THE NEXT GENERATION

 Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Release date: November 19 2021

Writers: Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman

Director: Jason Reitman

Main Cast:

•             Carrie Coon as Callie Spengler

•             Finn Wolfhard as Trevor

•             Mckenna Grace as Phoebe

•             Paul Rudd as Gary Grooberson

•             Logan Kim as Podcast: Phoebe's classmate

•             Celeste O'Connor as Lucky Domingo

•             Bill Murray as Peter Venkman

•             Dan Aykroyd as Raymond Stantz

•             Harold Ramis as Egon Spengler

•             Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddemore

•             Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz

•             Sigourney Weaver as Dana Barrett

·         Josh Gad as Muncher\

·     J. K. Simmons as Ivo Shandor

•      Olivia Wilde as Gozer the Gozerian

(Rating 5 of 5)

Summary: (Spoilers! After all it’s a summary. Stop reading if you don’t want a spoiler.) The movie begins with the view of a mountain and we see a proton blast.  Then a truck races away, inside we see a full ghost trap and the driver is clearly Egon Spengler.  After the truck crashes Egon escapes to a farmhouse that he clearly has wired into his own Home Alone disaster for ghosts. As an invisible force steps forward, Egon pulls his house trap, only to have it short out.  He retreats into the farmhouse and hides the trap, sits in a chair with a PKE meter and waits. As ghost steam enters the room the PKE meter starts blinking more rapidly.  Arms come out the chair indicating the return of Zuul.  However, ghost energy retreats from the farm house empty handed for Egon Spengler has died.

Elsewhere, we are introduced to Callie, a mother of two.  She is having a number of problems for her attempt to trim her son’s hair ends up with her cutting him, she can’t identify with her genius daughter at all, and the worst is that they are about to get evicted.  According to her daughter Phoebe, Callie has never been good with money.  The good news is her absentee father has died and she is about to inherit his farmhouse. 

old farm house!

They travel out west to Summerville, Oklahoma.  The family arrives at a farmhouse and they have to break in.  The place is not very nice inside but it has some books stacked in a way the no human would stack them.  Trevor likes all the junk cars that he finds because cars are his thing.  Phoebe finds the PKE meter.  There is a brief earthquake that forces them to get under the table for shelter.   They also meet Janine Melnitz, who tries to introduce herself but hesitates to describe her exact relationship with the previous owner.  We learn from Janine that Callie seems to have inherited her money skills from her dad who left and awful lot of debt on the farm. 

As they travel about town, they find that the “dirt farmer” as he was known had quite the reputation as being the area’s local weirdo.  Trevor gets a job at a local burger joint in order to get to know the local girl named Lucky, who he finds very hot.  Trevor trying to get with Lucky is a subplot throughout the film.  It’s hard but not Louis/Dana pathetic level. 

(Two kids on the move)

For some reason Phoebe has to do summer school, with all the strange things that goes on with this movie I find this part to be the thing the makes the least amount of sense.  Most students are there because they failed in regular school, so now they are in credit recovery.  Credit recovery is easy as their teacher, Mr. Grooberson, just makes them watch movies so he can work on his hobbies during class time. 

Phoebe in summer school for some reason

Phoebe meets her new friend Podcast, who I have time imagining why he is in summer school, the two bond in a non-romantic kid way.  Phoebe goes to see what Grooberson is up to and finds that he is researching why the area has so much earthquakes.  In being able to read his work, Phoebe convinces Grooberson of her own genius and he begins consulting with her as an equal. 

When a supernatural force starts moving the chess pieces at the farm, Phoebe has seemed to have found a friendly ghost to play chess with.  Using her PKE meter she follows the ghost energy until it leads her to discover the ghost trap and its secret location.  Her brother Trevor finds another Ghostbusters’ treasure: the Ecto-1 itself.  It is not working but Trevor is a genius with cars and he begins to use the parts around the farm to begin repairs.

Finds a car!

Phoebe brings her trap to school to show Podcast, but Mr. Grooberson is the one who is excited about the “replica.” Grooberson discovers two things.  The first it might not be a replica and the second his kids know nothing about the Ghostbusters.  Being the responsible teacher that he is, he decides that they need to learn about the Ghostbusters right away.  He tells them everything that happened in the first Ghostbusters movie.  To Phoebe and Podcast this is the most important history lesson of their life.

Grooberson goes all fanboy

The trio decide they need to see what is in the ghost trap and in doing so they accidently release a non-corporal terror dog onto the world, who also ends up breaking a lot of glass.  With that the teacher brings the kids home and hits on Phoebe’s mom.

