ONE OF THOSE KIND OF CARTOONS

Stay Tooned

Original Air date November 3, 1990

         

Writers: Len Janson and Chuck Menville

Director: Raymond Jafelice

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 4 of 5)

Summary: The Ghostbusters are watching TV when Ray asks if it’s okay for him to change the channel the others tell him okay but sarcastically.  Ray doesn’t sense the sarcasm and changes the channel from the Lenny Jason Show (a parody of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show) and eventually landed on the Sammy K. Ferrert show.  An animated show about a cartoon Ferret that degrades his fictional guests, Ray thinks it’s funny and so does Slimer.  The other three Ghostbusters leave in disgust.  When reception gets bad Ray sticks the antenna outside, only to have it get stuck by lighting.  The TV starts to grow large so Ray unplugs it.

Cruel to guests! 

                The next day, Janine on her lunch break plugs in the TV and Sammy K Ferret comes to life.  He plays a number of animated tricks on the Ghostbusters that Ray finds hilarious until the last one before he took off could have killed them.  They try to find Sammy in the city and that proves not to be hard because everything he comes across becomes animated.  During the chase Ray turns into a cartoon pig and Winston a cartoon dog. 

Half of our team are cartoons.

                The Ghostbusters try to lure Sammy into a trap by creating their own comedy show.  The trap works but he again proves immune to capture.  Egon figures out that he is just an ordinary ghost and if they anger him enough he will lose his cartoon shield and be vulnerable to attack.  Egon then turns into a cartoon bird.

Final stand!

When Sammy tries to attack the Lenny Jason Show the Ghostbusters put their plan into action irritating Sammy causing him to revel his true self  allowing the Ghostbusters to catch him.  Everything turns back to normal, some things sooner than others.

My Take: This episode strongly reminded me of the Season 2 episode “Who are you calling Two-Dimensional” where the Ghostbusters also have to deal with a cartoon character come to life.  This, like the previous episode, seemed to want to draw the line between the type of cartoon the Ghostbusters are compared to ones such as Lonny Tunes or Tom and Jerry.  Unfortunately, the message is lost on a season that continues to try and reincorporate elements of the dreaded Slimer subseries into the mainstream TV show.

                Now for my stray observations:

·         Like the creators of South Park I don’t feel there should be a limit to comedy.  In a comedy house prepare to be offended.  Yet I also expect it to be smart and cleaver but Sammy was just dumb.

·         Considering the way he was acting I didn’t feel sorry for Ray when he turned into a pig.

·         Why are they using an antenna?  Don’t they have satellite or cable?

·         Good way to get electrocuted guys. 

A generally decent episode.