OMNIBUS TIMELINE
Compiled by Fritz Baugh
"Veedramon" of Ghostbusters.net
Legal Notices
Ghostbusters is (c.)1984 Columbia Pictures The Real Ghostbusters is (c.)1986 Columbia Pictures Television and DIC Productions. Ghostbusters 2 is (c.) 1989 Columbia Pictures. Extreme Ghostbusters is (c.) 1997 Columbia Pictures Television and Adelaide Productions. The use of names and events detailed in this document are for reference purposes only, and are not intended to challenge any of the above copyrights.
The main elements of the canon are these.
Ghostbusters(GB1)(1984, Columbia Pictures) Directed by Ivan Reitman. The 1999 DVD release includes a commentary track by Reitman, Harold Ramis, and producer Bernie Brillstein, as well as deleted scenes. Some of this made it into the Timeline.
Ghostbusters 2(GB2)(1989, Columbia Pictures) Directed by Ivan Reitman.
The Real Ghostbusters(RGB)(1986-1991,Columbia Pictures Television and DiC Productions; ABC 1986-1991; Syndicated 1987) Story Edited by J. Micheal Straczynski (1986-87,1990) and Len Jansen and Chuck Menville (1987-1991) Retitled Slimer!and The Real Ghostbusters in Season Three.
Extreme Ghostbusters(XGB)(Columbia Pictures Television and Adelaide Productions, 1997)Story edited by Dean Stephan. Some fans choose not to regard it as canon, but as it was released with Columbia's approval and is, at the moment, the "last word" in official stories, it is included.
The following are "secondary" sources. They were officially licensed by Columbia Pictures, but not televised. If I followed Roddenberry's Law ("It only counts if it's on screen") I wouldn't use these.
The Real Ghostbusters(RGB#)(Now Comics, 1988-1993) Now published two volumes of this series, the first volume featuring stories by sci-fi writer James Van Hise and art by John Tobias, who went on to be the character designer for the early Mortal Kombat games. Paul Rudoff, of the currently inactive Spook Central website, had a letter printed in one issue, and Yours Truly had some in three (#22,#24, and Vol.2#1)I have not included the Slimer! comic nor any of the Marvel UK reprints in the continuity at present.
Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Role Playing Game and Ghostbusters International (GBI)(West End Games, 1986/1989) The GBI edition includes character profiles that give the ages of the characters, from which I derived some conjectural years of birth. I later changed the concepts of my timeline, but kept the old dates because XGB gives Egon's age in one episode, and it fit perfectly with the first estimate, derived from the assumption that the ages given were the 1990 ages. Some "facts" I mention as conjectural were derived from material that Jim Harley and I "established" during two campaigns run on this game system.
Fan Sources
Ghostbusters.net, webmastered by Chad Paulson, is an experience. You can spend hours just prowling through the message boards and fan fictions. It's episode reviews include plot synapsis that were invaluable in preparing this document, and the insight and support of several members (Doc Ryedale, Kingpin, Doctor Spectrum, and Brian_Reilly) proved invaluable in the fine tuning of this document. If you're a member, comment on this document in the Ghostbusters Omnibus Timeline thread!
The Real Ghostbusters Fan Page! Webmastered by Shiela Paulson, possibly the most prolific creator of Ghostbuster fan fiction. Many of the names for Ghostbuster relatives not originating in the canon come from her works.
Labidolemur's Ghostbusters Fan Fiction Review features a wonderful Ghostbuster Canon List (slightly out of date, but it reminded me of things even I'd forgotten!) and some insightful insights into the characters, including some speculations about the Ghostbusters' religions and whether Egon has Marfan Syndrome.
Proton Charging is a great Ghostbusters news site run by Chris "castewar" Stewart.
Epguides.com provided air dates for RGB and XGB, although my personal TV logs conflicted with their listing of Season Four of RGB; this document uses the order my personal notes say they aired in.
Then there were some non-Ghostbuster related works that were nevertheless very helpful
Kevin Simbieda, Beyond the Supernatural (Palladium Books, 1988) While a part of a fictional role-playing universe, it has a wealth of real background detail and how the supernatural might work in a "real" world; a bit grimmer in tone than Ghostbusters, it is nevertheless worth a look if you can find it. The Parapsycholgist PCC just has "Ghostbuster" written all over it.
Timothy and Kevin Burke, Saturday Morning Fever (St. Martin's Griffin, 1999) This half-scholarly half-uproariously subversive book includes some praise for The Real Ghostbusters and even interviews J. Micheal Stracyznski. Especially interesting are the comments about "Russian About"'s use of Lovecraft and how ABC executives pressured him to "'clarify' the role of a black character [Winston] by making him the driver--i.e. chauffer--for the white characters"
Dating Conventions
Well, Venkman dates anything that moves. Egon and Janine date each other, at least when Egon visits planet Earth, otherwise she's been known to go elsewhere (with little sucess, what with other dating attempts being a slimy buisnessman, an accountant, and an Incan demon). Winston has a girlfriend in the comics, and Ray? Who knows?Um, sorry.
This archive is written in the format pioneered by Micheal and Denise Okuda in their Star Trek Chronology, treating the shows as though they are part of one, consistant unfolding saga. One season of animated episodes is approximately equal to one year of real time; the sixty-five syndicated episodes are spread over two different years, placed between the first and second seasons of the ABC episodes; they actually aired concurrant to the second season, but I place them before it because of the changes to the characters--most notable Venkman and Janine--that began with the 1987 ABC episodes were not reflected in the syndication package. In the "peak" years of 1984-85, an average of forty stories "happened" an average of one incident every nine days. The sequence follows the original airdate order as close as possible, though when certain episodes have to be moved by dating details ("X-Mas Marks The Spot", "The Revenge of Murray The Mantis") or internal consistancy ("Venkman's Ghost Repellers", "The Spirit of Aunt Lois", "Cold Cash and Hot Water") I try to note them.
There are only four date references given within the context of the Ghostbusters universe: Five years passes between Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2. Janine graduated high school in 1977 ("The Brooklyn Triangle"). Ray was born in 1959 ("It's About Time") And Egon Spengler was 39 at the time of "Sphinx" Furthermore, we are led to believe that Egon, Janine, and Venkman must have all been born at roughly the same time of the year: Venkman claims to be a Scorpio in "Mean Green Teen Machine". Janine says likewise in "The Crawler". In classic astrology, the Scorpio sun sign is from October 23-November 22. And Egon celebrates his birthday in the week before Thanksgiving during "Back In the Saddle".
But the timeline fell into place by using two assumptions: that the first season of RGB occured in 1984, as the guys are seen participating in the making and premiere of the 1984 movie in "Take Two". The second is that the "gap" between GB1 and Season One is "moved" to the end of Season Three, between it and GB2. Thusly, Seasons One through Three and the Syndicated episodes "occured" approximately two years before they aired, while Seasons Four through Six are spread out through the same years they first aired. I used the same concept for Extreme Ghostbusters, though taking one of Egon's lines in "Grundlesque" literally could make the show occur as early as 1995
My goal was to be as inclusive as possible. Not to say that there weren't problems...but for the most part I wiegh most problems by these standards:
1. The Core Continuity is defined by GB1 and RGB Season One, the latter with preference to the works of series developer and story editor J. Micheal Straczynski. These offer the purest visions of the concept, and most would agree they were the creative peak of the property.
2. If a character or charactorization from a later season of RGB, XGB, or even GB2 conflicts with the Core Continuity, it is eligible to be ruled Invalid. Examples would include: the "Duh, Gee Slimer Little Buddy" version of Venkman, Professor Dweeb, the Junior Ghostbusters, Janine as Desperate Slut, or Janine and Louis Tully as a genuine "item". If a conflict is resolved or explained within the stories themselves, it will usually be allowed to stand (ie Janine as Mommy Figure, explained by "Janine, You've Changed"--and admittedly, being written by JMS gives it extra weight)
3. Conflicting elements of Core Continuity are judged with as much care to both as possible. It is the judgement of this writer, for example, that due to the examples of "Citizen Ghost" and "Take Two", that the Ghostbusters wear the same proton packs in the movies and the cartoons, even though they look different--it's just an interpretive matter. It is also assumed that the nametags are present at all times, just not "noticed" (they are not seen in "Citizen Ghost" on the grey uniforms, and we know they're really there. A Season Four episode, "Elementary. My Dear Winston" offers confirmation of this theorem). Obviously, when a conflict is explained, the explaination stands ("Citizen Ghost" explains the difference in uniform colors and the Containment Unit, for example)
And here we go...
An upheaval in the lines of psychokinetic energy draw scores of powerful supernatural beings to Earth. These creatures divide into camps (or "pantheons") and each subjugate a small part of the developing human world, providing the basis of most early mythologies.
Conjecture. This is derived from the existance of so many primal gods in the early millenia of human society, many of whom hold dominion over the lands with iron fists--witness Hob-Ana-Garik in "Cold Cash and Hot Water" or the Undying One of "Moaning Stones
The Undying One, master of the African nation of Tangalla, is challenged by the wizard one day known as "The Collector". The Collector fails, and is banished to the land of lost objects. The twin keys to the realm are held by the Undying One until his own defeat, where they become heirlooms kept by the descendants of Shima-Buku
Ten thousand years before "The Brooklyn Triangle" The fact that the Collector challenged The Undying One is conjecture, inferred from "Moaning Stones"
Hob Ana-Garik, the demonic creature holding sway over the Arctic, is imprisoned in a block of black ice. It is said in Inuit legend that after this, the land grew cold
"Cold Cash and Hot Water"
The Sumerian civilization forms in Mesopotamia. The Sumerians invent writing (cuniform) and the pantheon worshipped by the Sumerians and their successors, the Babylonians and Hittites, include many colorful figures such as Marduk, god of the city; his nemesis, the great dragon Tiamat; Gozer the Gozarian, and it's minions Zuul and Vinscortho; and the elemental spirits Anshar and Khishor.
The rise of Sumeria is from Historical accounts. Marduk and Tiamat are authentic figures from Babylonian myth, and appear in "I Am The City" Gozer, Zuul, and Vinsclortho are, of course, from Ghostbusters. Anshar and Khishor are from "Very Beast Friend"
Shima-Buku, cheiftain of the Ibandi people of Tangalla, defeats the Undying One and imprisons him in three stones that were scattered throughout the borders of Tangalla
Five thousand years before "Moaning Stones"
Construction of Stonehenge, marker of a powerful sight where "ley lines" of psycho-kinetic energy cross in a nexus. The sight was an astronomical observatory utilized by it's mysterious builders and later by the Druids.
Historical theory. It's nature as a PKE nexus is a common theory, which in the context of the Ghostbusters universe is verified in Real Ghostbusters#17, when Phineus Eventide uses it to counter Samhaine's spells.
The Great Pyramid of Giza is constructed, first and greatest of the pyramids of Egypt. A Necropolis of a deceased pharoah, they also mark a very powerful series of ley line nexi.
Historical theory. The pyramids marking ley lines is a common theory in supernatural circles
An Egyptian chronicle mentions a powerful Hyksos diety known as "Zuul, the Gatekeeper, minion of Gozer"
Ghostbusters, from the research Venkman quotes to Dana Barrett. Louis Tully, posessed by Vinsclortho, relates colorful details of Gozer's career during such events as "the third rectification of the Meketrex supplicants" and "the last reconciliation of the Vuldronaii" but there are no dating contexts given
Rise of the classical Greek civilization, which included a colorful pantheon of gods that were later co-opted by the Roman Empire. In 1984, one powerful entity would claim to in fact be the Greek shapeshifting god Proteus.
Historical Accounts. The encounter with Proteus is from "Janine Melnitz, Ghostbuster"
The Council of Eight, self-proclaimed "Guardians of the Universe", select a thirty-five year old Alexandrian scribe named Tobin to replace Carthio as the "Chronicler of the Spirits". Tobin is reputedly the writer of the famous occult compendium, Tobin's Spirit Guide
Real Ghostbusters 3-D Special (aka Vol.2#0)This account of Tobin conflicts with the version presented in Ghostbusters International, where John Horace Tobin was an Englishman from the early Twentieth Century. I prefer the JH Tobin version, but it's hard to disregard an actual story for an RPG reference work.
The historical events related to the legendary rise and fall of Camelot occur. Lost among the rush of more colorful figures is thuggish lord Sir Bruce Sans Pite', who is punished for his many crimes by being bound--reportedly by none other than Merlin himself--into a tapestry.
The placement of the historical basis of Camelot in the sixth century is Historical Theory. Sir Bruce is an actual figure, albeit a minor one, of Arthurian myth, and is seen in "A Hard Knight's Day".
Death of Arab madman Abdul Al-Hazred (more accurately rendered as "Abd Al-Azrad"), writer of a collection of dark spells and lore related to "Khadhulu" and the "Great Old Ones" known as the Kitab Al-Azif. When translated by Western scholars into Greek and Latin, centuries later, it would become known as the Necronomicon, the source work that 20th century horror writer HP Lovecraft would use to create his Cthulhu mythos.
Conjecture from the history of the Necronomicon as detailed in the Lovecraft mythos (Lovecraft himself being a figure of historical account); "Collect Call of Cthulhu" establishes that at least some elements of that mythos apply in the Ghostbusters universe.
The monks of the monastery of St. Theophilus bind four spirits that appear to be the Dark Riders, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from Christian prophesy. They are contained in the Codex of St. Theophilus, sealed with mystic wax.
"Apocalypse...What, NOW?!"
Peak of the Viking civilzation birthed in the Scandanavian peninsula. Their pantheon of warlike gods includes Odin, Thor, Loki, Surt, and many more colorful beings; according to their myth, the world will one day be destroyed in the great battle of Ragnarok.
Norse mythos is from Historical Accounts. The concept of Ragnarok becomes important in "Ragnarok and Roll" and "Slimer's Sacrifice"--the latter of which featuring the demon Surt.
A Renaissance painter--possibly Piero della Francesca or Raphael--paints an image of four angels and a cherub. The figures bear distinct resemblances to five people who would not be born for some five hundred years: Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler, Winston Zeddemore, and Dana Barrett's son Oscar. Speculation following this revelation in 1989 would include that the painter had a psychic premonition.
Conjecture from Ghostbusters 2. Egon, while not an art scholar, identifies it as "Late Renaissance" work, possible "Raphael or Piero della Francesca" Venkman helpfully offers "I think it was one of the Fettucinis..."
Birth of Vlad Tepes in a small kingdom in the Carpathian mountains. He is the son of the hated "Vlad the Dragon" ("Vlad Dracul" in the Transylvanian tongue), but Vlad the younger far exceeds his father's cruelty. Tepes becomes known as Vlad the Impaler, and even more famously as "The Son of the Dragon": Dracula. According to folklore, he "dies" by being embraced by a vampire, going on to become the Count Vladimir Dracula featured in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel. It is unknown if Count Vostok of Buldavia, who claims to be the figure that Stoker based Dracula upon, is actually Vlad Tepes or if the folklore and fiction have mixed the two. Presumably Tepes' career is influential on another Carpathian despot a century later, Vigo the Carpathian.
Vlad Tepes is of Historical Account. His connection to the vampiric Dracula is of Folklore Account and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Count Vostok and his claims of being the "real" Dracula are from "Transylvania Homesick Blues"
Birth of Vigo Von Homborg Deutschendorf, who later terrorizes Eastern Europe as a despot and necromancer known most famously as Vigo the Carpathian, but also as Vigo the Cruel, Vigo the Despised, Vigo the Torturer, Vigo the Unholy, the Scourge of Carpathia, and the Sorrow of Moldavia.
Ray's research in Ghostbusters 2 on Vigo's legends. His full name is seen briefly on Egon's computer record. I should note that Wilhelm Von Homborg was the name of the actor who played Vigo, and Will and Hank Deutschendorf the twins who portrayed Dana's son Oscar.
Members of the Deep Ones, living in the South Seas, form an unholy pact with humans desiring to gain greater power, and a race of Deep One/human hybrids are born. They hybrids establish a community on the island later known as Red Hook, off the coast of New York, and continue to kidnap humans to continue the breeding program. When human civilization comes to the area years later, the hybrids create the amusement park called Toad Island, and use the park as a front for more kidnappings until the mid to late 20th century, when hybrids desiring to live in peace do away with the program.
Real Ghostbusters#8. The time frame is vague, but Kenneth Grahame's story makes it sound as though the hybrids had formed their community and it was well established before the founding of New Amsterdam, though this is only Conjectural.
Vigo the Carpathian paints his dynamic self portrait. Following a common practice of the time, he paints it over another, older work depicting four strange archangels and a cherub. Unbenownst to the world until 1988, Vigo ensorcelled the painting to contain his essence after his death
Ghostbusters 2. Date is conjecture from the> Ghostbusters 2 adventure module for Ghostbusters International
Vigo the Carpathian is killed by his subjects, having lived 105 years. He is shot, hung, stabbed, and drawn and quartered. Before finally expiring, his severed head delivering the prophesy "Death is but a Doorway, Time is But a Window; I'll be back"
Ghostbusters 2
Ancestors of Dana Barrett emmigrate to the English colonies of North America, presumably on the Mayflower.
Conjecture from a line in the script for Ghostbusters 2; it doesn't actually mention the famous Mayflower, but it's a logical conclusion posited by Doc Ryedale of Ghostbusters.net
Some members of a family of German scholars, the Spenglers, emmigrate to the English colonies of North America, settling in the town now known as Lewistown, Massachussetts, and converts from Judiasm to Christianity (possibly a Puritan brand). At some point prior to the Twentieth Century, another faction would settle in Ostrov, Poland.
Conjecture; there are competing histories of the Spengler family presented in "If I Were a Witch Man" and the script of Ghostbusters 2. The name is an authentic German surname; in fact, in the DVD Ramis admits he got it from German philosopher Oswald Spengler.
Bandits raid the monastery of St. Theophilus; among the items stolen is the Codex of St. Theophilus, in which the Dark Riders are mystically contained. The order would attempt to find the Codex, but fail until it resurfaces at a Northby's auction in 1985
"Apocalypse...What, NOW?!"
Phineus Eventide is born. He would grow up to become one of the most powerful wizards in the world, and due to his magic is still quite alive as late as 1989, and is regarded as the Prince of Warlocks.
Date is conjecture; in Real Ghostbusters#12, Eventide mentions that his cat plays chess better than anyone he's known in "the last three centuries". It's thus entirely possible Eventide is even older.
Elias Spengler saves the colony town of Lewistown. Massachussets from the witch Kestrel, imprisoning her in a crystal containment unit. Elias's descendants will include Zediciah, 18th century wizard, and 20th century Ghostbuster Egon Spengler
Three hundred years before "If I Were a Witch Man"
Hieronymous, English court wizard, is drawn into the Netherworld of Arzun and Tolay.
Date given in "Egon's Ghost"
Zediciah Spengler, a deranged dabbler in the occult, conjures a small dragon, then imprisons him in a well. The scholarly Spengler family comes to regard him as an embarrassment: one descendant would label him one of the "loons and scoundrels of the family"
"Egon's Dragon"
Captain John Cleves Symmes becomes an early advocate of the "Hollow Earth Theory". It wouldn't be until 1989 that the Ghostbusters would prove it by visiting the inner-Earth realm of Ceratel.
Real Ghostbusters#15
Christmas. English buisnessman Ebeneezer Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. He regains the Christmas spirit, and his story is chronicled by Charles Dickens and his 1843 book, A Christmas Carol. The chronicle does not include the fact that four travellers from 1984 nearly foil the event.
"X-Mas Marks the Spot" The date of A Christmas Carol is, of course, historical account.
A witch spirit tries to invade the body of Ginevra Jacobs, intent on murdering Ginevra's son Aaron to seal the posession. Two time travellers from the year 1990--Ghostbusters Egon Spengler and Janine Melnitz, the latter a cousin of one of Ginevra's descendants--prevent the posession. Only the two time travellers know that this creates an alternate timeline, as originally Aaron Jacobs did die and Ginevra's body was posessed until 1990. Aaron Jacobs would grow up to become the first disabled Congressman from New York.
Real Ghostbusters#28
A Russian family emigrates to the United States; unbenownst to them, they are accompanied by a small group of domovyen house spirits. Ghostbuster Ray Stantz would be a descendant of this family.
"The Spirit of Aunt Lois". The insinuation is made that the Stantz family is Russian, but the script for Ghostbusters 2 mentions Ray's great-grandparents immigrating from Switzerland--Doc Ryedale of Ghostbusters.net confirms that Stantz is a name of Swiss extraction, so the Russians are the ancestors of Ray's Grandma Stantz.
Birth of Erik Weisz, who would become an illusionist and escape artist, going down in the annals of history by his stage name Harry Houdini before his death in 1926. Unknown to the world at large, his spirit becomes trapped in one of his own magic boxes; the box would be used by the unscrupulous magician Calimari before the Ghostbusters free Houdini's spirit in 1985.
Historical Accounts and "The Cabinet of Calimari"
Simon Quaig of Providence accepts a ride from what turns out to be a cursed coach, dooming Quaig to ride perpetually, chased by a "dark rider"
One hundred years before "The Man Who Never Reached Home"
Death of Captain Nemo. Just before his passing, he hides his famous submarine, the Nautilus, in California, where by 1985 it's being worshipped by a "Space Brother" cult. Nemo would be fictionalized in the famous story 20000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Verne's book is, of course, Contemporary Accounts. The ghost of Nemo is seen in Real Ghostbuster#1-2; Cowan mentions in #2, when the Counter Clock Criminals enter the Nautilus, that "noone has been in here for a hundred years".
