What's your favourite bad knockoff?

[suedenim]

Originally Posted by Moe Ronalds

Say what???

True.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Henshaw

The original story was basically a "What If the same stuff happened to the FF along with the *real* effects of massive radiation doses, etc." story.

[David J Prokopetz]

Originally Posted by Thornhammer

The "what the fuck is THIS? THIS isn't Ghostbusters!" Filmation Ghost Busters cartoon show.

Oddly enough, Filmation's Ghostbusters cartoon is based on a 1975 live-action series called The Ghost Busters, and actually came out before the cartoon series based on the 1984 movie with Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray.

A rough timeline:

• 1975: A live-action children's television series called The Ghost Busters begins to air. It involves two guys and a gorilla who go around fighting monsters.
• 1976: The Ghost Busters is cancelled midway through its second season.
• 1984: Columbia Pictures releases the better-known Ghostbusters movie; apart from the title, it shares very little with the live-action series. Filmation - which had since acquired the rights to the 1975 series - initiates a lawsuit over the title, but is forced into a settlement; Columbia Pictures acquires a non-exclusive license for the title.
• Early 1986: Filmation begins airing a cartoon remake of the 1975 series, counting on viewer confusion with the popular movie to boost ratings. The series rapidly becomes a ratings hit.
• Late 1986: Columbia Pictures Television responds with their own cartoon series, this one based on the 1984 movie. They call it The Real Ghostbusters, both to distinguish it from the competing series, and to tweak Filmation's nose.
• 1988: Having fallen steadily in ratings since The Real Ghostbusters began airing, Filmation's Ghostbusters is cancelled. The Real Ghostbusters would continue to enjoy modest success for another three years, until its own cancellation in 1991.

</geek mode>

[suedenim]

Originally Posted by Olof Jönsson

It's only a knockoff if the original was looked at before making it, but seeing as Dan Aykroyd probably never saw that one (being a working comedian in the 70's), I suspect the concepts were created independently.

You're right, they wouldn't technically have been knocking off anything except perhaps the title. Other than the rather generic notion of busting ghosts, there's little similarity between the two concepts.

Wikipedia has some interesting details:

A problem arose during filming when it was discovered that a show was produced in 1975 by Filmation for CBS called The Ghost Busters, starring Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker. (It should be noted that this show's title is written as two words instead of one word like the 1984 movie.) Columbia Pictures prepared a list of alternative names just in case the rights could not be secured. But during the filming of the crowd for the final battle, the extras were all chanting "Ghostbusters", which inspired the producers to insist that the studio buy the rights to the name.

You'd think lawyers would've turned up "The Ghost Busters" earlier, as the Filmation show wasn't all *that* obscure. But apparently no one had heard of it - and I guess Columbia neglected to buy *exclusive* rights to the name.... I have a feeling 1984 wasn't a banner year for Columbia's legal department.

[Moe Ronalds]

Originally Posted by suedenim

True.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Henshaw

The original story was basically a "What If the same stuff happened to the FF along with the *real* effects of massive radiation doses, etc." story.

Originally Posted by Olof Jönsson

Oh yeah. The Cyborg (as is his name these days), started out as Hank Henshaw, plucky, daring, pipe-smoking scientist who went up with his wife, her brother and his college buddy pilot in an untested rocket with faulty shielding...and they all died horribly of the radiation. Hank was the only one who got powers, a sort of machine empathy that, when his body died, turned into him becoming a literal ghost in the machine.

Hot diggity!

[JonAcheson]

There were any number of really terrible knockoffs of Scooby-Doo, but I found myself thinking fondly of Dyno-Mutt this morning.

Dyno-Mutt was a robot dog who was the sidekick to to his owner, superhero Blue Falcon. He was a complete putz, but would somehow come out on top in the end. Blue Falcon, on the other hand, never accomplished anything apart from playing the straight man.

I doubt it would hold up at all well, but OTOH, it probably still beats Jabberjaw.

Man, cartoons sucked in the Seventies.

Jon Acheson

[Thornhammer]

Originally Posted by suedenim

In that case, though, the famous blockbuster movie you know (with Bill Murray et al) is actually the "knockoff!" The first "Ghost Busters" (note two-word title) was a live action Saturday morning show from the '70s, which was revived as an animated series to cash in on the real, popular Ghostbusters (whose own cartoon was called "The Real Ghostbusters.")

I knows it now, but I didn't knows it back then.

The name "The Real Ghostbusters" was directly due to the other cartoon.

