GHOSTBUSTERS THE MUSICAL

The Halloween Door

Original Air date October 29, 1989

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski

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
• Rodger Bumpass as Louis Tully

(Rating 3 of 5)

Summary: The Ghostbusters are preparing for their Halloween party.  Slimer has made for himself a Peter costume, to which Peter quickly puts on a Slimer costume to slime him.  Peter is escorting a beautiful woman named Lynn Stacy to one of Donald Trump’s parties.  Slimer, in his Peter customer, chases her off.  Peter tried to chase her back and instead ran into a Dr. Crowley and his assistant Fairweather.  Dr. Crowley wants the Ghostbusters help in ending Halloween.  The Ghostbusters basically tell him off, but Fairweather stole a PKE meter and that is what they needed.

Peter gets a long awaited revenge moment.

                That afternoon the Ghostbusters were doing a demonstration at a local Junior High School.  That demonstration actually turned into a musical performance where the Ghostbusters danced and sang.  

The Ghostbusters tell Crowley and Pal to stick it.

                Later that night Dr. Crowley prepares his weapon when he fires it the blast goes across the world to destroy all the materials of Halloween and any fiction that might inspire it.  While this is going on he recites a rhyme.  After he is done Fairweather reveals himself to be a minion of the demi-god Boogaloo.  A deal that was made over 2000 years ago by the Druids stated that as long as Halloween was observed Boogaloo and his demons would not invade the Earth.  With the destruction of Halloween they are now back.  Unless Halloween is brought back by midnight they will overrun the Earth.  Boogaloo starts singing about his badness and begins dancing around finishing his dance with the moonwalk. 

The moment Crowley realized his henchman wasn't really on his side. 

The Ghosts are out dancing, but how did the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man get out of the Containment Unit.

                The Ghostbusters were overwhelmed, their traps were full, the packs were drained, the Ecto-1 was totaled, and the Containment Unit at the firehouse was destroyed.  They located Dr. Crowley and try to force him to reverse the effect of the machine.  However the machine was destroyed.  They begin to try to fix it but time was running out.  Then a little blond girl with pig tales and her own home made vacuum cleaner Proton pack shows up and tries to see if she can join the Ghostbusters in their battle.  Winston freaks and tries to tell the girl to get to safety.  Egon however gets an idea, since no place is going to be safe, he realizes that she could be a big help.

I am the baddest of the bad even though my name sounds dumb.

                Egon brings the girl before Boogaloo, who is gloating about his minutes till victory, he sees the girl and Egon tells him that she has something to say.  She looks at him and says, “Trick or Treat!”  Halloween is alive and Boogaloo has lost, he and his demons are sucked back to which they came.  It is now Halloween at 8:00 PM the night and its damage was erased.  

My Take:  This episode aired as a Sunday night special the week of Halloween.  It had its own special opening sequence that was different from the one typically used.  (I actually thought it was better than they had used the last two seasons.)  The last two Halloween episodes had Pumpkin head (I mean, Samhain) trying to take over the world and create Halloween forever.  In this case we have a villain who wants to insure it never happens.  It is an interesting take.  I wasn’t a big fan of the musical numbers that I found completely ridiculous.  Dr. Crowley as a villain was clearly a stand in for all the censors and the parent groups behind them that Straczynski felt restrained him over the years.

                Now for my stray observations:

• The Peter/Slimer costume thing was really funny.
• Peter should be glad to get out of a Trump event.  He might not even be a real billionaire.
• After the Ghostbusters tell Crowley off, he for a moment thinks about the moral dilemma of stealing from someone, while simultaneously planning mass property destruction. 
• I didn’t think the Ghostbusters could dance and sing, they talked about this before. 
• They crossed the steams while dancing I thought they couldn’t do that. 

  

  No crossing the streams, unless you are in a choreographed number.

• Dr. Crowley was going off like a Dr. Suess rhyme.
• The first thing that Boogaloo does is sing a song and dance, the villain.
• If the Halloween deal was made over 2000 years ago are we saying Emperor Augustus had to deal with Boogaloo and friends. 
• Hey how did the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man get out?
• Okay Pumpki(Samhain. sorry)  is the Spirit of Halloween and wants it eternal while Boogaloo is needs Halloween to end.  This should make them enemies.  So shouldn’t Pum(Samhain) have attacked once the Containment Unit exploded?
• The end of this episode is what saved it for me.  The little girl bringing down the big bad was great.
• Some things weren't meant to be musicals!