The Eiffel Tower is debuted at the World's Fair in Paris. Unknown to the world at large, it's creator, Gustav Eiffel, was a ghost hunter and the tower his containment system.
Historical accounts and "Ghostbusters In Paris"
Birth of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, who in the early 20th century would write many horror novels in what will be referred to by some as the "Cthulu Mythos" before his death in 1937. Unbenownst to the world at large, Lovecraft did not create the Cthulhu mythos: he drew it from the ancient mystic text known as the Necronomicon. Ray Stantz would be a voracious reader of Lovecraft's works, which inspired his own studies of the supernatural.
Historical accounts and "Collect Call of Cthulhu"
The luxury liner Lady Anne goes under on August 12, in Lake Michigan. Over 200 people die in the disaster.
Real Ghostbusters#27
Bram Stoker's novel Dracula is released, a story of the vampire Count Vladimir Dracula and his battles with John Harker and the Van Helsing family. The Dracula legend had it's roots in the 15th Century Carpathian despot Vlad Tepes, The Impaler; almost a century later, Count Vostok of Buldavia claims that the book is a fictionalized and slanted account of his battles with the fanatical Van Helden family.
The release of Dracula and Vlad the Impaler are from Historical Accounts. Count Vostok and his claims come from "Transylvania Homesick Blues"
The New York Pneumatic Rail Road (NYPRR) serves as a system of mass transit in Manhattan. It is later phased out in favor of the famous subway system; some parts of the pneumatic are abandoned; one juncture, Van Horne Station, becomes an important early part of the return of Vigo the Carpathian in 1988.
Ghostbusters 2
Members of the Stantz family immigrate to the United States from Switzerland
Conjecture from an unused scene in Ghostbusters 2
Engineer Casey Jones dies on one of the most famous wrecks in locomotive history
Historical Accounts. Venkman mentions in "Last Train to Oblivion" that the wreck happened "one hundred years ago" (1985), but he was clearly rounding off.
Birth of Mr. Tummell, who would become a billionaire industrialist listed at the top of the Fortune 500. In his later years, he would invest much of his fortune in dimensional transit research, hoping to take his fortune with him after his death.
"You Can't Take It With You" Tummell (who is never given a first name) says he's spent "eighty years" amassing his fortune; of course, this date could just as easily be the year he began working, making him even older
Ivo Chandor, an Albanian medical student, forms a cult dedicated to the worship of Gozer the Gozarian, an ancient Sumerian deity also known as The Destructor and The Traveller. Chandor believed that society was too sick to survive, and performed many "unnecessary" surgeries, experimenting with the pacifiction of humans. His cult had over one thousand members at the time of his death, including the architect of Central Park West in New York, the 1983 residence of Dana Barrett
Ghostbusters From Ray and Egon's research. The production notes included in the DVD release reveal that the name "Gozer" actually came from a documented haunting in New England (the notes unfortunately do not include a date, or you can bet I'd cite it), though the creature's history as a Sumerian god is fictional.
Gangsterism flourishes among the Prohibition. The most notorious crime boss is, of course, Al Capone, who runs the Chicago underworld with an iron fist.
Al Capone is from historical accounts, and is seen in "The Ghostbusters Live From Al Capone's Tomb!"
The New York underworld, meanwhile, is run (at least in part) from the Majestic Hotel by Caesar Caldoni. Caldoni's main rival is one Webby "The Tractor" McBain--until, in 1928, Caldoni has McBain "rubbed out" and sealed in the "vault" opened by Julio Ramanajan in 1989.
Real Ghostbusters#4
Walt Fleishman releases the first cartoon starring Ricky Roach, leading to a dynasty of animated characters like Conquerer Duck and Winchester Wolf
Conjecture. As Fleishman is insinuated as the Walt Disney of the Ghostbusters universe, setting the release of his first cartoon the year Disney released the first Mickey Mouse cartoon seemed appopriate.
The parents of Edison and Cyrus Spengler, originally of Ostrov, Poland, emmigrate to the United States and settle in Cleveland, Ohio. Thier two sons would follow in the family tradition of scientific pursuits, becoming a physicist and a biochemist respectively.
Conjecture from the script of Ghostbusters 2. I theorize the Polish branch of the Spenglers are still nominally Jewish, in part because Harold Ramis is Jewish. More on Edison and Cyrus below...
A son of the Stantz family that immigrated to the US in the Early 20th Century marries a daughter of the Russian family that immigrated in the 1860's. They would have at least three children: Gaylord, Lois, and David.
Conjecture from the divergent Stantz histories in the cut schene in Ghostbusters 2 and "The Spirit of Aunt Lois". Lois is from that story also. Gaylord is from "The Joke's on Ray" The name David Stantz is conjectural from Shiela Paulson's stories. It is unclear if Gaylord is the father of Samantha Stantz, or if there's another Stantz brother floating around out there.
Charles Foster Hearse begins his publishing empire, featuring such eclecic magazines as Spooks Illustrated, which would eventually be read by all four of the future Ghostbusters (Venkman especially enjoying the swimsuit issue). Hearse would be succeeded by his heirs, son Charles Foster Jr.and in 1984, grandson Charles Foster III
Conjecture from "Ghostbuster of the Year"
A junior high ne'er-do-well named Benny falls off a smokestack and dies. His spirit is found and recruited by the barrow wight known as the "Soul Catcher", and he eventually becomes the evil creature's primary enforcer among the child spirits it captures.
Real Ghostbusters#14
The fraternity led by Elwin Spaulding in upstate New York is expelled after playing one mean prank too many. The members of the frat are so angry about failing to graduate, they return to haunt the frat house--occupied by Tri Kuppa Bru by 1985--after thier deaths.
Fifty years before "The Old College Spirit"
Superman debuts in the pages of Action Comics No.1, the first superhero comic book. It would inspire scores of imitators and swipes, among them the 1960's hero Captain Steel
The debut of Action Comics is Contemporary Accounts. In "Captain Steel Saves the Day", Steel is presented as a sort of Ghostbusters Universe version of Superman, but we know Superman still exists as a fictional character due to "Egon's Dragon" ("Get out of the car before I get out the kryptonite, Peter") and "Egon on the Rampage" ("Who do you think you are? Lois Lane?")
The World's Fair is held in New York. The Toad Island amusement park, founded by descendants of Deep One/human hybrids, is at the peak of it's attendance.
Real Ghostbusters#8. The New York World's Fair is from Contemporary Accounts.
Career of the Crime Patrol. Composed of the Crimson Crimebuster, the Lunar Avenger (Robert Weinberg), Doc Hazzard (Will Murray Hazzard, a scientific genius and minor telepath), and the Dark Dwarf. Their archnemesis is a sinister sorcerer named Fu Fang. Hazzard is also a friend to the grandfather of future Ghostbuster Egon Spengler...
Real Ghostbusters#7. Egon mentions that his grandfather without specifying which one, whether it's the one who immigrated from Poland (his father's father) or his mother's father. The Crime Patrol is, of course, James Van Hises' tribute to old pulp sci-fi adventurers...who all had to have a sinister Chinese nemesis, of course...
Airplanes on polar exploration missions begin to disappear into the geomagnetic disturbance leading the inner Earth realm of Ceratel. Over the next fourty-plus years, four of those pilots find each other, learn the dinosaur languages, and discover ways of fermenting fuel from fruit trees. These humans become known by the citizens of Ceratel as the "Legion of the Lost"
Real Ghostbusters#20 and #22.
The Cosmos Carnival comes to Greentown, New York. The carnival's psychic, Fata Morgana, predicts the world will come to a bad end...with World War II raging, the inhabitants of Greentown ask Mister Cosmos to help them: he's a powerful mystic in his own right. He does indeed grant the inhabitants a sort of immortality, albiet one that keeps their spirits in place in their decaying bodies. He uses a group of were beasts to keep anyone from leaving, and anyone who stumbles into Greentown is forced to stay: as part of his spell, the rest of the world "forgets" Greentown existed, and an illusion keeps it hidden.
Real Ghostbusters#24
The Maxig and Butterworth Circus burns down in Canarsie, a section of Brooklyn, New York. No human lives are lost, but dozens of animals burn in the fire. Two years later, the area undergoes a postwar construction boom, and is sight to several shops frequented by young Janine Melnitz in the 1960's. By 1984, the area is again razed and the animal spirits are awakened by Ray Cougar's seedy carnival.
"Roller Ghoster"
The jewel thief known only as "Blackie" steals from the treasure of King Tod, and is turned into a monster by Tod's curse. Blackie's nemesis, detective Phillip Spade, makes saving Blackie his mission--even after his death.
Forty years before "The Long Long Long Etc. Goodbye"
Evil wizard Rowen Schow disappears. He had discovered a spell that, over time, would allow human imagination and suspension of disbelief to give life to unreal images. That same year, Schow resurfaces as a character in a horror movie, The Deathless Image, at the Rialto theatre in New York. The movie plays constantly at the theatre for nearly a half-century, and Schow and his monsters slowly grow more powerful.
Real Ghostbusters#23
A gremlin-plagued aircraft factory in Detroit is closed after World War II. It would remain unoccupied until Generous Motors retools it for the production of the Y-car in 1985; the gremlins in the factory remain dormant until that time.
"Don't Forget the Motor City"
Criminals Tony and Nunzio Scoleri are electrocuted. They were sentenced to death by a young judge named Steven Wexler in one of the first cases of his forty-plus year career. They would be summoned back to try and take revenge on Wexler by the slime of Vigo the Carpathian in 1988.
Ghostbusters 2. The date is not actually given in the final film, and is conjecture from the movie's script (and is given in GB2#1). The names Tony and Nunzio are mentioned on Ghostbusters.net, so I'm honestly not sure how accurate they are...list them as Conjectural for now.
December. The Crime Patrol disbands after their final battle with Fu Fang. The Lunar Avenger, Robert Weinberg, would marry and have at least two sons, Alan and Matthew. Hazzard would retire to research work, and annually check the stasis capsule containing Fu Fang until the sorcerer's escape in late 1985
Real Ghostbusters#7
Edison Spengler serves an internship under Will Hazzard, and in the process meets Hazzard's secretary, Katharyn Melton, a distant relative descended from the Lewistown Spenglers. In part because of his resemblance to her notable ancestor Elias, Katharyn pursues Edison and the two marry.
Conjecture, unifying the above Real Ghostbusters#7 and the disparate branches of the Spengler family from "If I Were A Witch Man" and an unproduced scene in Ghostbusters 2. Notes on the names are below, in 1957. Katharyn's maiden name Melton is my own conjecture.
Birth of Winston Zeddemore, the son of construction worker Edward Zeddemore. Winston has at least one sister.
Conjecture. Fandom seems to have latched onto the idea that Winston is older than the other three original Ghostbusters, and may have served in Vietnam--note that if I kept to year derived from Ghostbusters International, he would've been born in 1962, and would instead be the youngest Ghostbuster. Father is established in"The Brooklyn Triangle" Sister is mentioned in passing in "Back In The Saddle". (Ernie Hudson' birthday: Dec. 17, 1945)
Peter Venkman is born in November, in Brooklyn, New York, to Charlie and Margaret Venkman. Charlie is an intinerate salesman and con-man. Margaret dies early, and young Peter spends much of his childhood moving around to avoid the law and disgruntled marks.
Year derived from Ghostbusters International. Venkman claims to be a Scorpio in "Mean Green Teen Machine". (Bill Murray was born Sept. 21, 1950) He calls himself "the kid from Brooklyn" in "The Bird of Kildarby". Charlie Venkman is established in "Venkman's Ghost Repellers","Cold Cash and Hot Water", and "Treasure of the Sierra Tamale"; the names of Venkman's parents comes from fan fiction guru Shiela Paulson. Venkman relates information about his mother and his "on the lam" childhood in Real Ghostbusters#9. The preponderance of reference insinuates Mrs. Venkman is deceased (RGB#9, "The Thing In Mrs. Favisham's Attic"), but in "Devil In The Deep" Venkman says "My mother reads Celebrity!" I thus assume this is an apocryphal reference, possibly to impress Ann Johnson; some fan fictions also take the view that Margaret is still alive. Venkman also mentions an Uncle Alf in "Collect Call of Cthulhu", but doesn't say whether he's the brother of his mother or father; the elder Venkman apparently has farm relatives in Iowa, however, per "Cold Cash and Hot Water".
A group of human-appearing aliens, escaping the tyranny of insectoid creatures, hides on Earth in the small Florida town of Beachhead. The aliens live peacefully with the human inhabitants.
Thirty five years before Real Ghostbusters#18; this is how long one of the aliens says she's been dealing with the Florida heat.
Dana Barrett is born
Age given in Ghostbusters International. About all we really know about her family is that her parents are still alive in 1983, and might live too far away to see their daughter regularly (Ghostbusters). A line in the Ghostbusters script would suggest she's yet another Scorpio, too...Sigourney Weaver was born October 8, 1949.
November 21. Egon Spengler is born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Dr. Edison Spengler and his wife Katharyn. His uncle, Cyrus Spengler, will run his own research firm, Spengler Labs. Egon is given a very strict upbringing stressing academic success, so much that he was allowed no toys and reportedly an A- on a test brought a harsh reaction from his parents. At some point in his childhood, Egon is victimized by the entity called "The Boogeyman", who inspires the boy to research the supernatural.
Egon is thirty-nine in 1997, when "The Sphinx" takes place, but by context clues in this episode and "Back In the Saddle", I am assuming that "Sphinx" is before his November birthday. He is born within a week of Thanksgiving (Nov. 28, 1997), as seen in "Back In The Saddle"; exact date is conjecture--Harold Ramis was born on Nov.21, 1944. Cleveland is established in "Rollerghoster". Shiela Paulson's name for Egon's father is Elliot, while I called him Newton in my old stories--I decided to split the difference and suggest the name Edison. Katharyn, seen in "Till Death Do Us Part" and "Ghostworld", is named again from fan fiction. Uncle Cyrus is established in "Cry Uncle" Egon mentions that he wasn't allowed any toys (save a Slinky that he straightened) in Ghostbusters 2. The A- incident is related in "The Devil to Pay". Egon's relationship with the Boogeyman is established in "The Boogeyman Cometh", "The Boogeyman is Back", and Real Ghostbusters#26 The comic hints that Egon was 14 when the Boogeyman started to hassle him, but that seems too old.
October 28. Janine Melnitz is born to Fritz and Denise Melnitz, and raised in the Canarsie area of Brooklyn. She has an older sister, Deann (who later gives birth to her bratty nephew Victor), an Aunt Bella, and a cousin named Michelle Jacobs (who by 1990 has a son, Alec)
Year derived from "The Brooklyn Triangle" which shows her year of graduation as 1977. Assuming that she was 18, this means she was born in 1958 or 59--"The Crawler" places it in October or November 1958 by establishing her as being born under the zodiac sign Scorpio. Exact date is Conjecture--Annie Potts' birthday is October 28,1952. The names of her parents and sister are conjectural (though I do mention Deann by name in my story "Fateful Encounter') Canarsie establised by "Janine's Day Off" and "Rollerghoster" Victor establised by "Janine's Day Off" and "Victor the Happy Ghost" Bella is from "Roller Ghoster" Michelle and Alec Jacobs come from Real Ghostbusters#28. Note that this is one case where the Ghostbusters International age of 39 is ignored, which would've placed her birth in 1951. It is assumed, though not established, that the Melnitz family is Jewish--one more reason I posited the Ostrov Spenglers as being of Jewish descent (more common ground for Egon and Janine).(In the third issue of NOW's Slimer! comic, Janine also has a niece named Bonnie, but I consider Slimer! references apocryphal.)
Birth of Raymond Stantz to David Stantz and his wife, the former Carolyn MacMillan of Scotland. A steady diet of comic books and pulp adventure would feed his interest in the supernatural. David Stantz would take him on visits to the Toad Island park in Red Hook, Brooklyn. He grew up in the upstate New York community of Morristown, part of a large family with at least one cousin and a wise maiden aunt. Apparently he had some wierd pets and the people of Morristown didn't think he'd amount to much. His first crush would be a girl named Elaine Fuhrman. Alfred Favish was his childhood nemesis. He also had an interest in stage magic.
Year is from "It's About Time" I orginally used a 1953 date derived from 1990 age of 37 in Ghostbusters International; like Janine I decided an actual animated reference should trump a licensee conjecture. Exact date is unknown (Dan Aykroyd was born July 1, 1952) David and Carolyn's names are, again, from Shiela Paulson fiction. Morristown, the weird pets, Favish, and Elaine established in "Look Homeward, Ray"; cousin Samantha is from "Dairy Farm" and aunt Lois Stantz is from "The Spirit of Aunt Lois", as well as a mention in "Mr. Sandman Dream Me a Dream". Two of Ray's uncles are known: Uncle Gaylord, owner of a joke shop ("Ray's Joke Shop") and Andrew MacMillan of Scotland ("Bustman's Holiday"), presumably his mother's brother. Ray's parents are deceased by 1983: the property he puts up for collateral in Ghostbusters was left to him by them. His inspiration from comics and horror fiction was established in "Collect Call of Cthulhu" and "Attack of the B-Movie Monsters" Stage magic was an interest of his in "You Can't Teach an Old Demon New Tricks" Toad Island is from Real Ghostbusters#8
Among the Miller Meteor Cadillac Hearse/Ambulances manufactured this year are two vehicles that, when aquired by the Ghostbusters in 1983 and 1988, would be the two incarnations of the famous ECTO-1
Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2. The exact model year of the ECTOs comes from a post by Zack on Ghostbusters.net
Birth of Louis Bartholomew Tully. He has at least one brother, who would sire a son, Lawrence
Ghostbusters International, which also established his middle initial. Name "Bartholomew" is conjectural. Lawrence Tully is from "Busters in Toyland". Louis's mother is apparently widowed or divorced before 1988--Louis mentions in Ghostbusters 2 that he "Had a roommate, but then my Mom moved out." The script for Ghostbusters 2 introduces Louis's cousin Sherm, a dermatologist, but as he didn't appear in the final movie his existance is only conjectural (Sherm does appear in GB2#3)
As part of the "Silver Age" of comics, young comic writer Len Wolfman created the superhero Captain Steel, an inspired knock-off of Superman. Disguising himself as mild mannered CPA Kirk Clint, he fights a neverending battle against such villains as deranged scientist Doctor Destructo. The series would be a favorite of young Ray Stantz.
"Captain Steel Saves the Day". As mentioned in 1938, Steel is clearly a swipe of Superman; I conjecture Steel as a Silver Age icon because Len Wolfman certainly doesn't look old enough to have been writing since 1938. Wolfman is also, by the way, named for two actual comic writers of the late Silver Age, Len Wein and Marv Wolfman. Steel is also seen briefly in "The Copycat"
Five year old Janine Melnitz attends the World's Fair at Flushing Meadows. She leaves with two souvenir coins that she keeps as good luck charms. She gives one of these to Egon Spengler in 1983, on the eve of the Ghostbuster's battle with Gozer
Conjecture; this was actually from a scene edited from Ghostbusters that showed up as an "extra" on the 1999 DVD release. As I thought it was a cute scene, and it doesn't violate continuity, I thought I'd add it to the timeline...
Ray Stantz, during a visit to Toad Island with his father, gets seperated from him and encounters a mermaid. The mermaid entertains him with stories until David finds him.
Twenty five years before Real Ghostbusters#19 in 1989.
Walt Fleishman disappears. It wouldn't be learned until years later that he was sucked into a pocket realm ruled by his evil creation Winchester Wolf, and tortured for the next twenty years
Twenty years before "Who're You Calling Two-Dimensional?" A case could also be made for 1966, the year of Walt Disney's death...
Birth of Irena Cortez in El Centro, Arizona. Like her parents, Irena is born a natural werewolf, and is trained by them in the use of her powers. She would fondly remember running with them through the deserts and mountains during full moons...
Real Ghostbusters#5. The exact year is conjecture, and assumes Irena was 25 in 1989.
A dimensional gateway appears in Southeast Asia, and supernatural creatures begin to pour out of it, perhaps attracted by the death forces released by the Vietnam conflict. Over the next four years, US military forces battle the paranormal in a secret conflict dubbed "The Unearth War". An officer named George Armstrong Badge rises to prominance and the rank of General during this conflict.
Real Ghostbusters#25
The Unearth War is ended when the United States activates atomic bombs on the other side of the dimensional gate. The gate is destroyed and the conflict ends. Knowledge of the Unearth War is hidden in the most top-secret of files.
Real Ghostbusters#25
The Woodstock music festival is held. Peter Venkman claims to have attended and gotten high there
"Lost and Foundry", though take this with a small grain of salt--Venkman would've been fourteen at the time (being before his fifteenth birthday in October or November) Though it''s certainly not impossible for Venkman to have been this big a juvenile delinquent...
Child prodigy Egon Spengler gets his first degree at the age of 12. At some point, he becomes a student of Professor Ian Epimetheus, an early researcher into dimensional physics.
