DREAM ME A LITTLE DREAM

Mr. Sandman, Dream Me a Dream

Original Air date: October 25, 1986

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski

Director: Richard Raynis

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 with a husband-and-wife pair arguing over what to do for the afternoon.  The wife wants her husband to come join her for tennis but her husband wants to stay home and read his old comic books.  While his wife is getting ready to leave he is attacked by mysterious stranger.  His wife is then attacked by a character that he was reading about.

Maybe he should have left with the wife.

                At the firehouse the Ghostbusters are having their breakfast.  An exhausted Peter, who hasn’t got enough sleep, joins them.  Peter complains about a strange dream he had about dark figure with glowing eyes and at that moment Ray chooses to let him know of some advice his aunt once gave him.  Ray explains that if you remind yourself that you are dreaming you can control your dream.

Fighting Comic Boy's dream.

Janine sounds the alarm and the Ghostbusters on a case. When they get to the job the Ghostbusters  find it odd that no one is outside.   When they enter the building they are attack by a weird alien who they destroy with their proton packs.  That leads them to believe they’re fighting something that is not a ghost.  They notice the married couple floating in the air and Egon is immediately suspicious.  Winston notices the comic book lying on the floor and that the creature they just fought was on the cover.  Looking outside they see lots of really strange things such as magical unicorns, flying cartoon characters, and more mysterious aliens. Egon immediately concludes that they are dealing with a sandman and one using very powerful sleep dust.  The others are skeptical but go along with it.

Dreams of a mailman.

When they get outside the Ghostbusters continue to see more strange things such as a letter arguing with a mailbox where it wants to be sent and then they nearly get stepped on by a new Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.  At this point they run to the Sandman himself.  The Sandman explains that he’s sick of humanity fighting wars and so is will put everybody sleep for 500 years to get humanity to correct itself.  Sandman is also somewhat defensive about what he’s doing telling them that he’s been dismissed as a rebel but he’s convinced his cause is just.  The Ghostbusters and the Sandman battle and they seem to have him on the run although the only thing they do is damage his outfit.  The Sandman then turns the dreams to nightmares and has them all attack the Ghostbusters. The Ghostbusters decide the need to get back to Ecto-1 which is being guarded by an evil giant rabbit.  Ray blasts the rabbit and it disappears.  They get into the car but it refuses the start, so Ray goes out to check under the hood but he is ambushed by the Sandman and put to sleep.  As the other Ghostbusters look on Winston wonders what Ray is dreaming about, and  then they hear something fall. They all run out of the Ecto-1 as a giant pizza lands on it. 

Angry dreams

The three remaining Ghostbusters travel on foot and use the PKE meter to find the Sandman in an apartment building.  A sleeping dragon is in front and the Ghostbusters try to sneak round it, but it wakes up and they are forced to blast it.  Egon wanted to avoid that because doing so sends a red flag to the Sandman to their location and sure enough in the apartment building Peter is nabbed by the Sandman and begins dreaming of cars and prizes.  

Nabs Egon, down to one Ghostbuster

Egon and Winston get out and find the Sandman, during the battle Egon figures out that Ray had already discovered the answer but before he can communicate to Winston he is also nailed by the Sandman.  Egon dreams of Albert Einstein who appears and talks to Winston.  Winston is feeling down, as the average joe Ghostbuster he is unsure of himself, however he quickly understands what Egon meant and he races to the firehouse.  At the station he gets Janine a proton back and lays it on the table.  The Sandman shows up and battles the two knocking out Janine with his dust.  He is about to corner Winston when Janine dreams of herself as a Ghostbuster who grabs her proton pack and sacks the Sandman when he is not looking.  Winston joins in and Slimer emerges from the desk with a trap, the Sandman goes down and all the people wake up and the dream creations are gone.  

Dream Janine

At the end when the Ghostbusters are celebrating, Janine explains that Winston told her to imagine herself as Ghostbuster and the Sandman thinking she was done for was unprepared for the attack.  They go to find Winston to see if he wants to join the party but he is asleep. 