Trevor gets to hang out with co-workers doing the only thing that kids can do in this strange town: they go up the mountain that use to be a mine.  They’re hanging out and Trevor is having a moment with Lucky but then they hear monster noises and lights coming from the abandoned mineshaft.  They laugh it off but leave pretty quick. 

History lesson

At the farmhouse Phoebe follows her ghost friend who turns out to be her late grandfather to his secret lab where he had all his ghostbuster equipment.  There she spends the night tuning up proton packs and going over his notes.  The next day she is trying out her proton pack with Podcast.  After she destroys her target, they hear something in an old abandoned factory.  There is a metal eating ghost we will call Muncher.  The two try to capture it without much success.  While they are doing that Trevor with some grandfather ghost help gets the Ecto-1 running and goes for a joyride.

Lets see what is inside

The two would-be-ghostbusters run into the Ghostbuster car.  Phoebe and Podcast convince Trevor to join in the chase.  When they find the ghost, they chase it all around town.   Using the Ecto-1 gunner seat and remote-control trap they finally get Muncher.  Shortly after they promptly arrest by the police for all the property damage and unlicensed driving. 

practice makes prefect 

It turns out Lucky is the top cop’s daughter so she sees their fall.  Ecto-1 and the Ghostbuster equipment is confiscated.  While there, Phoebe uses her one phone call to contact Ray Stantz.  Ray informs her of how the Ghostbusters came to an end and she informs him that Spengler is dead and she is granddaughter.  Some seeds have been planted.  Mom and Grooberson interrupt their date to bail the klids out.  Mom is very annoyed despite the fact she was just saying she wanted her kids to get into a bit of trouble. 

Here comes trouble!

After their release the trio teams up with Lucky and compare their notes with Lucky’s knowledge of the town.  It turns out Ivo Shandor built the whole place.  This is where he secured the substance for Dana Barrett’s apartment building.  The four of them investigate the interior of the mountain and discover a fallback temple for Gozer to rise again if the New York invasion didn’t work out.  There is even a date of attempt dates on the wall and this year is one of them.  Ivo Shandor’s body is also on display.   Gozer’s return however is being held off by an elaborate ghostbusting set-up built by Egon Spengler.  After seeing it in action and Shandor almost wake up the kids retreat home.

Checking out Gozer's HQ

Grooberson is getting some shopping down at a Wal-Mart where he is attacked by mini-Stay Puft Marshmallow men.  Things go from bad to worse when he is confronted by the terror dog, Vinz Clortho.  The dog chases him out to the parking lot and traps him in his car.  Callie is off in Egon’s secret lab finding out her dad did care for her where she is attacked by Zuul.  When the kids return, they find her possessed.  She escapes to join Vinz who has just wreaked Egon’s elaborate ghostbusting set-up releasing the netherworld into the town of Summerville.  The two meet up and mate so they can summon of Gozer.   

Gozer rises up and is looking as great as Oliva Wilde normally does.  Ivo Shandor wakes up to greet her and she is so grateful that she rips him in half.  After all, don’t all Gozer worshippers want to be sacrifices? Sorry Shandor!  However, as Gozer is rising the Ghostbusters are being reborn.  Trevor, Phoebe, Podcast, and Lucky grab the classic jumpsuits and get to work.  They liberate their equipment including Ecto-1 from a police station with the help of the first capture. 

Gozer is back!

They split up with Lucky taking a police cruiser and the other three taking Ecto-1 to the mountain.  Phoebe distracts the great Gozer with jokes while Podcast uses the remote trap to capture Zuul and free Callie.  This disrupts Gozer on Earth and gives the kids and Mom a chance to escape.  The Ghostbusters flee in Ecto-1 being chased by Vinz Clortho still possessing Grooberson.  They lead the supernatural creatures back to the farmhouse to replay the battle at the beginning of the movie. 

Like grandfather like grandkids! However, the trap maybe well designed but it still has a lot of bugs and mini-Stay Puft Marshmallow Men getting in the way.  Zuul is freed and takes control of Lucky.  Just when all seems lost the three original Ghostbusters show up.  Phoebe’s phone call to Ray inspired some other phone calls.  The three confront Gozer for a forced reunion and Ray finally gets a chance to correct the god question answer.  However, Gozer is able to undo the stream cross this time (since it was only three) and all looks lost again.  Phoebe still has her proton pack and attacks and her hold on her particle thrower is aided by the ghost of Egon Spengler.  Then the Ghostbusters new, old, alive, and dead unite with Callie the Mom and stop Gozer for good permanently trapping the god.