Conjecture. Egon obviously attains a lot of learning in his time--remember, he's only 26 at the time of Ghostbusters. Having him be one of those college prodigies explains both his vast knowledge and maybe some of his social problems. He once offhandedly mentioned to Janine in "Rollerghoster" that he got a degree in grade school, though this can't be literal truth. An excised line from Ghostbusters would've established that Egon had a doctorate in Physics from MIT. Professor Epimetheus is from Real Ghostbusters 3-D Annual#1
Winston Zeddemore, son of construction worker Edward Zeddemore, is drafted to fight in the Vietnam War.
Conjecture. Winston's service in Vietnam is a popular fan assumption, though unsupported by any canonical evidence--though nothing I know of refutes it either, It IS mentioned in "Ghostworld" that he attended boot camp. 1971 is eighteen years after his conjectured birth in 1953.
Peter Venkman enters college. He eventually attains doctorates in parapsychology and psychology. He is also a pledge to the Tri Kuppa Bru fraternity.
Date is conjecture, assuming a graduation date of May 1973 (Venkman was born Nov. 1954). Venkman's doctorates are established in Ghostbusters, though there's always the sneaking suspicion that he earned them at one of those "Send us your money we send you a doctorate" Correspondance Schools--the script for Ghostbusters credits Egon for making Venkman finish grad school. Tri Kuppa Bru established by "The Old College Spirit". The exact timing of Venkman's meeting with Egon Spengler is unknown.
A young witch makes a deal with the demon Astorath. Astorath impregnates her in hopes that the demon halfbreed will allow him access to Earth.
One year before the birth of Shannon Phillips, established as thirteen years old in Real Ghostbusterss#9.
Ray Stantz takes one helicopter lesson, which he won free in a contest
"You Can't Take It With You"
Birth of Shannon Phillips. His mother is part of a coven dedicated to the demon Astorath, led by the necromantic sorcerer Nathaniel Blaque, who poses as Shannon's tutor.
Real Ghostbusters#9 Shannon is thirteen years old at the time of the "Father Thing Trilogy"
Ray Stantz attends Columbia University. After attaining a degree in Occult Sciences, he bounces from job to job, including at least one in private research.
Conjecture. Ray was born in 1959, per "It's About Time", so he is 18 in 1977; like Egon, he may actually be a prodigy and entered earlier; he certainly attained a doctorate by 1983, probably earlier. Ray having attended Columbia is from "The Haunting of Heck House" Ray's bad experience with private research comes from a line in Ghostbusters. As mentioned above, the exact timing and place of his meeting Peter Venkman and Egon Spenger is undefined.
Roland Jackson is born in New York, the first of seven children
Date is conjecture, assuming an age of 19 in 1997. His large family is established in "Grease", and one younger brother, Casey, is seen in "Grundlesque"
Births of Garrett Miller, Kylie Griffin, and Eduardo Rivera. Kylie's parents divorce while she's young, and she is raised by her grandmother Rosa. Eduardo has one older brother, Carlos, who becomes a New York policeman, marries a woman named Beth, and has a son (Eduardo's nephew) Kevin.
Date is conjecture from an age of 18 in 1997. Most background details are established in "Grease"; Kylie's grandmother is mentioned in "Darkness At Noon", and Eduardo's brother Carlos and family is seen in "Rage"
Hunters murder Irena Cortez's parents. She escapes, and the hunters are arrested the next day for parading around with their "trophies". Irena moves to New York and has herself hynpotized to forget her werewolf nature.
Real Ghostbusters#5; the date is conjecture--she was fifteen when her parents were murdered, and I assume she is twenty-five in 1989.
Dr.s Egon Spengler and Peter Venkman are employed by Columbia University to do parapsychological research. By 1983, they are under the department management of Dean Yaeger.
Conjecture. It is never established, but the impression is given that Egon and Venkman met in college, and worked together since. In "The Thing in Mrs. Favisham's Attic" Venkman mentioned that he attended college for seven years. Dean Yaeger is from Ghostbusters
Mount St. Helens erupts. Afterwards, a small dimensional gate similar to the one found in Southeast Asia in the Sixties opens. General Badge, the hero of the Unearth War, spearheads the creation of the Advanced Radical Military Occult Railroad (ARMOR) charged with studying the phenomenon and preventing a second Unearth War.
The eruption of Mt St. Helens is from Contemporary Accounts. ARMOR is from Real Ghostbusters#25
Dr. Ray Stantz is hired by the university, and he is assigned to work with Egon Spengler and Peter Venkman.
Conjecture. As detailed above, Ray worked in the private sector at some point (Ghostbusters), presumably running into Venkman and Egon later--he may have met them earlier than this, however; the Ghostbusters script suggests Venkman introduced Ray and Egon to each other.
Ghostbusters (GB1)
Egon Spengler, Peter Venkman, and Ray Stantz investigate a haunting at the New York Public Library; though they have...little success in dealing with the problem, Egon manages to get reading that confirm the ionization properties of ectoplasmic entities--it could be possible to capture a ghost, and contain it indefinitely. Their triumph appears short lived as they return to discover that the Board of Regents has terminated their grant and Dean Yaeger is throwing them off campus with great glee. Venkman decides that it's fate--they must go into buisness for themselves. He cons Ray into getting three mortgages on his parents' house to start up the world's first paranormal investigation and elimination agency: Ghostbusters.
The new company purchases an abandoned firehouse to be their headquarters--it's in a run-down neighborhood, but Ray loves the fire pole. Using their new discoveries, Ray and Egon create the proton packs and the first Containment Unit. A plucky Brooklyn girl, Janine Melnitz, is hired as their secretary and immediately sets her sights on Egon. Ray purchases a 1959 Miller Meteor Cadillac Hearse/Ambulance which is modified to become their vehicle, the ECTO-1.
The Ghostbusters' first client is celloist Dana Barrett, who encounters a terror dog in her refrigerator shouting the word "Zuul" at her. Venkman goes to her apartment and checks it, but there is no sign of the creature. By now it's obvious Venkman wants to bag Dana, too.
The Ghostbusters' first case involves a call to the Sedgewick Hotel, where they successfully bust a gluttonous, green, potato-shaped Class Five Full Roaming Vapor. After this, there seems to be a virtual explosion of paranormal activity in the New York area, so much that the team advertises for a fourth member: vet Winston Zeddemore is hired for the job. The Ghostbusters also draw the attention of the government, particullarly an EPA hatchet man named Walter Peck. Peck and Venkman don't get off on the right foot, and Peck promises revenge...
Dana and her neighbor, CPA Louis Tully, are posessed by Zuul ("The Gatekeeper") and Vinsclortho ("The Keymaster") respectively, and when Peck opens the Ghostbuster's containment unit, they draw on the psychic turbulence to release thier master, Gozer the Gozarian, a powerful Sumarian diety. Gozer adopts the form of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and begins destroying downtown New York before a risky plan by the Ghostbusters thwarts him, sending his intelligence back to his home dimension, along with Zuul and Vinsclortho.
Date is derived from the date Ghostbusters was filmed, to allow time for it to "happen" before being "fictionalized" in the 1984 film, seen being produced in "Take Two"
Walter Peck is fired by the EPA. He later continues his vendetta against Venkman with Bureau of Unidentified Flying Organisms (BUFO).
"Big Trouble with Little Slimer"
Dana Barrett breaks off her relationship with Venkman because he won't commit to her. At some point, she marries an unidentified man and gives birth in 1988 to a son, Oscar, before divorcing him.
Ghostbusters 2 Sigourney Weaver once conjectured that Oscar's father was a character seen briefly in the first movie, a violinist from Dana's orchestra referred to as "Mr. Nose Spray"--an idea Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis later confirm in the commentary track of the Ghostbusters DVD. Having the breakup happen so early is derived from Dana's non-presence in the cartoon.
At some point between 1983 and 1988, Louis Tully augments his CPA with a law degree, though he mostly concentrates on tax law
Ghostbusters 2
Despite saving the city, possibly the world, lawsuits are filed against the team for thier activities in levelling Central Park West
Ghostbusters 2. The movie insinuates that the team disbanded immediately after Ghostbusters, but in the continuity of The Real Ghostbusters it is assumed the cases meandered in court for some three years before action is taken against the Ghostbusters.
The Ghostbusters rebuild the firehouse, and build a bigger containment unit. The Ghostbusters switch from uniform grey/tan flight suits to color-coded ones. Egon orders their old ecto-marshmallow-covered grey uniforms destroyed, but Venkman neglects to do this. A leakage from the containment unit causes the uniforms to come to life as spectral doppelgangers of the Ghostbusters. The Sedgewick Class Five, having escaped the containment when Peck blew it up, starts hanging around the firehouse.
"Citizen Ghost"
Comedian Dan Aykroyd, a veteran of Saturday Night Live and a paranormal enthusiast, convinces Columbia Pictures to turn his proposed ghost-hunter movie into an account of the Ghostbusters battle with Gozer. They option the rights to the story, and the money they wave in Venkman's face to do so comes in quite useful for the rebuilding of the firehouse and the new Containment Unit. Aykroyd and Harold Ramis write a script, and are tapped to play Ray and Egon in the finished movie. Bill Murray, whom Aykroyd and Ramis had both worked with, is hired to play Venkman. Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, Sigourney Weaver, and Rick Moranis finish out the main cast as Winston, Janine, Dana Barrett, and Louis Tully.
Conjecture, a spin of the Contemporary Account of the filming of Ghostbusters with story of the movie's creation seen in "Take Two"
The marshmallow substance of the Destructor is collected and placed in the new containment unit. It recongeals into the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, but without Gozer's mind it is at first mindless, then develops a simple, almost benevolent personality.
Conjecture. The Marshmallow Man clearly is Gozer in the movie, but appears in the cartoon without having the power and evil of the Gozarian. The mindless Stay-Puft is seen in "Cry Uncle", but by "Deadcon I" and "Sticky Buisness" the somewhat Slimer-like personality is formed.
Ray names the Sedgewick ghost Slimer, and the team adopts him as pet and mascot over Venkman's objections. The Ghostbusters defeat the spectral dopplelgangers formed from thier old uniforms.
"Citizen Ghost"
(The first season of The Real Ghostbusters, as established by "Take Two", which places the first season as concurrent with the release of Ghostbusters. Some of the episodes of the syndicated package are included in this year.)
The Real Ghostbusters Begins
"Knock, Knock"(RGB-240)
Digging a new subway tunnel, the transit authority disobeys the door telling them "do not open until doomsday". The Ghostbusters must close the gateway before, well, all Hell breaks loose.
Despite it's late airing, this is actually the pilot episode of The Real Ghostbusters, and it shows in the higher animation quality and the use of an original song in the soundtrack (something that went away after the 1986 ABC season). I wonder if the writers of Extreme Ghostbusters were referencing this episode when in "Darkness At Noon" everything starts by, once again, the transit authority digging a tunnel in the wrong spot...
"Ghosts R Us"(RGB-101)
A family of ghosts attempts to put the Ghostbusters out of buisness by posing as paranormal investigators and "catching" thier friends. Slug, Zonk, and their unnamed female conspirator hope to wake up their powerful pal Turloq, but end up with something nastier instead...
"Killerwatt"(RGB-102)
A primal electric spirit is feeding off of the electricity of New York. The Ghostbusters rig up a bicycle that Janine has to pedal to keep the containment unit running while the four go out and stop Killerwatt.
"Mrs. Roger's Neigborhood"(RGB-103)
Wot poses as a sweet old lady, posesses Venkman, and tries to open the containment unit
"Slimer Come Home"(RGB-104)
Slimer runs away after Venkman's latest tantrum ("He helps himself to everything that isn't nailed down or on fire!"), and a ghostly artful dodger tries to turn him against the Ghostbusters.
"Troll Bridge"(RGB-105)
Trolls invade New York, attempting to rescue a "party" animal renegade. The ECTO-2 is first used. The Ghostbusters stop the trolls from burning down the city with a stone statue--Venkman sends the little troll to a college friend who loves practical jokes.
"The Boogeyman Cometh"(RGB-106)
A shadowy figure haunts young children. The fight becomes very personal when Egon reveals that the Boogeyman haunted him as a child, leading to his interest in the supernatural. Spengler's experimental "ecto-bomb" traps the Boogeyman in his home dimension
"Mr. Sandman Dream Me A Dream"(RGB-107)
A rogue sandman, keeper of dreams, tries to bring peace to the world by putting everyone to sleep. Ray gets zapped first during a battle with the "Easter Bunny". Then Venkman gets picked off, and dreams of riches and debauchery. Egon's next, but his dream conjures Albert Einstein, who gives Winston an idea: when the Sandman attacks the firehouse and puts Janine to sleep, she dreams of being a Ghostbuster and catches the Sandman off guard.
In Janine's "Dream Ghostbuster" outfit, she wears white with red trim and high heeled boots. Comparisons will be made in later episodes, so pay attention.
Episode 108 is "When Halloween Was Forever"; as it clearly takes place at the end of October, I moved it later into the conjectural year.
"Look Homeward, Ray"(RGB-109)
Ray Stantz's homecoming in Morristown is spoiled by his childhood rival Alfred Favish, who awakens the sleeping puma-spirit sleeping under the town. Ray redeems himself and saves the day, earning a kiss from childhood sweetheart Elaine Furman
It's interesting that in all Ghostbusters canon, Elaine is the only potential love interest introduced for Ray, and even she's never heard from again after this episode. We see Winston with a girlfriend in the NOW comics (RGB#19,23), and mentioned in "The Devil to Pay", though never named. Venkman and Egon's love lives are, of course, explored extensively in the movies and the animation.
"Take Two"(RGB-110)
Hollywood wants to make a movie out of the Ghostbuster's adventure with Gozer. Venkman is convinced Robert Redford wants to play him, but the parts go to Bill Murray, Dan Akyroyd, and Harold Ramis. Things are complicated by a sleepy ghost and a very loud director and his clanking megazord
Trivia Note: We learn Ray and Egon are proficient in sign language.
"Citizen Ghost"(RGB-111)
Venkman relates to UBN reporter Cynthia Crawford the tale of the team's rebuilding after the fight with Gozer, thier adoption of Slimer, and the fight with thier spectral dopplegangers
"Janine's Genie"(RGB-112)
A genie grants Janine's wishes--leadership of the Ghostbusters, the affection of Egon--to keep them busy while the genie plots a supernatural invasion.
In this episode, Janine's Ghostbuster outfit is a medium brown in between Ray and Venkman's, with light blue trim
Episode 113 is "X-Mas Marks The Spot". I moved it to the end of 1984 for obvious reasons, I'd think.
"Janine's Day Off"(RGB-201)
Egon's dinner with Janine's family is rudely interrupted by a...little problem with imps.
We get one really good shot of Janine's family in this episode, which seems to be comprised of her parents, her sister and nephew Victor (both mentioned in other episodes) a grandmother, and a brother (he seems to resemble the father). Except for Victor, they're never officially named.
"Adventures in Slime and Space"(RGB-202)
A bad experiment with a plasmic strainer leaves the city coated in green slime and the team ready to relocate to Pittsburg.
It's interesting that one of Egon's ideas in building the plasmic strainer was "disintigrating ghosts...on the spot", the exact same idea he berates Paul Smart for in "Robo-Buster". One can assume that his incident is one of the things that proved the idea impossible. The idea of a molecular destabilizer, mostly to render physical entities suceptible to proton beams, resurfaces in "Egon's Ghost" and "The Boogeyman is Back"
"Ragnarok and Roll"(RGB-203)
Jeremy Whittington tries to unleash ragnarok to take revenge on the world for his break-up with his girlfriend. It is only the example of his deformed servant DiTillio that causes him to reconsider before the Ghostbusters blow themselves up to stop him.
Whittington's manservant DiTillio is named for RGB writer Larry DiTillio, who would follow Stracynski to Babylon 5. Larry would repay Joe's compliment in "You Can't Teach an Old Demon New Tricks" with "The Great Strazinski".
One of the beings trying to instigate Ragnarok is the demon Surt; he is caught and contained by the Ghostbusters during one of the battles that they fought before discovering Whittington's role in events.
Conjecture from "Slimer's Sacrifice"; there is no time frame given for the orginal Ghostbusters' battle with Surt, so I somewhat arbitrarily connected the battle with the "other" Ragnarok episode.
"Captain Steel Saves the Day"(RGB-204)
Ray's favorite comic book character comes to life. Unfortunately, so does his arch-nemesis Doctor Destructo. Destructo kidnaps Janine and barricades himself inside Ghostbusters Central, so the Ghostbusters and Captain Steel go to Steel's creator--Len Wolfman--to create a device to stop the deranged scientist.
"They Call Me MISTER Slimer"(RGB-205)
Venkman bitches at Slimer for costing them so much money, so Slimer hires himself out as a ghost bodyguard for a little boy. Unfortunately, the bullies retaliate by summonning up some barrow wights...
"Buster the Ghost"(RGB-206)
A disaffected ghost moves into Ghostbusters Headquarters and invites zombies with lousy teeth in to party down. In the end, Buster lives his real dream: becoming a dentist.
This episode was co-written by comic book writer Kieth Giffen, of Legion of Super Heroes fame.
"Night Game"(RGB-207)
Winston is drafted in a spectral contest for which the prize is one human soul (as it turns out, the soul of Peter Venkman)
"Roller Ghoster"(RGB-208)
Egon and Janine run afoul of Ray Cougar, running an unauthorized Ghostbuster-themed roller coaster at his tacky carnival. The coaster ends up posessed by the combined spectral force of animals from a circus that burned down in the spot years before.
June 8. Ghostbusters, featuring Bill Murray, Dan Akyroyd, and Harold Ramis as Venkman, Ray, and Egon, is released by Columbia Pictures. The real Ghostbusters attend the New York debut of the picture. A fictionalized account of the team's formation and battle with Gozer, it becomes one of the top-grossing comedies of all time, despite the fact that Venkman constantly grouses that Murray "Looks nothing like (him)"
Ghostbusters was released June 8, 1984 (Contemperary Accounts), so the release is set about halfway through the 1984 adventures. The ending of "Take Two", then, takes place months after the bulk of the story, allowing time for the film to be finished
"Who're You Calling Two-Dimensional?"(RGB-209)
Investigating mysterious noises at the Walt Fleishman Studio, the Ghostbusters are drawn into a cartoon universe and discover Fleishman alive, but being tortured by his creation Winchester Wolf. With the help of Dopey Dog, Ray's childhood hero, they free Fleishman and return to "reality"
Interestingly enough, Dopey Dog looks nothing like the Dopey Dog doll seen in "The Boogeyman Cometh"
"Dairy Farm"(RGB-210)
The Ghostbusters visit Ray's cousin Samantha, owner of a dairy farm in upstate New York, and cleanse the farm of a pack of zombies.
"Egon's Ghost"(RGB-211)
An accident with the molecular de-stabilizer during the containment of Arzun draws Egon into the dimension ruled by Arzun and his brother Tolay. With the help of the court wizard Hieronymous, Egon is freed and returned home
This would not be the last time that dimensional transit technology is used by the team. The molecular restabilizer would re-surface in "The Boogeyman is Back"
"Janine Melnitz: Ghostbuster"(RGB-212)
Janine's apartment is haunted, but the Ghostbusters can't help her: they've been kidnapped by a shape-changer claiming to be the ancient Greek titan Proteus.
This episode, by the way, features Janine's one and only shower scene. It is, regrettably, tasteful.
As far as Ghostbusting togs, this time she just borrows one of Venkman's jumpsuits.
"The Cabinet of Calimari"(RGB-213)
The Great Calimari sucks the Ghostbusters into a pocket dimension, where the spirit of Harry Houdini helps them escape and defeat Calimari.
"Ghostbuster of the Year"(RGB-214)
The Ghostbusters are hired by Barbara Mente, agent of Charles Foster Hearse III. If they can figure out who is haunting Hearse's house, they'll get to be on the cover of Spooks Illustrated. The ghost is Hearse's ancestor, Charles Foster I, and would it surprise you to discover the answer is "Rosebud"?
"Egon's Dragon"(RGB-215)
Egon accidentally releases a small dragon summoned and bound by his ancestor, Zediciah Spengler. The thing is causing major trouble trying to impress it's "Daddy" (bringing things like cars and yachts) before Egon successfully returns it to slumber.
"Noone Comes to Lupusville"(RGB-216)
Gregor hires the Ghostbusters to help them in Lupusville. Turns out Gregor is a vampire, and the captured citizens are werewolves. The Ghostbusters wisely flee rather than be caught in the middle of this no-win situation.
"The Bird of Kildarby"(RGB-217)
Lord Liam Kildarby is less than thrilled that his family's castle is being turned into a New York tourist trap. He unleashes his wee pet canary on the city.
"The Long Long Long Etc. Goodbye"(RGB-218)
Ghostly detective Phillip Spade resolves old business with his old nemesis Blackie, turned into a monster by a mummy's curse.
"Venkman's Ghost Repellers"(RGB-227)
The Ghostbusters meet Venkman's con-man father, Charlie Venkman, selling bogus "ghost repellers" to an expedition to survey the mysterious New Jersey Parallelogram.
This is one case where I broke the airdate order: RGB-219 is "Cold Cash and Hot Water", which also features Charlie. The team is clearly meeting him for the first time in "Ghost Repellers", and already know him in "Cold Cash"
"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Ghost?"(RGB-220)
The Ghostbusters are hired to clear out a mansion of the ghost of the owner's deceased Uncle Horace. But Uncle Horace has hired them too, because he needs to find something before his soul can rest...
