MISSING THE MARK

Not Now, Slimer!

Original Air date September 14, 1991

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 2 of 5)

Summary:  The episode begins with Slimer interrupting all the Ghostbusters and destroying one of Egon’s experiments.  Slimer gets yelled at and goes off to pout.  The Ghostbusters get called to a job.  When the Ghostbusters get there they end up fighting a powerful ghost that they have chase around the entire city. It turns out that this ghost is the very incarnation of the anger of all the ghosts captured in the Containment Unit.

Slimer made a mess!

                Slimer spends the episode being chased by Dweeb until the big ghost shows up and drives him away.  Slimer and the Ghostbusters unite to defeat the main super ghost.  

Super Ghost

My Take:  In an earlier episode the Ghostbusters encounter the ghost of Sherlock Holmes, who was a fictional character, this was explained by the concept of beliefs made manifest.  In the same nature the Ghostbusters in this episode encounter a powerful ghost who was brought to life from the anger of the ghosts captured in the Containment Unit.  Unfortunately instead of focusing on this very interesting concept the episode wastes half its run time with another encounter with villain Dweeb.  Yes, it was that bad. 

                Now for my stray observations:

·         When the ghost first attacks the old folks home Peter states how he hates it when ghosts take advantage of old people.  But considering ghosts were once people how do they know a haunting at an old folks home isn’t a welcoming committee?

·         I am assuming that the left over ghost matter is what made the Ghostbusters not die when they fell from such a height.

This episode was very disappointing. 

THIS EPISODE WASN’T NEW WHEN THEY AIRED IT!

Deja Boo

Original Air date October 13, 1990

Writers: Michael Reaves,Chuck Menville, Richard Mueller, Pamela Hickey and Dennys McCoy

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 2 of 5)

Summary:  The loser Dweeb captures Slimer using one of his devices.  He then uses a machine to look into Slimer’s brain.  This causes him (and the audience) to watch old Ghostbusters episodes.  At the end Slimer captures Dweeb in his own device.

My Take: In the classic Star Trek episode “the Menagerie” Mr. Spock kidnaps the former Captain of the Enterprise, Christopher Pike, who had been hurt worse than Christopher Reeve was in real life.  During his court-martial Mr. Spock showed a video that was actually the pilot episode “The Cage.”  This was done by the writers to put the events of the unaired pilot into the mainstream continuity of the series.  This however is a clip episode, a popular device in the 80s and 90s.  These were usually at the end of a season to remind the view of all the great episodes that they had that season.  These could on occasion be rewarding, showing continuity throughout the series.  Also in the era before ondemand if you forgot to tape something then you were out of luck to summer reruns. A clip episode could catch you up on important events.  

                This however was in poor quality.  First, it involved that loser Dweeb from the horrible Slimer subseries.  Any episode with Dweeb is usually a wasted episode.  The second is every one of these episodes were from Season 3.  That was three seasons ago.  It’s almost like an admission that they have run out of ideas, since many episodes in this season were repeated concepts.  This was a bad way to close out a weak season.

MEET LOUIS’S NEPHEW

Busters in Toyland

Original Air date November 17, 1990

Writers: Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley

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 2 of 5)

Summary:  Louis Tully has a spoiled nephew named Lawrence who they are throwing a birthday party for at the Ghostbusters station.  They day before a clock repairman fixed an old clock at the toy store.  That clock then opened a portal that caused the toys to be possessed.  At his party Lawrence is being a jerk and wants to skip all the parts of the party he finds boring and go straight to the presents.  When he opens the presents, he says he has all of them and throws them down.

Lawrence Tully and the only toys he likes.

                The only present he likes are the toys his uncle got for him and those come to life and take him away.  The Ghostbusters follow and find the clock tower.  It turns out the dimension is hollow of all but illusion and the demon Lothgar is trapped here until someone agrees to take his place.  He almost converts Lawrence until the Ghostbusters come and rescue him.  They escape in the nick of time and Lawrence sees the error of his ways and decides not to be a jerk anymore.

Rescue mission.

My Take: I wasn’t a big fan of this episode.  It focuses on a character I don’t care about with an adventure that was very mundane.

                Now for my stray observations:

·         Why are the Ghostbusters going out of their way for this kid in the start of an episode?  $50 is not that much.

·         Lawrence’s parents must be crap, I feel sorry for Louis for having to grow up with such a brother.

