- August 5th, 2023, 2:09 pm#4985049
So something about Extreme Ghostbusters has always stood out to me as odd. It’s episode count. 40 episodes for a single season? That’s a decent amount of episodes. Now it was strip syndicated, meaning Monday-Friday. That’s instead of doing one episode per week.
EGB was produced by Adelaide and Columbia. Adelaide did Columbia’s cartoons in this era and I noticed something odd about the some of the cartoons based on movies produced during the era of EGB. Let’s start with Jumanji.
Jumanj The TV series, which, again, was produced by the exact same production companies as EGB lasted, 40 episodes . Except it was spread over 3 seasons. It was once per week on Saturday or Sunday. So once again, 40 episodes.season 1 had 13 episodes, season 2 had 13 episodes and season 3 had 14 episodes. Remember those numbers for later.
Godzilla ‘98 animated series? Same exact production company. 2 seasons of 40 episodes. There’s that number again. 40.
Men in Black? Again exact same production company only it lasted 4 seasons of 53 episodes(only 13 more than EGB). I’ll come back to that in a moment.
Now we are led to believe EGB was a failure because it was lasted a single season, right? But based on some of these other shows that lasted multiple seasons…EGB’s episode order was actually pretty solid & standard. Only Men in Black had more episodes. That show was considered a big success.
Considering that all these shows were produced by the same company, I’m thinking that unless Extreme Ghostbuster turned out to be a SUPER MEGA hit, 40 episodes was all we were ever going to get. It can’t be a coincidence Jumanji, GodZilla and EGB all lasted 40 episodes each. They were all produced around the same time too. All based on movies released by Sony/Columbia/Tri Star.
40 episodes is such an odd number for 3 shows, all by the exact same company, that it’s gotta be the order for all the series. It can’t be a coincidence. But because EGB was strip syndicated we got all episodes in a single season Vs spread out over multiple.
So my theory? All these shows, Men in Black included, all had initial 40 episodes ordered. Men in Black’s episodes went like this; season 1: 13, season 2: 13, season 3: 14, season 4: 13. Remember that Jumanji count? It’s same except for the 13 episode 4th season. Men in Black turned out to be such a big hit, it got that one more order of 13 episodes. Both Jumanji and Men in Black had 14 episode 3rd seasons. That stands out as weird. That would be the 40th episode of each show. Why would they order 2 season’s of 13 and a single of 14? Because the total order was 40 and they had to spread them out for 3 seasons. But due to MIb’s huge success it got that final order.
Oh. And there’s one more show I forgot about that has this same formula. It was based on a movie, released by Sony, and reached 40 episodes. Roughneck Starship Troopers. It had a 40 episode order but it couldn’t make 4 of them due to CGI production problems & so 4 were clip shows.
So what does all this mean? I think it means we maybe should rethink the idea of EGB being a failure. Think of it this way. If EGB had the exact same episode count, 40 episodes, but it was spread out over 3 seasons, would we still consider it as a failure?
So we have:
Jumanji: 3 seasons of 40 episodes
Extreme Ghostbusters: 1 season of 40 episodes
Godzilla: 2 seasons of 40 episodes.
Men in Black: 4 seasons of 53 episodes
Roughneck Starship Troopers: 40 Episodes.
I don’t know. Maybe I’m wrong. But that can’t be a coincidence. Can it?
EGB was produced by Adelaide and Columbia. Adelaide did Columbia’s cartoons in this era and I noticed something odd about the some of the cartoons based on movies produced during the era of EGB. Let’s start with Jumanji.
Jumanj The TV series, which, again, was produced by the exact same production companies as EGB lasted, 40 episodes . Except it was spread over 3 seasons. It was once per week on Saturday or Sunday. So once again, 40 episodes.season 1 had 13 episodes, season 2 had 13 episodes and season 3 had 14 episodes. Remember those numbers for later.
Godzilla ‘98 animated series? Same exact production company. 2 seasons of 40 episodes. There’s that number again. 40.
Men in Black? Again exact same production company only it lasted 4 seasons of 53 episodes(only 13 more than EGB). I’ll come back to that in a moment.
Now we are led to believe EGB was a failure because it was lasted a single season, right? But based on some of these other shows that lasted multiple seasons…EGB’s episode order was actually pretty solid & standard. Only Men in Black had more episodes. That show was considered a big success.
Considering that all these shows were produced by the same company, I’m thinking that unless Extreme Ghostbuster turned out to be a SUPER MEGA hit, 40 episodes was all we were ever going to get. It can’t be a coincidence Jumanji, GodZilla and EGB all lasted 40 episodes each. They were all produced around the same time too. All based on movies released by Sony/Columbia/Tri Star.
40 episodes is such an odd number for 3 shows, all by the exact same company, that it’s gotta be the order for all the series. It can’t be a coincidence. But because EGB was strip syndicated we got all episodes in a single season Vs spread out over multiple.
So my theory? All these shows, Men in Black included, all had initial 40 episodes ordered. Men in Black’s episodes went like this; season 1: 13, season 2: 13, season 3: 14, season 4: 13. Remember that Jumanji count? It’s same except for the 13 episode 4th season. Men in Black turned out to be such a big hit, it got that one more order of 13 episodes. Both Jumanji and Men in Black had 14 episode 3rd seasons. That stands out as weird. That would be the 40th episode of each show. Why would they order 2 season’s of 13 and a single of 14? Because the total order was 40 and they had to spread them out for 3 seasons. But due to MIb’s huge success it got that final order.
Oh. And there’s one more show I forgot about that has this same formula. It was based on a movie, released by Sony, and reached 40 episodes. Roughneck Starship Troopers. It had a 40 episode order but it couldn’t make 4 of them due to CGI production problems & so 4 were clip shows.
So what does all this mean? I think it means we maybe should rethink the idea of EGB being a failure. Think of it this way. If EGB had the exact same episode count, 40 episodes, but it was spread out over 3 seasons, would we still consider it as a failure?
So we have:
Jumanji: 3 seasons of 40 episodes
Extreme Ghostbusters: 1 season of 40 episodes
Godzilla: 2 seasons of 40 episodes.
Men in Black: 4 seasons of 53 episodes
Roughneck Starship Troopers: 40 Episodes.
I don’t know. Maybe I’m wrong. But that can’t be a coincidence. Can it?