Some little old ladies aren’t so nice!

Mrs. Rogers Neighborhood

Original Air date: September 27, 1986

Writers: Len Janson and Chuck Menville

Director: Richard Raynis

Main Cast:

·         Lorenzo Music as Peter Venkman

·         Frank Welker as Raymond Stantz

·         Maurice LaMarche as Egon Spengler

·         Arsenio Hall as Winston Zeddemore

·         Laura Summer as Janine Melnitz

·         Frank Welker as Slimer

(Rating 4 of 5)

Summary: A poor little bird gets scared when a lion statue comes to life (not unusual for the Ghostbusters) in a house that wasn’t there before.  At the station the Ghostbusters have had no calls all week and they’re starting to be afraid that they are so effective that they put themselves out of business.  They then get a call about a haunted house, everyone is excited but Peter who reminds them that the last few haunted houses that they have done were all false alarms.

                When they get their Egon notices that they are getting readings that are so strong it short circuits his PKE Meter.  When they come to the door they find Mrs. Rodgers ever so grateful for the Ghostbusters help with the ghosts in her house.  Ray takes Mrs. Rodgers and her pet bird, Precious, back to the station while they check out her house.

                While Egon and Winston  search the house Peter writes up the bill for what he thinks will be a non-event but is suddenly pulled down into the basement by forces working for Wat—a powerful demon.

Not a nice bird.

                After being dropped off Mrs. Rogers gets a tour of the firehouse by Janine .  Slimer notices her nice little bird in not nearly so nice nor little as it transforms into a fire breathing monster while the others are gone.  Slimer tries to tell Janine who doesn’t understand him and tells him to go somewhere else. 

That moment you realize its a trap as one Star Wars admiral would say. 

                When Ray gets to the haunted house things start to go into over drive.  The Ghostbusters figure out that this house was a trap and Mrs. Rogers isn’t who she says she is.  The house now attacks on all fronts and it takes a while but the Ghostbusters escape.  On the outside they quickly trap the lion/statues.  They had seen better.  (Remember, the movie?)

Why grandma what big teeth you have.

                They head to the firehouse to find Janine fine and everything quite.  The search the firehouse but Wat attacks Peter and possesses him.  Wat had learned from Janine that the new security system of the Containment Unit needed a Ghostbuster to open it.  Wat wants to do that so she can command the ghosts in it as an army.  Peter resists and delays long enough so the Ghostbusters to alter the frequency of their proton packs to separate Peter and Wat.  Wat pulls the latch and the alarm goes off, the three remaining Ghostbusters attack Wat separating the demon from Peter and trapping it.  Janine runs up and locks the latch on the containment unit again.  Peter is okay except for his messed up hair, Slimer tries to help but in Peter’s view that made it worst.  Elsewhere the evil house disappears.

Evil Peter!

My Take: I really enjoyed the episode.  My favorite part about it is the demon Wat actually creating a haunted house as cheese in the moose trap for the Ghostbusters.  It makes sense a powerful ghost would want to do this considering the Ghostbusters are their only real threat.  I wonder what Wat's power to keep the other ghosts in the Containment Unit is, That is the only way viewing it as a potential army makes sense.  Otherwise it seems like it would be breaking out every patient at Arkham, good for chaos not much else.

                My stray observations: 

•  Why would the Ghostbusters’ business ever be slow?  There are always enough people dying in New York City that there should always be troublesome spirts on the loose
• Nice play on Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. 
• Winston’s card building skills are not even near Egon’s.
• I am not bothered that a trap can be used as a type of explosive considering what traps are supposed to do it makes sense that they could back a punch if destroyed.
• Tobin’s Spirt Guide. You know I should have included that in my Ghostbusters Terms.  Maybe time for an edit?
•  Okay I know you like the old lady and you want to give her a tour but shouldn’t the Containment Unit have been off limits.  I mean it’s nice that you have the added security of the touchpad, but still if someone asks for a tour you should do as follows: “Okay here’s my desk, here are our files, and we put car right over here.  Here are the boys' lockers, they sleep upstairs, come I will show you, and would you like to see anything else? Down there? Sorry, no.  Off limits!”
• Wat? What?
• Why isn’t Janine authorized to open it, she monitors it as part of her tasks as we learned in “Ghosts R Us”?
• “There is no Peter, only Wat.”  Nice salute to the movie.
•  Peter, Slimer was only trying to help.
•  So the Ghostbusters went a week without work and their one job was from a ghost looking to trap them. Oh, not looking good on the finance department.