The Real Ghostbusters: Complete Collection
Episode Masters

An episode master, to put it very simply, is the master recording of an episode that resides in Sony's vaults. The masters were professionally duplicated onto the DVDs, so that you could have the episodes to watch and own in your video library. James Eatock, who you see all over the set in interviews and commentaries, worked with producer Andy Mangels in just about all aspects of the set - from conducting interviews, to going through the episode masters with Andy in order to find the best ones, to writing up the episode guide and doing the screenshots you see inside of it, and just about everything in between. To help James do his many jobs, he was given a copy of all of the episode masters, which were transferred onto 51 DVD-Rs, usually containing three episodes each. (I assume Andy also got a copy of these DVD-Rs, as I can't imagine that the special features producer of the set would have been left high and dry. I don't know who else would have gotten a copy.)

These DVD-Rs contain quick copies of the masters, complete with tone and color bars, the front end video duplication cards, and minutes of blackness and/or commercials in each of the commercial break spots (where available). There's lots of blackness between each episode, which plays as one long video; and the chapter marks are placed every X number of minutes, instead of at the commercial break spots, like in the final set. Interestingly, the new Sony Pictures Television logo screen appears at the end of every episode - so I guess these weren't exactly "quick" copies, if they took the time to replace the Columbia Pictures Television logo, even on these discs.

James sold me his 51 DVD-Rs back in May 2009. On top of that, he even made my life easy by doing screen caps of all of the Video Duplication Cards for me. It is these Video Duplication Cards that are linked to the episode titles below. These cards give you some information about each master that was used in the set. What's most interesting is that a lot of the masters are dated from 1996, five years after the series' first run ended. I would surmise that these masters were used in prepping the series for syndication, though I'm not saying that they are edited syndication copies. I just don't know what else to think. I know for sure that they aren't original first-run masters, though you will find some in the set. As you go through the cards, keep in mind that runtimes close to 30 minutes are for masters that include blackness and/or commercials in the commercial break spots - hence the longer runtimes.

Please note that "Ragnarok and Roll" (#32) is incorrectly numbered on the card, and three episodes are missing from the Masters DVD-Rs: "Ghostbuster of the Year" (#61), "Victor the Happy Ghost" (#75), and the one-hour version of "Deja Boo" (the half-hour version is included, which is why there is a card for it below - #130).

