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. An interesting conjecture I've offered in fan fictions is that Dana recieves a lucrative offer from the LA Orchestra and decided to take it--and that the reason Venkman ends up in LA between RGB and EGB is that she's already there.
(The fourth season of The Real Ghostbusters and issues 3-19)
"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,
Katharine 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 1959, and actually work with the firemen of the Hook and Ladder #8 to foil a ghost invasion.
The Hook and Ladder #8, now known as Ghostbusters Central, is certified as a Historic Landmark.
This episode gives us the year of Ray Stantz's birth, 1959. Thanks to Kingpin for some material in this episode write-up
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. It also has one joke reference to the Filmation Ghostbusters: Venkman says he's surprised Shannon knew who they were since they didn't have an ape along. Winston of course says they do--Venkman.
"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).
"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.
Established about a week before October 31, as it is mentioned that "Halloween is next Tuesday"
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
"Partners
in Slime"(RGB-506)
October 28. 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", and conjectured as Oct. 28
"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...
Republican Arnie Lapinski is elected Mayor of New York City, to succeed outgoing long-time Democratic Mayor Lenny Clotch. He takes office on January 1, 1990.
Conjecture; Lenny's full name and party affiliation come from the first movie novelization. Arnie Lapinski was the incumbent mayor in iBook's novel The Return. While the novel as a whole presents continuity problems if taken at face value, in a nod to it we're using Lapinski as the "replacement" for real-world mayor David Dinkins, who served between Ed Koch (Lenny Clotch) and Rudy Guiliani (Edwin MacShayne)
"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.
"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. Gargoyles 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 Katharine 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.
July. Alberto Rivera, a member of the NYPD, originally from Mexico, is killed in the line of duty. He is survived by his wife Carlota, sons Carlos and Eduardo, as well as a grandson, Kevin.
Name and exact date are conjectured from a story by "EGB Fan"
"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?
(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???
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. See Ghostbusters Fact List: Occult Reference Network for more on the GBI version of Tobin, and the Ghostbusters International Timeline for a proposed "compromise" between the two ideas.
"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...
I will also note that in the fan fic version of the Timeline, I moved this encounter to Halloween 1990. This would place it roughtly around the same time as RGB#27 and "Stay Tooned"
