THE GHOSTBUSTERS ARE NOT THE ONLY PEOPLE ALLOWED TO HAVE A PET!

Drool, the Dog-Faced Goblin

Original Air date: October 29, 1987^[1]

Writer: Linda Woolverton

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 4 of 5)

Summary: After along car trip the Ghostbusters stop at a traveling circus.  The reason is Egon saw in their ad that there is a goblin in this circus.  When they see that the Goblin was in fact real the Ghostbusters try to bust him.  However Madame LaFarge, the circus owner, stops them.  She explains that Drool, the Goblin, is part of their circus family and they can’t just take him.  Egon tries to explain that goblins are dangerous but LeFarge is having none of it.  She accuses the Ghostbusters of being trigger happy and asks them to leave. 

Drool is just a pet

                The Ghostbusters are heading home but along the way the Ecto-1 breaks down, little known to the Ghostbusters it was sabotage.  They are forced to stay overnight in a hotel.  During the night they are victims to some paranormal pranks, cats sounding like dogs, mud coffee, everything floating in a room.  The next day they are attacked and run out of town by this entity.  There weapons are useless and they have their butts handed to them.   The Ghostbusters discuss how this was similar to shape-changing ghost they battled a while back who they were never able to defeat.

She is allowed to have a pet too!

Nasty Ghost

                The Ghostbusters come to the conclusion that Drool was behind everything so they head back to the circus to bust him.  They come in, over LaFarge’s objections, and blast Drool.  Drool starts to cry but then they hear that trouble is still going on outside.  They let Drool go and go out to confront the threat.  The Ghostbusters then realize this is the same shape changing entity that they failed to catch before.  It is truly violent and threatens to harm some of the circus goers.  Drool however enters the battle and attacks the ghost protecting the people.  The Ghostbusters fire and have them both caught in the stream, if Drool lets go people may die but if he doesn’t he is trapped too.  Madam LaFarge lets the Ghostbusters know that Drool wants them to do what is best and the trap both of them.  Madam LaFarge asks if they can let him go, but Ray explains they can’t without letting loose the other evil shape changing ghosts.  Ray tries to play sour grapes by saying that Drool will be with his own kind and he may be happier there. 

Okay now what do we do?

Ghost is getting really nasty!

My Take: I really struggled rating this one I kept going back from a three to a four.  On one hand I really like the story, Drool and Madam LeFarge as characters, and Drool emotional sacrifice at the end.  He nobly went down helping and protecting those who despised him, and was never fully appreciated for it. I might have made a five but there were many things holding the episode back and that I will go over in my stray observations.

"Sorry we busted you;re pet. We could try to let him go but we're lazy."

                Now for my stray observations:

·         Okay so who is paying the Ghostbusters?  They aren’t a charity, they are a business.  Sometimes they do free work for a poor client or a world threatening situations, but neither is the case here.  The Ghostbusters weren’t wanted, Egon just saw an ad for a circus saw the word “goblin” and they came a running.  This would be like exterminators showing up at your door because somewhere someone told them your son had an ant farm.  Once Peter questioned going into a building that had opened a door to the Netherworld, why isn’t he questioning this?

·         Where’s Slimer?  Slimer isn’t in this episode which is okay on its own, but there is one problem.  That problem is no one even mentions Slimer.  This is odd because he is relevant here.  The Ghostbusters try to tell Madam LeFarge that it is wrong for them to keep a pet ghost all the while they have a pet ghost.  LeFarge accused them of being trigger happy in their ruthless hunt of Drool, but she didn’t call them hypocrites and perhaps that’s because she didn’t have their personal information.  If she had such knowledge she would be justified to call them that for in this episode that is what they were.

·         So our weapons conveniently don’t work until we reach the part of the plot where they do.  Why do the blasts work on the shape changing ghost at the end when they didn’t at the beginning?

·         What do you mean we can’t release Drool?  Okay maybe you can’t let him out of the trap without releasing the other one but you can get him out of the Containment Unit.  We saw Egon do it in the episode “Xmas Marks the Spot.” Yes it’s risky but considering everything that Drool did for them, especially after the way they treated him, at the very least they owe him a try.

                It was a good episode but generally I prefer episodes where they Ghostbusters aren’t the least likable people.

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