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Bruce Reid Schaefer (also rendered as Bruce Reed Schaffer; April 26, 1953 - November 10, 2012)1 was an American television writer who spent roughly fifteen years crafting scripts for animated series, contributing to some of the most popular cartoons of the late 1980s and 1990s. He is credited on four episodes of the Ghostbusters animated universe, writing three installments of The Real Ghostbusters and one of Extreme Ghostbusters.
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Schaefer emerged as an animation writer in the mid-1980s, initially working on Disney and DiC productions. His earliest notable credits include episodes of Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears (1987, five episodes) and DuckTales (1987, two episodes)2, both flagship series of Disney's push into Saturday-morning animation. From 1988 onward he contributed multiple episodes to The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh3, and that same year he wrote The Pillow People Save Christmas, an animated holiday special.
As the decade turned, Schaefer remained active across the Disney television roster. He wrote episodes of Peter Pan and the Pirates (Fox Kids, 1990), Gravedale High (NBC, 1990), Darkwing Duck (1991, three episodes), Goof Troop (1992, three episodes)3, and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers2. These years represent the core of his output, with his name appearing across nearly every major animated series produced for American children's television at the time.
In the mid-1990s his work shifted toward action animation. He contributed an episode to X-Men: The Animated Series (Fox Kids, 1995) and wrote three episodes of the Street Fighter animated series (1995)3. Other credits from this period include Biker Mice from Mars2, The Incredible Hulk (1996)2, and Bureau of Alien Detectors (1996)3.
His final known credits span the late 1990s into 2000: episodes of the Disney animated Hercules series (1998-1999)3, work on RoboCop: Alpha Commando (1998)1, and an episode of Angela Anaconda (2000)3.
Schaefer wrote three episodes of The Real Ghostbusters, all produced during the series' first two seasons:
Schaefer contributed one episode to the 1997 revival series Extreme Ghostbusters:
Bruce Reid Schaefer died on November 10, 2012, at the age of 59.1
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
"Bruce Reid Schaefer," IMDb, accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0769593/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3
"Bruce Reid Schaefer," Episode Ninja, accessed 2026-06-13, https://episode.ninja/writer/bruce-reid-schaefer ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4
"Bruce Reid Schaefer," The Movie Database, accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1842058-bruce-reid-schaefer ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6
