Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters

A short pilot episode was produced, but never aired in full.

The full 4-minute promo was released on Time Life's DVD set in 2008.

Scenes of the pilot can be seen in TV promos that aired prior to the beginning of the series.

Among differences seen in the promo pilot, the Ghostbusters wore beige jumpsuits as in the film and the character design for Peter Venkman bore more of a resemblance to actor Bill Murray.

The character designs by Jim McDermott were dramatically different, with color-coded jumpsuits for each character.

At the same time The Real Ghostbusters was being created, Filmation was making a cartoon revamp (Ghostbusters) of their 1975 live action series The Ghost Busters, due to disagreements with Columbia over animation rights.