THE GHOSTBUSTERS TRY OUT FOR A GAME SHOW!

The Devil to Pay

Original Air date November 19, 1987^[1]

Writers: Pamela Hickey and Dennys McCoy

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 5 of 5)

Summary: Peter is dreaming of being in Tahiti being worshiped by Tahitians.  When he wakes up he finds that Ray and Winston are watching their favorite game trivia show.   Egon explains that Peter and Ray are quite good at game shows.  Peter then sees an ad in the paper that has tryouts for a game show where the contestants have a chance to win a trip to Tahiti.  

Peter's dream Vacation 

                Peter doesn’t have to do much arm twisting to convince Ray and Winston to try out as they love game shows so much they agreed right away.  All four go to the tryouts but Peter and Egon are there for support.  Ray and Winston make mincemeat out of the other contestants and sign the contracts to appear on the show.  Turns out the host is a demon named Dib and now their souls are on the line.  Dib arranged the whole thing as a trap for the Ghostbusters because the demon is looking for a promotion.

souls on the line

                After they leave Peter asks “what if we don’t go back” and they are then magically transported to the game show.  The first test is Ray is placed on high stilts where and Winston has to guess a word.   The answer to the word is YEEEERRRRRRRRGGGGHHH and Winston luckily guesses it right when he yells out in frustration.  The next game is pick the door.  All choices lead to door #1 where Pumpkin head Samhain(sorry, remember him?) emerges and attacks.  Ray, knowing Pumpkin head Samhain (I mean) is safe inside the Containment Unit, guesses this isn’t real and the illusion passes right through him.   All four Ghostbusters are then placed on roulette wheel and a steel ball was introduced until one of the Ghostbusters confessed the right sin.  They each confessed a silly sin but Ray’s was the right one and the ball stopped.  Then the demon cheated and started the ball again but the Ghostbusters kicked it away bringing down the place.  Peter threatened to destroy Dib unless he gave them a free trip to Tahiti and he did.

My Take: A few years ago in Portland Me they were doing an audition to be on the show Deal or No Deal.  When I heard of this I filled out the online application and was super excited when I received an invention by to attend their casting.  I figured someone had read my application and thought my answers to the questions were smart and witty.  When I got there the place was crowded with hundreds of people and I was handed a form that immediately made my heart sink.  The form they had given me were the same questions I had already answered online.  It was clear no one had read my application and anyone who filled it out got an e-mail. 

                We went to the audition room a producer got up and said “Now I am going to tell you all how not to suck.  You’re second group we got into day and the group really sucked and I don’t want a repeat of it.  So number one I don’t care how long you have watched the show.  Number two people who walk away with $25,000 didn’t ‘blow it’ but walked away with money in their pocket.  Number three I don’t care how much you love Howie, I don’t want to hear about him.”

                He then went on explain how he was going to call us up in groups of ten to talk with their panel and then made a huge error by declaring that the groups he was going to call on first was the group that showed the most enthusiasm by jumping up and down and yelling loud.  As you can imagine when we you actually got to the table no one could hear you well because of the two hundred plus people behind you screaming and your own voice may have become hoarse. 

                So I appreciate the spirit that this episode was made in.

                Now for my stray observations:

·         Always read something before you sign it.

·         Actually Winston, you didn’t sell your soul to the devil, you were conned out of it for nothing by a low ranking demon named Dib.

·         Pumpkin head (sorry I mean  Samhain) has returned!  But not really.

·         The entire sin confession scene on the roulette wheel was funny.

·         The best part of the roulette wheel was during Peter’s confession on pranking Janine in the shower, Egon was primarily concerned that Peter had peaked at naked Janine.

·         Apparently you can bully a demon for a free vacation.

A really fun episode that takes the game show market down a peg or two. 

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