HERE IS THE BOOGIEMAN!

The Boogieman Cometh

Original Air date: October 18, 1986

Writer: Michael Reaves

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 5 of 5)

Summary:  The story begins with as an ordinary day for the Ghostbusters.  Their in a high speed chase driven by the ghost of some 1920s mobster.  After he is caught the Ghostbusters return to the firehouse to put the gangster ghost in the Containment Unit and get some sleep.  The Ghostbusters are awakened by Janine who announces they have some special potential clients.  She brings in two children, a girl and a boy, who are caring a piggy bank.  The kids, Megan and Kenny Carter, would like to hire the Ghostbusters to get rid of the Boogieman who is haunting them.  And if they would do this they would give them their piggy bank.  Peter lets the kids know he thinks they have an over active imagination, but Egon is overly eager to investigate.

The Carter kids

                The Ghostbusters drive the kids home.  When they get there they go to the kids’ room and investigate, if only to make them and Egon feel better.  Egon gets strong reading from the closet but when he opens it up, nothing.  Then the closet transforms into a portal and the Boogieman emerges.  Egon is the one closest to the monster and is frozen.  The Boogieman claims that he recognizes Egon, and then Egon blasts him.  The other Ghostbusters join in and they force the Boogieman to leave through his portal.  The Boogieman goes back and vanishes with out a trace.

  

I remember you, Egon.

                Mr. and Mrs. Carter wake up and ask what is going on and who these men in their house are.  Ray presents his ID and explains they have a haunting.  The Carters ask the Ghostbusters to leave.  The Ghostbusters do and they go off to investigate how to defeat the Boogieman.  The Boogieman isn’t a ghost so they want to know how they can trap him.  In their research they find that the Boogieman feeds off fear that is why he terrorizes children.  Egon confesses that when he was a kid he was terrorized by the Boogieman and that was the main reason he started to investigate the paranormal and later form the Ghostbusters.  They decided they need to find another portal to the Boogieman's domain.  While Egon, Ray, and Peter look for an apartment with a closet that is a Boogieman portal, Winston stops by the Carters’ house to chase the Boogieman away from the kids while firing his proton gun from the sidewalk.

Leave the kids alone.

                In the newly rented apartment they set up a kid’s room and have Ray pretend to be the kid.  When the Boogieman shows up the Ghostbusters jump him and chase him back into his domain.  There the Boogieman felt he had an advantage but he was still vulnerable to the proton blasts.  The Ghostbusters chase him around his domain and outside of it.  The Boogieman goes to several closets and children’s homes with the Ghostbusters on his tail. 

In his place

                At one point he sets a trap for Ghostbusters that they easily escape from.  However they come to the realization that although they can push the Boogieman back with their weapons, they can’t stop him.  Egon comes up with a plan: they can use a newly invented proton bomb powered with their proton packs on overload to seal off his domain forever.  The only problem is this leaves them unarmed and vulnerable.  Just as they are getting ready to leave the Boogieman traps them.  He then opens a portal to the Carters home so the Carter children can watch them die.  But this proves to be his undoing when the Carter kids enter the portal, challenge the Boogieman, and throw marbles at his hoof feat causing him to lose his footing and fall.  The Ghostbusters and Carters run through the portal just as Mr. and Mrs. Carter enter the room see the portal and watch it collapse.  With that the Ghostbusters help put the kids to bed and go home.  With exception to one practical joke by Slimer their night was done.  

Carter kids vs the Boogieman

 My Take: I remember when I first saw the episode as a child, after I kept my own plastic Ghostbuster proton pack under my covers just like Ray did, and insisted my parents leave my closet door closed. 

This is Ray but also, in my head, me for a number of months!

This was one of the handful of episodes that I could remember the exact plot line to even though I hadn't seen it in over twenty years.  This episode is great.  I would go so far to say that this is probably the greatest of the series.  Now some might take that as a bit insulting.  After all it’s only the sixth episode of the series it does seem mean to say “Yes, after six episodes you maxed out and never got any better!”  But you can’t really improve on perfection it’s not bashing the rest of series to say that this was the best one.  A good example is the fifth episode of The Sopranos.  That’s the episode titled “College” where Tony takes Meadow to my home state of Maine and she confronts him about being a mobster.  Tony has to deal with taking his daughter to colleges, deal with her knowing about his gangster life, and end the career of a “rat.” It was an episode that most fans recognize as the series greatest and in 2009 it was recognized by TV guide as the second greatest TV episode of all time.  It was the episode that fans of the series mark as the moment The Sopranos, as a series, became great.  That was what this episode did.  “The Boogieman Cometh” is the episode that captures the spirit of the entire series and established what made this series great.  (That’s right, I just made a comparison between The Sopranos and The Real Ghostbusters.)

"You know Meadow, this is going to be what they like to call the Greatest Episode!  Like that show you use to watch with your brother, 'bout the guys who fought the ghosts!  They had an episode where they fought the Boogieman and that was their greatest episode.  This is ours."
"Dad, I watched Jem!" 

                Now for my slight observations:

·         That line from Louie the Gangster was pretty funny; I wonder how many ghosts forget they are no longer alive.

·         They should get Slimer his own bed, it would save Peter on the pillow costs.

·         When does Janine sleep?  The Ghostbusters get home they all go to bed in their clubhouse Janine is still up there working.  Also Peter doesn’t even know what she makes.

·         Did the Ghostbusters actually take the money from the kids’ Piggy Bank?  I like to they just gave it back to them but I have no confirmation on this.

·         I really like the Egon/Boogieman connection.

Egon vs his arch-nemesis 

·         How come Mr. and Mrs. Carter didn’t recognize the Ghostbusters?  Last I checked they were famous with crowds of people cheering them on whenever they went somewhere to bust some ghosts.

·         Ray’s Ghostbuster ID was pretty funny.  There are only four of them why would they need ids when no more than five people work for the company.

·         Winston may not equal Egon in card house building abilities but no one should play him in pool!  He stands on the sidewalk fires his proton gun through the window and hits the Boogieman at an angle.  Considering things that are missed can catch on fire and he did it with confidence shows this man has some talent.

·         Ray with his toys, he was a good choice to play the over grown toddler.

·         The Boogieman’s realm was rather weird.

·         The best scene of course is when the Ghostbusters are chasing the Boogieman all over the place through various portals that the Boogieman uses.  Kids wake up expecting for the Boogieman to terrorize them but instead they see the monster running away from the Ghostbusters, who follow right behind him.  The kids start cheering as the Ghostbusters chase the nightmares away.

·         I love the Carter kids final stand against the Boogieman, talk about the villain opening the wrong door.