That ghost has some belly!

Slimer, Come Home

Original Air date: October 4, 1986

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski

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 Ghostbusters on the tail of some nasty type of poltergeists, which somewhat concerns them because poltergeist usually aren’t this powerful when roaming.  The Ghostbusters battle the poltergeists but fail to capture them.  As they drive home Winston wonders why they are taking so long.  He gets his answer when they arrive and at the station as Janine had prepared a surprise party for Winston’s birthday.  When they roll out Winston’s favorite cake Slimer sees it, gets excited, and goes and eats it. This angers the entire party; Winston’s has a sour grapes moment of “I’m a diet anyway.” But Peter is infuriated, he gives Slimer a verbal tongue lashing and Slimer goes off an sulks.

Now you see it!

                When the Ghostbusters go to sleep, Slimer takes off.  He leaves a note explaining that no one wants him around.  When he is out on his own he thinks about helping himself to a bakery, but Peter’s words haunt him and he lets it go.  Slimer follows some other ghosts to meeting that is led by large ghost dressed in black named Ghash.

Now you don't!

                The Ghostbusters realizing that Slimer has run off go out to look for him.  Peter refuses at first but joins later.  While looking Egon almost gets mugged, Ray runs into his second grade teacher, and Peter finds Slimer but the evil head ghost, Ghash, has convinced Slimer to turn and he slimes Peter again just like he did in first Ghostbusters movie.

Ray sees his grade school teacher.

                Peter radios the rest of the Ghostbusters and they follow them into a building.  There Ghash opens his shirt and summons all the ghosts to come to him.  Even Slimer is pulled in and according to Egon they were now all merging into one powerful ghost.  They alter their packs’ frequency to pull Slimer out of Ghash, but as they turn to fight Ghash he takes away their packs telekinetically and tosses them around like dolls.  Slimer grabs on their proton guns and aims it at Ghash, Slimer can’t control it but he distracts Ghash long enough for the Ghostbusters to recover their packs and blast and trap Ghash.  When they trap him, the trap looks like it won’t hold him for long but they get it to the Containment Unit in time.  At the party they have two cakes one for Slimer and the other for them.  

My Take: Before starting this project I haven’t really watched this show from start to finish since I was about ten or eleven.  Out of the hundred plus episodes in this series there are about eleven or twelve that I could recall the plot line to.  This was one of them.  I actually remember play acting this episode with my Ghostbuster toys one time when we were visiting my material grandmother and her mother.  (My great-grandmother lived with my grandmother in the last years of her life.) I had the shirt of my pajamas open and I was telling the ghosts to come to me so I could absorb them.  I then remember my great-grandmother coming in and looking at me wondering why I was acting so strange.

                I liked all the previous episodes but this one clicks more at a number of levels.  Every scene feels right for the characterization is spot on.  You get the impression that the writer understands who these people are very well.  My favorite scene is when Janine reveals to the Ghostbusters that Slimer has run off.  Peter’s reaction is perfect stating that he is going to bed because he doesn’t believe Slimer would ever run away due to the fact that he has too good with them.  I also really like Ray deciding to look for Slimer by sitting in one place and waiting for Slimer to come to him, and Egon scaring off a gang of thugs by just appearing so strange they don’t want to mess with him.    

My stray observations:

·         Don’t Ghostbusters have other family that might want to wish them a happy birthday?

·         When Peter asks what good Slimer has ever done, it might have been good if one of the other Ghostbusters said, “Well he did pull the plug on Killerwatt when we all thought we were done for!”

·         Slimer not only needs to learn to control himself, he needs to learn to take some criticism with grace.  The Ghostbusters never told him to leave he just assumed they didn’t like him because Peter yelled at him.

 ·         Does Janine need sleep?  While the Ghostbusters are all up snoozing away, she’s still downstairs working?  When does this woman stop?  I hope Ghostbusters are paying her well.  I doubt that though, they have now had two episodes in a row where they haven’t collected any money.

·         Why did the Ghostbusters take their proton packs when all they were doing was looking for Slimer?  It turned out to be right decision but I still thought it was odd. I guess they never leave home without them.

·         What happened to all the Ghostbusters jackets and hats?  I understand Peter tossing his out he got slimed but what about the rest of them?

·         Good move on Ghash’s part to separate the Ghostbusters from their weapons.  Why don’t more ghosts try that?  As kid I always thought that most ghosts couldn’t touch them because they same energy that is used to stop them in their tracks might prevent them from interfering with it.

In my re-watching I have enjoyed this episode the most so far.