A 1980s Anti-Pollution Episode

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 1^st 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.

·         First time Ecto-1 gets possessed it is Ray who says they can’t blast it now it is Winston.

·         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.

THE GHOSTBUSTERS GO HANGOUT ON A FARM

Dairy Farm

Original Air date September 25, 1987^[1]

Writer: Larry DiTillio

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: The Ghostbusters are overworked and in a dire need of a vacation.  Ray convinces them, over Peter’s objections, to drive out of to the country to spend time at Ray’s cousin’s farm.  As they drive out to the farm they take a wrong turn and wreck Ecto-1 on harvester.  There is a local mechanic in town to fix Ecto-1 over the week end.  So the Ghostbusters pay to have the car towed and walk the rest of the way to the Stanz Farm. 

Not to happy having wreaked their car. 

                It turns out Ray’s cousin Sam is woman.  Who Peter is instantly attracted to, but Sam (short for Samantha) doesn’t feel the same way.  They all enjoy a hardy meal as Sam explains her operation.  The Ghostbusters think they have made a good choice for their vacation spot.  The next day however they find part of Sam’s farm has been vandalized and the PKE meter revels that the vandal is most likely a ghost. 

Ray's cousin Sam

                Some research leads Ray to discover that the previous owners were a family by the name of Peterson.  The Peterson’s owned this farm for ten generations and when they died out the property manager moved the family stones from the cemetery but not their bodies.  The dead field that Egon was testing was the family cemetery.

Ghost chicken!

                That night they stayed out to watch and saw the dead rooster get up and wake the rest of the family who started doing chores but in ways that would ruin the farm.  When confronted they attacked and without their equipment the Ghostbusters and Sam were forced back into the house and were saved by the coming dawn. 

The dead Petersons!

                The next day the guys Macgyvered some dairy equipment to generate a force field that night so they were able to contain the Peterson family.  Peter told them that there was someone who wanted to say something to them and brought out Sam to plead to them as a farmer.  The Petersons were move and agreed to rest and let Sam run the farm.

Pa Peterson, ghost patriarch 

                Sam decided Peter wasn’t so bad after all so he asked for a kiss and Slimer kissed him.

Farmers can rest in peace!

 My Take: My grandfather often told my father that he was born in the wrong side of the century.  My father always wanted to be a farmer.  To me the idea of getting up at the crack of dawn to do farm chores for my entire life was never appealing, and with my allergies it would have been not any fun.  I kind of wish I was born a hundred years from now when technology is more awesome.  That had nothing to do with this episode just a random thought.  The episode was another one of those “Ghostbusters without their ghostbusting equipment episodes” but it was not bad.

                Now for my stray observations:

·         Why do the Ghostbusters all have to go on vacation together?  I do not have that relationship with any of my co-workers ever.   Ray can go to the farm, Egon can go the science museum with Janine, Winston can attend a lot of Jaguars games, and Peter can go to Tahiti with a hot girlfriend.

·         Try explaining that car accident to your insurance company.

·         Slimer’s farmer get up was really cute.

·         Peter needs to try a new method of getting women that isn’t so off putting.

·         So the ghost rooster, do you think that might have been a Peterson family dinner at one point?

·         For a family that lived at the farm for ten generations there doesn’t seem to be that many of them.

·         Slimer was having some fun in the chaos, usually he is a helpful ghost.

·         “Even if we had our equipment there would still be too many to trap.”  My butt.  That one statement knocked this episode from a five to a four.  Not only were there not that many Peterson ghosts to begin with but I have seen them catch more ghosts in the opening sequence.  Hell a few episodes back they made almost $80,000 in one afternoon and they didn’t run out of traps.  This was cheap line put in to answer the most obvious solution: borrow Sam’s car go to the repair shop and pick up their gear out of Ecto-1.

·         Instead let’s do the Ghost Whisperer thing.

An enjoyable episode even with some issues.    

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

THE GHOSTBUSTERS VS THE GHOST OF HARRY HOUDINI

The Cabinet of Calamari

Original Air date September 30, 1987^[1]

Writers: Mark Edward Edens and Michael Edens

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 and Egon chase Slimer around for messing with their clothes again, but fortunately it doesn’t delay them from the professional magic show that they were going to attend.  When they get there they watch the act of the Great Calamari.  Calamari did some basic magic tricks and was about to do an escape attempt where he would be lowered upside down into a tub of water.  In the tub appeared a ghost who caused the tub to explode and ruin the show. 

