If you grew up in the 90’s watching EGB, then it's likely that you (like myself) would've also been a keen fan of both Men In Black and Godzilla - Three parallel franchises each with equally awesome animated shows; MIB: The Series (1997-2001), and Godzilla: The Series (1998-1999).
All three shows aired around the same time, and with roughly the same animation/production department, all headed by producers Jeff Kline and Richard Raynis. This gave the shows a very ‘connected’ feel, and with a signature artistic style that even reused the same locations, it made my little seven-year-old brain want these shows SO BADLY to exist in the same universe. And with a little mental gymnastics, they almost could. I present to you the Columbia Tristar Animated Universe theory.
Let’s start with the strongest links - The thief Rifkin visits Bruno’s Pawn Shop in ‘Casting the Runes’ (left). A short while later, the shop appears on our screens again, only this time it’s run by the sleazy alien Jeebs in MIB (right - Apologies for the poor quality screengrab). A few small changes to the front, but it's definitely the same store.
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Now It’s possible that after Bruno’s encounter with the demon god Kahlil, he quickly closed up shop and fled NY for less-haunted pastures, but not before passing the store onto an equally unpleasant owner - Jeebs. Unlikely, given the MIB’s pre-existing history of dealing with his nonsense as a pawnbroker, but possible if he operated another pawn shop previously.
It’s a similar case for this newsstand. In ‘Casting the Runes’ it’s visited by Rifkin (left), who again sacrifices its owner to Kahlil. In MIB, it’s the newsstand that Frank the Pug operates and resides in, and is well known to the MIB as a source of intel from the conspiracy tabloids sold here (right). Again, it could have changed hands (with a fresh coat of paint) swiftly after the owner returned from Kahlil’s dimension, or perhaps Frank was always living there but was just out playing poker with other dogs on that particular evening. A stretch, but still possible.
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But the strongest connection between the two shows is the biker bar Vinnie’s Club. Vinnie’s poor, unlucky, hopefully insured club. First it’s haunted by a Class C biker spirit in EGB (‘Fear Itself’ - left) and then a little while later it’s the site of an alien shootout in MIB (‘The Buzzard Syndrome’ - right). Will Vinnie’s luck ever change?
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So, overlooking the fact that these locations were undoubtedly just reused to save the animation design budget, it makes a fairly reasonable case for this NY being the same one throughout both shows. But there’s more. With a business as iconic as the Ghostbusters operating in the city, it makes sense that their name (or at least logo) would pop up every now and then, right? This is where Godzilla comes in. It’s long been suspected that this coffee graphic mug on Nick’s desk…
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…was supposed to actually represent the GB logo. This was brought up in an interview with character designer Fil Barlow (who worked on both shows) by someone on this forum over a decade ago ( viewtopic.php?t=29297 ) but he couldn’t give a definitive answer. Given how often the logo appears simplified on the EGB uniforms (when it even appears at all) I think we can all choose to believe it is indeed a GB mug, and chalk up the visual inaccuracy to lazy animation.
Delving deeper into Godzilla, the episode ‘Future Shock’ shows the team accidentally travelling forward in time to an apocalyptic NY and stumbling across a theatre showing Ghostbusters 10.
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Elsie: Ghostbusters ten? Am I missing something here?
Randy: Yeah, parts three through nine.
Now this obviously refers to GB1&2 existing as per the real world. Fair enough. But we know for a fact that there was at least one in-universe GB movie released (in RGB’s ‘Take Two’), and in ‘Back in the Saddle’ Egon asks if Peter has had any luck getting “another” GB movie into production. If we assume there was already a sequel at some point between RGB And EGB (most likely a box office bomb given the GB’s waning popularity), this Godzilla reference to two pre-existing movies still fits the CTAU theory.
So we have shared locations. References. If the people in these seemingly-similar lines of work actually existed in the same universe, do they ever mention each other directly? Yes and no.
In the MIB episode ‘The I Want My Mummy Syndrome‘ agents J and K investigate an ancient Egyptian mummy that breaks free from a museum exhibit. J (before learning the mummy is actually an advance scout from an alien civilization) comments that this “Sounds like a job for the Ghostbusters”, and let's be real - it absolutely does.
So either he’s making a facetious comment referencing the real-world GB movies, OR he’s flippantly dismissing this as a supernatural phenomenon which really should be a job for the EGBs.
And this is where the CTAU theory starts to fall apart somewhat. With supernatural beasties running amok, aggressive aliens hanging out on every street corner, and giant kaiju attacking every week, there would be no way for the general public to actually distinguish each emergency from another, and so the three teams would be running into each other at the same sites constantly. Now, theoretically the MIB could easily wipe the memories of both the GBs and the Godzilla team on the occasional run-in, but at the rate they'd all be investigating the same cases, their brains would end up like swiss cheese.
So, like all fan theories, there’s evidence on both sides of the coin. Is there enough evidence on one side more than the other? I don’t know, but unfortunately I don't think it could ever really be canon. Still, it’s fun to think about! Any other links between the shows out there that I’m missing?