·         Lothgar wanted out of his domain, but really how bad was it?  He had the power to make anything he wanted a reality.  Seems like an easy going place to me.

This one was a snoozer.

OH NO, PLEASE NO

The Slob

Original Air date October 6, 1990

Writers: Pamela Hickey and Dennys McCoy

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 2 of 5)

Summary: It’s a heat wave and a garbage strike so it’s hot and everything smells.  Dweeb, Slimer’s archenemies from his own sub-series attacks the firehouse trying to capture Slimer. After the Ghostbusters chase him off Dweeb runs into Glob, a ghost and the older brother of a captured ghost named Sleez who was the main villain in the Slimer episode “Don’t Tease the Sleeze.”  The two resolve to team up.

Glob

                The next day Glob attacks the Ghostbusters and captures Slimer while the Dweeb breaks Sleeze out of the Containment Unit.  When the brothers unite Sleeze expresses his desire to keep Slimer and the two brothers turn on Dweeb.  They also revel a power that allows them combine into one superghost called Slob.  They are now too powerful for the Ghostbusters to catch.  

Sleez

                The Ghostbusters team up with Dweeb and trick the brother ghosts into separating and captured the brothers.  Now both disgusting ghosts are in the Containment Unit.

The Brothers vs Dweeb, cheer for the meteor 

My Take: Rolling my eyes during this episode.  There really should have been an established rule that anything that starts in the Slimer sub-series stays there with all its characters, Loony Toon physics, and Containment Unit peep holes, so that it never effects mainstream continuity.  Write the whole thing off as Slimer’s dream.  Actually, the Slimver sub-series never should have happened anyway.  So I was less than pleased to have not one but two characters from there trying to follow up one of the Slimer episodes.  I know the reason they stuck the entire Slimer subseries for the last two DVDs, they didn’t want people to quit watching after volume 4. Although that decision clearly created continuity issues.

                Now for my stray observations:

·         The one thing that would have saved this episode for me is for Dweeb and his dog Elizabeth to have been revealed as ghosts and placed in the Containment Unit with the other two.  How else do you explain Dweeb’s shrunken head and ability to fit into a bird cage?

·         Too bad Janine was on vacation she could have walked around the office in her bikini again.

·         I’m sorry but neither Sleeze, Glob, nor Slob should be giving the Ghostbusters that much of a hard time.

·         I wonder if that sugar trick would really work?

Boo! Hiss! Anything to do with the Slimer sub-series. 

THE GHOSTBUSTERS HAVE THEIR MOST DESTRUCTIVE JOB YET!

The Hole in the Wall Gang

Original Air date October 21, 1987^[1]

Writer: David Gerrold

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 2 of 5)

Summary: A creepy melting ghost terrifies Mrs. Von Limburger of the great Limburger cheese family.  She decides to call the Ghostbusters.  The Ghostbusters arrive and they find the house very dreary.  Winston just wants to leave but the're the Ghostbusters and they can’t be put off by things just because they are scary.

Bizarre ghost that prompts call!

                Mr. and Mrs. Von Limburger are very dreary people but Peter seems to touch base with the man of the house a little bit.  Egon can pinpoint the source and the grateful Von Limburgers decided to take off and leave everything to the Ghostbusters.  The Ghostbusters find a hole in the wall and a ghost comes out so they go to blast it.  They miss a lot and end up creating more holes but they catch the ghost.  The Ghostbusters are used to blasting holes in people’s property but this time more ghosts pop out.  While investigating Ray gets pulled through the first hole after he widened it to get a better target.  The rest of them widen it further to see if they could rescue him.  He comes back with his hair white but otherwise okay.

The Von Limburgers

                Winston then finds a little hole that has little ghost coming out of it.  They then understand the bigger the hole the bigger the ghost.  Realizing by making one hole really big they are now in a lot of trouble.  So they try to put a smaller hole in front of it.  This however causes and earthquake and the Ghostbusters are forced to leave the house.

Ghosts and there holes.  The one on the top middle looks like a banana.

                They get out as the house falls into itself.  However they still have another problem.  The crater is one really big super hole and a very large ghost is coming out.  Winston takes his little hole out of his pocket throwing it into the mouth the beast causing it all to implode.

More ghosts of the holes

                The Von Limburgers get back and cry at the sight of destroyed house.  Peter tells them that’s what it took and let them know the Ghostbusters would be sending their bill.    