The Real Ghostbusters series
1. Ghosts 'R Us
2. Killerwatt
3. Mrs. Rogers Neighborhood
4. Slimer, Come Home
5. Troll Bridge
6. The Boogieman Cometh
7. Mr. Sandman, Dream Me a Dream
8. When Halloween Was Forever
9. Look Homeward, Ray
10. Take Two
11. Citizen Ghost
12. Janine's Genie
13. X-Mas Marks the Spot
14. Knock, Knock
15. Station Identification
16. Play Them Ragtime Boos
17. Sea Fright
18. The Spirit of Aunt Lois
19. Cry Uncle
20. Adventures in Slime and Space
21. Night Game
22. Venkman's Ghost Repellers
23. The Old College Spirit
24. Ain't NASA-Sarily So
25. Who're You Calling Two-Dimensional?
26. A Fright at the Opera
27. Doctor Doctor
28. Ghost Busted
29. Beneath These Streets
30. Boo-Dunit
31. Chicken, He Clucked
32. Ragnarok and Roll
33. Don't Forget the Motor City
34. Banshee Bake a Cherry Pie?
35. Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Ghost?
36. Hanging By a Thread
37. You Can't Take it With You
38. No One Comes to Lupusville
39. Drool, the Dog Faced Goblin
40. The Man Who Never Reached Home
41. The Collect Call of Cathulhu
42. Bustman's Holiday
43. The Headless Motorcyclist
44. The Thing in Mrs. Faversham's Attic
45. Egon on the Rampage
46. Lights! Camera! Haunting!
47. The Bird of Kildarby
48. Janine Melnitz, Ghostbuster
49. Apocalypse -- What, NOW?
50. Lost and Foundry
51. Hard Knight's Day
52. Cold Cash and Hot Water
53. The Scaring of the Green
54. They Call Me MISTER Slimer
55. Last Train to Oblivion
56. Masquerade
57. Janine's Day Off
58. The Ghostbusters in Paris
59. The Devil in the Deep
60. Ghostfight at the O.K. Corral
61. Ghostbuster of the Year (NO CARD AVAILABLE)
62. Deadcon I
63. The Cabinet of Calamari
64. A Ghost Grows in Brooklyn
65. The Revenge of Murray the Mantis
66. Rollerghoster
67. I Am the City
68. Moaning Stones
69. The Long, Long, Long, Etc. Goodbye
70. Buster the Ghost
71. The Devil to Pay
72. Slimer, Is That You?
73. Egon's Ghost
74. Captain Steel Saves the Day
75. Victor the Happy Ghost (NO CARD AVAILABLE)
76. Egon's Dragon
77. Dairy Farm
78. The Hole in the Wall Gang
79. Baby Spookums
80. It's a Jungle Out There
81. The Bogeyman Is Back
82. Once Upon a Slime
83. The Two Faces of Slimer
84. Sticky Business
85. Halloween II 1/2
86. Loathe Thy Neighbor
87. Big Trouble With Little Slimer
88. The Copycat
89. Camping it Up
90. The Grundel
91. Transylvanian Homesick Blues
92. Flip Side
93. Poultrygeist
94. The Joke's on Ray
95. Standing Room Only
96. Robo-Buster
97. Short Stuff
98. Follow That Hearse
99. The Brooklyn Triangle
100. Something's Going Around
101. Three Men and an Egon
102. Elementary My Dear Winston
103. If I Were a Witch Man
104. Partners in Slime
105. Future Tense
106. Jailbusters
107. Live! From Al Capone's Tomb
108. Trading Faces / Transcendental Tourists
109. Surely You Joust / Kitty-Cornered
110. Slimer's Curse / Til Death Do Us Part
111. It's About Time / The Ransom of Greenspud
112. Revenge of the Ghostmaster / Loose Screws
113. Venk-Man! / Slimer Streak
114. The Halloween Door
115. Russian About
116. The Haunting of Heck House
117. You Can't Teach an Old Demon New Tricks
118. Janine, You've Changed
119. Mean Green Teen Machine
120. Spacebusters
121. Guess What's Coming to Dinner
122. Very Beast Friends
123. Ghostworld
124. Afterlife in the Fast Lane
125. The Slob (with Deja Boo)
126. Busters in Toyland
127. My Left Fang
128. Stay Tooned
129. The Magnificent Five
130. Deja Boo (with The Slob)
131. The Treasure of Sierra Tamale
132. Not Now, Slimer!
133. Attack of the B-Movie Monsters
134. 20,000 Leagues Under the Street

Slimer! series
135. Slimer For Hire / Cruisin' For A Bruisin' / Nothing To Sneeze At
136. A Mouse In The House / Cash Or Slime / Doctor Dweeb, I Presume
137. Quickslimer Messenger Service / Pigeon-Cooped / Go-Pher It
138. Sticky Fingers / Don't Tease The Sleaze
139. Room At The Top / Tea But Not Sympathy / Special Delivery
140. Out With Grout / Dr. Strangedog
141. Slimer's Silly Symphony / Little Green Sliming Hood / Monkey See, Monkey Don't
142. Beach Blanket Bruiser / Class Clown / Dog Days
143. The Dirty Half-Dozen / Movie Madness
144. Show Dog Showdown / The Not-So-Great Outdoors / Unidentified Sliming Object
145. Up Close And Too Personal / Sweet Revenge
146. Rainy Day Slimer / Slimer & The Beanstalk / Space Case
147. Scareface / Mouse In The House