MEET EGON’S UNCLE

Cry Uncle

Original Air date: November 12, 1987^[1]

Writer: Bruce Reid Schaeffer

Director: Dale Schott

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 1 of 5)

Summary: The Ghostbusters are on the job and Egon is concerned about finishing up on time to pick up his uncle at the airport.  They don’t finish on time and they end up meeting him at the firehouse.  Before they arrive Uncle Cyrus comes in contact with Janine and Slimer but he loses his glasses at one point and mistakes Slimer for a cat.

Uncle Cyrus the really smart dumb guy!

                When the Ghostbusters arrive they apologize to Uncle Cyrus for not picking him up on time, but there is a bigger concern. Uncle Cyrus does not like that his brilliant nephew is working as a low-level exterminator for non-existent things.  Winston tries to reason with him but they get called out on a job.  They ask Uncle Cyrus if he would like to go so he can see what Egon does and he agrees.  The Ghostbusters arrive at the convenience store and can’t find any ghosts.  Uncle Cyrus loses his glasses again and that’s when the ghosts show up and Cyrus misses his nephew’s success. 

This doesn't make sense even by Slimer standards!

                Back at the firehouse, Cyrus guilts Egon with a promise he made as a young man to be there if needed.  Cyrus tells him that he needs Egon to run his lab.  Egon leaves a note for his fellow Ghostbusters and heads off with his uncle. 

Egon hates his new job.

                Janine finds his note and is heart-broken at the loss of Egon.  The other Ghostbusters feel the loss when they go on a mission and find themselves needing Egon.  The three Ghostbusters and Janine fly out to see Egon at his new job, that he clearly hates, and ask his uncle if they can borrow him for one last assignment.  Cyrus reluctantly agrees and decides to go with them.

                The team invites Cyrus to come along so they can see how important Egon is but Cyrus declines.  On the mission Egon and Ray come up with a way to defeat the poltergeists and all is well, but they are still probably going to lose Egon.  While this is going on Janine shows Cyrus the Containment Unit.  Cyrus goes up and starts randomly pushing buttons causing a meltdown and before Janine hits the emergency switch the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man escapes. He is small and intangible at first then he grows larger and by the time is out of the firehouse tangible again. 

He's back!

                The Ghostbusters battle and with a little help from Uncle Cyrus are able to catch the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man again.  Cyrus now impressed with his nephew releases him from his promise and allows him to remain a Ghostbuster.

My Take: This episode sucked.  Really sucked, it was Janeway and Paris goes into transwarp turn into animals and have kids kind of suck.  I would like to give it zero stars but I already said one is my lowest so one it is.  This episode fails on nearly every level.  The only part I liked was Egon leaving a note (because with his non-existent social skills he couldn’t have done it in person) and Janine’s reaction to it.  The rest is almost unwatchable.  Even Slimer was off in this episode, he was in some ways overly aggressive and the whole Slimer in the drinking water was dumb.  Now if Slimer drank all the drinking water that would be one thing, but no he just wants to live in it.

                The biggest fail however is the whole premise.  As I stated in the ‘my take’ section in the previous review, the Ghostbusters live in the world where ghosts are real but they give us Uncle Cyrus a “skeptic” who doesn’t believe in ghosts.  In the last episode they made fun of mediums by showing a phony, it almost like they said “well we made fun of the people who really believe in ghosts so now we should make fun skeptics.”  Except the episodes were written by different people so probably not the case, although it is interesting that in the last episode featured an aunt of a Ghostbuster and this features an uncle.  Cyrus doesn’t believe in ghosts because he never saw one and whenever he has the opportunity he loses his glasses.  This is an absurd if you want a good lesson on skepticism look at the video below by QualiaSoup.

                Cyrus, “Egon, I don’t believe in ghosts.”

                Egon, “Uncle, here is my pet, Slimer”

                Cyrus, “I lost my glasses.”

                Egon, “Here are some of spare glasses and here is Slimer.  And if you come down to the Containment Unit I can show you the viewer and you can see more in there.”

                Cyrus, “Oh, look at that ghosts are real.”

                There you have it that’s how easy the plot should have been resolved.  But no we drag on this pointless exercise.  You could have made the uncle hate ghostbusting like an entomologist who hates the fact that his nephew is an exterminator for a living when he should be in a lab. That could have been interesting but instead we get an episode where the so called “brilliant” uncle is made to look like an idiot. 

                The episode gets worse as it goes on.  The scene with the Containment Unit was horrible.  The “brilliant scientist” starts just playing with buttons and it causes a meltdown.  Not only does this make Cyrus stupid but we have forgotten that the Containment Unit has a security system to prevent this.  Remember Wat needed a Ghostbuster body in order to open it.  Janine stops it from melting down completely by hitting a button on the wall that was never there before.  The Containment Unit front opens up completely and yet only one ghost pops out.  

               

The powerful Wat needs Peter to open this thing!

          

"Not really" says the STMM, "and I am the only ghost who saw this was open!"

              The escaped ghost is the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, whom no attempt is made to explain how the giant changed from an incarnation of Gozer to an independent spirit in his own right, is now too big to be put into a trap.  This makes no sense what so ever, I can accept that fact that somewhere along the line some of the remains of the original giant reformed into a new entity, but don’t try to tell me you can’t fit him in a trap. I know you can because ghosts who are made of ecotoplasm will shrink down and fit in the trap—we already saw him change size in this episode—; in fact just before every episode I watch the Ghostbusters put Stay Puft and his friends into a trap with no problem.

                This episode is a complete failure, and one best to be forgotten.        

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[1] Listed original air dates for entire syndicated season may not be correct.