Homeless couple with a ghostbusting bill!

My Take:  So you see a cockroach and call and exterminator.  The exterminator does an investigation and you find out that your house had to be condemned. Even worse they already destroyed it while you were at the grocery store.

 I found this episode really confusing I didn’t get any of the cultural references. There was no real explanation to why they were seeing what they were seeing, what they did, or even how it was resolved.

·         The conversation near the beginning between Peter and Mr. Von Limburger was funny. 

·         The Ghostbusters destructiveness seems to be catching up to them.

·         To take the little hole to place to in front of the big hole, they had to make another big hole.  Oh, never mind.

·         The most destructive episode ever and the Ghostbusters didn’t ever seem to feel bad that they destroyed this couple's home.

Not as good as the season one final. 

---

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

IF THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE SHOW UP—JUST WAX THEM

Apocalypse—What, Now?

Original Air date: November 18, 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 2 of 5)

Summary: In 1684 the Monastery of Saint Theophilus was being raided so the monks entrusted one of their brothers with their greatest secret: the Codex of Saint Theophilus.  The young monk takes it and then the show shifts back to 1987. Peter and Ray are at a rare book auction, but Ray doesn’t get the book he wants because dust causes Peter to sneeze and that means he bought the codex for $1000.00.

Going up.

                Ray and Peter return to the firehouse and the Ghostbusters get a call so they leave.  Janine goes out for lunch by herself and wanted something to read so she took the Codex.  She breaks the wax to read it and Hell breaks loose.  The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse show up and start destroying stuff.  The Ghostbusters try to stop them but fail.  The Horsemen can escape from the Ghostbusters trap making them impossible to contain.

This is scary lets sit down.

                A Greek cleric comes back with a way to defeat the Horsemen.  In desperation the Ghostbusters agree to go with him to Greece in a scary airplane.  They get there in one piece even though their airplane falls apart after they land.  They ride donkeys to the Monastery of Saint Theophilus.   When they get there they have to ride a rope lift up but Peter falls off and lands on a cliff.  They get the magic wax and seal, trap the Horseman again in one of their ghost traps, and seal the trap with a magic wax.  The world is saved.

Wax that trap.

My Take: Okay that was odd.  I kept leaning back between a 2 and 3 and it ultimately became a 2.  Sometime even the Real Ghostbusters fall short.  Also the animation was sloppy in this episode, it didn’t condemn the episode but it didn’t help.  

                Now for my stray observations:

·         So the monks can stop the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse but not bandits.  Bandits are tough.

·         Sneezing is a bid, avoid old book auctions.

·         Janine is allowed to leave the Firehouse on her break, but she hardly ever leaves firehouse that’s why her apartment is so clean.

·         Janine hero in one episode causes the Apocalypse in the next. 

·         Okay why didn’t the old guy from Greece just bring the magic wax with him? 

·         Eastern Europe at the end of the Soviet era.

·         Maybe the plane ride wasn’t a big deal the Ghostbusters seem to fall great distances and survive unhurt. This isn't supposed to be the Loony Toons. 

·         Well, no one will try to read a ghost trap. 

---

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

OLD COLLEGE TRY

The Old College Spirit

Original Air date: November 27, 1987^[1]

Writer: John Shirley

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 2 of 5)

Summary: Fraternity brothers for the Tri Kuppa Bro are getting threatened by the dean for a series of pranks happening around campus.  It has nothing to do with them but rather frat ghosts who are causing the pranks, and they immediately trip the dean.

Peter going to help his fellow frat bros

                At the station a stuck up group of women wanted to present the Ghostbusters an award for ridding the “undesirables” of New York.  This goes well until they see Slimer and the get offended and Peter tells them off.  The Frat bros show up and ask the Ghostbusters help, it turns Peter is frat bro so he agrees. 

Frat Ghosts

                When they get to the frat house, the Ghostbusters find the frat ghosts too hard to handle.  The frat ghosts defeat them with ease and steal their weapons.  Afterwards they go on a reign of terror at the school.  The Ghostbusters with the aid of the dean look into history of the school and find out these are ghosts of dead expelled students.  They come up with a plan to trick the ghosts.  They tell the ghosts that they can graduate if they pass a few classes.  So the ghosts take some fake classes with the Ghostbusters as their instructors and then they are called in to pose for the class picture.  It turns out the camera is a proton gun and there is a trap underneath them.  The ghosts are zapped and trapped and that is that.