"The Man Who Never Reached Home"(RGB-221)
The Ghostbusters encounter Simon Quaig, who has been cursed to ride a demonic carriage for the last hundred years. Quaig is freed and allowed to pass on, but not before Ray nearly takes his place...
"Doctor, Doctor"(RGB-222)
A chemical accident at Harcourt Chemical has Ghostbusters end up the unwilling host bodies of ectoplasmic parasites, and the equally unwilling subjects of the embarassing medical experiments of Dr. Gould.
"You Can't Take it With You"(RGB-223)
An arrogant industrialist, Mr. Tummell, tries to disprove the old maxim, funding research into sending his money to the "ghost world"
Presumably, the unnamed scientist seen in this story was familiar with Ray and Egon's work, and Tummell's money more than made up for the difference in inspiration.
"When Halloween Was Forever"(RGB-108)
October 31. Samhaine, the ancient Celtic diety who's legend is at the heart of the Halloween celebration, attempts invoke perpetual Halloween. He is defeated and locked in the Ghostbusters' containment unit.
"Victor the Happy Ghost"(RGB-224)
A cute little ghost turns out to be a hideous monster, only slightly more destructive than his namesake, Janine's nephew.
"Lost and Foundry"(RGB-225)
Either it's an ordinary refrigerator gone bad, or a ghost has infected an entire iron shipment!
"The Revenge of Murray the Mantis"(RGB-236)
Thanksgiving. The spirits of the dead posess the balloon of Murray the Mantis at the Macy's parade. The Ghostbusters utilize the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man to stop it (since the Death Star was unavailable...) Venkman romances Ann Lawson.
"Chicken He Clucked"(RGB-226)
Cubby, driven mad by living atop a fried chicken franchise, makes a deal with the demon Morgannon to get rid of all the chickens in the world. Morgannon enlists the help of the Ghostbusters to break the contract and restore his wounded demonic prestige
I admit, this is possibly my favorite episode of the show, with the principles of horror and wackiness perfectly melded in the form of Cubby, willing to go to frightening lengths to do an insanely asinine and petty thing
"The Spirit of Aunt Lois"(RGB-241)
The Ghostbusters must save Ray's aunt Lois from the Russian domovyen spirits released by fraud spiritualist Dr. Basingayne
As with "Venkman's Ghost Repellers", this episode clearly takes place before the events of "Cold Cash and Hot Water", where Mr. Venkman and Dr. Basingayne team up. Ray specifically mentions the events of "Aunt Lois" in "Cold Cash"
"X-Mas Marks the Spot"(RGB-113)
Christmas. The Ghostbusters go back in time and meet Ebeneezer Scrooge, star of Dicken's A Christmas Carol. They accidentally interfere with events, and Ray, Venkman, and Winston must return to 1842 while Egon enters the containment unit to free the three spirits and close off an unproductive, anti-Christmas timeline.
I moved this episode to the end of 1984 for very obvious reasons, I think. The idea of de-stabilizing the molecular structure of a corporeal entity (Egon in this case) to allow access to the containment unit "follows" from "Egon's Ghost" and forshadows "The Boogeyman is Back"
(The remainder of the syndicated episodes, as well as the second network season of The Real Ghostbusters)
"The Hole In the Wall Gang"(RGB-228)
The house of cheese magnate Charles Von Limburger is haunted--and the bigger the hole, the bigger the ghost.
"Ghost Busted"(RGB-229)
The Ghostbusters deal with a drought in supernatural activity by becoming the Crimebusters, running afoul of a mob boss known only as "Crime Lord", who kidnaps Janine in an effort to neutralize the team.
One bit I found interesting was the team using a PKE meter to find the kidnapped Janine Melnitz. It's interesting that in "Janine, You've Changed" they try to find her by zeroing in on the lotsabuck's essence...probably a stronger PK trace?
"Ghostbusters In Paris"(RGB-230)
Asked to visit by the French government, the team makes a horrifying discovery: that Eiffel was a ghost-hunter, his tower a containment unit--and it's about to explode!
"Fright at the Opera"(RGB-231)
Valkyries try to carry Venkman to Valhalla
"Collect Call of Cthulhu"(RGB-232)
Cultists steal a copy of the Necronomicon from the Metropolitan Museum. To find it, the Ghostbusters enist the help of Dr. Alice Derleth of Miskatonic University. The cult is attempting to summon the demon Cthulhu, and for a few terrible moments the great being walks the Earth before a risky gambit using an old H.P. Lovecraft story sends the monster back to his home dimension. The cult leader, Clarke Ashton, is taken into custody, and Venkman tries to romance Dr. Derleth.
This story, of course, is a tribute to the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Alice Derleth is presumably the descendant of Lovecraft collaborator August Derleth. Another tie to the Lovecraft mythos is made in "Russian About", but vastly understated due to ABC "experts"
"Banshee Bake A Cherry Pie?"(RGB-233)
Shannon, Venkman's Irish pop-star squeeze, turns out to be a banshee
"Drool the Dog-Faced Goblin"(RGB-234)
The Ghostbusters go upstate to investigate Madam LaFarge's Sideshow and it's shapeshifting goblin. After some early suspicions, the team is convinced of Drool's good nature when he helps them defeat an evil metamorph. Unfortunately, Drool has to sacrifice himself to capture in the process.
"Scaring of the Green"(RGB-243)
March 17. A bog hound tries to eat the Chief O'Malley as part of a family curse. Inspector Frump, who hates the Ghostbusters, is along for the ride.
I shuffled the order a little bit again: as this episode takes place on March 17, I positioned iit working under the assumption that with some forty stories this year, approximately three take place a month.
"Boo-Dunit"(RGB-235)
Winston helps Agatha Grisley finish her final novel.
"The Headless Motorcyclist"(RGB-237)
The descendant of Ichabod Crane is being terrorized by the Headless Horseman, albeit with a modern twist to his M.O. Inspector Frump, of course, thinks Venkman is behind it.
"The Thing In Mrs. Favesham's Attic"(RGB-238)
A sweet old lady has something nasty upstairs, a monster summoned and bound decades ago by her father, Charles Favisham.
This was a great Venkman spotlight episode, but one little thing bugged me: if Charles Favisham is Agatha's father, why is she Mrs. Favisham??? Did she just happen to marry a man with the same last name as her? Odd.
"Moaning Stones"(RGB-239)
An exibit showcases the three Moaning Stones of Tangalla, supposedly the prison of a demon called "The Undying One", bound by the great Ibandi leader Shima-Buku thousands of years ago. The museum imprudently puts the three stones together, and sure enough the Undying One returns with an army of skeleton warriors.
A voodoo follower named Dalia tells the Ghostbusters the true means of victory: Winston is the reincarnation of Shima-Buku, and it falls to him to re-bind the demon.
Venkman's ahead of his time in this episode. If he'd waited until the Nineties, his toneless, disharmonic "music" would've made him a ton of money, especially if he'd added a track of rhyming cuss words on top of it.
"Cold Cash and Hot Water"(RGB-219)
Venkman gets a call from his father, Charlie--he's uncovered a block of black ice, the prison of Hob Ana-Garik, Inuit god of fire. The Ghostbusters go to Alaska and, to Charlie's consternation, destroy the block of ice--it's too dangerous.
Except...
A few weeks later, Charlie and fraud spiritualist Dr. Basingayne are shilling the mighty Hob in Madison Square Garden. Peter is apoplectic ("He conned me!!! Me!!! His own son!!!") Hob predictably goes nuts and starts destroying everything in sight, but Egon finds a spell to rebind Hob. It requires Basingayne (the conjurer who first freed Hob), Janine ("a...minion"), and "The Trickster". Meaning Charlie Venkman. (Egon doesn't know Peter sold him out to get Janine's cooperation...)
This finishes the "trilogy" of swapped episodes: the airing order was "Cold Cash" "Ghost Repellers", then "Aunt Lois"; changing it to "Ghost Repellers", "Aunt Lois", then "Cold Cash" works better with the internal nature of the episodes
"Sea Fright"(RGB-242)
Max Pilopolous dredges up the treasure from the pirate ship, the Stag, and causes Captain Jack Higgins and his decaying, taste-impaired crew to come back from the dead to get it back.
I HAD to make the "taste-impaired" crack!!! At one point, Higgins' crew runs across a faux cowboy in an obnoxious rhinestone outfit, AND THEY STEAL IT FROM HIM!!!
"Ghost Fight at the OK Corral"(RGB-243)
Venkman gets to live the western stories of Dewey LaMort when Wyatt Earp comes back, and wants the Ghostbusters to be the Clanton boys.
Is it just me, or did Random Choice photographer Boris Meely look exactly like a fifty-pounds lighter Ray Stantz?
"Cry Uncle"(RGB-244)
Egon's uncle Cyrus shames his nephew into quitting the Ghostbusters; but when the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man is accidentally released he sees the scientific value of Egon's work.
Andrew MacMillon, Duke of Dunkal in Scotland, dies. As per the terms of his will, his title it to be inherited by his nephew, American Ray Stantz.
Shortly before "Bustman's Holiday"
"Bustman's Holiday"(RGB-245)
Ray inherits the Scottish estate of his uncle, Andrew McMillon. Laird of Dunkal--and a major supernatural problem: ghosts ready to repeat the clan wars and massacre of the nearby village.
"Aint' Nasa-Sarrily So"(RGB-247)
Captain Kirok's "five year mission" is being threatened by a ghost.
"Apocalypse--What, NOW?"(RGB-248)
Janine accidentally unleashes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse on her lunch hour. They had been sealed in the Codex of St. Theophilus, which Venkman had accidentally bought at a Northeby's auction. With the help of Father Janosz and the order of St. Theophilus, the Ghostbusters defeat the Dark Riders and seal them away again.
"The Devil To Pay"(RGB-249)
Ray and Winston's souls are on the line in "You Bet Your Afterlife", hosted by Dyb Devlin, the game show host from Hell!
This is, as far as I know, the first mention of Winston's offscreen girlfriend. It also features an appearance by an illusion of Samhaine. And doesn't Egon get awful indignant at the idea that Venkman was peeking at Janine in the shower?
"A Ghost Grows In Brooklyn"(RGB-250)
The guys bust a ghost at a plant shop, but just as the trap closes it hides in a geranium. Egon gives the plant to Janine as a gift, but then it starts growing and begins to destroy the city, drawing the attention of plant enthusiast Phil Dendron. Egon destroys it by overwatering it, but Janine is still so mad she bitches him out. ("Never give a woman flowers"...Venkman offers)
"I Am The City"(RGB-251)
The Ghostbusters are on hand for the latest round in the battle between Marduk, Babylonian God of the City, and his eternal nemesis Tiamat
"Last Train to Oblivion"(RGB-252)
Venkman is hijacked by the spirit of Casey Jones, a vigilante with a hockey mask and...er, by Casey Jones, the infamous train engineer; Jones wants to recreate the train wreck that killed him, but with a twist--Casey gets to prevent it this time!
"Beneath these Streets"(RGB-253)
Earthquakes? In New York? The Ghostbusters go underground and discover the "Pillar of Manhattan", a giant gear that a bunch of ghosts are trying to disrupt by closing off the flow of lubricating ectoplasm. They have to find a way to restore the flow before the whole city shakes to pieces...
"Play them Ragtime Boos"(RGB-254)
Malachai, spectral jazz musician, tries to turn back time.
This episode is livened by a sequence depicting the Ghostbusters as bands throughout the ages. (Fifties, Beatles, ect.) The Eighties punk band is probably the funniest: Ray with a mohawk and Egon with even wierder hair than usual.
"The Old College Spirit"(RGB-255)
Venkman's old frat, Tri Kuppa Bru, is haunted by the ghosts of college drop-outs. The Ghostbusters and dean Fitzroy bribe their leader, Elwin Spaulding, with make up courses and fake diplomas.
"Hard Knight's Day"(RGB-256)
Venkman's latest girlfriend, Dr. Doris Tibbs, is kidnapped by the evil Sir Bruce Sans Pite', the first undead tyrant from a picture the team will face, who is convinced that she is the reincarnation of his lost love Lady Genevieve
I couldn't help but be reminded of this story the first time I saw Ghostbusters 2: undead guy in a picture has plans for Venkman's girlfriend. Sir Bruce, by the way, is an actual figure from Arthurian myth, albeit a very minor one.
"Masquerade"(RGB-257)
Kenny Fenderman wants to be a Ghostbuster. So Venkman gives him a highly dangerous piece of experimental equipment...
At least Kenny didn't suck as much ass as the "Junior Ghostbusters"
"Deadcon I"(RGB-258)
Which is scarier? The ghost convention, or the dentist's convention across the hall? The owners of Plump Towers aren't so sure...
The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man appears in this episode.
"Don't Forget the Motor City"(RGB-259)
Ray and Egon build the world's ugliest car to foil gremlins in a Generous Motors factory.
Trivia: Pea soup green is Egon's favorite color, and Ray has a suit in that color. Which is why Ray is such a lonely man, Venkman says...
"Devil in the Deep"(RGB-260)
Venkman tries to impress Ann Johnson of Celebrity magazine; meanwhile, Nexa is leading an invasion of Undyne water spirits. When Ray, Egon, and Winston are eaten by Nexa, Venkman displays his little-seen inventive side and creates a micro-wave gun that frees his comrades and defeats Nexa, indeed seeming to impress Miz Johnson...
And Janine is impressing some of us with that skimpy bikini
"Lights, Camera, Haunting"(RGB-261)
Slimy MJN producer Artie Grendel hires ghosts to work in his movies. They don't want any money, either--just a chance to film their revenge on four certain Ghostbusters...
"Egon on the Rampage"(RGB-262)
Helen Schreck, Sandy Van Sanders, and Elden Bromo of 20/40/60 shows up just as Egon is posessed by a monster from another dimension
"Station Identification"(RGB-263)
WBOO opens shop, trying to beam ghosts into living rooms across the country "It'll be even worse that what they're getting now!" Ray observes, as they're attacked by such creatures as "Gumbo, America's Clay Hero" ("Yo, 'm lookin' f' 'n orange horse"), "Star Patrol"("We're dead, Jim"), and "Power Guy: Prince, Hero, and Snazzy Dresser"
"Hanging by a Thread"(RGB-264)
A demon tries to steal the shears of the Three Muses of Fate.
This is arguably the worst episode in terms of animation quality; several late syndicated episodes were shaky, and this one is really bad. It seems like everybody was stretched out at this point, with even the voice cast getting into it--the Muses are especially limp and lifeless. This episode's one redeeming scene is the Ghostbusters trying to cross the River Styx and having to haggle with Charon the Ferryman. He finally accepts Ray's ham sandwich but bitches about it the whole time.
"Slimer, Is that You?"(RGB-303)
A freak experiment switches Egon and Slimer's minds just as Egon is being challenged by the Master of Shadows, an intellectual snob.
This episode takes place before "Transylvania Homesick Blues", as Janine and Venkman both have thier original voices. It's an excellant episode (JMS wrote it) but falls prey to the common error of having the character's voices magically switch along with the brains. Having Welker and LaMarche try to imitate each other would've been more interesting and more accurate to boot.
Janine Melnitz falls under the influence of makeoverus lotsabucks, a spirit that feeds on a person's vanity. Frustrated in the glacial pace of her relationship with Egon, she relents in letting the creature "improve" her. The creature poses as a "fairy godmother", first changing her voice, then her hairstyle, then over time altering her actual physical appearance.
"Janine, You've Changed" In "Transylvania Homesick Blues", Janine still has her original appearance with her new voice (Laura Summer to Kath Soucie), but changes to her appearance wait until "Baby Spookums" Venkman's new voice is never explained.
The real expaination, of course, is interference by ABC executives who felt the original Janine was too harsh and unlikeable. Thusly, only the network episodes reflect a changed Janine: it produces a bit of a paradox, as in other material--such as the NOW Comics' series--Janine's face and personality remain unchanged. Personally, I much prefer the gutsy, abrasive "original" Janine to the shallow, ditsy cheerleader she became. In fact, if not for the sheer strength of "Janine, You've Changed" I would've written off all of the "improvements" as apocryphal.
On the other hand, I quite frankly DO consider apocryphal Venkman's changes in personality, especially his acting all buddy-buddy with Slimer, undoubtedly the result of similar network meddling.
"Transylvania Homesick Blues"(RGB-265)
The Ghostbusters travel to Boldavia, and meet the benevolent vampire Count Vostok, being hounded by Nicholas Van Helden, a crazed anti-vampire fanatic.
According to Vostok, his feud with the Van Helden family was fictionalized by Bram Stoker in his classic novel Dracula. This episode was released in first-run syndication, but features Dave Coulier as Venkman--the only syndicated episode to do so. I presume that this episode was originally prepared for ABC with the Second Season voice cast, but shuffled to syndication when ABC asked DIC to redesign Janine.
"Baby Spookums"(RGB-301)
A baby ghost is reunited with it's parents
What?!?!?!?!?!?!? was what I said the first time I saw this one. Leaving aside the issue of spectral procreation (gee, I thought dead souls were what created ghosts...), I was flabbergasted by questions like "Why did Venkman sound like a bad Bill Murray impression? And what in God's name did they do to Janine?!" Why mess with success, basically--this show wasn't broken but got "fixed" anyway...
"It's a Jungle Out There"(RGB-302)
Raal gives sentience to all of the animals of the world, and tries to enslave humanity
"Camping It Up"(RGB-313)
The Ghostbusters go on a relaxing camping trip...until an extra-dimesional Sasquatch shows up
I moved this one a litle earlier into the year, as it doesn't seem to be very cold.
"The Boogeyman is Back"(RGB-304)
Egon survives a fall off the World Trade Center during a bust, but contains his emotion (as usual...); problem is, the Boogeyman is able to feed on the internalized fear of this former victim of his, and break free from his pocket dimension. The Boogeyman kidnaps the rest of the Ghostbusters, and taunts Egon into facing him alone. Egon triumphs over his fear, and using the destablizer gun renders the Boogeyman vulnerable to the Ghostbusters' proton packs, and he's placed in the containment unit
"Once Upon a Slime"(RGB-305)
Stuff in Slimer's fairy tale book comes to life
"The Two Faces of Slimer"(RGB-306)
An accident causes Slimer to metamorph into an evil, bigger version of himself
"Sticky Buisness"(RGB-307)
Marty Tillis, President of Stay-Puft Marshmallows, hires the Ghostbusters to walk a controlled Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man through the Park as a fund-raising and promotional event; a nasty sting ray-like phantom nearly causes disaster.
"Halloween II1/2"(RGB-308)
Halloween. Samhaine escapes the containment unit, once again trying to instigate eternal Halloween. Once again, he is foiled and contained
"Loathe Thy Neighbor"(RGB-309)
The Ghostbusters meet the Munster/Adams-esque Macabre family: father Bella, mother Lucretia, daughter Lydia, son Thaddeus (who invents a Frankenstien dog, Patchwork), and even wierd butler Creelo.
"The Grundle"(RGB-310)
The Grundle tries to corrupt Alec Meredith, intent on turning him into another Grundle, before being stopped by the Ghostbusters.
All of the Grundle's previous victims return to normal when the creature is contained except Jack, a friend of six-year old Kylie Griffin. Realizing that the Ghostbusters were about to catch him, the Grundle had this victim go into suspended animation, emerging twelve years later fully transformed into a duplicate grundle
During and after the events of "The Grundle" as detailed in "Grundlesque"
"Big Trouble With Little Slimer"(RGB-311)
Walter Peck, the former EPA hatchet man who accidentally unleashed Gozer on the world, returns as a hatchet man with the Bureau of Unidentified Flying Organisms, and tries to have Slimer destroyed.
"The Copycat"(RGB-312)
An annoying shape-shifting monster causes havoc in Ghostbusters' HQ
(The third season of the cartoon, retitled Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters)
"The Joke's On Ray"(RGB-401)
Ray inherits his Uncle Gaylord's joke shop, which is haunted by two trouble-making imps. The ECTO-3 is first used.
This is pure conjecture, but I wonder if Ray converts the joke shop to the occult bookstore he owns in Ghostbusters 2
Quack scientist Dr. Norman Dweeb starts to chase Slimer, intent on studying him and finding out what he "really" is.
Conjectured from "The Slob" and "Deja Boo" Dweeb was a regular in the Slimer solo cartoons that ran during the third season, though I consider them, on the whole, apocryphal and thus not part of the main chronology (though one episode, "Don't Tease the Sleaze", featured a character that also reappeared in "The Slob")
"Flipside"(RGB-402)
A weird tornado throws Ray, Egon, and Venkman into "Boo York, the Big Pumpkin", a parallel dimension where they are chased by the "Peoplebusters", ghostly counterparts of themselves.
The weirdest thing about this episode is that none of the Ghostbusters or Peoplebusters seem to notice that they resemble each other. Why is there no Peoplebuster Zeddemore? How did Egon--the "real" Egon--become so known and reviled as to be used as the Peoplebuster insignia and to frighten ugly parlor customers? Does this give the Peoplebuster Egon any problems? Was NOW comics going to address any of this in their aborted Peoplebusters/ Professor Epimetheus storyline? I guess we'll never know...