The Great Calamari, or so he claimed.

                Peter and Ray interview some of the stage crew while Egon and Winston investigated the props on the show.  At this point Egon and Winston is attacked by flying a saw and blades sent by Calamari.  They both survive and come to the wrong conclusion that it was the ghost who attacked him. 

Houdini's ghost is going to ruin the show.

Peter and Ray find the ghost and Ray tires the ghost whisperer thing and attempts to communicate with it.  Egon and Winston show up however and end that attempt by trapping the ghost.  As Ray was expressing his displeasure the ghost escapes right out of the trap.  Egon just thinks the trap is defective, but the Peter wants to use precautions so when they catch him again Peter wraps a chain around the trap and locks it.  The chain bursts open and the ghost escapes again.

Scarring the lovely assistant 

As the Ghostbusters turn their attention toward Calamari they go into his room and find a chest.  When they break it open they find newspaper clippings. Turns out Calamari has to change his stage name a lot and isn’t very good at his job.  At one point he caused an audience member to disappear and wasn’t able to bring him back.

Peter is heading into a trap!

Peter goes and confronts Calamari’s assistant Vanna again.  Vanna had earlier been hypnotized by Calamari and showed Peter Calamari’s magic cabinet with the intention of trapping him.  She closed the door and Peter was sent to another dimension.  In that strange dimension he saw many bizarre things, loses his keys, and finds Calamari’s lost volunteer, a man named Irving. 

Yeah, she is not totally here.

  The remaining Ghostbusters figure out what happened and confront Calamari who tells them the only way to free their friend is to catch the ghost.  The finally do by placing the trap in quick drying cement, but then they catch Calamari trying to take off.  During Calamari's attempt to flee the cement cracked and the ghost escaped again.  They catch Calamari and in his notes discover that he stole the notebook and magic cabinet of Harry Houdini.  They come to the collusion that Houdini is the ghost and that’s why he can escape all those traps.  Egon pointed out that he hadn’t lost his touch.  Winston realizes it wasn’t the ghost who attacked them it was Calamari.

Trying to trap Houdini, not much luck.

They gave Houdini his stuff back and he goes in the cabinet and rescues Peter and Irving.  Calamari tried to push them all into the cabinet but Houdini naps him first.  Before leaving completely he returns Peter’s keys.  The Ghostbusters return to the firehouse trying to help Vanna but it is no good.  Peter gets desperate and kisses her and it works.  Vanna is surprised she asks where they found the toad in the city because according to Calamari a toad kissing her would be the only cure.  Three of the Ghostbusters think this is hilarious.      

Is grateful that Peter kisses like a toad.

My Take:  The Ghostbusters meet a ghost who was a legend in his own time.  Harry Houdini the world’s greatest escape artist and leading skeptic, makes a challenging ghost for the Ghostbusters.  I love the fact that he kept escaping from their traps, I think he would have gotten through the concrete even without help if given the time.  This is one of those interesting episodes where the ghost wasn’t the villain a human was.

                Now for my stray observations:

·         I didn’t think Houdini’s ghost looked anything like him.  Doing a famous person is risky but he had been dead by sixty years by this point so who would care?

·         I liked the dialogue between Egon and Winston.  Egon thinks magic is ridiculous (in this episode), while  Winston pointing out how he didn’t believe in certain things until going the Ghostbusters.

·         Nowadays with the Internet and Facebook there is no way Calamari would have been able to keep changing his name an outfit for new acts especially after he lost a guy.  One quick Google search will scare away any potential employer.

·         Irving: “Do any of you have a dime?”  Winston: “It’s a quarter now.” 2016: “What’s a pay phone?”

·         Peter kisses like a toad to the point magic is fooled.

·         Good thing they never tried to put Houdini in a Containment Unit that would have caused problems.

·         For the record David Copperfield owns all of Houdini’s stuff.

A great episode with famous historical figure as the main ghost. 

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

FUN WITH TRAINS

Last Train to Oblivion

Original Air date November 24, 1987^[1]

Writers: Michael Edens and Mark Edward Edens

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 3 of 5)

Summary:  The ghost of famous train engineer Casey Jones is haunting the local train station.  He doesn’t seem to be impressed or just doesn’t understand modern trains, so he hijacks a classic. 