Hero's rest

My Take: It was quite a treat to see that my two favorite episodes as kid were aired back to back.  This episode is a lot of fun with the dream creatures running around, the Ghostbusters fighting a mysterious Sandman, and getting picked off one by one.   This was a great character episode for Winston.  He wasn’t there when the team started, he was hired on when they got more work.  He also doesn’t have the same background that they do, he wasn’t a scientist, he was a job seeker who didn’t let the Ghostbusters strangeness scare him away.  You always have to wonder how he feels about that.  When Egon goes down he starts to feel a lot of doubt about his own abilities.  Even though that’s not really justified for example in the episode “Killerwatt” he the first one to realize the power had to be cut to stop him.  Yet, he somehow can’t shake that new guy feeling.  I liked that he figured it all out and tricked the Sandman.

Now for some of my stray observations:

·         Dude, go out with your wife. You can always read those comics when you get back.

·         Peter had a strange dream and describes the Sandman, was this a premonition on Peter’s part or was he legitimately visited by a non-rebellious sandman?

·         Ray isn’t the only one who thinks of Stay Puft

·         The Sandman was a really cool villain.  He seemed to have some mental problems, he was always talking to himself, seeking the approval of others while simultaneously not wanting to have anyone around to talk to for fear they might laugh at him.  He seems to be the ultimate pacifist wanting to make people have 500 year naps to stop war.  However what happens when someone dreams of war?  I did see what looked like World War II aircraft.  Also like Gozer, Sandman seems to be a big Emperor Palpatine fan.  Gozer did force lighting, while the Sandman just dressed like him.

·         I love the fact that early in the episode Egon just knew it was a sandman by basic observation; the other Ghostbusters were equally as impressed.  We don’t need to solve a mystery Egon already knows it’s a Sandman.

·         Same destructive Ghostbusters every time they miss they blow something up.

·         When Winston and Janine are preparing for the Sandman he tells her that he is giving her their last proton pack.  With exception to the occasional returning villain, these episodes are made with the idea that you can watch them any real order and not get messed up.  Nevertheless the statement provides some continuity with the Boogieman episode where they blew up their four proton packs.  If each Ghostbuster has a spare and plus one that would make nine.  So if they blew up four than it would make some sense that they would be down to just five for now.

·         Glad to see the supporting characters of Janine and Slimer bust a ghost.  The scene where dream Janine takes down the Sandman was really cool.  I remember my little sisters like that scene a lot.  When the new movie comes out this year the idea of a female Ghostbuster is no longer going to be a dream.

A great episode all around.       

HERE IS THE BOOGIEMAN!

The Boogieman Cometh

Original Air date: October 18, 1986

Writer: Michael Reaves

Director: Richard Raynis

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 story begins with as an ordinary day for the Ghostbusters.  Their in a high speed chase driven by the ghost of some 1920s mobster.  After he is caught the Ghostbusters return to the firehouse to put the gangster ghost in the Containment Unit and get some sleep.  The Ghostbusters are awakened by Janine who announces they have some special potential clients.  She brings in two children, a girl and a boy, who are caring a piggy bank.  The kids, Megan and Kenny Carter, would like to hire the Ghostbusters to get rid of the Boogieman who is haunting them.  And if they would do this they would give them their piggy bank.  Peter lets the kids know he thinks they have an over active imagination, but Egon is overly eager to investigate.

The Carter kids

                The Ghostbusters drive the kids home.  When they get there they go to the kids’ room and investigate, if only to make them and Egon feel better.  Egon gets strong reading from the closet but when he opens it up, nothing.  Then the closet transforms into a portal and the Boogieman emerges.  Egon is the one closest to the monster and is frozen.  The Boogieman claims that he recognizes Egon, and then Egon blasts him.  The other Ghostbusters join in and they force the Boogieman to leave through his portal.  The Boogieman goes back and vanishes with out a trace.

  

I remember you, Egon.