"Poultrygeist"(RGB-403)
The Ghostbusters are called by panicked Farmer Jess, who's wife Maude has been "eaten" by a giant chicken. Turns out she has been infected with a wierd form of lycanthropy that turned her into a werechicken. Egon is also turned into a werechicken before his latest invention stops the giant werechicken monster and Ray's chickenbane soup cures Maude and Egon's curses.
The co-writers on this lackluster episode were Duane Capizzi and Steve Roberts, who would go on to provide more inspired work in Extreme Ghostbusters
"Standing Room Only"(RGB-404)
Venkman builds a phony-baloney ghost-catching machine, that mystifies everybody when it seems to draw hordes of ghosts eager to be slapped into the containment unit! But, alas for Venkman's vanity, the real reason is the arrival of the destructive Mee-Krah: the ghosts think the containment unit is the only place safe from the creature!
"Robo-Buster"(RGB-405)
The Ghostbusters catch Janine returning from a date with Paul Smart, President of Grossjuck Industries (much to Egon's obvious disdain). After sneaking into the firehouse, stealing a ghost trap, and secretly copying confidential Ghostbuster files, he disappears. None of them hear from him until weeks later, when he announces his "New advance in spectral elimination":Robo-Buster X-1, a robot that blasts ghosts to nothing instead of containing them. Over the next few weeks the thing steals their buisness, and when Janine confronts Smart over the way he used her he orders the robot to blow away Slimer. But Egon has guessed the truth: the ghosts have not been destroyed, just vaporized, and reappear as an angry amalgamated maelstrom--headed straight for Grossjuck Plaza. Slimer is freed, the maelstrom contained, Smart embarrassed, and Robo-Buster destroyed--albiet after being re-programmed and helping the Ghostbusters
In joke: "Grossjuck Industries" named for Ghostbusters movie producers Micheal C. Gross and Joe Medjuck
This episode features the Ghostbuster outfit Janine would use several times throughout the rest of the TV series: it's pink with light blue trim. About the only redeeming value of this sexist, hideous thing is the realization that it's also Egon's colors reversed...
Comment: This was a real disappointment. The first half was electrifying, making the most use of the Egon/Janine tension until "Janine You've Changed"--the sight of Egon clearly in the throes of jealousy, sneering sarcastic cracks at Paul Smart, was a sight to behold. But they drop the ball big time second half--I wonder if it was Francis Moss's fault, or a rewrite?
"Short Stuff"(RGB-406)
The Ghostmaster hires a shape-changing spectral bounty hunter to eliminate the Ghostbusters. Taking his appearance from a character in Punk Cinema magazine, the hunter shrinks the Ghostbusters and tries to contain them in shimmering globes. Janine finds the right counterspell, and the team is restored to full size and defeat the hunter.
"Follow That Hearse"(RGB-407)
Winston's desire to enter the ECTO-1 in a car show is derailed when a ghost posesses it.
"The Brooklyn Triangle"(RGB-408)
Construction worker Edward Zeddemore uncovers a dimensional rift in Brooklyn, and when the Ghostbusters are called in he and his son Winston continue thier old arguments. They are both sucked into the Land of Lost Objects, ruled by the Collector. Venkman and Ray follow quickly behind, and Egon and Janine arrive when the firehouse is sucked into the growing maw. The Ghostbusters confront the Collector and learn the truth: At one time a ghost-hunter himself, he has spent ten thousand years scrounging lost objects in hopes of finding two in particular: the twin keys that will open his realm an allow him to move on. As it turns out, the twin keys are Zeddemore family heirlooms, in Edward and Winston's care. The Collector uses the power of the keys to pass on, and the Ghostbusters are returned to Earth and about buried in five lifetimes worth of lost crap.
It is never stated in the episode, but I assume that the Collector was originally Ibandi, and the demon who imprisoned him was the Undying One, defeated by Winston and Edward's ancestor Shima-Buku, as detailed in "Moaning Stones"
In the wake of the disasterous events of the last few months, several protracted lawsuits against the Ghostbusters (some dating back to the Gozer incident of 1983) are brought to court. Rather than go to trial, the team is forced to accept a plea agreement wherein they accept an injunction against acting as paranormal investigators.
Conjectured from Ghostbusters 2 The second movie takes place five years after the first, and the team is clearly down on their luck. The problem is, in the context of the Real Ghostbusters canon, the movie is released during the hiatus between seasons three and four, and while the comic was being released. My answer is to "move" the two year interval between the first movie and the first season, placing it between season's three and four . There's no real dramatic break there, but by season four references are made to events of Ghostbusters 2, and the movie needed some "dead time" (pardon the phrase) away from Ghostbusting to work right. There is a reference in the Season Four episode "Something's Going Around", which clearly takes place after GB2 (it's Louis Tully's animated debut!) in which Janine makes it sound like they've only been busting ghosts for "two years"--I just simply have to treat that as apocrphal.
Having had to give up thier lives as Ghostbusters, the team finds new ways to get by. Egon Spengler returns to research, specializing in new theories on psychomagnetheric resonance in human emotional states. Peter Venkman becomes host of a cheezy, low budget TV program called World of the Psychic. Ray Stantz keeps busy as the proprietor of an occult bookstore, and appearing with Winston Zeddemore in Ghostbuster costume at children's parties.
Ghostbusters 2. What Janine Melnitz is up to during these two years was never noted, though I assume she didn't let Egon get TOO far away yet. I conjecture that maybe she worked as his personal secretary at the research facility.
Nogad, a member of the community of Toad Island, assumes control and starts a program of returning to the "old ways"--meaning the occassional abductions of guests to the island and forcing them to mate with the "Deep Ones" to create stronger strains of Deep One/human hybrids.
Real Ghostbusters#8, though the timing is conjectural. This is some two years before the events of that story, and gives Nogad time to carry out his program for a time before Kenneth and some of the others get to the point of doing something about it.
Dana Barrett gives birth to a son, Oscar. Shortly after that, she divorces the child's father. She has also given up her musical career, and works restoring paintings at the Manhattan Museum of Art under the supervision of Janosz Poha.
Ghostbusters 2 takes place late in 1988, and Oscar is only a few months old, so he was born in the same year. Nothing has been revealed about Oscar's father, not even Oscar's last name.
"Ghostbusters 2(GB2) (First part of the film)
Five years after her victimization by Gozer, the supernatural has again set it's sights on Dana Barrett--and her son Oscar. She consults with Egon Spengler, who brings Ray Stantz into the case. Venkman finds out and also intervenes. The three former Ghostbusters find a river of pink slime flowing through the lines of the old New York Pneumatic Railway--and big trouble with the law.
Louis Tully is hired to defend them in the court of Judge Steven Wexler, but it is the appearance of the Scoleri brothers that forces Wexler to rescind the Ghostbusting injunction and dismiss the case.
The Ghostbusters return to buisness, with a new symbol and a new vehicle, the ECTO-1A. Winston and Janine also return to the company, and Louis is hired as legal consultant. Janine flirts with Louis for a brief time. Egon and Ray experiment on the slime, discovering that it is responsive to human emotion---and that it's power is building, fed by all of the patented New York hostility it's soaking up.
There is a montage of events seeming to indicate quite a few adventures in the month or two between the Ghostbusters return to buisness and the New Year's defeat of Vigo. It is in this interval I have ended up placing the first two issues of Now Comics' Real Ghostbusters series, for reasons that will be explained below. Just regard the absence of the 2-finger logo as a translation error
Real Ghostbusters#1(RGB#1)
The Ghostbusters are called to a bistro beiong haunted by an angry Captain Nemo. They trap him, but four mysterious people in hippie outfits steal the ghost trap and teleport away with it. Egon is angry, and concerned about the newcomers, but Venkman doesn't care--they still got paid for the job.
The four newcomers are named Turek, Cowan, Gard, and Bethany, and that night send the four Ghostbusters to a "parallel Earth where the laws of space and time aren't so strictly enforced" Winston is accosted by clowns, but he out-attitudes them. Venkman ends up in a high school run by werewolves. Ray is dumped in the midst of a group of human/alien hybrids trying to repair their spaceship. Egon ends up in a ruined version of the firehouse, but discovers that it includes copies of the backup proton packs he has stashed in the "real" HQ: he sends the packs to Ray and Venkman, who use them to get out of their situations--Venkman by predictably blasting everything, Ray by allowing him to recharge the aliens' star drive and hitch a ride.
Winston also accomplishes something through sheer will: he phases back home, only to be met by a hysterical Slimer and a giant green gastropod...
My entries on the comics will tend toward greater length--I know not too many people are familiar with these stories!
Gard mentions the year 1988, which WAS the year RGB#1 was released, though it creates a headache because it's also actually during the hiatus between Seasons 2 and 3. For a long time I put RGB#1-14 all in Season 3, then they came out related to the cartoon, but this actual date, as well as the specific Halloween time-frame of RGB#17, led to a major rethinking: RGB#1-2 would still work as in 1988...but only if they become an "unknown" incident during the build-up to Vigo. It's not a perfect solution, as it means some stories are released before they "happen", but heck, the Common Wisdom is that GB2 occurs six months after it's release!
Another interesting note: this is the only Real Ghostbusters story (unless you count the comic adaptation of the second movie) to even mention Dana Barrett: as Venkman naps, he deliriously apologizes to her (mentioning Dana by name) for calling her a dog...This is even more interesting if my idea of placing it "between" parts of GB2 is applied...
Real Ghostbusters#2(RGB#2)
The creature identifies itself as Sl'g ("Slug"), and explains to Winston that the four anarchists---the Counter Clock Criminals--come from the Twenty Sixth Century, and stole his devices to upset history. Winston and Sl'g recover Egon and Venkman.
The Counter Clock Criminals convince Nemo that they need the power source from the Nautilus to free him, and he tells them where it is: being worshipped by a "Space Brother" cult in California. They steal it and use the power crystal--an apparently quite rare and valuable item--to power a gravity ray, with the intent of pulling the moon our of orbit and devestating the Earth. Ray and the hybrids arrive just in time to stop the beam, and Nemo busts out of the trap to help defeat the criminals--he knows he's been snookered. In the end, the Counter Clock Criminals are defeated. The hybrids volunteer to take them back to the Twenty Sixth Century, while Nemo and Sl'g (who was actually a ghost all along, having been murdered by the Criminals) leave in the Nautilus
December. Doc Hazzard makes his annual check on the capsule containing his arch foe Fu Fang, and discovers that Fang is gone! He immediately alerts his old comrade, the Crimson Crimebuster, who later brings in Alan Weinberg, the son of the original Lunar Avenger.
A "few months" before Real Ghostbusters#7; the story specifically mentions December 1949 as the month Fu Fang was defeated, and this presumes that Hazzard made his checks on or around the anniversary of that defeat.
Ghostbusters 2(GB2) (Second part of the film)
December 29. Late in the day, some of the pink slime emerges from Dana Barrett's bathtub and attempts to aduct Oscar. Dana flees the apartment with Oscar, and goes to Venkman.
December 30: Egon and Ray have tracked the river of slime to the emerging essence of medieval madman Vigo Von Homborg Deutschendorf, alias Vigo the Carpathian, living in a self-portrait at the Manhattan Museum of Art. Oscar is kidnapped in full sight of Dana, Janine, and Louis by Janosz Poha, acting under Vigo's domination. Jack Hardemeyer, a mayoral aide, has the Ghostbusters committed to Belleview.
December 31. A cloud of black energy fortells Vigo's return. The Ghostbusters are freed, and using Vigo's own weapon--the psychomagnetheric slime--against him, animate the Statue of Liberty and break the shell around the museum just before midnight.
The very end of Ghostbusters 2
January 1. The Ghostbusters foil Vigo's attempt to possess Oscar. He then tries a desperate ploy, dominating Ray, but fails. The madman is defeated and destroyed.
The very first scene establises Ghostbusters 2 as happening five years after Ghostbusters. The latter part of the movie can be given very specific dates, as the events center around New Year's Day. Like Ghostbusters, the events of Ghostbusters 2 end up "happening" around the time the movie was filmed in real life (the New Year's scene was actually filmed on New Year's 1989!). brian_reilly of Ghostbusters.net has offered the idea that Ivan Reitman "fudged" the "five years later" part, and GB2 ends on Jan 1, 1988, and it would correct some of the issues with the comics, but I hate throwing out the only solid date reference from the movies.
As an interesting aside, the Ghostbusters 2 comic book gives us a speculative Real Ghostbusters style version of Dana Barrett. She greatly resembles Dr. Novachenka from "Russian About"
After New Year's, the registration on the original ECTO-1 expires. The replacement, first registered as ECTO-1A, is reregistered ECTO-1. The team also returns to their original Ghostbuster logo.
Conjecture, as the ECTO-1A and the two-fingered Ghostbusters 2 logo are not used in the cartoon. I thought the buisness about the registration provided a good excuse, the theory being that the team couldn't license the new ECTO-1 as "ECTO-1" because the plate was technically still in use by the old ECTO-1, thus they settled temporarily for "ECTO-1A" until the old license expired.
Note than in the original script for the sequel the car was referred to as "ECTO-2"; presumably somebody in Columbia's licensing department suggested the change to avoid contradicting the animated series (as much...)
Venkman and Louis sell Columbia and Dan Aykroyd the rights to do another Ghostbusters movie for quick cash to help rebuild the company; Aykroyd and Ramis decide to do an account of the battle with Vigo
Conjecture, based on Ghostbusters 2
One area of fan conjecture after Ghostbusters 2 concerns the continuance of Venkman and Dana's relationship. While Dana does not appear in RGB at all, it is not impossible that she and Venkman continued their romance "off camera"--though it could create some interesting turbulence with the comic's portrayal of Venkman's flirtations with Irena Cortex, especially RGB#19, which is without a doubt after GB2
(The fourth season of The Real Ghostbusters and issues 3-19 of the NOW comic book; these are delineated as after Ghostbusters 2 by several factors: Janine having the movie hairstyle in the cartoon, references to events of the movie in ""Partners in Slime" and RGB#16, and most notably in the presence of Louis Tully, hired by the team in the movie)
"Trancendental Tourist"(RGB-501)
Venkman and Winston's vacation ends up with problems when a ghost family shows up
"Something's Going Around"(RGB-502)
The Ghostbusters become strangely allergic to ectoplasm, and end up trapped in Janine's apartment. Janine, Slimer, and Louis discover that the cause is cursed potato chips passed to them by a phony ghost doctor
This episode establishes the fourth season as taking place after Ghostbusters 2, with the animated debut of Louis Tully and Janine sporting the godawful haircut from that movie. Louis even has his own hideous green, purple-trimmed Ghostbuster jumpsuit.
Real Ghostbusters#3(RGB#3)
The Ghostbusters are contacted by Ellis Johnson of Choate Chemical, who wants them to quietly investigate the swamp monster that broke into the Choate lab the night before. They journey to the dying town of Horstingville, and are met by Johnson and Choate's cheif chemist, Doctor Diable. Venkman, after being coated in a hundred pounds of peanut butter, serves as a decoy to draw out the swamp monsters. They're after HOS92, the secret invention Diablo has created: formula to turn dead soldiers into warriors! The earth spirit controlling the monsters agrees to leave after taking all of the HOS92.
In return for a promise not to manufacture any more HOS92, the Ghostbusters agree not to tell anyone about the horrific work. Egon sternly warns Johnson that his "government contacts" will tell him if they break their word...
"Changing Faces"(RGB-503)
Janine finds a magic mirror that sends Slimer and Louis to a netherworld, simultaneously replacing Slimer with an evil lookalike.
Irena Cortez is attacked by a mugger in Central Park, and in self-defense her dormant werewolfism reactivates. The next thing she remembers is being found, naked, by a mysterious man who lends her his coat.
Unbenownst to Irena, the man is sorcerer Nathaniel Blaque. Seeing her as useful to his schemes, utilizing the alias "Necromancer", he manipulates three cultists into kidnapping Cortez and, through use of a control collar, committing robberies in her werewolf state.
A month or two before Real Ghostbusters#5. The identity of the Necromancer is never actually revealed in the series, so having it really be the so-cool Mister Blaque is conjectural.
"Elementary, My Dear Winston"(RGB-504)
The Ghostbusters have to deal with Sherlock Holmes and his archfoe Professor Moriarty, brought to life by the power of the human imagination.
Interesting trivia note: in the movies, the Ghostbusters have nametags. In the cartoon they don't--not even in "Citizen Ghost". But in this episode, for a brief moment, one appears on Egon's jumpsuit!!! I suppose they are there all along, and most of the time we don't "notic" them (they're also on the cover of GB2#2)
"Ghost Gangsters"(RGB#4)
Julio Ramanajan finds the secret vault of Caesar Caldoni, but it turns out to be a dud. At first.
Slimer is watching a gangster movie later than night, and accidentally turns up the volume. The firehouse is attacked by ghost gangsters who think it's a "Caldoni safe house", but scram when cops arrive in the movie. The Ghostbusters realize that the culprit is Webby "The Tractor" McBain, and rush to the Children's Hospital: it was once the Majestic Hotel headquarters of Caldoni, McBain's rival. The Ghostbusters capture McBain's gang, but the Tractor eludes them until he shows up, driving his car in a "suicide" charge...upset that "Caldoni told me...I'm dead!"
The Ghostbusters don't know it, but atop the hospital, in a boarded up section, Caesar Caldoni has returned from the grave as well...and plots to retake control of the New York underworld...
After the capture of Webby "The Tractor" McBain, Caesar Caldoni teams up with Fu Fang to take control of the New York underworld
Real Ghostbusters#7
"Slimer's Curse"(RGB-505)
Slimer wins the lottery, but the money is cursed by an undead tycoon who wants it back!
Episode 506 is "Partners In Slime", which takes place on Janine's birthday. As "The Crawler" establishes her having an October or November birthday, I move 506 later into the year.
Real Ghostbusters#5(RGB#5)
The Ghostbusters are called by Inspector Wilbur to try and stop a werewolf that keeps robbing jewelry stores and banks. Then it strikes the Natural History Museum, and the mummy of "The Nameless One", guardian of King Tut, is stolen by three cultists in ninja costumes as the Ghostbusters battle the werewolf. The werewolf escapes, but the control collar is shot off in the process.
The next day, Irena Cortez appears at Ghostbusters Central and tells them that she is the werewolf they fought. Egon tells her that she can control the transformations. Venkman and Irena are kidnapped by the "ninja"s while the others are out on a bust, and the three use Irena's shadow to reawaken the Nameless One. The Nameless One goes on a rampage and the ninjas escape. Irena is able to control her transformation for the first time since childhood, and stops the mummy, which falls down a hole and has the whole building collapse on him.
Both the "ninja"s and a New Age nut who approaches Venkman mention "the Necromancer".
"Video Nasties"(RGB#6)
The viewers of WAKO (including one Peter Venkman) find their sudden dose of reruns livened up with an infestation of ghosts. Count Sprockula is hassled. Commander Bob becomes one of the undead and starts devouring his furry animal co-stars. On Stalag Dolts ("the funny side of being a World War Two POW") Col. Klobber gets a cattle prod!
Mister Wielage, who looks and acts like one of Venkman's distant relatives, comes to the Ghostbusters for help. When they get to the station it's been redesigned to look like an Egyptian pyramid, and Wielage is wrapped up like a mummy. Ray stumbles upon an innovative way to capture the ghosts--he records them onto a VHS tape.
The Ghostbusters discover that the Nameless One, the guardian of King Tut, is behind the problem--he'd survived the fall in the warehouse and hoped to "draw out your strongest magicians" by "tampering with the focal point of your culture". Venkman convinces him to go back to his old job: he is set up right by the mummy of King Tut to deal with would-be robbers!
This parade of parodies includes two great Ghostbuster nuggets: "Now It Can Be Told", featuring a warped view of ghostbusting with Slimer saving their butts "Slimer? Brave?" Janine snorts derisively "This really is science fiction". The other is an ad for the "Ripper Special Fast Action Grenade Launcher and Flame Thrower", wherein a girl looking suspiciously like a young Sigourney Weaver hunts alien bugs. No wonder it made Venkman want to go out and buy one...
This issue also features a teaser about the vehicle we know as the ECTO-4, though it's referred to as "ECTO-3" because "The Joke's On Ray" hadn't aired when the issue was in production.
"Till Death Do Us Part"(RGB-507)
Janine goes on vacation, and the Ghostbusters hire a temp, a Southern belle named Dixie. Everyone except Egon tries to impress her (this includes Slimer), but of course she develops an eye for Spengler. Turns out she's a ghost, and her redneck brother ghosts try to force a shotgun wedding. With Dixie disposed of, the team hires a new temp: Egon's mother, Katharyn Spengler!
"What is it with you and secretaries?" Venkman asks Egon at one point
"Three Men and an Egon(RGB-508)
An encounter with a chrono-spirit has Egon de-aging, leading to the predictable array of baby jokes. including him escaping his crib with tinker toys.
Intentional or not, this episode also provides a small continuity with the last one as Janine's not in it--like she was still on vacation!
"Kitty Cornered"(RGB-509)
A witch's feline familiar falls into the firehouse and suddenly Slimer's wishes are coming true
The Crimson Crimebuster and the new Lunar Avenger, having gotten a tip that Fu Fang and Caldoni are set up in a waterfront warehouse, walk into a trap and barely escape with their lives--aided, in part, but micro-proton guns of Doc Hazzard's design.
