tidal wave of good memories for me.
That’s the one! Between DIC using different studios and talents for their cartoons entering the 90s they went through a lot of changes, including budget. You can also find the background music from the last seasons of Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters on other DIC programs such as Captain Planet and the Planeteers and used quite heavily on the Double Dragon animated series. 80% of the background music used in Double Dragon is from that era of RGB and Captain Planet used only certain pieces of background music and it was used much less. Where ever a company can save a little money…
Not to change the subject, but has anyone ever been able to track down the “John Smith” who performed the original version of the Real Ghostbusters theme?
I hated the new version of the song and the new intro too. Honestly I don’t really like the show that much once Lorenzo left and Dave took over. I agree with J. Michael Stracinski that Slimer was better in small doses and that the show became rather bad when he became the main focus of it. Even as a kid I liked the Ghostbusters more than Slimer. Always thought it was funny he was even a mascot in the cartoon since he wasn’t a mascot in the first movie. Him living in the fire house in the 2nd one was only because of the cartoon.