[Photon Guy]

The animated series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles first aired in 1987 but apparently the turtles were around before that, they had action figures and so forth just not an animated series until 1987. Anyway, the first Ghostbusters movie was in theaters in 1984 and the animated series The Real Ghostbusters first aired in 1986. Im not sure which was first but if I were to make an educated guess I would say Ghostbusters was around before the Turtles. Anyway, I wouldn't say that Turtles was a rip off but there are some striking similarities in the characters with their personalities and what they do.

Leonardo as the de facto leader of the Turtles would be Peter.

Michelangelo who's a party animal and who's a bit childish and impulsive would be Ray.

Donatello being the brains of the Turtles and being gifted in science and technology would of course be Egon.

Raphael with his no nonsense attitude would be Winston.

So that's how I see the similarities between the Ghostbusters and the Ninja Turtles.

[Fritz]

The Turtles started out in a black and white independent comic book released in 1984, but it was a much darker, more mature portrayal compared to the 1987 animation. It was also started as a bit of an homage/parody of Frank Miller's comic Ronin. I've never seen or heard anything suggesting Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the TMNT creators, drew any inspiration from Ghostbusters

The 1987 cartoon, on the other hand, had some of the same writers: Micheal Reaves, Mark and Micheal Edens, Francis Moss, Duane Capizzi, and Bob Forward have writing credits in both series. Cam Clarke (Leonardo) even lent his voice to a character in the RGB parody of the Turtles, "Mean Green Teen Machine" Other voice actors with roles in both are Maurice LaMarche and Peter Cullen. (There was an American cartoon in the 1980's that didn't have Frank Welker in it? Was this even allowed?)

The personalities do have some similarities, but some differences; Leo's a lot more serious than Venkman, and I think Ray's a bit more serious than Mikey. And in RGB a lot of the time you got the feeling that Egon was the real leader, something I don't think has often been said about Don.

[Photon Guy]

Wow, I didn't know the Turtles had some of the same writers as Ghostbusters. Anyway, here is another comparison. The original post in this link agrees with my assessment although not everybody who responded agrees.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TMNT/comments/ ... omparison/