Just before Real Ghostbusters#7
"The Secret Empire"(RGB#7)
The Crimson Crimebuster and the Lunar Avenger show up at the Ghostbusters doorstep, and tell them about the alliance of Ceasar Caldoni and Fu Fang having taken over the New York underworld.
The Ghostbusters set up a meeting with Caldoni by posing as a rival gang--Cody Jarrett and his gun mol (Egon and Janine) meet with Caldoni and insist that they must deal with "Number One"--Fu Fang.
The ECTO-4 gets it's first use to carry the Ghostbusters to the meeting at Wentworth Plaza, but the plasma starts flying pretty quick--Fang knows exactly who they are. The Lunar Avenger and even Doc Hazzard show up to lend a hand--Fang and the entire Caldoni Gang are defeated and contained.
"If I Was a Witch-Man"(RGB-510)
The Ghostbusters go to Lewistown, where Egon's ancestor Elias bound the witch Kestral in 1689. Kestral has escaped from her containment crystal, and is seeking revenge on the descendants of Lewistown's founders. The witch posesses Egon as part of her scheme, but of course she is defeated and Egon repeats his ancestor's act of binding her in the crystal.
"Toad Island"(RGB#8)
Bud and Judy, two young lovers, are kidnapped from the Tunnel of Lovecraft at Toad Island and brought before Nogad, who cheerfully informs them that they've been granted a great honor--to meet "the Deepest One"
Kenneth Grahame, one of the the peaceful but strange-looking inhabitants of Toad Island, one of Ray's childhood haunts, contacts the Ghostbusters and tells them the whole story of the Deep Ones and Nogad's takeover. Egon and Janine scout out the place, "posing" as a couple on a date, and uncover strange evidence when an artist draws a picture of a monster behind them. Kenneth, meanwhile, makes one last attempt to reason with Nogad and is rebuffed.
The Ghostbusters, Janine, and Kenneth enter the Tunnel of Lovecraft (Venkman, Ray, and Winston in full uniform, all four Ghostbusters fully armed now). Janine is dragged under by a slimy tentacle and another fish monster gets fresh with Venkman. The Ghostbusters reach the center of the grotto in time to halt a perverse "wedding" ceremony where Bud, Judy, and Janine were to be "hitched" to some of the fish monsters. One of the Deep Ones themselves appears, and after explaining he really meant no harm to the humans he leaves, promising never to return, thus abandoning the distraught Nogad.
Another story with Lovecraft roots; as if "Tunnel of Lovecraft" didn't make it clear enough. The "Deep Ones" are straight from Lovecraft, and "Nogad" is just Dagon (Lord of the Deep Ones) spelled backwards!
Fun story, but let me tell you--the art was very sloppy and hastily done in spots. Janine switches back and forth from Season One and Three hairstyles, and on one page appears to be fading out of existance!
"It's About Time"(RGB-511)
The Ghostbusters travel back to the 1950's.
This episode gives us the year of Ray Stantz's birth, 1959.
Ghostbusters 2, featuring the entire original cast of the first movie, is released. Due to a sloppy contract drafted by Louis Tully, the studio is able to take more liberties with what "really" happened, and some of the Ghostbusters (particullarly Janine) are not happy with the finished product. Ghostbusters 2 makes only about half of the original, but is still one of the top movies of 1989.
Ghostbusters 2 was released on June 16, 1989 (Contemporary Accounts)--this is about halfway through the Season Four episodes. The idea that the contract was "sloppier" is conjecture, based on the greater style differences between the sequel and the cartoon. Mary Morris once wrote a hilarious story, "Wrath of a Redhead", illustrating just how pissed off by GB2 Janine Melnitz was...Think about it! A private moment of incredibly lapsed judgement splashed onto the silver screen for all to see and laugh at, worse without any context of her relationship with Egon. One would leave GB2 thinking she'd end up with Louis...that'd piss anyone off!
"The Father-Thing Trilogy, Part One: Rising Son"(RGB#9)
The Ghostbusters break a cult ritual centered around a young boy; when they disrupt it, the coven is absorbed by the demon they were summoning, a minion of Astorath, and the Ghostbusters are left to deal with the traumatized thirteen-year old, Shannon Phillips.
He slowly opens up to the Ghostbusters, particullarly Venkman and Janine, and admits that the coven was his family--his mother was a witch, and some strange powers began to develop on his thirteenth birthday. HIs tutor, Nathaniel Blaque, a wierd looking guy with pale blue skin, attempts to abduct Shannon, but Venkman stops him. Blaque then goes back to the Phillips estate to "consecrate" it for Astorath's coming.
A freak, unpredicted solar eclipse ("A supernatural occurance of a supremely high order!" Egon remarks) causes a wave of strange energy to envelop the Earth, transforming everyone--save the four Ghostbusters, shielded by Shannon's growing powers--into monsters. And then the demon Astorath appears: "My Prince! My son! Embrace your Father, Shannon, I await you!!!"
This story is the most direct reference to Margaret Venkman being dead: "My Mom's been gone a long time. My Dad raised me" Venkman tells Shannon.
"The Father-Thing Trilogy, Part Two: Empire of the Son"(RGB#10)
Astorath explains that Shannon is his son, bred specifically to allow the creature to take over Earth. He tries to reclaim Shannon, but the Ghostbusters drive him off with their proton beams and escape in the ECTO-4, taking Shannon with them.
Janine, meanwhile, has been protected by Shannon's powers also, and makes her way back to the firehouse.
Ray finds a null zone in Astorath's energy centered on the village of Moodus in East Haddam, Connecticut. Egon flies there, and the Ghostbusters are aided in driving Astorath away by the wizard Morehemoodus. The Millstone and Connecticut Yankee nuclear power plants are generating atomic energy that weakens Astorath and keeps him away--but they learn from Morehemoodus (real name Dennis Fischer) that time distortions are setting in.
Astorath secures a nuclear bomb and attacks the village; the Ghostbusters and Shannon flee once again as the wizards try to hold off Astorath--he incinerates the village with the bomb.
The Ghostbusters find another null zone, which turns out to be the domain of the earth spirit that escape Choate Chemical a few months before. The elemental attacks Astorath to help the Ghostbusters, but Astorath uses a dirty trick and emerges victorious. In return for leaving the Earth and returning it to normal, Shannon agrees to return to Astorath's realm with him and be his "son". Astorath, deciding that Earth is more trouble than it's worth, agrees--he takes Shannon and Blaque back with him.
During the Astorath crisis, Phineus Eventide sends his familiar, the black cat Tarantula, out into the world to gather information. An evil sorceress, Marlene Whately, siezes the cat.
Timing is conjecture from Real Ghostbusters#12.
"The Father-Thing Trilogy, Part Three"(RGB#11)
The ECTO-4 returns to Ghostbuster Central, to find not only Janine and Slimer but Irena Cortez awaiting them--she'd been turned into her werewolf form by the Astorath event, and now is one of the only ones who even remembers it happened. Over the next thirty-six hours, the Ghostbusters work feverishly to complete the transdimensional warp drive for the ECTO-4; to finance it, Venkman agrees to do a commerical for SuperCard in return for a raise in the Ghostbusters' credit line.
Back in Astorath's realm, Shannon becomes depressed and morose, hating his existance. Mister Blaque makes sarcastic remarks until Astorath puts the necromancer in charge of an outlying community of inept goblins. "I thought Hell was supposed to be warmer than this..." Blague grumbles to himself.
Irena joins the Ghostbusters in jumping to Astorath's home realm in the ECTO-4, but the dimension drive is damaged in the transit--Egon has to stay behind to fix it, and entrusts the mission to Venkman. The three Ghostbusters wear robes to disguise themselves, but a mix-up at the costume store has Venkman's emblazoned with teddy bears--he bitches about it until the goblins start bowing to him. "I guess teddy bears are a lot scarier over here". Blaque discovers the commotion and comes to investigate--he zaps Venkman, but Venkman sucker punches him an knocks him out.
Astorath appears, and battles the Ghostbusters. With the help of Irena and Shannon, who of course turns on his hated father, they stagger Astorath and beat a hasty retreat--the ECTO-4 is repaired and ready to go. Astorath is ready to follow them with a nuclear bomb (he kept as a momento of Earth) but Blaque zaps away from him laughing--the necromancer has armed the timer on the bomb, and it blows up, taking Astorath with it.
When the ECTO-4 returns to Earth, they discover Shannon's powers have vanished, but his demonic nature has also been excised. Cortez agrees to take him on as her ward.
This three parter was Now's best story, in my opinion, and the villainout Mister Blaque could've been used to great effect as a recurring menace: as a human being, the Ghostbusters couldn't just zap him and stuff him in the Containment Unit. Alas, James Van Hise never followed up on this great character, though I entertain thoughts of using him in my own fan fictions.
The Ghostbusters film a commerical for SuperCard; their fee pays half of the debt to SuperCard, leaving them a debt of $250,000
Between Real Ghostbusters#11 and 12
"A Cat named Tarantula"(RGB#12)
The cat Tarantula escapes the Catskills manor of evil sorceress Marlene Whately and her humonculous, Strugala, and runs to New York City. Whately contacts her conspriator, Daniel Whitworth, and she conjures up some minions from cockroaches to try and find the cat before Phineus Eventide becomes aware of it. There's a funny scene where the sorcerers have the roaches deal with two punks in Central Park.
The Ghostbusters are working their butts off, and aren't too happy that Janine announces they have a new client: Tarantula, who is computer literate. Strugala tracks Tarantula to Ghostbusters Central, and gets into a fistfight with Slimer.
The sorcerers and the Roach Patrol attack the Ghostbusters and try to take Janine hostage, but by now Eventide is aware of the location of his familiar. The Prince of Warlocks shows up to banish Whately and Whitworth to eternal torment in another dimension, and in gratitude for resolving the Astorath crisis gives the Ghostbusters a gold bar. One worth $250,000, thus eliminating the rest of their debt to SuperCard.
Xoryl, a female member of a race of Lemures, is captured by scientists in the Himalayas. She is sent to the Buffalo Zoo. Her mate, Lem, leaves thier home near Mount Everest to find her, posing as a human sailor.
A few weeks before Real Ghostbusters#13
Episode 512 is "The Halloween Door"; I moved it to later in the year to make the October date "fit" better.
"Jailbusters"(RGB-513)
The Ghostbusters are condemned to eternal torture in the Arm Pit until Janine and Louis manage a quick rescue
"Surely You Joust"(RGB-514)
Some kind of pseudo-medival crap..knights from the Realm of Fantasy kidnap Janine and drag her back there. The Ghostbusters must battle the knights and the wizard Orlox to free her and save the dragon the knights pursue.
"Blizzard Queen"(RGB#13)
The Ghostbusters catch a creature Venkman nicknames the "Weather Gizzard"--or so they think. the Gizzard had split into copies, and all they'd captured was one of the copies.
Later, Egon shows the others a sensational headline about a "missing link" at the Buffalo Zoo. Venkman begins a string of Buffalo jokes. Shortly after, they're called about an "exceptionally hairy" man being held at the police station: they meet Lem, who tells them that the creature at the Buffalo Zoo is his mate, Xoryl.
As the Ghostbusters head to Buffalo, Xoryl is found by the Weather Gizzard, who has her conjure up a snowstorm threatening to utterly bury Buffalo in more snow than it usually gets.
The Ghostbusters capture the Weather Gizzard and Lem breaks Xoryl out of it's spell. The Ghostbusters fly the couple--joined by Lem's new human friend--back to the Himalayas aboard the ECTO-4.
"Future Tense"(RGB-515)
A weird TV set fortells the doom of the Ghostbusters during a thunder storm
"Venk-Man"(RGB-516)
Venkman is accidentally given super powers in another experiment gone bad. He lets it go to his head and becomes a hammy superhero, Venk-Man
This is the only time, in my own personal Ghostbusters universe, the Dave Coulier voice is canonical to me: it works perfectly when Venkman is the bombastic hero Venk-Man (though it goes straight back to Lorenzo Music when the powers fade)
"The Lost and the Lonely"(RGB-14)
Two child spirits, Laurie and Micheal, try to escape into the sewers of New York, but Micheal is caught by spectral tentacles. Laurie escapes.
Back at Ghostbusters Central, Ray has recieved an invitation to a reunion of his junior high school, and decides to accept.
After Ray leaves, Venkman's intended dream about debauchery in Tahiti is interrupted by the appearance of the ghost child Laurie. The tentacle beast attacks them, but Venkman dodges it by waking up--and laurie materializes in the firehouse!
Ray arrives at Harry Flashman Junior High, and is assaulted by Benny and a demonic gym teacher (meaning it literally as opposed to the usual metaphor) Laurie explains to the other Ghostbusters that the reunion is a trap set by the Soul Catcher, a barrow wight that has captured thousands of child spirits over the decades, and part of his scheme to get her back. The other three guys and Janine head into the sewers to find the Soul Catcher; Ray defeats Benny and opens the boarded windows of the school, allowing the light in, and it weakens the barrow wight, allowing the Ghostbusters to catch it. Laurie and the other child spirits pass to the Other Side peacefully (except Benny, who's stuck on top of his smoke stack)
Janine wears a Ghostbuster jumpsuit in Egon's colors.
"Loose Screws"(RGB-517)
A trap that Slimer dropped is leaking, causing machines all over town to come to life.
According to computers in Ghostbusters Central, 7387 entities are confined in the warp space of the Containment Unit
This was the amount of entities in the unit before the escape of Samhaine, according to Real Ghostbusters#26. The Ghostbusters don't actually trap anything in #15-16, and this presumes Louis and/or Janine don't catch anything during the interval between 16 and 17 either
"Spike"(RGB#15)
The Ghostbusters attend a parade at the...stong insistance of the Mayor's office. Venkman looks for blondes to hit on while Egon and Ray admire the baloons and get into a spiel about the return of zepplins as cargo carrying vehicles.
After the parade, Egon and Ray are answering a call from Officer Boyett when Janine gets another call: cops saying a dinosaur stepped on their car, melted it, shot them the finger, and stomped off.
Ray and Egon meet a red lizard man calling himself Spikorouleusdennum, Male Heir of Ceratel. They call him "Spike" for short. Spike explains that he comes from a realm at the center of the Earth, and was recently deposed from the throne of Ceratel by an evil tyrannosaurus with psychic powers named Nurtog. Who promptly shows up at the Immigration office to try and finish Spike off.
Janine gets another call about the Immigration Office attack...she insists on joining Winston and Venkman in the ECTO-4 as they rocket to the rescue. Venkman's not the best pilot, but manages to prevent being eaten by Nurtog. Ray and Egon nearly catch the psychic projection of Nurtog's power, but he flees when he realizes they pose a danger to him.
The Ghostbusters and Spike atempt to reach Ceratel from the gate at the North Pole, but the ECTO-4 is driven back by electromagnetic fluxuations. Egon has a new idea: a zepplin.
"The Land Unknown"(RGB#16)
Thanks to the sponsorship of the Extra Rugged Baggage Company, the Ghostbusters are able to build a special zepplin in record time.
Just before they leave, Egon and Janine finally have a big argument about her flirting with Louis Tully. She tells him Louis is "sweet but harmless", and he admits he doesn't want her to go with them because he cares about her and it'd distract him on the mission.
Venkman chases Slimer while wearing a cheap lizard costume.
The Ghostbusters and Spike reach Ceratel in the zepplin, and blend in with the environment by having a pterodactyl parade balloon attached to it for camaflage. The fivesome reaches the Skull Mountain headquarters of Nurtog, and the battle is joined. Venkman accidentally uncovers Nurtog's withered true body; he doesn't kill Nurtog, but the Sleeping Tyrant's true vulnerability is revealed. Nurtog tries to collapse the place around them, but the Ghostbusters and Spike manage to escape.
Spike thanks them for their help, and pledges to rebuild his shattered kingdom. But below the wreckage of Skull Mountain, Nurtog plots his revenge...
This episode clearly places the Spike/Nurtog/Samhaine trilogy as subsequent to Ghostbusters 2, by having Egon and Janine argue about her flirtation in with Louis in the movie. James Van Hise took advantage of the one source of hope that I, a major Egon/Janine booster, took when seeing the movie: notice that the two of them actually never appear on screen together, not to mention the strange touch of having her stick Tully in a jumpsuit marked "Spengler". My own, conjectural scenario is this: Egon became absorbed in his work, ignoring her more than ususal. And in this show, don't disregard the supernatural: both the effects of the river of slime and, as we discover later, a certain "Fairy Godmother" in explaining her brief fling with Louis.
"Chanted Evening"(RGB#17)
Louis and Slimer storm into Ghostbusters Central--his bowling tournament was disrupted when the pins came to life and attacked the opposing team. Janine is fielding call after call--all hell is breaking loose, and where are the Ghostbusters?!
Just four hours away from New York, the Ghostbusters' zepplin is attacked by goblins. Egon has a sick realization: those goblins looked very similar to the ones who freed Samhaine from the Containment Unit in 1985...And it's almost Halloween!
Louis straps up in a proton pack to go check noises in the basement, and sure enough Samhaine emerges, and he's pissed. Janine is frantically answering a call that turns out to be Egon...she tries to tell him what's going on but...after she screams the line goes dead.
The Ghostbusters find New York, as twice before, utterly transformed and enshrouded in darkness. They land the zeppplin in Lakehurst and rush to the city in ECTO-1, but are being swamped by monsters until Phineus Eventide shows up to lend a hand. The Prince of Warlocks tells them that he will rally the mystics at the four main ley line nexi (Stonehenge, the Brocken, Blockberg, the forest of Ardennes) to counter Samhaine's spells, but the Ghostbusters must stop the Celtic god himself before he cements eternal night with the sacrifice of their friends--Janine, Slimer, and Louis.
Tarantula stows away on the ECTO-1 and frees Janine and Louis as the Ghostbusters battle Samhaine. Venkman ends up having to save Slimer himself. Between the attack from the Ghostbusters and the mystic countermeasures thrown at him by Eventide, Samhaine is defeated and New York returns to normal. Including having Samhaine imprisoned in the containment unit.
During the disruption of the containment unit, the Boogeyman escapes also; still weak from the destabilizer gun, he hides and bides his time.
Real Ghostbusters#26
"The Halloween Door"(RGB-512)
Dr. Crowley tries to destroy the celebration of Halloween, but only succeeds in releasing the demon Boogaloo. Supposedly, "destroying" Halloween breaks the contract between human and demon, and allows Boogaloo to take over the world. But the Ghostbusters find one child with the Halloween spirit, and it's enough to force Boogaloo to admit that the contract is still in place.
But wouldn't it have been fun if Boogaloo HAD opened the containment unit, and he and Samhaine had to fight over who got to be the king of Halloween? Once more, I shuffled it's place in the order of episodes to make it "fit" the October 31 date better.
"Creeping Suburbia"(RGB#18)
Winston is stressing out from all the recent problems and escapes to Florida, hiding out in the sleepy town of Beachhead.
Egon, meanwhile, uncovers alien transmissions being beamed into space from, you guessed it, Beachhead, Florida.Winston is accosted on the beach by zealous protectors of the town, Darlene and Dennis, convinced he's an invader until they realize who he really is. They explain that they are the descendants of aliens who came to Earth to flee the tyranny of an insectoid race, and they'd been alerted that they were about to try and invade Earth.
One of the town boys is kidnapped by cranky old Irving Fenortner; Darlene and Dennis rush to the rescue and discover that Fenortner is really the advance scout from the insectoid creatures. Winston takes out "Fenortner", but more of the giant creeps come slithering out of the basement: the quick arrival of the rest of the Ghostbusters turns the tide of battle once more.
Egon is reluctant to leave the aliens be, but Winston and Venkman convince him to do so. The invaders are mind-blanked and sent into a sector of space far from their empire.
Part of Venkman's argument on Egon: "Polish aliens from beyond space? C'mon, Egon, how can you resist?" seems a lot funnier since I learned of Spengler's own Polish ancestry...
"The Ghostbusters Live From Al Capone's Tomb!"(RGB-518)
Venkman sells the rights to the opening of Al Capone's tomb, starts up a TV spectacle, and draws the annoyed attention of the ghost of the real Al Capone. Capone draws the Ghostbusters into a ghost world patterned after 1920's Chicago; the Ghostbusters ally with Capone's enemies to defeat Capone and return to Earth, much to Janine and Louis's relief.
This episode I think clearly marks that the TV writers, like the comic (RGB#16) had decided to veto Harold Ramis and Ghostbusters 2: Janine gives Egon a hearfelt kiss in full sight of Louis Tully.
"Revenge of the Ghostmaster"(RGB-519)
The Ghostmaster, who's "Punk Cinema" bounty hunter had failed to catch the Ghostbusters in 1986, comes to finish the job personally. He is, of course, no more successful.
"Partners in Slime"(RGB-506)
Louis and Janine are kidnapped while shopping on her birthday by Poso, the self proclaimed "Ghostfather"; to find them, the Ghostbusters work with a turncoat named Shifter. Egon coats Venkman with psychomagnetheric slime (leftovers from the battle with Vigo) so he can penetrate the ghost's lair and free them.
