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Interview With Jina Bacarr, Writer Of Unproduced Real Ghostbusters Script
Back in 2003 I was working on a project that involved writing to the cast and crew of the various Ghostbusters projects. While on the Writers Guild of America website I saw a listing for Jina Bacarr with The Real Ghostbusters listed as one of her credits. Now, I knew that her name never appeared on any of the episodes that aired, and a Real Ghostbusters credit doesn't appear in her Internet Movie Database filmography, so I e-mailed her to find out more. As it turns out, she wrote an episode of The Real Ghostbusters that was never produced, but was used for a more important cause. Here are excerpts from the e-mails I exchanged with Jina to explain more.
WHAT THE EPISODE WAS TITLED
I looked through my list of credits and I did find the title: "Funny You Should Scream".
WHAT THE EPISODE WAS ABOUT
If I remember correctly it was about a weird dude, a Dr. Teufel (meaning devil) who runs a carnival and traps kids in his Fun House a la Pied Piper.
WHY IT IS HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT
Unfortunately, my script was never produced. The story behind the story is that my edited script (my story editor was J. Michael (Joe) Straczynski) was donated to the "cause" when we (the Animation Writers) were fighting with the labor board for recognition to be admitted into the WGA. Joe had to prove to the board that story editing and writing co-existed in the world of animation as it does in episodic television writing (since the 1930s, animation writers were "required" to belong to the Cartoonists Guild). My Ghostbusters script helped to establish that precedent.
I am proud that I was able to contribute my Ghostbusters script to help our (Animation Writers) case, which resulted in animation writers finally being recognized by the WGA through the Animation Writers Caucus.
WHERE THE SCRIPT IS NOW
My original script with any editing done by Joe is sitting in a bank vault somewhere where all "legal evidence" spends eternity.
I probably have a copy somewhere, but truthfully, I'm working on a book right now and don't have the extra time to search for it through my own "vault." That script was written on an old computer and 5 inch floppy which "don't work no more."
BUT SHE *STILL* GOT PAID!
Yes, I did write one episode -- I rec'd a contract and the fee at that time for writing one episode ($3,000).
HER FEELINGS ON JMS!
Joe is one of my favorite people. One of the "good guys" in the biz.
5 comments
Neat, what was the episode title? Maybe it was for the better, considering the M.O. and locale has been done a few times on RGB already.
That seems like such an obvious question to ask her, and yet it never occurred to me to ask :-)
I just sent her an e-mail to see if she remembers, and to see if she may have found a copy of her script in her archives.
Heh. Hope to see she finds that script, it’s neat to read about the ones that never got past the finish line.
I just heard back from Jina. The script was titled “Funny You Should Scream". I added this bit of info to the article above.
Unfortunately, she doesn’t have a copy available, but she said that if she ever finds a copy, she’ll let me know.
Thanks for the follow up! Hope springs eternal, that script pops up.
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