'Ghostbusters' on Netflix: You Have Until March to Watch the Films and Show

You have until March to watch Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters 2, and the animated series The Real Ghostbusters on Netflix. Both original films will be removed on March 1, while the cartoon series will be gone after March 31.

On Wednesday, Netflix released its monthly newsletter revealing what’s coming and what’s going on the service. Along with other exciting movies such as The Breakfast Club (1984), Pearl Harbor (2001), and United 93 (2006), the two original Ghostbusters will no longer stream on Netflix after March 1.

The spin-off cartoon The Real Ghostbusters, which released in between the two films and spawned so many toys that ‘80s kids loved, will also be removed at the end of March.

While nothing more needs to be said about 1984’s Ghostbusters — it’s a generational classic you could introduce to kids today and they’d still love it — it’s the removal of The Real Ghosbusters that will sting for Ghostheads.

Although it doesn’t star any of the film’s actors nor do the characters even look like their real-life counterparts, the series is a fan favorite production that whet ‘80s kids’ appetites for all things Ghostbusters in-between the two films. The series also sports a strong cast, with Lorenzo Music (the voice of Garfield) and Dave Coulier (Full House) who played Venkman; Maurice LaMarche (Animaniacs) as Egon; Frank Welker (Megatron in Transformers) as Ray; and Arsenio Hall as Winston, who actually beat out actor Ernie Hudson for the role.

J. Michael Straczynski, who served as story editor on the series and wrote a handful of episodes in almost every season, later went on to become the showrunner of cult science-fiction TV, including Babylon 5 and Netflix’s Sense8. He also wrote Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood, and wrote 2011’s Thor for Marvel Studios. He has also written a bunch of comics for both Marvel and DC, including The Amazing Spider-Man and Superman: Earth One.

The 2016 reboot, which starred Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones, and was directed by Paul Feig, is not currently streaming on Netflix, but is available on other digital storefronts.

It is, to say the least, a bummer that the best comedy of 1984 and one of the most underrated ‘80s cartoons will no longer be streaming on Netflix. (Ghostbusters II is not a good movie. Don’t @ me.) While the movies are laughably easy to acquire on Blu-ray, which now come packaged with digital redemption codes, the ease of spontaneously enjoying Ivan Reitman’s classic at 2 a.m. after a marathon session of Overwatch will be missed.

Fans looking for a Real Ghostbusters fix will have to turn to Amazon Prime, which sells the show for a price. A rather affordable DVD set was released in 2016, though it’s not as complete as a 2009 box set by Time Life. That latter set, out of print, is crazy expensive on Amazon and eBay.

But there is one Ghostbusters movie that isn’t leaving Netflix: Ghostheads, a 2016 documentary that chronicles the modern Ghostbusters fandom. So no, you can’t watch Venkman, Egon, Winston, and Ray form a paranormal investigation business for the 800th time on Netflix, but you can watch regular people harness their obsession into real life. And let’s not forget that a bonafide Ghostbusters 3 will be released in 2020.