This is the only episode of the cartoon to refer to the events of Ghostbusters 2, referring to the "battle with Vigo the Carpathian last year" well, all but the tail end of the battle would've been in the year before. I moved this episode later in the year as it takes place on Janine Melnitz's birthday, established as somewhere between October 23-November 22 in "The Crawler"
"Slimer Streak"(RGB-520)
A demonic train enthusiast, "the Player", traps the Ghostbusters on a locomotive gauntlet of death.
"The Ransom of Greenspud"(RGB-521)
Really stupid episode where Slimer is kidnapped and the kidnappers regret it.
"Zoned Out"(RGB#19)
It's down time for the Ghostbusters.
Ray visits Toad Island, and saves a mermaid he saw years before from a gang of bullies
Venkman catches up with Irena Cortez..or, to be more accurate, Irena catches up with Peter.
Egon and Janine, with Shannon Phillips serving as chaperone, visit the Stromboli Circus and discover a troll, a former minion of Samhaine. Egon tries to talk to the owner sensibly, but it fails. Instead, the troll calls up his "burrower" and escapes
Winston goes out on a date. Gargolyles try and follow him and ambush him, but Slimer stops them.
(The fifth season of The Real Ghostbusters, and issues 20-28 of the Now comic)
"Janine, You've Changed"(RGB-601)
While looking at a scrap book, Slimer clues the team onto a startling discovery: that thier own secretary, Janine Melnitz, has somehow been physically altered over the years, in some ways quite drastically! Egon orders a series of covert tests, and uncovers evidence of supernatural involvement in the changes. Slimer is sent to spy on her, and finds out that a "Fairy Godmother" is involved, altering her slowly, apparently to Janine's specification, all in a quest to look "prettier" Egon and Ray don't buy the "fairy godmother" bit, and identify the true party as makeoverus lotsabucks, a parasitic spirit that feeds on a person's vanity, at the same time slowly destroying their mind and will, eventually to the end of creating a new lostabucks. Sensing that they're on to her, the lotsabucks takes Janine on the run, convicing her that they've all become jealous of her perfection.
Appropriately enough, Egon finds them first, but instead of listening Janine rails against him, venting the years of frustration built up:HE was the reason she did this, all so HE would notice her. Egon finds himself unable to fight her with his proton pack, instead releasing his own hidden truth: that he loves her. Caught between the lotsabucks lies and violence, and the simple truth that binds her to Egon, Janine breaks free and defeats the lotsabucks.
Pardon the length, but as I mentioned before I'm a big Egon/Janine booster, and this episode was major pay-off. Egon and Janine stand before each other and Egon blurts out the truth that, if you paid attention, burned within him for a long time. Granted that the attraction was obviously one-sided at first, but look at "Ragnarok and Roll": the Ghostbusters were about to blow themselves to smithereens to stop Whittington. Ray, Venkman, and Winston are exchanging witty banter reminiscent of the end of Ghostbusters. Egon lightly whispers a single word: "Janine" It certainly wasn't Louis he was interested in saving in "Partners In Slime", and when the team deduces Boogalloo is after thier containment unit in "The Halloween Door", Egon's first thought isn't for the carnage to be unleased on the world: it's that a certain redhead is at ground zero. Especially go back and watch "Robo-Buster": if that isn't naked, flaming, glorious jealously and anger at Paul Smart ("Then what do you call that, your jalopy?!") then what is it?! My main regret at Extreme Ghostbusters is that they seem to have back-tracked the relationship somewhat, especially in "The Crawler" Damn it, if I'd had a say Janine would've been introduced as "Oh, this is my wife, Janine" and maybe a couple of kids or something...
This episode, by the way, features Venkman's one and only shower scene. It is, fortunately, tasteful.
"You Can't Teach an Old Demon New Tricks"(RGB-602)
The Great Strazinski enlists the Ghostbusters help to find out why his assistants keep vanishing into his magic box. The culprit is Gorgar, a would-be stage magician; Ray teaches the demon card tricks in return for releasing the team and the assistants
"The Great Strazinski" was named in tribute to early story editor J. Micheal Straczynski, returning the tribute Joe played to this episode's writer, Larry DiTillio, in "Ragnarok and Roll"
"War...At the Earth's Core!"(RGB#20)
The Ghostbusters recieve an urgent communication from their friend Spike of Ceratel, telling them that Nurtog, the Sleeping Tyrant, has returned.
Ray tries to contact Alan Weinberg, but reaches his brother Matt instead (both sons of the original Lunar Avenger). Matt in turn contacts Doc Hazzard.
The plan is to have the Crime Patrol serve as back-up as the Ghostbusters travel back to Ceratel, this time in the ECTO-4: Egon has used the data stored from the prior meeting, combined with the vehicle's warp drive, to allow the ECTO-4 to teleport to Ceratel.
They do, and arrive right in the middle of a pitched battle between Nurtog's minions and a squadron of old Terran planes, including a GB Racer, a Flying Wing, a Grumman Duck, and an Albatross; the dinosaurs refer to the foursome as the "Legion of the Lost" Thanks to the other planes and Egon's deft handling, the Ghostbusters look to be putting a quick end to Nurtog's plans...
Except that Nurtog's science goon, Bataar, has figured out what they've done; Nurtog downs the ECTO-4, and removes the focussing device for the warp drive--he uses it to teleport himself and his minions to New York City, leaving the Ghostbusters trapped in Ceratel!
"Wild In the Streets"(RGB#22)
Janine frets and worries about Egon and the others--dinosaurs are roaming Manhattan and the mayor is apoplectic because the Ghostbusters aren't there. Then Nurtog shows up at Ghostbuster Central--Janine and Hazzard repel him, but know it's only temporary. The Crimson Crimebuster and Matt Weinberg, now filling in as Lunar Avenger, are called in to help in the Crimebuster's Crimson Crimewing.
Egon salvages parts of the warp drive from the ECTO-4, and splits it between the four Legion of the Lost planes. He sends a signal tp Hazzard, and the four planes--each including a Ghostbuster as gunner--are teleported back to New York. The five planes battle Nurtog.
Hazzard and Egon figure out a way to invert the foccussing device, and it sends Nurtog's goons back to Ceratel--as well as cutting off Nurtog's power. The ancient beast withers and dies, gone for good.
Janine what I consider her best Ghostbuster jumpsuit this issue: it's the same blue as Egon's but with an orange trim! I wish something like this had been used instead of that crappy pink thing!
This has absolutely nothing to do with the story, but in the letter column of RGB#22 was my first printed letter anywhere! I spout at length about Egon and Janine...I guess some things never change, huh?
"The Haunting of Heck House"(RGB-603)
The Ghostbusters finally meet a haunted house so scary it even terrifies THEM!
"Ghostworld"(RGB-604)
Carl Sands, proprietor of the supernatural theme park "Ghostworld", offers the team money to endorse his project. First Ray and Janine go, and come back acting odd. They talk Venkman and Winston into going next..Egon can't go--he's sick with a cold and his mom is there treating him.
But Egon and Katharyn have to go anyway to save the rest: Carl Sands is really Karro-Zands, a nasty demon.
In this episode, Mrs. Spengler is voiced by Rose Marie, of Dick Van Dyke fame.
"The Strength to Dream"(RGB#23)
Winston and his date are present at a screening of a bad horror film, The Deathless Image, at the Rialto theatre and suddenly monsters start to carry away audience members. Winston is suspicious, of course, but chalks it up to the best 3-D effects ever--until the police drag a raving maniac to Ghostbusters Central that Winston recognizes as one of the audience members!
Egon confirms that the punk has been in contact with a powerful supernatural power source, and upon researching the movie and it's wierd lead character, Rowen Schow, come to some horrifying discoveries: Rowen Schow was a real wizard who discovered a way to make the unreal real through the power of human imagination and suspension of disbelief.
Key to his plans is an imaginative young boy named Sergio Fernandez, whom Schow calls a "dream receptor". With the Ghostbusters' help, Sergio denies the monsters and they weaken, allowing the Ghostbusters to trap them and Rowen Schow. They hire Sergio's gruff dad to fix the dings in the ECTO-4, too...
There is another reference to Ghostbusters 2 in this story, as Ray and Egon mention their "encounter with the psychoreactive ecto-slime"
"Mean Green Teen Machine"(RGB-605)
Three trash-talking teenage mutant lizards terrorize New York before being trapped in Egon's VR machine.
"Space Busters"(RGB-606)
Winston is selected to serve a two-week tour of duty as a civilian specialist in the International Space Project; sure enough, a meteor passes close to the station, releasing a demonic monster that stucks the life force out of everyone in the station except Winston. The rest of the Ghostbusters arrive; Ray and Egon are consumed by the creature, but Venkman, Winston, and Slimer stop the monster before it could knock the station out of orbit and chow down on the people of Earth. Ray, Egon, and the crew are restored once the monster is defeated.
Too bad Dana Barrett was never in the cartoon...this would've been right up the alley of a Sigourney Weaver character...
"Carnival"(RGB#24)
The Ghostbusters are relaxing after a bust at a circus when a girl named Denetia literally blows into Ghostbusters Central. As she leads the guys to Greentown, she explains what has happened:
Back in 1942, the Cosmos Carnival came to Greentown; a seer predicted a bad end to the world, and as war was waging at the time, the circus's powerful leader, Mister Cosmos, used his powers to "cut off" Greentown from the rest of the world, and grants the inhabitants a kind of immortality--though their bodies continue to age and decay. Anyone who tries to leave is stopped by Cosmos' coterie of were beasts--only her own powers allowed Denetia to leave: she's Cosmos's daughter!
Denetia and the Ghostbusters battle Cosmos, and as they do his hold on some of the inhabitants fades. Their spirits seperate from their bodies, and form a giant ghost ready to attack Cosmos. Egon convinces Cosmos to release the spell completely, and the inhabitants of Greentown pass on to the other side!
My second letter. In this one, I again rave about Janine and pump the idea of Mister Blaque as a recurring villain. I mentioned him again years later on Ghostbusters.net! I really haven't changed!!!
"My Left Fang"(RGB-607)
A vampire is terrorizing a small town in Germany. Not really memorable...
"Russian About"(RGB-608)
The Ghostbusters go to Russia, to stop Vladimir Maximov and Demitri Melyakov's cult from freeing one of the Great Old Ones using another copy of the Necronomicon.
The episode makes innuendo toward the Lovecraft mythos and it's previous treatment in "Collect Call of Cthulhu", without establishing the creature definitively. It's purely conjecture, but the analysis of my local Lovecraft expert, Jim Harley, pegs the creature seen as Cyaega. Writer J.Micheal Stracynski, interviewed in the book Saturday Morning Fever, confirms that the book Maximov and Melyakov uses was indeed supposed to be the famous Necronomicon, but ABC forced him to rewrite it as a more generic "Book of the Old Ones" because some "expert" was concerned about Satanic content!
Another interesting note is in the Ghostbusters ally, Dr. Katarina Novachenka--she greatly resembles the "cartoon version" of Dana Barrett created by John Tobias for the NOW Comics' adaptation of Ghostbusters 2
"Ghost Train"(RGB#25)
The Ghostbusters are contacted by General George Armstrong Badge, leader of the top-secret government agency ARMOR (Advanced Radical Military Occult Railroad). He explains that he'd fought in the "Unearth War", a secret part of the Vietnam conflict that had begun when a dimensional gate had opened in Southeast Asia. The gate had been closed years later, but a new one had started to open after the eruption of Mt St. Helens in 1980--and a prototype armored train had gone into the gate and never returned. Thus, the decision to call the experts on dimensional travel...
Clad in body armor, the Ghostbusters enter the gate and eventually find the train, though the five man crew had been posessed. The posessing entities rave about how they were smart and stayed away from an the only humans that scared them...""Place of giant metal hu-man near sea". Egon suddenly realizes what they're saying--he shows them the Ghostbuster logo on his arm and the posessing entities abandon their captives and run: the "giant metal hu-man" was the statue of liberty, and they, the Ghostbusters, were the humans the monsters feared. "You mean we just won because we have better public relations?" Venkman asks incredulously. The Ghostbusters return home with the train and it's crew intact.
"The Slob"(RGB-609)
As quack scientist Norman Dweeb chases Slimer, The Sleaze is releases from the containment unit and combines with his brother the Glob to become the Slob.
This episode features Dr. Dweeb, a staple of the Slimer solo stories from season three, as well as the Sleaze, seen being caught by the Ghostbusters in another Slimer! episode. I generally consider the Slimer material apocryphal, though obviously some of it "happened" in one form or another. Dweeb also appears in "Deja Boo"
"Deja Boo"(RGB-610)
Dr. Dweeb looks into Slimer's mind, giving us a chance to revisit old adventures
Or, to be more accurate, to create the hated "clip show" full of footage from "The Copycat", "Halloween II1/2", "The Two Faces of Slimer", and "Sticky Buisness"
"Closet Case"(RGB#26)
Tommy Newkirk is being haunted, and the monster that came out of his closet scrawled a message on the walls: "REVENGE EGON SPENGLER REVENGE"
Egon's own nightmares lead him to scan the Containment Unit and confirm his suspicions: the one entity that wasn't returned after Samhaine's latest escape: The Boogeyman.
Egon is present when the Boogeyman kidnaps Tommy, and Venkman is sucked into his realm also. Ray and Winston use their proton packs to reopen the doorway and meet up with Venkman.
The Boogeyman drops Tommy and Egon into a replica of Egon's childhood bedroom; he fails to intimidate the Ghostbuster, and Egon has figured out the Boogeyman's secret: he's still weak from the Destabilizor gun, and Ray and Winston trap him easily.
"Afterlife In the Fast Lane"(RGB-611)
The Phantom interferes in the Ghostbuster's charity road rally
"Guess What's Coming to Dinner"(RGB-612)
The Bundy/Simpson-esque Grungy (Foul, Pig, Bug, and Smelly) family moves into the firehouse while the Ghostbusters are on vacation.
"Last Voyage of the Lady Anne"(RGB#27)
Treasure hunters Wade Connoly and Tony Traegeser have found the wreck of the Lady Anne, but it might be more trouble than it's worth...
They call the Ghostbusters, who travel to the little town of Leland in the ECTO-4. Traegerer has cleared out, but Connoly shows them what he's learned: at nightfall a spectral woman, Jessica, appears, who shows them what happened when the Lady Anne went down a hundred years ago: her husband Lucius made a pact with a water spirit: their spirits would serve it for a century...
Then the government shows up and arrests Connoly (for "looting" the wreck) and the Ghostbusters (as accomplices). But then the wreck of the Lady Anne resurfaces and ghosts start coming ashore in Leland in droves. The Ghostbusters are freed just as the water spirit renegs on his deal and starts to reclaim the spirits. The Ghostbusters and the other spirits team up to defeat the water demon, and the spirits pass on peacefully.
"Stay Tooned" (RGB-613)
One of Ray's favorite cartoon characters, Sammy K. Ferret, comes to life and begins to turn things in New York into cartoon characters--including Ray, Winston, and Egon!
"Very Beast Friend"(RGB-614)
A three hour cruise gone bad finds the Ghostbusters stranded on a desert island and Venkman and Ray posessed by the warring elemental spirits Anshar and Khishar
"Hat Trick"(RGB#28)
As Venkman confounds Slimer with math ("If you guess how many pizzas are in these boxes without peeking, you can have both of them!") Egon and Janine go on a much-needed date. Of course, things don't go smoothly...
They visit Janine's cousin, Michele Jacobs, and her son Alec. Alec insists he sees a ghost that looks just like him; and in short order, the two Ghostbusters meet the spirit of Aaron Jacobs, who tells them he had been sacrificed to allow a witch spirit to posess his mother Ginevra--who is about to seize Michele Jacobs...
However, it's too late--Michele opened the box containing a witch hat--the hat containing the Ginevra spirit. It posesses Michele...the Ghostbuster couple tries to stop her, but they get thrown into a closet.
Aaron appears, and whisks Egon and Janine back to 1840. It's the only way to stop the witch now, he explains. Janine grabs the hat from Ginevra Jacobs and throws it into a fireplace--Michele can't be posessed by a hat that burned in 1840! Janine runs to the pentagram Egon has created to protect them and Ginevra...the witch spirit, having nowhere to go, angrily disippates. The two Ghostbusters return to the present, and despite Egon's concerns that they've changed time, Slimer is still confounded by Venkman's challenge...
"Busters in Toyland"(RGB-615)
Louis's obnoxious nephew Lawrence makes trouble for the gang, especially when a ghost called Lothgar gets involved...
"The Magnificent Five"(RGB-616)
Pathetic western knock-off, The Ghostbusters travel to Spittoon TX to bust a ghost called Black Bart. But does Black Bart want the gold under the town or the spiritual well which will give him incredible powers?
1991--YEAR NINE
(The sixth and last season of The Real Ghostbusters, and The Real Ghostbusters, Vol.2 from NOW Comics)
"The Treasure of the Sierra Tamale"(RGB-701)
Venkman's dad convinces Ray to go with him to Mexico to hunt for treaure. The happen upon coatls, Aztec dragons, and their master, Quetzalcoatl
"Not Now, Slimer"(RGB-702)
As Slimer is hassled by Professor Dweeb, the Ghostbusters battle a spirit channelling the powers of many of their prior opponents
"The Rise and Fall of Ghostbusting"(RGB Vol.2#0)
A rollercoaster, the "Screamer", is being haunted. After failing to trap it, Venkman convinces the ghost to not harm anybody, so it can stay and be part of the attraction.
"Tobin and the Maze of Time, Part One" (RGB Vol.2#0)
Egon is conducting some dream experiments on Ray when some strange images come in: they eventually realize that it is the legendary Tobin, chronicler of the Tobin Spirit Guide, and he's in deep trouble from a creature referred to only as "Evil"--the monster has taken the chronicler out of his temporal null zone, and Tobin is aging quickly. The Ghostbusters hook themselves up to Egon's dream device and head off to help him...
"Tobin and the Maze of Time, Part Two" (RGB Vol.2#1)
The Ghostbusters arrive on the dreamscape, and have to triumph over several obstacles--a trapdoor to a bottomless bit, a cave featuring another bottomless pit, and finally a set of revolving doors that ends up scattering the four Ghostbusters throughout time...
Winston ends up in ancient Crete...and an angry minotaur...
Ray ends up in one of his ancestral homelands. Specifically, Scotland in 1638 AD...
Venkman is dropped into Southern France in 1432...where he encounters the ghost of Joan of Arc...
And Egon is deposited in ancient Egypt, circa 2550 BC. And his first encounter with a Sphinx...
"Tobin and the Maze of Time, Part Three" (RGB Vol.2#2)
"Evil" gloats as Tobin continues to age rapidly. Tobin knows that only by figuring out the secret of the Maze of Time will allow the Ghostbusters to save him...
Winston is chased around the Labyrinth by the minotaur until Daedalus shows up; Daedalus gives Winston wings and, to the Ghostbuster's disbelief, the two fly out of the maze. But Winston does an Icarus and gets too close to the Sun...his wings start to melt, and he desperately grabs Daedalus's amulet...
...And pops into a chamber where Egon, holding a similar chunk of metal, is waiting. Egon explains that he was in ancient Egypt--he guessed the Sphinx's riddle, and got the monster to stop hassling the pyramid builders by building a monument to him...
"Tobin and the Maze of Time, Part Four" (RGB Vol.2#3)
Egon and Winston are joined in short order by Ray and Venkman. Ray is talking in a Scottish brogue, and tells a fantastic tale about how he saved a town from the Loch Ness Monster: it agreed to stop attacking people if Ray would stop playing the bagpipe. Ray recieved a chunk of metal similar to Egon and Winston's for his service...
Venkman regales them with his tale of Joan Of Arc, and how he teamed up with her to stop an English assassin from killing King Charles. When Venkman fell out of the rafters, he grabbed a now quite-familiar chunk of metal...
Egon assembles the four segments into a box. Venkman says it reminds him of a toy he had as a kid and twists it--the image of Tobin appears, and congratulates them for passing the "tests of time"...
"Evil" knows the Ghostbusters are coming and has come up with a gambit of his own, disguising himself as a certain five-one redhead from Brooklyn...
"Tobin and The Maze Of Time, Part Five" (RGB Vol.2#4)
Tobin leads the Ghostbusters to his dying corporeal body, where Janine is waiting for them--she doesn't take the time to explain how. But it's too late--Tobin dies. The Ghostbusters wonder what to do next, while Egon concentrates and summons up a proton pack. The other Ghostbusters are incredulous when he points it at Janine--but when he blasts her it's obvious it's just "Evil" in disguise (Egon wasn't fooled. Knows his woman, that one does...)
Then, with "Evil" weakened, the Council of Eight shows up and confines the creature. The Ghostbusters wake up at home and even they're confused by all of this--if the Council couldn't destroy "Evil" and Tobin's still dead, then what's the point???
"Attack of the B-Movie Monsters"(RGB-703)
The Ghostbusters go to Japan to battle a Godzilla knockoff called Lizardo
Who is more like Godzilla than the Gino (Godzilla In Name Only) seen in the 1998 American Godzilla movie...
"20,000 Leagues Under the Street"(RGB-704)
Abshi, Egyptian insect god, tries to take over New York.
This was the last new animated Ghostbusters story until 1997, the last featuring the original Ghostbusters exclusively.
