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Dennys McCoy is an American television writer, producer, and story developer, best known for his three-decade creative partnership with his wife Pamela Hickey.1 Together, Hickey and McCoy have accumulated over 1,500 produced credits across animation and live-action television.2 McCoy contributed to The Real Ghostbusters as a writer, penning nine episodes of the series and three episodes of its companion show Slimer!.
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McCoy grew up in Tucson, Arizona, where he met Pamela Hickey while they were both in high school. He earned a BFA in Writing and Drama from the University of Arizona. He and Hickey married in 1977 and began their professional writing partnership that would eventually span more than four decades.1
Before launching the Hickey-McCoy writing partnership, McCoy worked as Creative Director for producer Haim Saban from 1984 through 1987. During that period, Pamela Hickey was at home raising their daughter. His work at Saban exposed him to the booming American animation market of the mid-1980s, and submitting his first animation script, a piece he described as "sight gag after sight gag," opened the door to full-time animation writing for both him and Hickey.
The pair found animation particularly appealing because, as McCoy explained, "we could direct the episodes in the script." Under the banner Hickey-McCoy Productions, they went on to write for a broad range of animated and live-action series across multiple decades and continents. Their credits include:
McCoy also received a creator credit on the 2006 revival of Biker Mice from Mars.4 He and Hickey have served as series developers, showrunners, and script doctors, taking on troubleshooting roles for series in difficulty. They headed the story department for the US branch of Green Gold Animation (the studio behind Mighty Little Bheem), and have relocated to Lyon, France, continuing to work internationally.2
Their collective awards include five Daytime Emmy nominations (one win, for Jakers! in 2006), four BAFTA nominations (three wins), and two Pulcinella Awards (the European animation Emmy), one of which was for Best Series for Cosmic Quantum Ray.1
McCoy and Hickey were among the freelance writing teams brought in during The Real Ghostbusters' prolific early seasons. Together they wrote nine episodes of the series between 1987 and 1990, along with three episodes of the companion Slimer! anthology.
The Real Ghostbusters episodes written by Hickey and McCoy:
Slimer! episodes written by Hickey and McCoy:
McCoy and Hickey also pitched a story involving the Statue of Liberty coming to life. The pitch was rejected without explanation. When they later saw Ghostbusters II in theaters they understood why, as the film featured the Statue of Liberty as a central setpiece.
McCoy and Hickey receive Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) songwriter residuals for "We Love to Trash Cars," the song performed by the Gremlins in "Don't Forget the Motor City," which they wrote.5
McCoy and Hickey provided on-camera episode introductions and visual commentary tracks for several of the RGB DVD box set releases, including The Real Ghostbusters Box Set Volume 2.6 In the introduction to "Slimer Streak" they noted that the episode's most important scene had been cut.5 In the introduction to "Banshee Bake a Cherry Pie?" they described it as their worst-titled episode.5 In the introduction to "The Long, Long, Long, etc. Goodbye" they confirmed the noir detective framing was entirely intentional.5
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
IMDb, "Pamela Hickey: Biography," accessed June 13, 2026. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0382655/bio/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3
Animation Xpress, "Writing duo Pamela Hickey and Dennys McCoy join US branch of Green Gold" (2013). 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/ ↩ ↩2
"Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Animated Program," Wikipedia, accessed June 13, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daytime_Emmy_Award_for_Outstanding_Children%27s_Animated_Program ↩
IMDb, "Dennys McCoy," accessed June 13, 2026. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0382614/ ↩
The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection, episode introductions and visual commentary by Dennys McCoy and Pamela Hickey (Time Life / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4
The Real Ghostbusters: Box Set Volume 2 (Time Life / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment). Introduction and visual commentary track by Dennys McCoy and Pamela Hickey. ↩
