Early Life and Career Beginnings
Dennys McCoy and Pamela Hickey met in high school in Tucson, Arizona.1 McCoy went on to earn a BFA in Writing and Drama from the University of Arizona.3 Both found their way into the animation industry in Los Angeles during the 1980s.
McCoy joined Haim Saban's operation early, serving as Creative Director for Saban from 1984 through 1987 and holding the role of supervising producer on Kidd Video, the first animated series produced by Saban.4 During that period Pamela Hickey concentrated on raising their daughter at home,4 and the two came into full collaborative partnership later in the decade as the animation production boom of the late 1980s opened doors for writing teams.
Career
Hickey and McCoy built a reputation as versatile writers and series troubleshooters capable of moving between genres, demographics, and countries. Over several decades they have written for animated pre-school, children's, and adult audiences as well as live-action prime-time television, accumulating over 1,500 produced credits.2 Their professional body of work spans writing, producing, development, and show-running, and they are known within the industry as feature-film "script doctors," having worked on more than ten feature scripts in that capacity.
Their major credits cover a wide spectrum: the animated children's series Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks, Beetlejuice, DuckTales, Cosmic Quantum Ray, Insectibles, and Mighty Little Bheem; the live-action series RoboCop: The Series and Dead Man's Gun; and the animated feature Chi Rho: The Movie.1 They have written for productions across North America, Europe, India, and Australia, making them one of the few animation writing teams with produced credits on every inhabited continent.
At some point the team relocated to Lyon, France, from which McCoy has attended the Annecy International Animation Film Festival as a representative of Hickey and McCoy Productions.
Awards
Hickey and McCoy have received the following recognition over their career:
- Daytime Emmy Award, Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program (win): Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks, 20065
- Daytime Emmy nominations: 4 additional nominations2
- BAFTA nominations: 4 nominations, 3 wins2
- Pulcinella Award for Best TV Series: Cosmic Quantum Ray, 2009 (the Pulcinella is the European equivalent of the Emmy, awarded at Cartoons on the Bay)6
- Pulcinella Award: 1 additional win2
Cosmic Quantum Ray's 2009 Pulcinella win came against entries from Nickelodeon, Disney, and Cartoon Network.6 The series, created by cosmologist Dr. Mani Bhaumik, was grounded in principles and theories of quantum physics, and Hickey and McCoy structured all of their story work around that scientific framework.6
The Real Ghostbusters
Hickey and McCoy wrote nine episodes of The Real Ghostbusters and three episodes of the Slimer! spin-off component.1 McCoy had an established relationship with Haim Saban, whose company was involved in the production, which provided a point of entry into the series.4
The Real Ghostbusters episodes:
- The Long, Long, Long, etc. Goodbye - A tribute to the film noir genre and the great detective fiction of the 1930s and 1940s, confirmed by the writers in their DVD introduction for The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection.4
- Banshee Bake a Cherry Pie? - Their rock and roll tribute episode. McCoy has noted it was probably the worst title they ever came up with, and that he specifically requested the song "Love Makes Me Live" knowing what music Saban had available.4
- Boo-Dunit
- Halloween II 1/2
- The Devil to Pay
- Don't Forget the Motor City - Hickey and McCoy wrote the in-episode song "We Love to Trash Cars," sung by the Gremlins, for which they receive Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) residuals.4
- Kitty-Cornered
- Slimer Streak - The writers noted in their DVD introduction that the episode's most important scene was cut during production.4
- The Slob
Slimer! episodes:
During their time on the series Hickey and McCoy pitched a story involving the Statue of Liberty coming to life. The pitch was rejected without explanation. They later understood why when Ghostbusters II (1989) opened in theaters, revealing a similar core concept in the film's climax.4
All nine of their Real Ghostbusters episodes are accompanied by audio introductions recorded by the pair for The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection DVD box set, making them among the more thoroughly documented writers from the show's production history.4
The esteem that GBFans.com members have for the series the pair wrote on is reflected in at least one memorable gesture: at some point an anonymous fan left a Kenner Ghostbusters Firehouse playset on Hickey and McCoy's lawn at their Santa Monica, California home as a gift. The writers have recounted this story as evidence of the show's lasting impact on its audience.4
References
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
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IMDb, "Pamela Hickey (nm0382655)," accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0382655/
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Animation Xpress, "Writing duo Pamela Hickey and Dennys McCoy join US branch of Green Gold," accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.animationxpress.com/latest-news/us-branch-of-green-gold-brings-on-board-writing-duo-pamela-hickey-and-dennys-mccoy-as-story-dept-heads/ Career biography states 5 Emmy nominations (one win), 4 BAFTA nominations (3 wins), and 2 Pulcinella Awards, with over 1,500 produced credits.
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The Org, "Dennys McCoy -- Former Head of Story for Green Gold Animation," accessed 2026-06-13, https://theorg.com/org/green-gold-animation-private-limited/org-chart/dennys-mccoy
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The Real Ghostbusters: The Complete Collection (DVD box set, Time-Life, November 20, 2008). Episode audio introductions by Dennys McCoy and Pamela Hickey. Released on 25 discs including all 140 episodes; introductions by McCoy and Hickey appear across Volumes 2, 3, and 5.
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IMDb, "Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks -- Awards (tt0381772)," accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381772/awards/
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Animation Magazine, "Cosmic Quantum Ray, Phineas & Ferb Big Winners at Cartoons on the Bay" (April 2009), https://www.animationmagazine.net/2009/04/cosmic-quantum-ray-phineas-ferb-big-winners-at-cartoons-on-the-bay/ "Cosmic Quantum Ray by Mike Young Productions was one of the winners in the top categories at the 2009 Pulcinella Awards...beat out Nickelodeon, Disney and Cartoon Network to win the Pulcinella Award for Best TV Series."
