Follow
That Hearse
Original
Air date November
5, 1988
Writers:
Len Janson and Chuck Menville
Director:
Charles Grosvenor
Main
Cast:
- Dave
Coulier as Peter Venkman
- Frank
Welker as Raymond Stantz
- Maurice
LaMarche as Egon Spengler
- Buster
Jones as Winston Zeddemore
- Kath
Soucie as Janine Melnitz
- Frank
Welker as Slimer
(Rating
4 of 5)
Summary: At a
toxic waste site a strange creature attacks those doing the dumping. While at the firehouse Winston is preparing
Ecto-1 for a classic car show and yells at Slimer for eating in the car. The
call from the city dump is taken and the Ghostbusters head for the job, with
Winston reminding everyone to check their boots. When they get there they both look for the
ghost and try to guilt the workers for having a toxic waste site at the city
dump. They find and battle the ghost but
it escapes by possessing Ecto-1. With
the PKE meter having shorted out the Ghostbusters couldn’t figure where the ghost went.
 |
| Car not acting right in the firehouse! |
After a
rough ride home Slimer and Winston noticed weird things about Ecto-1 such as it
changing direction of where it was parked.
With another call the Ghostbusters once again head out but the care comes to
life, throws them out, and kidnaps Winston.
When they find him they find Ecto-1 eating Winston’s proton pack and
come to the conclusion the car ate Winston, but then they find him hiding in a
manhole. The possessed Ecto-1 had
electromagnetic field that shields it from proton blasts.
 |
| Something is wrong. |
When
they finally got back to the station they using their computer and found an old
legend from the Manhattan Indians about an Earth Spirit. The computer also concluded that the Earth Spirit had been corrupted by the
pollution in the toxic waste dump.
Borrowing Janine’s car they went after Ecto-1 again that had now grown in
size and looked scary with the “No” sign losing the bar and showing a free
ghost.
 |
| Now it wants to kill us! |
They
tracked it to the dump and Winston used a magnet to trap it. With the magnet the car lost its shield and
the Ghostbusters were able to get the Spirit out. The Proton streams actually cleaned the
Spirit and it turned to its original form.
Winston told the guys to stop firing because they weren’t going to trap
it. Winston apologized to the Earth
Spirit for the pollution and said that people need to do better. At the end of the episode Winston and his
fellow Ghostbusters are holding the car show 1st place trophy.
 |
| Free! |
My Take: If you
grew up in the 1980s you probably remember a big anti-pollution push that often
had Native American themes. You should especially remember this long running commercial.
The problem
I have with this episode is not that I don’t think it is good to care about the environment,
it just like a lot of episodes that try to promote a cause it does a
terrible job. Star Trek is the only series I know that could do both social messages and exciting episodes well. Most the time I feel the story suffers with a writer's a
half-ass attempt to address the issue.
In this case they discuss toxic waste but they never explain what toxic
waste actually is. For example if you are
in the department store and someone knocks over a bucket of paint and it spills,
guess what that is. Many everyday
household items upon disposal become toxic waste. Winston with his car show obsession is
probably responsible for little a bit of toxic waste use himself. The Ghostbusters act with disgust at the very existence of a toxic
waste dump site, but so long as we have toxic waste we are going to need a
place to put it. So what is the
Ghostbusters’ suggestion? How we dispose
of toxic waste is a big deal but to bring up the issue with kids without even
creating a small understanding of the topic is useless. One thing is for sure is you can’t clean it
with a particle thrower.
Now for
stray observations:
·
Is it just me or a car you bring to a car
show should not be your main source of business transportation?
·
Don’t we bring more than one PKE meter to a job?
·
Also maybe PKE scans should be standard when you
get back from a job.
·
Good thing for Winston evil Ecto-1 doesn’t like
the taste of boxer shorts.
·
Not the first time they took an evil ghost down with a magnet. Magnets are awesome
ghostbusting tools.
·
So whatever happened to that other job they took
when Ecto-1 went nuts? Did it get done?
·
Why do they ride in the car with their proton
packs on? Would that be hard to buckle
in?
The episode could have been better
if they didn’t try to lose themselves in a social message but it was other wise
fine.
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