Red Baron (The Ghost Busters)

The Red Baron was an antagonist on the 1975 Filmation Live Action Saturday Morning kids' series, ''The Ghost Busters. ''He was the ghost of the legendary World War One German flying ace, brought down in this version by a fictional British flyer named Lord Smedley Hargrove, with the German ace now seeking a rematch. He was joined by his oddly-accented assistant and mechanic, Sparky, who talked like a stereotypical fictional American from the rural South--Sparky claimed to be from the South of Saxony, a region in Germany. They are featured in the show's twelfth episode, 'Only Ghosts Have Wings'.

The Baron and Sparky emerge in the show's stock cemetery after the sounds of a World War One-era plane sputtering in are heard. A combination of the Baron's sheer loopiness and Sparky's basic cluelessness leave them in need of a new plane to pursue their plans for vengeance. The two make for the show's standard old castle, which the Baron insists is actually an 'aerodrome'.

Back at the Ghost Busters' office, the semi-competent Jake Kong puts up with a reality-warping Tracy The Gorilla, who breaks the TV while catching a fly ball--from a baseball game they had been watching on the set, and with Eddie Spencer, who despite all common sense, actually had somehow purchased the Brooklyn Bridge. Eddie expresses disappointment in the TV's fate, since a movie he had wanted to watch, detailing the exploits of the Baron's nemesis, Smedley Hargrove. On the trip to get their latest Ghost assigment, Eddie explains to Tracy that Lord Smedley had also had a partner named Tracy Holmes-Harrington, his mechanic or 'Grease Monkey'. Back at the castle/'aerodrome', the Baron orders Sparky to take aerial photographs for reconnaissance. The Baron for his troubles twice has the antique heavy camera dropped on his feet. Neither good nor evil can overcome their basic incompetence. Tracy falls victim to their taped instructions' self-destruct mechanism; Eddie once more engages in cosmic comic struggle with the filing cabinets; The Red Baron finds that Sparky's aerial photographs are of TV Roof Antennas, often called aerials in that time.

Entering the cemetery, the two groups finally meet as the Baron and Sparky mistake Eddie's fanboy imitation of Lord Smedley for the real deal along with Tracy, till Jake pulls them out. Pursuing the ghosts back to the castle, the heroes try and use the villains' confusion over Eddie and Tracy to delay them while Jake readies the Ghost-DeMaterializer. The jumpy ghosts take off in their unseen plane and harass the Ghost Busters, who take the fight outside the castle. Tracy comes up with a way to bring the flyers down--tossing cans of Pea Soup into the air, causing a fog as thick as the proverbial soup. This grounds the ghosts, enabling their banishment, which only leaves Eddie and Jake the problem of reality-warping Tracy launching a rocket that he drew on a sketchpad, back at the office.

Trivia

 * Like most historical or fictional icons depicted in this series, the Baron as depicted here bears almost no resemblance whatsoever to German Second Empire Nobleman Manfred Von Richtofen.
 * The Baron wears makeup to resemble five o'clock shadow, and has a scarf that is permanently sticking out from his collar. His German-ness is a bad stereotyped accent only.
 * The Baron and Sparky do have reason to believe Lord Smedley is still alive, having not encountered him or his Tracy on the other side. That said, both would have to at least be in their 80's, making a dogfight rematch problematic at best.
 * The Baron was played actor/voice actor Howard Morris, best known voice-wise for comic strip icons Beetle Bailey and Jughead Jones. His other noted villain role was that of Fat Cat 's French cousin in Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers. Source Wikipedia.
 * Sparky was played by Robert Easton, a widely-sought vocal coach and actor who often played hick characters like Sparky, including once on The Munsters. Notably, he was the voice of a character called 'Phones' on one of Gerry Anderson's productions.