                Mr. and Mrs. Carter wake up and ask what is going on and who these men in their house are.  Ray presents his ID and explains they have a haunting.  The Carters ask the Ghostbusters to leave.  The Ghostbusters do and they go off to investigate how to defeat the Boogieman.  The Boogieman isn’t a ghost so they want to know how they can trap him.  In their research they find that the Boogieman feeds off fear that is why he terrorizes children.  Egon confesses that when he was a kid he was terrorized by the Boogieman and that was the main reason he started to investigate the paranormal and later form the Ghostbusters.  They decided they need to find another portal to the Boogieman's domain.  While Egon, Ray, and Peter look for an apartment with a closet that is a Boogieman portal, Winston stops by the Carters’ house to chase the Boogieman away from the kids while firing his proton gun from the sidewalk.

Leave the kids alone.

                In the newly rented apartment they set up a kid’s room and have Ray pretend to be the kid.  When the Boogieman shows up the Ghostbusters jump him and chase him back into his domain.  There the Boogieman felt he had an advantage but he was still vulnerable to the proton blasts.  The Ghostbusters chase him around his domain and outside of it.  The Boogieman goes to several closets and children’s homes with the Ghostbusters on his tail. 

In his place

                At one point he sets a trap for Ghostbusters that they easily escape from.  However they come to the realization that although they can push the Boogieman back with their weapons, they can’t stop him.  Egon comes up with a plan: they can use a newly invented proton bomb powered with their proton packs on overload to seal off his domain forever.  The only problem is this leaves them unarmed and vulnerable.  Just as they are getting ready to leave the Boogieman traps them.  He then opens a portal to the Carters home so the Carter children can watch them die.  But this proves to be his undoing when the Carter kids enter the portal, challenge the Boogieman, and throw marbles at his hoof feat causing him to lose his footing and fall.  The Ghostbusters and Carters run through the portal just as Mr. and Mrs. Carter enter the room see the portal and watch it collapse.  With that the Ghostbusters help put the kids to bed and go home.  With exception to one practical joke by Slimer their night was done.  

Carter kids vs the Boogieman

 My Take: I remember when I first saw the episode as a child, after I kept my own plastic Ghostbuster proton pack under my covers just like Ray did, and insisted my parents leave my closet door closed. 

This is Ray but also, in my head, me for a number of months!

This was one of the handful of episodes that I could remember the exact plot line to even though I hadn't seen it in over twenty years.  This episode is great.  I would go so far to say that this is probably the greatest of the series.  Now some might take that as a bit insulting.  After all it’s only the sixth episode of the series it does seem mean to say “Yes, after six episodes you maxed out and never got any better!”  But you can’t really improve on perfection it’s not bashing the rest of series to say that this was the best one.  A good example is the fifth episode of The Sopranos.  That’s the episode titled “College” where Tony takes Meadow to my home state of Maine and she confronts him about being a mobster.  Tony has to deal with taking his daughter to colleges, deal with her knowing about his gangster life, and end the career of a “rat.” It was an episode that most fans recognize as the series greatest and in 2009 it was recognized by TV guide as the second greatest TV episode of all time.  It was the episode that fans of the series mark as the moment The Sopranos, as a series, became great.  That was what this episode did.  “The Boogieman Cometh” is the episode that captures the spirit of the entire series and established what made this series great.  (That’s right, I just made a comparison between The Sopranos and The Real Ghostbusters.)

"You know Meadow, this is going to be what they like to call the Greatest Episode!  Like that show you use to watch with your brother, 'bout the guys who fought the ghosts!  They had an episode where they fought the Boogieman and that was their greatest episode.  This is ours."
"Dad, I watched Jem!" 

                Now for my slight observations:

·         That line from Louie the Gangster was pretty funny; I wonder how many ghosts forget they are no longer alive.

·         They should get Slimer his own bed, it would save Peter on the pillow costs.

·         When does Janine sleep?  The Ghostbusters get home they all go to bed in their clubhouse Janine is still up there working.  Also Peter doesn’t even know what she makes.

·         Did the Ghostbusters actually take the money from the kids’ Piggy Bank?  I like to they just gave it back to them but I have no confirmation on this.

·         I really like the Egon/Boogieman connection.