The return!

              Grooberson and Lucky are freed.  Egon’s two families wish him the best and let him know he was loved.  His spirt moves on and two sets of Ghostbusters get to know each other.  There are some light hearted after credit scenes letting you know the Ghostbusters are back.  

 

My Take: (Lots of Spoilers in this section too!  Yup spoilers.) Okay I am going to straight for something that is very important to me.  Although I love Ghostbusters II, I never liked the breaking up of Egon and Janine in favor of a Janine/Louis relationship.  One the reasons Janine You’ve Changed is in my mind the last great episode of The Real Ghostbusters for confirming them as an actual couple.  Now to have live action confirmation of this as well makes me happy.  When the whole world was against Egon, Janine was still with him keeping his head above the sand!

Janine

I was concerned at first, I heard a rumor on the internet that although this was Egon’s family, Janine was not going to be the mother/grandmother.  However, when the family meets her Janine is hesitant to say what her relationship with him was exactly.  How do you say to a daughter who feels her father abandoned her “I am your dad’s one true sole mate and romantic partner for almost your entire life.”?  When we see the “wall of Callie” there are some dates and the earliest is from 1983.  Callie was born before Egon meet Janine. 

So, what happened with Egon and Callie’s mom.  Well Egon can not be the easiest person to have a relationship with however he has been known to get girls.  Not only was Janine attracted to him but he also has been shown to have gotten the eye of many secretaries over the years.  I think Egon had a brief relationship with Callie’s mother that resulted in a pregnancy.  I also think it is very probable that we have a Jim Kirk/Carol Marcus situation.  

“Were we together?  Were we going to be? You had your world and I had mine and I wanted him in mine.  Not chasing through the universe with his father.” From Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan. Carol Marcus explaining why she never told David about his father. 

Callie’s mom had found Egon’s interest in the paranormal a cute hobby until one day she became convinced of how real and dangerous it could actually be.  Not wanting harm to come to her daughter she simple asks Egon to stay away.  Egon originally might have hoped to work things out but the founding of the Ghostbusters and the rise of Gozer back in New York convinced him of the righteousness of Callie’s mom decision and chose to watch from a distance.   The whole “I was abandoned” story was a lie her mother told her to protect her.  If you think you are not wanted it could kill the ambition to search. 

This wouldn’t be the only time a mother sought to protect her child from the world of a ghostbuster father.  This is the reason that Dana tried to keep Oscar a secret from Peter for over a year. (Yes, Oscar is Peter’s biological son. Remind me to explain that in detail one day.) The Ghostbusters world can be a scary place I can see why someone would want to shield their kids.

I have to say I love all these characters and I am excited for the future as the new Ghostbusters.  Trevor, Phoebe, Lucky, and Podcast will make a great team.  Will Gary Grooberson and Callie be there as well?  I like the idea of Ray hanging on as an advisor and Winston being the bank.  Peter can be recalled for sarcastic advice. I have a lot of hope for the future.

Now for some random thoughts:

·         All of Phoebe’s jokes are extremely funny.  I really like the one about the dead polar bear. 

·         Did Egon go by natural causes or some sort of suicide? We know Zuul didn’t kill him at least not intentionally.  Zuul’s goal was possession to undo the set-up that Egon had put together to stop Gozer.  Did Egon die of a panic attack since he was an older man?  Or did he take something to kill himself to avoid capture?  

·         The Ghostbusters are finally held to account.  Ghost busting causes a lot of property destruction.  It is about time someone called them out on it.  Kudos to Lucky’s dad!

Capturing ghosts and lots of property damage!

·         I like the call out to the animated series.  Winston's love of the Ecto-1 wasn’t present in the movies.

·         Speaking of The Real Ghostbusters remember the episode where Egon became a ghost? Or when he became Slimer?

·         Someone tell Podcast to destroy that jumpsuit before it is too late!   

·         Winston is right that sound is the best.

The Ghostbusters are back I can’t wait for some of the adventures that will be coming. 