"Poltergiest at the Pentagon" (RGB Annual#1)
The Ghostbusters get a call from the President of the United States: poltergeists are tearing up the Pentagon. The Ghostbusters fly to Washington DC and meet with a Colonel Sullivan, who takes them inside. Ray sets a trap for the playful critters using the model tanks and airplanes in the War Room, and the ghosts are easily confined.
Just as the Ghostbusters are about to leave, Colonel Sullivan asks them if they've heard of "Professor Ian Epimetheus"--and Egon certainly has: Epimetheus was one of his old mentors, who'd dropped out of teaching after supposedly finding a "gateway to the deepest, darkest depths of evil"
"Pandora's Box" (RGB 3-D Annual)
The Ghostbusters recieve Ian Epimetheus's experimental interdimensional portal. When they activate it, Egon and Venkman don spacesuits and go inside it...the dimension they end up in looks familiar to them...their suspicions are confirmed when three familiarly wierd ghostly versions of themselves and Ray appear: the Peoplebusters!!!
Worst of all, they find the portal and use it--Ray and Winston only see shadowy shapes until it's too late!!! Egon and Venkman return--the Peoplebusters are loose in New York City!
The Ghostbusters free Professor Epimetheus from his dimensional prison, in the same realm from which the Peoplebusters hail.
Conjecture. The above material was slated for Real Ghostbusters Vol.2 No.5-on, but the series was cancelled and the completed material salvaged for the above specials. From this point, the Ghostbusters franchise became all but completely dormant save for re-runs on USA.
"Trick or Treat or Defeat" (RGB 3-D Annual)
It's Halloween, and Egon has detected some major spikes in the PK levels (another Big Twinkie, I guess). The other Ghostbusters are getting ready for a Halloween party, and Venkman is teasing Janine because she dresses like a clown every year.
Samhaine has somehow escaped again, and is seeking to shatter the barrier between the living and unliving worlds, allowing him to (of course) take over both. He's posed as a kindly old man to pass out toys and candy to kids--that come to life and start attacking them!
The Ghostbusters find Samhaine, and utilizing an..innovative (actually, kinda bullsh*t pseudoscience) tactic, cause him to overload and explode. The toys and candy return to normal.
Back at GB Central, Janine surprises them all with her new pirate costume...
I just about didn't put this in the timeline, as it represents a major continuity breach: Samhaine somehow escape the Containment Unit with no explaination. The Ghostbusters don't even seem surprised about this!!! A line or two explaining it would've been nice, y'know...
The Ghostbusters, faced with plummetting profits from a dearth of supernatural activity, again cease buisness, this time willingly. Janine Melnitz and Louis Tully are "downsized" out of thier jobs, and Louis's activities are wholly unknown after this point. Ray Stantz does research at Stanford until an undefined "accident" puts him so down on his luck he's become a used car salesman in Colorado. Winston Zeddemore trains as a pilot, and flies a commutor line in Montana. Peter Venkman goes to Hollywood, becomes a successful agent, and by 1997 is trying to shop around a concept for Ghostbusters 3. Egon Spengler elects to remain in New York, living in the firehouse to keep an eye on the containment unit, and accepts a posting as a parapsychology teacher at New York City College, a community college
Egon's activities since the breakup of the original Ghostbusters are well-defined in "Darkness At Noon", which also re-introduces Janine: her activities are undefined, though it appears obvious that she does not keep in touch with Egon. The rest of the Ghostbusters' fates are detailed in "Back In The Saddle"
Over the next few years, Janine Melnitz's appearance continues to evolve due to age and the loss of the makeoverus lotsabucks. By 1997, her appearance seems to have slowly evolved "back" into something inbetween her original appearance and her "improved" one; her voice remains unaccented, but is deeper than even her original one. Even her personality aquires some of it's old fire and vinegar.
Conjecture from "Janine, You've Changed" and her appearance in Extreme Ghostbusters; her voice, of course, is due to her being played by Pat Musick, a totally different voice actress from the two in the animated series, Laura Summer and Kath Soucie. (And no relation to Venkman voice actor Lorenzo
While doing research at a New York City College, former Ghostbuster Egon Spengler meets Dr. Edward Carrillion, another paranormal researcher with "unusual" ideas. In specific, he believes that three crystal skulls can be used to enslave supernatural entities. Eventually, Egon decides that Carrillion is too unstable and ends his relationship with him.
Conjecture from "Heart of Darkness" In all honesty, the time frame of Egon's working with Carrillion is never established, and could just as easily been either of the two other times Egon was in research: 1978-1983 (before Ghostbusters) or 1986-1988 (between "Brooklyn Triangle" and Ghostbuters2), but as Carillion no mention is made of Ray or Venkman, I consider this the most likely time frame.
Edwin McShayne is elected mayor of New York
Conjecture. This was the year that Rudy Guliani was elected in real life. It is unclear if there was a counterpart of David Dinkins between McShayne and Lenny, the Koch type seen in the movies and the Real Ghostbusters TV show.
Kylie Griffin's grandmother, Rosa, dies. Kylie, already a budding new-age spritualist and Ghostbuster scholar, intensifies her studies into the supernatural in hopes of contacting her grandmother's ghost.
Rosa died one year before Extreme Ghostbusters, as established in "Darkness At Noon"
Janine Melnitz finds out about Egon Spengler's posting at New York City College, and decides it's time to see him again.
Just prior to "Darkness At Noon"
(Extreme Ghostbusters First and only Season)
"Darkness At Noon, Part One"(XGB-101)
Four students of New York City College have signed up for Parapsychology 101, being taught by former Ghostbuster Egon Spengler: Kylie Griffin, new age enthusiast; Garrett Miller, paraplegic athlete; Roland Jackson, electronics whiz; and slacker Eduardo Rivera. Janine Melnitz surprises Egon during thier first class. City construction drills into a sealed chamber and releases an entity; Spengler's equipment detects the release, but Mayor McShayne derides him as a fraud. Egon tries to confront the entity, but the equipment is too old and underpowered to be effective, and he's infected with a strange disease. Eduardo, Garrett, Roland, and Janine find him in the run-down Ghostbuster headquarters; there's no way he can battle the creature now...
"Darkness At Noon, Part Two"(XGB-102)
Garrett, Eduardo, and Roland search the city; they find Kylie, acting strange, and discover that she was posessed by the spirit. Again, the aged Ghostbuster equipment proves ineffective. Egon identifies the spirit as a Sumerian disease goddess, Akkyra; he and Roland subject the proton packs and ECTO-1 to upgrading, and create a micronized proton pistol and a radically different ghost trap design. Roland, Garrett, Kylie, and Eduardo take up the mantle of Ghostbusters, and using the new equipment apprehend Akkyra easily, clearing up the infection suffered by Egon and hundred of others.
"The True Face of a Monster"(XGB-103)
A Jewish mystic summons up a golem to deal with some neo-Nazi lowlifes
"Fear Itself"(XGB-104)
A night club owner uncovers a series of catacombs which are protected by a ghost who can make people's fears into reality. Garrett must triumph over his claustrophobia to stop it.
"Deadliners"(XGB-105)
Eduardo recognizes a monster as Crainiac, character from J.N. Kline's young-reader horror novels. The other Ghostbusters tease him mercillessly (Roland:"You read J.N Kline books?" Kylie: "You read?")until the monster answers to the name; the team discovers that the creatures are called the Vathek, and have imprisoned Kline to write them "into reality"
"Casting the Runes"(XGB-106)
A small-time hood steals a pouch of ancient runes and learns that he can use them to mark people to be taken to the other side by a demon. Eduardo is sucked into another dimension to become the slave of the Nordic god Kahlil
"The Infernal Machine"(XGB-107)
Luko, a Greek spirit of invention, compels Roland to build a really strange device.
"Home is Where the Horror Is"(XGB-108)
A haunted house is more than haunted: the entire house is a soul-sucking demon!
"Killjoys"(XGB-109)
A gang of vampire clowns is going around town attacking people, and "embrace" a new recruit: Eduardo Rivera!
"The Unseen"(XGB-110)
A rash of missing eyes leads to Tinnebraug, guardian of the Eye of Moldova, who is compelled to suck the eyes out of everyone who looks at the "sacred stone". Meanwhile, some thugs steal Eduardo and Kylie's proton packs and go on a crime spree.
"The Crawler"(XGB-111)
Cojilla, Incan god of evil insects, escapes his crypt and goes to New York, posing as "Gregor Samsa", looking for a mate. He runs into Janine Melnitz, in a round of dispair over Egon Spengler's inattention, and is flattered by his efforts to cheer her up. But things turn sour when Cojilla kidnaps her and mutates her into an insect creature worth of being his "queen"; in a telling move, Egon leads the Ghostbusters into the attack on Cojilla, breaking through to Janine and turning her back to normal.
"The Pied Piper of Manhattan"(XGB-112)
"The Piper" deals with a supernatural infestation, but when McShayne stiffs him on the bill he summons children to be dumped into the sea. The Ghostbusters intervene, discovering that the Piper was behind the infestation in the first place. With the help of Roland's tuba, they trap him.
"Be Careful What You Wish For"(XGB-113)
Duophines offers everyone their fondest wishes, with evil twists. Eduardo, for example, wishes Kylie would treat him as well as she treats her can Pagan, and ends up stuck in the cat's body.
"Grease"(XGB-114)
Two FBI agents investigate the Ghostbusters and arrest them, until a troublemaking imp sabotages the plane they're on.
This episode was a wealth of biographical details, including the new Ghostbuster's last names and other background details--including about Eduardo's brother, who is not seen until "Rage"
"The Jersey Devil" (XGB-115)
The Ghostbusters road trip uncovers the Jersey Devil
"Dry Spell"(XGB-116)
Famous oceanographer Francois Rousseau steals a dangerous water spirit from the Ghostbusters, intending to study it--before it, of course, gets out of his control.
"Sonic Youth"(XGB-117)
Roland falls for the bewitching muse Syren. But Syren has a dark secret: she is one of the Glostic sisters, and Banshee is compelling her to steal people's life forces.
"Ghost Apolocalyptic Future"(XGB-118)
Kylie changes places with a man thirty years in the future, and learns of the horror that has transpired since the demon Tempus took over the world. But the switch provides them a unique opportunity to prevent that future, if the present day Tempus is prevented from killing Egon Spengler and opening the containment unit
"Bird of Prey"(XGB-119)
The Harasfelg, a Norse dragon spirit, is playing havoc with the weather.
"Seeds of Destruction"(XGB-120)
A blob goes around sucking people's life forces, including Garrett's; at first, the Ghostbusters think it's a confused but benevolent entity called Coojah, thought they quickly learn their error: it's a much meaner critter called Shambahok.
"Luck of the Irish"(XGB-121)
The Leprechan is taking revenge on the descendants of the Irishmen who bound it--and Edwin McShayne, Mayor of New York, is on the list
"The Ghostmakers"(XGB-122)
A monster is using a mystic mirror to entrap souls in his dimension, sending minions to inhabit the "empty" bodies--including Eduardo and Garrett's
"Slimer's Sacrifice"(XGB-123)
Slimer is accidentally trapped and contained (and Venkman isn't here to see it...), but as an accomplice of the Ghostbusters, is chased and tortured by the inhabitants of the containment unit. Slimer is found by the demon Surt, who hopes to use Slimer to escape the containment unit and free Fenris, bringing about Ragnarok. Eduardo enters the containment unit to foil Surt and free Slimer.
Surt had been imprisoned by the original Ghostbusters, but there is no time frame given for that battle. I conjecture that that battle happened "off camera" as part of the bigger battle in "Ragnarok and Roll"
"Grundlesque"(XGB-124)
Roland's bratty younger brother Casey falls into the sway of the Grundle, which confuses the rest of the Ghostbusters, as the Grundle had been contained by the original Ghostbusters in 1985. Kylie releases the original Grundle to get answers, and discovers that the new Grundle was her childhood friend Jack, put into suspended animation by the old Grundle twelve years earlier.
This episode states that the original Grundle was contained "ten years ago", which would either invalidate some of the chronology's precepts and place the battle in 1995, or we can assume that Egon was rounding off the number of years. Of course, the real explaination is that this episode aired ten years after "The Grundle", part of the 1987 ABC run. This is also the only direct Extreme Ghostbusters sequel to a Real Ghostbusters story.
"In Your Dreams"(XGB-125)
Morpheus, lord of Dreams, tries to make veryone's dreams come true.
"Moby Ghost"(XGB-126)
The embittered, Ahab-esque Markob tries to catch his ancient foe, the great beast Lotan
"Fallout"(XGB-127)
Ghosts and nuclear power plants do not mix.
"Eyes of the Dragon"(XGB-128)
A Chinese crime lord tries to lean on the owners of a small shop to give him the Eyes of the Dragon, which will allow Gu-Moh to be awakened
"Till Death Do Us Start"(XGB-129)
A man unwittingly releases a ghost-bride from an old boarded-up wishing well. He hires the EGB to protect him from becoming her groom on the other side. A spirit called "The Wishgiver" is behind this...
"Glutton For Punishment"(XGB-130)
Rovanna the Raksasha goes on an eating spree that makes Slimer look like an anorexic supermodel.
"Ghost In the Machine"(XGB-131)
An ancient spirit that has been trapped for years escapes when an abandoned oil mine is reopened. The ghost possesses vehicles and makes them look like demons.
"Dog Days"(XGB-132)
A ghost dog turns all of the dogs in New York into it's slaves
"Mole People"(XGB-133)
Persephone, one of the dwellers in an underground civilization, incurs the wrath of her people in calling in the help of "outsiders"--namely, the Ghostbusters--in dealing with a gang of "power demons". Things get worse when she falls for Garrett.
"A Temporary Insanity"(XGB-134)
Janine takes some vacation time, so Egon hires a temp, Lilith, when things fall completely apart at HQ. But, of course, Lilith isn't what she seems, and Janine returns in time to save the day with Venkman's old proton pack.
Two items of interest: one, that this episode was in many ways a re-tread of "Till Death Do Us Part" (Janine goes on vacation, ghost chick gets designs on Egon). Two, that a mannequin of Venkman is seen in the display case, but his face is digitized out. I've wondered if some licensing restriction is in place, keeping Adelaide from using the exact character designs from DIC's cartoons, as Egon, Janine, and the other original Ghostbusters (seen in "Back In The Saddle") have been redesigned at least slightly.
"Rage"(XGB-135)
Renovations at Ghostbuster HQ force Egon to temporarily relocate to Eduardo's house. The main problem is that it isn't Eduardo's house, it's space he's renting from his hard-headed cop brother Carlos (and Carlos's wife Beth), who goes ballistic when he finds out Eduardo is a Ghostbuster. Eduardo redeems himself and the other Ghostbusters when he and nephew Kevin save the city from trolls taking over the Brooklyn Bridge.
"Heart of Darkness"(XGB-136)
Recent thefts of crystal skulls bring Egon Spengler into contact with an old associate, Edward Carrillion, who owns one of the skulls. But it turns out Carrillion is controlling the ghosts stealing the skulls, in hopes of completing the set and opening a dimensional gate, from which will pour a horde of ghosts under Carrillion's control. Instead, Carrillion falls into the dimension and faces eternal torment.
"Sphinx"(XGB-139)
The Sphinx is going around lobotomizing intellectuals who can't solve it's riddle. Egon, meanwhile, is having a midlife crisis (he's thirty-nine, and birthday number forty is looming), and tries to prove himself by behaving like Rambo. Ending up trapped in a UN elevator with Garrett, he comes to a better sense of peace with himself, and solves the Sphinx's riddle, banishing it and restoring the minds of all of it's victims.
This episode gives Egon's age as 39. I place it before his birthday in "Back In The Saddle" because Janine goes to the extraordinary length of bringing together the original Ghostbusters, a feat worthy of a 40th birthday celebration, and because Egon no longer seems to dread his age in that story, and in fact tries to prevent his old comrades from hasty antics of the type he does in "Sphinx" Plus, having Egon's 40th birthday in 1997 would be consistant with the 1957 birthyear I derived years ago.
"Back In The Saddle, Part One"(XGB-137)
Janine takes Egon out for his fortieth birthday, and back at the firehouse there's a big surprise waiting for him. Or, more accurately, three surprises: Ray Stantz, Peter Venkman, and Winston Zeddemore, the original Ghostbusters! They meet the new Ghostbusters and reminisce about old times, and when a call comes in Venkman fires the old team up and they go out and just kick butt. Venkman, Ray, and Winston start talking about regrouping permanantly; Egon is clearly caught in the middle, trying to remind his old friends that "the torch has already been passed" The two teams of Ghostbusters put thier differences behind them and work together to defeat a swarm of "feeder" entities, but Egon's PKE readings ominously fortell a larger menace to come...
This, of course, was the episode that brought all of the Ghostbusters, old and new, together for the first time. To make it complete, Dave Coulier, Buster Jones, and Frank Welker reunited as well to voice Venkman, Winston, and Ray. (Too bad they couldn't have gotten Lorenzo Music and Arsenio Hall) One inexplicable detail: Venkman and Winston wear their old Ghostbuster uniforms, but Ray is wearing one of Egon's!
"Back In The Saddle, Part Two"(XGB-138)
Peter Venkman's cruise about Hudson Bay is rudely interrupted by something approaching New York, something big...the Ghostbusters must work with thier legendary predecessors to stop a massive, power-feeding "injestor" After doing so, the original Ghostbusters stay for Thanksgiving dinner.
As if context clues didn't establish it enough, Janine had said on Egon's birthday "I hope you guys will stay for Thanksgiving next week" (November 28, 1997)
"Witchy Woman"(XGB-140)
A coven of college witches dedicated to the charismatic Cernunous casts evil spells on the pretty, popular girls and try to recruit Kylie into thier group, in hopes of completing thier "Circle of Power"; they fail and recruit the hormonally deranged Eduardo, and Cernunous completes transferring his life force to Earth. But the Circle, realizing they've been used, band together and help the Ghostbusters defeat the demon.
As of this writing, this is the last official Ghostbusters adventure (though a loyal fan fiction community exists to this day)
But is it the end of the Ghostbusters? As Venkman indicates in "Back In The Saddle", there were tentative plans afoot for a third Ghostbusters movie...but as of this writing (April 2003) Ghostbusters 3 is a dead project. The script outline Dan Aykroyd (the strongest proponent of the project) and Harold Ramis were working on featured Ray, Egon, and Winston (referred to as "Doctor Zeddemore") as mentors to a younger team that one reviewer derided as "bland and interchangeable": Franky, a body peircing New Jersey punker; Lovell, a dread-locked dude; Moira, a pretty but uptight gymnast and science major; Carla, a Latino beauty, and Nat, a prepubescent genius with a large cranium. Bill Murray might or might not have appeared--in one draft, he apparently dies in an early scene and Venkman is a ghost for the rest of the movie. Dana Barrett isn't even referred to, and Janine and Louis would appear in cameos near the end (knowing Harold Ramis's inexplicable hostility to the Egon/Janine dynamic, that's probably a conspicuously bad placement). Chris Farley was attached to the project before his untimely death. The main plot of Ghostbusters 3:Hellbent would've featured the Lord of Hell dealing with the overcrowding issue by shipping undesireables to New York City. The last script revisions were in 1998, four years ago.
Still...with the waves of Eighties nostalbia hitting, who knows what the future will bring? In early 2003, there were some promising rumors, but...well...we'll just have to see...
Anyway...on to some possible futures...
The Ghostbusters continue to protect New York from the supernatural. Under the command of field leader Eduardo Rivera, the current roster includes Shannon Phillips and Victor Irwin.
Dr. Ray Stantz mentors the current team of Ghostbusters, having assumed the job from Egon. His wife and son have joined him in New York City.
Dr. Peter Venkman remains an entertainment big-wig, and is secretly financing a Ghostbuster revival project , having given up on Ghostbusters 3 when he couldn't get Bill Murray to sign on to it. He's also hideously embarrassed by Charlie Venkman becoming part of the Enron scandal...
Winston Zeddemore continues to fly a commutor line in Montana, but helps out the current Ghostbusters when he's needed (especially on long trips). He dotes on his daughter Charlene.
Dr. Egon Spengler has inherited control of Spengler Labs since the death of Cyrus in 2000. He has spun out a new research venture, GB Concepts, which works closely with Dr. Stantz and Dr. Roland Jackson to improve research into the paranormal--and the devices to counter them.
Janine Melnitz Spengler now lives in Cleveland with her husband, and for the moment mostly devotes herself to raising their precocious twins
Or at least, this is how I'D write it!!!
In one future that is now invalid, Dr. Roland Jackson, Kylie Griffin, and Eduardo Rivera have become legends of Ghostbusting to the people living under the dominion of the tyrannical Tempus. This future was invalidated when the Ghostbusters prevented Tempus from murdering Egon Spengler in 1997, but still suggests some possiblities for their futures...
"Ghost Apocalyptic Future"
Earth makes first contact with alien life forms
Two hundred years after Real Ghostbusters#2 According to Cowan, it takes so long bacause Earth is in such a remote sector of the galaxy.
Sl'g, an alien of an unidentified species, is murdered by his four proteges, Turek, Cowan, Gard, and Bethany, who steal his technology and go back to 1985 to try and destroy history
"511.323" years after Real Ghostbusters#1-2.
Finis. For Now...