Egon vs his arch-nemesis 

·         How come Mr. and Mrs. Carter didn’t recognize the Ghostbusters?  Last I checked they were famous with crowds of people cheering them on whenever they went somewhere to bust some ghosts.

·         Ray’s Ghostbuster ID was pretty funny.  There are only four of them why would they need ids when no more than five people work for the company.

·         Winston may not equal Egon in card house building abilities but no one should play him in pool!  He stands on the sidewalk fires his proton gun through the window and hits the Boogieman at an angle.  Considering things that are missed can catch on fire and he did it with confidence shows this man has some talent.

·         Ray with his toys, he was a good choice to play the over grown toddler.

·         The Boogieman’s realm was rather weird.

·         The best scene of course is when the Ghostbusters are chasing the Boogieman all over the place through various portals that the Boogieman uses.  Kids wake up expecting for the Boogieman to terrorize them but instead they see the monster running away from the Ghostbusters, who follow right behind him.  The kids start cheering as the Ghostbusters chase the nightmares away.

·         I love the Carter kids final stand against the Boogieman, talk about the villain opening the wrong door.

Lost Troll

Troll Bridge

Original Air date: October 11, 1986

Writer: Bruce Reid Schaeffer

Director: Richard Raynis

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: A small troll sneaks into New York through the sewers, escaping other larger trolls.  The next morning the Brooklyn Bridge is swarmed with trolls.  At the station Peter is angry that Slimer had slimed him again by sleeping on top of him. The alarm rings and they go down to find Janine watching the news seeing the people overwhelmed and the newsman screaming for their help.  The Ghostbusters show up and confront the trolls, Egon looking at Tobin’s Spirt Guide comes to the conclusion that their weapons will either turn the trolls to stone or make them more powerful.  The Ghostbusters decide to negotiate, Egon, fortunately, speaks their language.  The trolls tell Egon that one of their members is missing and they need to bring him back within 12 hours or they destroy New York with their fire flies.  (They fly and shoot fire.)

Bad news troll with a timer!

                The Ghostbusters then search the city looking for him and finally find him in a disco.  But they didn’t find him in time and the fire flies attack.  The Ghostbusters defeat the fire flies given their very predictable weakness.  Nevertheless they don’t want to continue and fight the trolls and their fire flies yet they don’t want to send the happy little dancing troll back where he doesn’t want to go.  So they trick his fellow trolls into thinking resisted and was turned to stone because of it.  The rest of the trolls leave sulking caring the stone remains of their citizen. The Ghostbusters later send the run away troll on a bus to hang out with Peter’s friend who owes him money.

Lost Troll

My Take: Okay it was not one of my favorite episodes.  First are trolls even in the Ghostbusters’ jurisdiction?  They’re not ghosts, how are they supposed to catch and place them in the Containment Unit?  It seems to me they should have just called the National Guard if the cops failed.  The trolls, even with their fire flies weren’t that impressive.  Also how old is this rebel member?  He strikes me as he if might be a kid! Did the Ghostbusters do the right thing not turning him over to his people?  Never really discussed.

Some of my stray observations:

·         Slimer must create lot of laundry for them.

·         Their Eighties are showing: beat box and Mohawks.

·         Janine was watching the news on her computer?  The Ghostbusters were ahead of their time.

Very advanced for Eighties tech

·         I had forgotten the story Three Billy Goats Gruff , after watching this I googled it and I now know why I forgot it: it’s a stupid story.

·         Egon can speak troll, sure why not?  What can’t Egon do?

Good thing I can speak Troll

·         I want a fire fly.

·         $5 is a lot in the 1980s.

That ghost has some belly!

Slimer, Come Home

Original Air date: October 4, 1986

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski

Director: Richard Raynis

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 Ghostbusters on the tail of some nasty type of poltergeists, which somewhat concerns them because poltergeist usually aren’t this powerful when roaming.  The Ghostbusters battle the poltergeists but fail to capture them.  As they drive home Winston wonders why they are taking so long.  He gets his answer when they arrive and at the station as Janine had prepared a surprise party for Winston’s birthday.  When they roll out Winston’s favorite cake Slimer sees it, gets excited, and goes and eats it. This angers the entire party; Winston’s has a sour grapes moment of “I’m a diet anyway.” But Peter is infuriated, he gives Slimer a verbal tongue lashing and Slimer goes off an sulks.