Ghost of Casey Jones!

                Back at the firehouse, Peter has a train obsession that we have never seen before and is really excited about his new model train. Slimer thinks it is food and eats it, enraging Peter.  Peter gets over it however when they get a call from the train station and Peter gets to be around real trains.  They don't have to do any ghost detective work to figure out the nature of the ghost because as soon as they get there one of the engineers tells them he believes it was the ghost of old Casey Jones. 

More coal, Peter!

                The Ghostbusters split up and Peter and Winston find an old steam train, like the ones used in the last century.  They found it after Peter explained his love of trains and his knowledge of Casey Jones’s history and how he died in a horrific accident. 

Okay we caught the ghost and now we're about to die.  Suggestions?

                Egon and Ray find the ghost in the break room and chase him out of it.  The ghost retreats to the train that Peter and Winston boarded and where Peter found an old engineer’s cap.  Casey takes control of the train, and forces Peter to be his fireman, yelling “more coal” at him.  Winston escaped from the train before it took off and joined the other two Ghostbusters in pursuit of it in Ecto-1.  Ray attempts some daring, or suicidal, attempts to catch the train. 

Jones stops the accident, Peter explains the legend.

                The three Ghostbusters do eventually get on the train and trap Casey but they realize they are on a collision course with another train.  Peter realizes that Casey Jones wanted to recreate the accident so he can avoid it and lets him out so he can switch the tracks and save the train.

                Casey Jones flies off into the sunset as Peter explains the legend to the rest of the Ghostbusters.

My Take: Casey Jones, whose real name was Johnathan Luther Jones, (Casey was a nickname based on his hometown) was a real-life train engineer in the late nineteenth century.  He was well respected in his profession and was well known for his talents with a train whistle and getting his trains in on time.  He was so well respected in his profession that he was asked by his company to represent them at World's Columbian Exposition.  His death is somewhat controversial.  Unlike in the episode, the train wasn’t running at another train coming directly at it, what happened was they rear-ended a train in front of them.   There is some controversy is whether Jones saw, missed, or if there even was a warning flag.  Jones quick thinking did actually prevent the accident from being worse than it was.  Peter was clearly wrong when he says it was one of the worst accidents, Jones was only one who died.

                Now for my stray observations:

·         Slimer is a bit out of character, he eats food not things.  Otherwise we would see him mowing down on Janine’s desk.  Let’s hope Slimer was just playing a joke on Peter and puked it up later.

·         Peter is so dumb he took the wrong major in college because of his train obsession?  Speaking of trains I don’t know any kids today or when I was a kid who loved trains like Peter does.  It seemed be popular kids' thing right up to the seventies but it doesn’t seem to be anymore.

·         Don’t need Egon to figure the ghost out, they’re told by the rail road employee that it was Casey Jones right away.  Well even Egon needs a break sometimes.

·         Yeah, we all thought of the Ninja Turtles character.

·         Ray is trying to clearly get his fellow Ghostbusters killed.

·         So Casey Jones‘s ghost intentionally endangers a bunch of people on a train for the sole purpose of seeing if he can stop it.  And this is okay because that is what he needed to be at peace.  AHH! You guys aren’t the Ghost Whisperer!  Take that self-righteous ghost and put him back in the trap and in the Containment Unit.   

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

THIS IS OUR CASTLE

The Bird of Kildarby

Original Air date: October 6, 1987^[1]

Writers: Craig Miller and Mark Nelson

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 3 of 5)

Summary: The Mayor of New York City is opening a new tourist attraction: an Irish castle that had just been relocated.  Yet they keep hearing pipes and drums and anyone who is sent inside is thrown into the moat.   They decide to call the Ghostbusters.

Haunted Castle

                The Ghostbusters get there.  Ray tries to go in first and he is tossed in the moat.  Ray actually thought it was fun told his team there was over 800 of them in there with a single leader.  According to Tobin’s Spirit Guide the knights were all slaughtered in battle but kept fighting in death.  Peter decides to go in and requests a meeting with their leader.  It’s actually granted and Peter is brought into to see Lord Kildarby.  Peter asks him why he is tossing people in the moat and Kildarby basically says that is their job.  Peter points out the city of New York now owns the castle but that just made the ghost lord mad and he has his men chase Peter around the castle grabbing him at the gate.  The other Ghostbusters force their way in to rescue Peter and to negotiate with Lord Kildarby.