CLASSIC GHOSTBUSTERS

Ghostbusters

Release date: June 7, 1984

Writers: Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis

Director: Ivan Reitman

Main Cast: 

•         Bill Murray as Peter Venkman
•          Dan Aykroyd as Raymond Stantz
•          Harold Ramis as Egon Spengler
•          Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddemore
•          Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz
•          Sigourney Weaver as Dana Barrett
•          Rick Moranis as Louis Tully
•          William Atherton as Walter Peck
•          David Margulies as Lenny Clotch, Mayor of City of New York
•          Slavitza Jovan as Gozer the body
•          Paddi Edwards as Gozer the voice

(Rating 5 of 5)

Summary: (Spoilers! After all it’s a summary.) After a ghost terrifies a poor librarian, a trio of parapsychologists (this is not real thing) are brought in from Columbia University to investigate the matter.  The three men are Peter Venkman, Raymond Stantz, and Egon Spengler.  The trio isn’t much use to the library.  Although they find the ghost, once they try physical contact the with it the ghost transforms and terrifies them off.  They do however get some interesting readings off their P.K.E. Meter and Egon concludes that they could capture a ghost and hold it indefinitely.

                Unfortunately for the three scientists when they get back to the University they find they have been fired for handing in sloppy work.  Peter decides dismissal was a good thing because it gives them the ability to go into business for themselves.  Ray mortgages his house that he inherited from his parents and they use this money to buy themselves a closedown firehouse, a rundown hearse, supplies, and commercial space on the local airwaves. 

                As the Ghostbusters are getting their business set up a young woman by the name of Dana Barrett is harassed by ghost named Zuul who appeared in her refrigerator.  She asked the Ghostbusters for their help, having seen their ad on TV, and Egon and Ray are eager to help while Peter looks at Dana as potential dating material.

                Dana’s case is slow and as the Ghostbusters continue to investigate it when they receive a call from the high class Sedgewick Hotel.  There a small and annoying, but otherwise harmless, ghost has been terrorizing their residence.  This is the little green ghost that would one day be known as Slimer.  The Ghostbusters do massive damage to the hotel nearly destroying everything in there but they do catch the ghost.  That is such a relief to the manager that they overlook the damage and the high cost, although not until the Ghostbusters threaten to put the ghost back if they are not paid.

                With the successful capture Slimer the Ghostbusters’ business booms.  The Ghostbusters go from sitting around the firehouse to being busy around the clock.  The Ghostbusters don’t go a day without multiple jobs and/or TV interviews.  The workload gets so heavy that they choose to take on a fourth ghost buster, Winston Zeddemore, to ease their burden. While this all going on they are still investigating Dana’s case and discover that Zuul is an ancient demigod and the minion of Gozer.

                Peter makes arrangements with Dana to discuss her case over dinner.  Before Peter arrives Dana and her neighbor Louis Tully are both attacked by Gozer's minions, Zuul and Vinz Clortho, who possess their bodies.  When Peter arrives he finds Dana very different and referring to herself as Zuul the Gatekeeper.  She tells him she is awaiting the Keymaster.  At the same time Egon gets a delivery from the police department in the form of Louis Tully, who now calls himself Vinz Clortho, the Keymaster.  After discussing this over the phone Egon and Peter decide to get together to form a plan to deal with this while keeping Dana and Louis apart. 

                Unfortunately for the Ghostbusters, Walter Peck of the EPA, who had been stonewalled and rudely treated by Peter, returns with a warrant to shut them down.  Peck has his men turn of the power grid of the containment unit.  This allows all the ghosts to break out; everyone gets out the fire house before the explosion.  Ray and Winston arrive back from a job to see the mess and Peck accuses the Ghostbusters of causing all this and has them arrested.

                While in jail Ray and Egon revel to the other two Ghostbusters, and their other cellmates, that the architect of Dana’s apartment building was a Gozer worshiper who was building a gateway to help usher Gozer into the world in order to destroy it.  Winston tried to convince the other Ghostbusters that is no way any federal judge would ever believe their story.  However the Ghostbusters do get summoned by the Mayor of New York.  

                Possessed Dana and Louis meet up and prepare to open the Gateway.  Louis had a mad crush on Dana but I doubt this is what he had in mind when he imagined himself with her. 

                Due to all the craziness is happening in the city with the ghosts released from their prison, the Ghostbusters find the Mayor in the mood to listen to them. They convince him to support them and embarrass Peck in the process.  The Mayor phones the Governor who sends out the National Guard and has them clear the way for the Ghostbusters to make it to Dana’s apartment building.  When they get there they arrived to cheering crowds who were hoping the Ghostbusters can stop what’s happening.  The forces of Gozer try to stop the Ghostbusters with an earthquake but the Ghostbusters survive and enter the building anyway.

