Watch the original, unaired promo pilot for The Real Ghostbusters, which has several interesting differences from the final show. Ghostbusters was a blockbuster success back in 1984 and is now a beloved supernatural comedy. However, the movie was made before franchises or sequels were a given, and key members of the cast and crew - including Bill Murray - had next to no interest in making a follow-up. To fill the desire for more from the franchise, a cartoon dubbed The Real Ghostbusters was created.
This featured all the major characters from the movie, but the new format allowed The Real Ghostbusters to greatly expand on the concept and lore. The Real Ghostbusters had a great voice cast, some classic episodes "When Halloween Was Forever" and introduced iconic villains like the Boogieman. The cartoon was so popular it convinced the studio to push the cast to make Ghostbusters II. In hindsight, it's felt the sequel took too long to come together and its box-office suffered as a result.
The movie series is still going strong, with Ghostbusters: Afterlife arriving in 2021. For some fans, The Real Ghostbusters is still one of the best things to come from the entire franchise series. To help sell the show, a short promo pilot was produced to convey the show's tone but was never intended to air. The pilot was eventually made available as a DVD bonus in 2008 and makes for a unique glimpse into how the show evolved.
The Real Ghostbusters (find the full show here) pilot is less a full episode than an extended opening scene and features no dialogue. It sees New York being menaced by a ghost outbreak, and the Ghostbusters being called into action. While Slimer became the lovable mascot of the team on the show, he's depicted in a more menacing light in The Real Ghostbusters pilot and would have been a villain in this alternate version. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man also makes a comeback, and the team wears costumes closer in look to their movie counterparts. While not exactly a doppelganger, the Venkman seen in the pilot also looks a little closer to Bill Murray's Ghostbusters character, while the equipment they carry is sleeker.
The seeds of what The Real Ghostbusters would become are all there in the promo pilot, but the show would refine several elements. Several snippets of footage from this pilot would also be reused for The Real Ghostbusters opening sequence, including the ghost from the logo strutting around New York before hopping into the No Ghost sign.