All three shows aired around the same time, and with roughly the same animation/production department, all headed by producers Jeff Kline and Richard Raynis. This gave the shows a very ‘connected’ feel, and with a signature artistic style that even reused the same locations, it made my little seven-year-old brain want these shows SO BADLY to exist in the same universe. And with a little mental gymnastics, they almost could. I present to you the Columbia Tristar Animated Universe theory.
Let’s start with the strongest links - The thief Rifkin visits Bruno’s Pawn Shop in ‘Casting the Runes’ (left). A short while later, the shop appears on our screens again, only this time it’s run by the sleazy alien Jeebs in MIB (right - Apologies for the poor quality screengrab). A few small changes to the front, but it's definitely the same store.
Now It’s possible that after Bruno’s encounter with the demon god Kahlil, he quickly closed up shop and fled NY for less-haunted pastures, but not before passing the store onto an equally unpleasant owner - Jeebs. Unlikely, given the MIB’s pre-existing history of dealing with his nonsense as a pawnbroker, but possible if he operated another pawn shop previously.
It’s a similar case for this newsstand. In ‘Casting the Runes’ it’s visited by Rifkin (left), who again sacrifices its owner to Kahlil. In MIB, it’s the newsstand that Frank the Pug operates and resides in, and is well known to the MIB as a source of intel from the conspiracy tabloids sold here (right). Again, it could have changed hands (with a fresh coat of paint) swiftly after the owner returned from Kahlil’s dimension, or perhaps Frank was always living there but was just out playing poker with other dogs on that particular evening. A stretch, but still possible.
But the strongest connection between the two shows is the biker bar Vinnie’s Club. Vinnie’s poor, unlucky, hopefully insured club. First it’s haunted by a Class C biker spirit in EGB (‘Fear Itself’ - left) and then a little while later it’s the site of an alien shootout in MIB (‘The Buzzard Syndrome’ - right). Will Vinnie’s luck ever change?
So, overlooking the fact that these locations were undoubtedly just reused to save the animation design budget, it makes a fairly reasonable case for this NY being the same one throughout both shows. But there’s more. With a business as iconic as the Ghostbusters operating in the city, it makes sense that their name (or at least logo) would pop up every now and then, right? This is where Godzilla comes in. It’s long been suspected that this coffee graphic mug on Nick’s desk…
…was supposed to actually represent the GB logo. This was brought up in an interview with character designer Fil Barlow (who worked on both shows) by someone on this forum over a decade ago ( viewtopic.php?t=29297 ) but he couldn’t give a definitive answer. Given how often the logo appears simplified on the EGB uniforms (when it even appears at all) I think we can all choose to believe it is indeed a GB mug, and chalk up the visual inaccuracy to lazy animation.
Delving deeper into Godzilla, the episode ‘Future Shock’ shows the team accidentally travelling forward in time to an apocalyptic NY and stumbling across a theatre showing Ghostbusters 10.
Elsie: Ghostbusters ten? Am I missing something here?
Randy: Yeah, parts three through nine.
Now this obviously refers to GB1&2 existing as per the real world. Fair enough. But we know for a fact that there was at least one in-universe GB movie released (in RGB’s ‘Take Two’), and in ‘Back in the Saddle’ Egon asks if Peter has had any luck getting “another” GB movie into production. If we assume there was already a sequel at some point between RGB And EGB (most likely a box office bomb given the GB’s waning popularity), this Godzilla reference to two pre-existing movies still fits the CTAU theory.
So we have shared locations. References. If the people in these seemingly-similar lines of work actually existed in the same universe, do they ever mention each other directly? Yes and no.
In the MIB episode ‘The I Want My Mummy Syndrome‘ agents J and K investigate an ancient Egyptian mummy that breaks free from a museum exhibit. J (before learning the mummy is actually an advance scout from an alien civilization) comments that this “Sounds like a job for the Ghostbusters”, and let's be real - it absolutely does.
So either he’s making a facetious comment referencing the real-world GB movies, OR he’s flippantly dismissing this as a supernatural phenomenon which really should be a job for the EGBs.
And this is where the CTAU theory starts to fall apart somewhat. With supernatural beasties running amok, aggressive aliens hanging out on every street corner, and giant kaiju attacking every week, there would be no way for the general public to actually distinguish each emergency from another, and so the three teams would be running into each other at the same sites constantly. Now, theoretically the MIB could easily wipe the memories of both the GBs and the Godzilla team on the occasional run-in, but at the rate they'd all be investigating the same cases, their brains would end up like swiss cheese.
So, like all fan theories, there’s evidence on both sides of the coin. Is there enough evidence on one side more than the other? I don’t know, but unfortunately I don't think it could ever really be canon. Still, it’s fun to think about! Any other links between the shows out there that I’m missing?
Statistics: Posted by ShandorMiningCo — October 22nd, 2025, 6:14 pm