               When they reach the Gateway they witness Louis and Dana transform into the natural animalistic forms of Zuul and Vinz Clortho.  Gozer arrives and the Ghostbusters are little surprised to find Gozer has taken the form of a woman.  They first try to just to talk with Gozer and convince her to leave but she grows annoyed and tries to throw them off the building with Palpatine-like lighting when Ray revels he is not a god.   The Ghostbusters then attack her with their particle throwers and at one point hit her and she disappears.  For a moment the Ghostbusters think that they won but is quickly revealed that Gozer has just again change form.  After another earthquake causes some parts of the building to go toppling to the ground the disembodied voice of Gozer is heard and demands that the Ghostbusters choose the form of their destroyer.  The Ghostbusters try not to think of anything but Ray fails and Gozer creates the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, a figure from Ray’s childhood, to destroy them. The Ghostbusters blast Stay Puft but that just makes him angry and he blows the fire back at them.  Egon comes up with a plan the requires the Ghostbusters to cross the streams, something he earlier said the can never do, the other Ghostbusters are hesitant but Peter chooses to rally them and they follow Egon’s plan.  They aim at the Gateway of Gozer and blast. They then cross the streams destroying Gozer’s Gateway and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

                The Ghostbusters survived and find still living Dana and Louis back in their normal forms with their own minds.  The movie ends with the Ghostbusters being cheered by the crowds.  As the credits roll the last two things we see are the Ghostbusters driving off with the crowds following them and Slimer flying back towards the screen.

My Take: (Spoilers here as well!) This is one of those films that when people tell me they didn’t like it (and that is rare) I actually judge them for it.  If you don’t like this film then you don’t like movies.  Everything they did was so perfect it is hard to imagine what they could have done better.

This scene still looks awesome even today.

                I first saw this movie when I was about seven years old I was at my friend Brent’s house and they had it on VHS.   I don’t know at what age I had started watching The Real Ghostbusters as far as I could remember I always watched it. We weren’t even planning on watching the movie that day, Brent’s older brother and his friend were, we just walked in the room when they were putting the tape in.  They asked us if we wanted to watch and I became very interested they told me what it was.  I even remember asking, “there’s a movie about the Ghostbusters?”

Come to think of it he is rather cute.

                Despite the fact that they’re supposed to be the exact same fictional characters, the cartoon versions were never drawn to look like the actors who physically portrayed them.   Strange thing was this never bothered me as a kid.  I simply rationalized as the cartoon is a cartoon and this was the story of the same characters just using real people.   I also enjoyed the fact I had now had the Ghostbusters origin story. (Although the phrase “origin story” wasn’t in my vocabulary at the time.)  I did wonder for a period of time where Winston was and was relieved when the character finally showed up.

                Although I find the movie to be near perfect there are some nitpicky moments I have:

So you missed Slimer but you managed to burn the wall real good.

•   Who puts out the fire? Every time one of the Ghostbusters misses a ghost and blast hits anything the object then catches on fire.  The Ghostbusters don’t seem overly concerned about putting out the fires.  Since the place clearly wasn’t burning down when they were leaving and I didn’t hear of any sprinklers it leads me to wonder who is putting them out? Was it the cleaning lady who Ghostbusters almost killed?  Do fires from proton blast naturally go out on their own accord?  It’s clearly not the ghosts.   

  

  Hello!

• When Ray’s mysterious ghost lady friend shows up to seduce him is this really happening or is this a dream?  Every time I watch this movie I change my opinion.  Sometimes I think he’s dreaming.  Other times I think one little ghost found a clever way to keep herself out of the containment unit.
• There were many celebrity cameos in this movie but how many people caught the appearance of England’s own Prince Harry of Wales?  He is in a newspaper article right around Ray’s lady ghost scene.

  

  Mayor of New York City in Ghostbusters.

   

  

  The actual Mayor of New York City in the 1980s.

• Was Mayor Lenny Clotch based on the late Mayor Ed Koch?  Koch was mayor at the time and I get the same vibe from watching both men.

  

  Force Lighting! Oh sorry, wrong movie.

•  When Gozer shows up and asks Ray if he is a god, why is she asking?  Shouldn’t she just know?  Maybe she was just dumbfounded that a human could be so arrogant to make demands of her?  Or maybe last time she was on Earth humans could not reach her gateway and she was just surprised to see them.

Like any movie with a team narrative, the Ghostbusters is a film that is character driven.  So I would like to take a moment to view the characters of the Ghostbusters themselves.

Egon Spengler, my personal favorite.

• Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis): As a kid Egon Spengler was by far my favorite Ghostbuster.  This was primarily because he was portrayed as the smartest he always seemed to have the answers no matter how strange the situation.  Egon has a wealth of knowledge but actually no social skills, his biggest challenge is often trying to communicate what he knows to others. He is completely dependent on his Ghostbuster associates because they’re the only ones who really understand him.  When he does try display emotion in attempts of relating to other people he usually overplays it.  He also has a sweet tooth as he is shown as being awarded by Peter with a candy bar and one night when they were up eating Chinese food Peter and Ray were having a beer while Egon was just simply drinking a Coke.  Often when trying to make an important point he is prone to exaggeration.

  

  Ray Stantz needs to quit smoking on the job because its a fire hazard. Wait! They don't care about fire hazards never mind.

•  Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd): At the end of the film Peter refers to Ray as the “heart of the Ghostbusters.”  That is the primary thing you need to know about character.  Ray’s very enthusiastic about his work, whenever there on a mission he is always wide-eyed and super excited.  The only exception to that was their first ghost hunting experience where he was nervous because they hadn’t tested the equipment yet.  He knows a lot of the history of paranormal investigation and is often comparing the current case to some random thing that happened in the 1930s, 1940s, 1910s, etc.  He is almost as geeky as Egon but he does have passable social skills.  I say passable not good.  For example in the start of the movie he was unable to pick up Peter’s cues that he rather be spending time with a coed then going on a paranormal investigation.

  

  Peter Venkman, slimed not undeserved.

• Peter Venkman (Bill Murray): Where do we start with Peter?  On one hand he is the Ghostbuster who makes everything happen.  It was his idea to start the Ghostbusters, he is also the one who negotiates the rates and fees, and that the end of the movie he is the one who rallies Ghostbusters around Egon’s plan to cross the streams and stop Gozer.  It is hard to imagine that Ray and Egon could have possibly gotten off the ground without Peter’s involvement; they just don’t have the social skills to make that happen.  Yet at the same time Peter is the sole cause of all their problems.  The reason they have to go into business for themselves is they got kicked out of the University and the primary reason they got kicked out was because Peter had more interest in hitting on coeds to do legitimate research.  When they get Dana, their first customer, Peter is more interested in her as a dating opportunity than as a business opportunity and when he goes to her place he completely misses the fact that he’s in the most haunted building in the city. I find it highly unlikely that if Egon and Ray had been at Dane’s apartment that they would miss what he did.  Dana was right he didn’t know how to use that equipment he brought over.  He also manages to provoke Walter Peck, it should be pointed out that Peck was right about one thing: the EPA has every right to ask about the environmental impact that their operation could have.  Peter’s response is to insult and belittle him earning them the wrath of the EPA and ultimately the destruction of the containment unit and escape of all the ghosts.  He is the closest thing they have to leader but he has no balance. 

  

  Winston Zeddemore, the normal person here.

•    Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson):  Originally, Eddie Murphy was supposed to be in this movie as the fourth Ghostbuster.  His Winston was going to be a scientist is like the other three.  Murphy however had another commitment with Beverly Hills Cop and couldn’t do the film.  Ernie Hudson was a last-minute replacement at the time he was nowhere near as famous as Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, or Harold Ramis.  (For example, when The Real Ghostbusters was being cast Hudson tried to get the role again but was denied.  Whereas a critical comment by Bill Murray cost Lorenzo Music his job.) Winston’s role was changed to adapt to this. In the film he is the new hire that they bring aboard when they find themselves overloaded with work.  I think the change was a good one however because instead of having a redundant fourth scientist, what they ended up was a little bit better.  The late DeForest Kelly described his Star Trek character, Dr. McCoy, as being the “normal one” of the crew.  Dr. McCoy would say things and act like people normally would if what they saw on Star Trek was actually real.  Winston serves the same purpose: he is the normal man amongst a bunch of weirdos. You see this right away when we get his common sense response to the Ghostbusters’ overly ridiculous interview questions.  He is the only one of them to realize and inform his fellow Ghostbusters that going before a federal judge with a ridiculous story probably isn’t going to fly.  Winston also goes to bat for the team in front of the Mayor of New York City trying to appeal to him that the Ghostbusters cause is in fact real.  Although favorite will always be Egon, as an adult, I think I appreciate Winston’s character little bit more.  Especially in the series and later movie where his role is larger.

 Ghostbusters is an all-time classic that is enjoyable every single time you watch.