Frat Ghosts getting mean

My Take: The college ghosts were losers.  They never should have been able to challenge the Ghostbusters much less disarm them.  I was more offended by that then I was of Casper.

                My stray observations:

·         Who were those ladies that Peter mocked? We’re they supposed to represent somebody? Nevertheless I was glad to see Peter stand up for Slimer, he may not like him at home but he'll defend him against other people.

·         What did the frat ghosts expect to do once they graduated?  Get a job? Impress ghost girls?

·         I did think the trick camera was creative.

The one part of the episode that I found enjoyable.

·         So ghost bros vs PC bros?

---

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

ONE SLIMER TOO MANY

Adventures in Slime and Space

Original Air date: September 15, 1987^[1]

Writer: David Gerrold

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 2 of 5)

Summary: The episode begins with an explosion at the firehouse as a result of Egon’s experiment to successful build a plasmic strainer, a device designed to disintegrate ghosts so they don’t have to contain them anymore.  Slimer then gets in a fight with Peter and accidentally flies into the plasmic strainer while they are testing it.  He doesn’t disintegrate but he does destabilize and every time he hits something he splits into two smaller Slimers.  As Slimer keeps multiplying the Ghostbusters try to catch them but just end up dividing them more.

Egon and his immoral machine!

                With the Slimers doubling every couple of seconds they quickly overwhelm the city sliming everything.  The city is covered pedestrians are falling down, cars are crashing, and people are getting hurt.  The Ghostbusters have to reluctantly tell the Mayor of New York how badly they screwed up. As you can imagine the Mayor is not pleased.

Lots of Slimers!

                They come up with a way to reverse what has happened by altering the plasmic strainer to reverse and capturing one of the little Slimers to send through it. The little Slimer turns blue and starts absorbing all the other Slimers.  However since each of the little Slimers gained mass as they ate, the new blue Slimer became a giant.

This is stupid, you have ghost traps. 

                Reporting the change to the Mayor, the Ghostbusters were helpless as Janine was captured by the evil Slimer and he took her to the Empire State Building.  The Ghostbusters borrow four helicopters from the Mayor’s office and attached Proton guns to them.  They are able to burn of the excess mass and restore Slimer to his awesome self.

We're all together again! We're here! We're here!

My Take: Often episodes begin with the Ghostbusters sitting around their firehouse wondering if they are going to go out of business because they caught all the ghosts.  When I see this I start thinking “aren’t new ghosts being made all the time, especially in New York?”  I also wonder “where does their money go?”  They charge a lot of their services they must have licensing fees from their movie so why should ever be close to bankruptcy?  After this episode perhaps I should ask if they ever going to be solvent, just imagine the lawsuits.  Maybe the Mayor’s office covered it up for them. Mayor Lenny Clotch has been a known backer of the Ghostbusters and maybe he just told people the Ghostbusters saved them from another other dimensional threat.   

Bad Slimer!

                I always rag on the Ghostbusters for being so destructive on their missions, but at least they are reacting to something and have been called in to help.  This the first time I saw them actually cause mass amounts of damage and have it be completely their fault.  That creep who nearly charged Aunt Lois doesn’t look so bad now.   What’s really bothersome about it is the fact of why it happened.  It happened because Egon’s was trying to commit a type of genocide.  There have been fans of this series who have called into question the morality of what the Ghostbusters do.  Going around kidnapping ghosts some of whose only crime was to annoy someone with money and phone.  Personally if the Ghostbusters were real I don’t think that would be so controversial due to the fact there wouldn’t be a public consensus on what the ghosts were.  Yet, containing them is one thing destroying them is another especially when they know enough about them to know they have emotions similar to humans.  I never felt bad about the Containment Unit it’s a very humane trap it the ghosts are given their own little dimension to live in, where they can roam freely within it but they can’t bother human civilization. Trying to make Egon a mass murder of ghosts cost the episode big in the points department.  I like to think they would have only used it on truly evil ghosts who hurt people, but still it’s a part of the series that is best forgotten in an episode written mostly for humor.

Some of my stray observations:

·         ·         Why did they keep trying to catch the little Slimers with a net when they have ghost traps?     

        ·         Haven’t rebuilt the Ecto-2 yet, have to borrow helicopters from the Mayor?

      ·         Egon had previously stated he didn’t have a pilot’s license, yet the Mayor allows them all to fly in helicopters.

---

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