Mayor tying to open it but ghosts are tossing people in the moat.

                Kildarby agrees to a wager.  Kildarby announced that he and his fellow ghosts will agree to leave the castle if the Ghostbusters can defeat his pet bird.  If the Ghostbusters lose the living have to leave the island forever.  Thinking that Lord Kildarby is only talking about the tiny island the castle is located on the Ghostbusters easily agreed.  It is then reveled the Kildarby is referring to all of Manhattan.

Who are you going to call?

                The bird rips the top right off the Ecto-1 as the Ghostbusters speed away.  The bird is so large that it's too big for any trap so Ghostbusters come up with a plan. They race back to the firehouse and attach a trap to the Containment Unit.  They then suck the bird through the trap directly into the Containment Unit.

Lord Kildarby 

                The Ghostbusters explain to the Mayor at the end that they came to an agreement with the ghosts of the castle.  They will be allowed to stay but they have to tolerate and not harass the tourists.  The only thing the tourists will notice is the flutes and drums on occasion.

 My Take: I thought this was a very odd episode not a lot made sense in it. There were contradictions all through the episode.   

                So I am just going into my stray observations:

·         I thought the Ghostbusters relationship with the Mayor was generally positive, what’s with games?  

·         So the alarm is only for class 6 or above?  I always thought it was to alert the Ghostbusters, who might be located in various parts of the firehouse, that they had a job.  If it’s a class 5 or lower what is Janine expected to do?  Walk around the firehouse looking for them individually?

·         The whole premise of the episode doesn’t make any sense.  The ghosts are going to expel any invaders because they are the defenders of the castle.  Yet when the architects of Warner Applegate III, who donated it to the city, took it apart piece by piece and shipped those parts to New York to have it reconstructed.  Where were the ghosts then?  We’re they all having a crap and missed it?  If they were asleep or something when they woke up shouldn’t they be concerned about where they are?  How do they know anything about New York in order to make the bet about the island?

·         Again we have the whole “too big for trap thing!”  Ectoplasm shrinks, size isn’t an issue.

·         Why are these ghosts presenting such a problem? They’re not that impressive.  What the Ghostbusters should be doing is bring forty traps in the car, put at least three ghosts in each trap, when all the traps have been used return to the firehouse to place them in the Containment Unit, and return to repeat six or seven times to the castle is empty.  Charge the city for 800 removals.  No, instead the Ghostbusters negotiate with the ghosts.  Again they’re the Ghostbusters not the Ghost Whisperer!

Ahh! Back to the drawing board. 

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

THE GHOSTBUSTERS ARE PLAYING GHOST WHISPERER AGAIN

The Man Who Never Reached Home

Original Air date: October 12, 1987^[1]

Writer: Kathryn M. Drennan

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: The episode begins in 1887 at an inn where a man named Simon Quegg, is irrationally angry at the inn’s owners.  Quegg is an important man whom the owners seem quite concerned as to having upset him.  Quegg tells them that he will shut their inn down.  The scared owners beg him not to ride out trying to remind him that there is a bad storm and it is not safe, and he can stay at their little inn.  Quegg refuses; after all he is going to try to have the place shut down.  He yells out, "I'll see home before the night is out or by all that is unholy may I never see home again."  Little does he realize as he said that the horse’s eyes changed to the color red as he rode off.  After he left a phantom rider appears and gives chase.

Poor inn owners worried that Quegg will ruin them.

                In the modern 1987, the Ghostbusters on their way back from a job stop at a local diner.  Slimer is with them and they decide to leave him in the car but Ray tells Slimer he will order him a meal.  As Ray comes back with Slimer’s food Simon Quegg rolls up and asks him directions to Providence.  When Ray informs him it’s nearly eighty miles.  Quegg refuses to believe him and goes into a near panic.  He says he can’t stay that something is gaining on him.  As he departs the phantom rider appears chasing after Quegg.

Riding for over a hundred years.