Now you see it!

                When the Ghostbusters go to sleep, Slimer takes off.  He leaves a note explaining that no one wants him around.  When he is out on his own he thinks about helping himself to a bakery, but Peter’s words haunt him and he lets it go.  Slimer follows some other ghosts to meeting that is led by large ghost dressed in black named Ghash.

Now you don't!

                The Ghostbusters realizing that Slimer has run off go out to look for him.  Peter refuses at first but joins later.  While looking Egon almost gets mugged, Ray runs into his second grade teacher, and Peter finds Slimer but the evil head ghost, Ghash, has convinced Slimer to turn and he slimes Peter again just like he did in first Ghostbusters movie.

Ray sees his grade school teacher.

                Peter radios the rest of the Ghostbusters and they follow them into a building.  There Ghash opens his shirt and summons all the ghosts to come to him.  Even Slimer is pulled in and according to Egon they were now all merging into one powerful ghost.  They alter their packs’ frequency to pull Slimer out of Ghash, but as they turn to fight Ghash he takes away their packs telekinetically and tosses them around like dolls.  Slimer grabs on their proton guns and aims it at Ghash, Slimer can’t control it but he distracts Ghash long enough for the Ghostbusters to recover their packs and blast and trap Ghash.  When they trap him, the trap looks like it won’t hold him for long but they get it to the Containment Unit in time.  At the party they have two cakes one for Slimer and the other for them.  

My Take: Before starting this project I haven’t really watched this show from start to finish since I was about ten or eleven.  Out of the hundred plus episodes in this series there are about eleven or twelve that I could recall the plot line to.  This was one of them.  I actually remember play acting this episode with my Ghostbuster toys one time when we were visiting my material grandmother and her mother.  (My great-grandmother lived with my grandmother in the last years of her life.) I had the shirt of my pajamas open and I was telling the ghosts to come to me so I could absorb them.  I then remember my great-grandmother coming in and looking at me wondering why I was acting so strange.

                I liked all the previous episodes but this one clicks more at a number of levels.  Every scene feels right for the characterization is spot on.  You get the impression that the writer understands who these people are very well.  My favorite scene is when Janine reveals to the Ghostbusters that Slimer has run off.  Peter’s reaction is perfect stating that he is going to bed because he doesn’t believe Slimer would ever run away due to the fact that he has too good with them.  I also really like Ray deciding to look for Slimer by sitting in one place and waiting for Slimer to come to him, and Egon scaring off a gang of thugs by just appearing so strange they don’t want to mess with him.    

My stray observations:

·         Don’t Ghostbusters have other family that might want to wish them a happy birthday?

·         When Peter asks what good Slimer has ever done, it might have been good if one of the other Ghostbusters said, “Well he did pull the plug on Killerwatt when we all thought we were done for!”

·         Slimer not only needs to learn to control himself, he needs to learn to take some criticism with grace.  The Ghostbusters never told him to leave he just assumed they didn’t like him because Peter yelled at him.

 ·         Does Janine need sleep?  While the Ghostbusters are all up snoozing away, she’s still downstairs working?  When does this woman stop?  I hope Ghostbusters are paying her well.  I doubt that though, they have now had two episodes in a row where they haven’t collected any money.

·         Why did the Ghostbusters take their proton packs when all they were doing was looking for Slimer?  It turned out to be right decision but I still thought it was odd. I guess they never leave home without them.

·         What happened to all the Ghostbusters jackets and hats?  I understand Peter tossing his out he got slimed but what about the rest of them?

·         Good move on Ghash’s part to separate the Ghostbusters from their weapons.  Why don’t more ghosts try that?  As kid I always thought that most ghosts couldn’t touch them because they same energy that is used to stop them in their tracks might prevent them from interfering with it.

In my re-watching I have enjoyed this episode the most so far.