1. Ghost Busters live action show from the 70s.
2. Totally unrelated (but similar in concept - both teams fight ghosts with ray guns but one has a gorilla and the other doesn't), the Ghostbusters film we all know and love comes up in the 80s.
3. Filmation starts talks to do a Ghostbusters cartoon show based on the movie, talks fall through. Filmation says "okay, up yours" and does a cartoon series based on the old TV series.
4. Columbia says "no, fuck YOU" and does up a cartoon series based on the 1984 movie, and calls it "The REAL Ghostbusters."

TRG lasts 140 episodes, the other folds after 65.

-Thornhammer

[suedenim]

Originally Posted by JonAcheson

There were any number of really terrible knockoffs of Scooby-Doo, but I found myself thinking fondly of Dyno-Mutt this morning.

Oh, yeah, they knocked off Scooby Doo a lot. Mostly Hanna-Barbera knocking off their *own* formula, even! Dynomutt was actually pretty good (in my memory, anyhow), and diverged a fair amount from the formula, being more a superhero parody.

For my money, the worst Scooby knockoff ever was this thing, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids. Which seems to be one of the few '70s cartoons to have virtually no internet presence whatsoever - that site's got the only picture I can find of it.

I saw this thing back in the early days of Cartoon Network, and it's kind of amazing in its awfulness - even by the low standards of craptastic H-B cartoons. They adapted the Scooby formula in plonkingly literal fashion, but with all the personality drained out. Group of teen kids who have a band and are international spies, and have a funny dog. Except this dog wore a hat, and was really boring. Kind of an ancestor to Scooby-Dum, who's no great shakes as a character himself. Terrible theme song, too.

[jadarx]

Originally Posted by suedenim

Oh, yeah, they knocked off Scooby Doo a lot. Mostly Hanna-Barbera knocking off their *own* formula, even! Dynomutt was actually pretty good (in my memory, anyhow), and diverged a fair amount from the formula, being more a superhero parody.

For my money, the worst Scooby knockoff ever was this thing, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids. Which seems to be one of the few '70s cartoons to have virtually no internet presence whatsoever - that site's got the only picture I can find of it.

I saw this thing back in the early days of Cartoon Network, and it's kind of amazing in its awfulness - even by the low standards of craptastic H-B cartoons. They adapted the Scooby formula in plonkingly literal fashion, but with all the personality drained out. Group of teen kids who have a band and are international spies, and have a funny dog. Except this dog wore a hat, and was really boring. Kind of an ancestor to Scooby-Dum, who's no great shakes as a character himself. Terrible theme song, too.

I think the best/worst Scooby Doo ripoff is "Goober and the Ghost Chasers". Yet another Hanna Barbara property. We have a group of teens and their dog trying to solve spooky mysteries. Sounds just like Scooby Doo. Only in this one, the dog turns invisible when he's scared.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goober_..._Ghost_Chasers

[Max]

Originally Posted by David J Prokopetz

Oddly enough, Filmation's Ghostbusters cartoon is based on a 1975 live-action series called The Ghost Busters, and actually came out before the cartoon series based on the 1984 movie with Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray.

A rough timeline:

• 1975: A live-action children's television series called The Ghost Busters begins to air. It involves two guys and a gorilla who go around fighting monsters.
• 1976: The Ghost Busters is cancelled midway through its second season.
• 1984: Columbia Pictures releases the better-known Ghostbusters movie; apart from the title, it shares very little with the live-action series. Filmation - which had since acquired the rights to the 1975 series - initiates a lawsuit over the title, but is forced into a settlement; Columbia Pictures acquires a non-exclusive license for the title.
• Early 1986: Filmation begins airing a cartoon remake of the 1975 series, counting on viewer confusion with the popular movie to boost ratings. The series rapidly becomes a ratings hit.
• Late 1986: Columbia Pictures Television responds with their own cartoon series, this one based on the 1984 movie. They call it The Real Ghostbusters, both to distinguish it from the competing series, and to tweak Filmation's nose.
• 1988: Having fallen steadily in ratings since The Real Ghostbusters began airing, Filmation's Ghostbusters is cancelled. The Real Ghostbusters would continue to enjoy modest success for another three years, unti its own cancellation in 1991.

</geek mode>

My head's spinning...

Did the original live action show from 1975 have the ape?

[Jack Spencer]

Originally Posted by JonAcheson

There were any number of really terrible knockoffs of Scooby-Doo, but I found myself thinking fondly of Dyno-Mutt this morning.

What are you talking about? Clue Club was awesome.