                Ray runs into the dinner with Slimer telling the others what he saw.  The manager of the diner, who had started chasing Slimer around with a frying pan, stopped and stated that the man he saw was Simon Quegg.  The manger went on to explain that all the locals were aware of him and that he was the ghost of man who got lost in a storm a century ago.  The ghost, the manager continued, is always seen during a storm; he stops, asks directions, refuses to believe what anyone tells him, and rides off.  When Ray asked about the other one the manager panics and says the only people who see the Rider are cursed with misfortune and with that he kicks the Ghostbusters out of his establishment.

Ray meets Quegg.

                Ray wants to find Quegg, but he makes it clear that he doesn’t want to bust him he wants to help him.  Egon is intrigued and convinces both Peter and Winston to agree.  They use the PKE meter to track him to a bridge.  When they arrive Quegg remembers Ray, Ray asks Quegg if he can come down, but Egon says that Quegg is a separate ghost from the horse and buggy, and of the two the horse and buggy is more powerful.  Ray decides to adjust his particle thrower to target only the more powerful spirit but when does this he ends up switching places with Quegg.  Ray, now the occupant of the horse and buggy is pulled away and the rider is chasing him.

The Rider

                The remaining Ghostbusters force Quegg to return with them to the firehouse.  They try to brainstorm a way to get Ray back.  The horse and buggy will only return during a storm so if they are to get there comrade back they have to recreate it.  The Ghostbusters produce a device that will get the clouds in the air to create a storm but they will have to bring the device to the clouds themselves using Ecto-2.  They head out and because Egon created the device he decided it would be himself he would risk to activate it, however he does take Slimer with him. 

Oh, no we lost Ray.

                Returning to the bridge in New England, Egon flies the Ecto-2 in the air.  They end crashing the Ecto-2 into the water but accomplish their mission.  As Egon predicted because they have Simon Quegg with them the horse and buggy return with Ray in it.  The other Ghostbusters all try to blast the buggy but that only results in a lightning bolt coming down and shorting out all their packs.

Slimer being helpful

                When then dark rider arrives Ray convinces Quegg to confront it.  Quegg gets back on the buggy with Ray to confront the rider.  As they get closer they see the rider has Quegg’s face!  He was running from himself the whole time.  Quegg pushes Ray off saying this is something he has to do on his own.  Two Simon Queggs collide and disappear.

Now we're serious.

                The weather clears and it is now bright and sunny, Simon Quegg returns to thank the Ghostbusters for freeing him.  He is grateful that can now go home.  

The reveal.

My Take: This was a great episode it was inspire by a New England legend which originated as a story called Peter Rugg—the Missing Man, written by a William Austin.  There are several differences in Kathryn M. Drennan’s character and the one created by Austin.  For example Simon Quegg rides alone where Peter Rugg’s ten year old daughter shares his curse.  Another difference is Simon Quegg is from a more recent time of 1887, exactly one hundred years before this episode’s time.  Peter Rugg was said to be born in 1730 and went missing in 1770.  William Austin himself died in the 1840s, four decades before Drennan’s character got started.

                One of the reasons I rank this episode so high is the characterization.  Ghostbusters tales are always character driven stories; most of its humor and charm from character interaction moments.  It’s great when they come across situations and they react as you expect they would.  In this episode Ray wants to help out of compassion and Egon out of curiosity.  Peter brings up the whole money angle; once again the Ghostbusters are doing something without pay. 

                Speaking of which, this was also as pointed out in the title of this review, the Ghostbusters acting less like themselves and more like the Ghost Whisperer.  Usually they bust ghosts not try to solve their problems.  Yet, I don’t mind the change because it prevents every episode from being about the same thing.  Also there is some debate that what the Ghostbusters do is actually good and I think episodes like this proves it is. 

Now for my stray observations:

·         I like when Peter defended Slimer from Quegg, Peter always claims to hate him but don’t mess with the spud in front of him.

·         Speaking of Slimer I love the fact that Slimer forgets about his ghost abilities.  Man chases him with a pan and Slimer tries to avoid it for fear of getting hurt while he can always turn intangible and it won’t even be able to touch him.  Another great scene was when the Ecto-2 was spinning and Slimer was holding on for dear life, forgetting that he can fly and is not dependent on Ecto-2 to stay in the air.

·         Poor Ecto-2 they crashed it again. Hopefully we won’t have to wait thirty some odd episodes before we see it again.

·         I think if I was Quegg I would have charged the dark rider long before a century was up.

Nevertheless this was great episode and I highly encourage anyone to watch it. 

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