Ghosts R Us

In Ghosts R Us, after a trio of ghosts escape from the Containment Unit, they decide to discredit the Ghostbusters by disguising themselves as "Ghosts R Us," a rival ghostbusting franchise!^[2]

Cast[]

Slug

Snarg

Mentioned Only[]

Turlock

Equipment[]

Item[]

Ghosts R Us Van

Locations[]

Plot[]

The Ghostbusters face three Class 5 Full Torso Apparitions on their latest bust, in a factory that belongs to Conrad's, a manufacturer and distributor of chocolate. After causing a huge mess, the ghosts are blasted out of a machine and trapped. The team returns to the Firehouse and deposit the ghosts into the Containment Unit. However, Slimer accidentally releases them. These three ghosts decide to get revenge on the Ghostbusters by driving them out of business.

Ghosts R Us succeeds in discrediting the Ghostbusters. Slug decides it is time to move onto the next phase of the plan. The ghosts arrive at an abandoned toy factory in Brooklyn in search of a friend named Turlock, a reputed Class 7 Phantom. However, Slug rudely awakens a different entity. It is angered and reveals itself as a Full Magnitude Class 10. The ghosts flee the factory but the Class 10 assembles a giant host body made out of toys and pursues. The Ghostbusters arrive and sight the Class 10, bigger than anything they ever encountered so far. The team splits up between Ecto-1 and Ecto-2 to pursue the entities.

Egon and Ray have an easy time re-trapping the three ghosts at the Brooklyn Bridge. It is decided the Ecto-2 will be set to full power overload in order to defeat the Class 10. Slimer slimes the bridge's suspenders. The Class 10 is tripped up and falls into the bay with Ecto-2. The Class 10 reveals its true form just as Ecto-2 goes critical and disperses the entity. The bystanders cheer the Ghostbusters as they stand atop giant toys left over by the Class 10.

Trivia[]

The first draft was written on March 20, 1986, with revisions on March 27, April 1, and April 4.
The episode was recorded on May 6, 1986.^[3]
This episode is the first episode aired on television and includes the first appearance of the Ecto-2.
This episode is one of seven episodes from the early seasons to be re-dubbed with Dave Coulier and Kath Soucie. It was rebroadcast as part of season four. The second version was not included on the DVD. Multimedia samples can be found on Spook Central's Alternate Episodes page.
Dan Riba and Kevin Altieri worked on the episode at the latter's house.^[4]
After some changes were done to the script, a meeting was held and a rule was set that only J. Michael Straczynski and the producers could finalize ideas.^[5]
"Killerwatt" was meant to air first but it was not ready in time so it swapped places with "Ghosts R Us".^[6]
Kevin Altieri worked on the chocolate factory scene's storyboards. ABC happened to visit the office and loved Altieri's work.^[7]
Ecto-1's license plate erroneously reads "ECT-1" during the Conrad's bust.^[8]
Dan Riba, during the visual commentary, points out he and Kevin Altieri drew Slug, Snarg, and Zonk with the idea they were based on The Three Bears with a little Archie Bunker, a fictional blue collar New Yorker from the "All in the Family" television series.^[9]
Ray sleeps with a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man doll. ^[10]
Dan Riba storyboarded the abandoned toy factory scene.^[11]
Len Janson revealed Turlock was named after a town in California.^[12]
Kevin Altieri noted the smoke form of the Toy Ghost was inspired by "The Crawling Eye," a black and white 50s Science Fiction movie.^[13]
Dan Riba noted when the ghosts run over Ecto-1 while vacating the toy factory, Riba originally had an exclamation mark there but it was cut for being too silly.^[14]
Kevin Altieri storyboarded from the launch of Ecto-2 and on.^[15]
Just like the rest of the episodes of season, it uses a track from The Real Ghostbusters Soundtrack. This episode features the song "Driving Me Crazy" in part of the episode.
The taxi driver whose cab is run over by the ghosts is Everett Peck's take on another member of the staff, John Calmette.^[16]
"GOYOKIN" is seen on the tugboat when the Toy Ghost falls over the Brooklyn Bridge. This may have been a reference to a 60s Jidaigeki movie of the same name.
It should be noted that Egon's voice is a lot deeper for the first four episodes but later much higher.
Although never named in the episode, the female ghost is named Snarg.^[17]
On page 15 of Ghostbusters Issue #5, this episode title is referenced on one of the newspaper clippings.
On page 21 of Ghostbusters Crossing Over Issue #2, Janine's file photo is from "Ghosts R Us".
On page 18 of Ghostbusters Crossing Over Issue #4, in panel 4, on the screen is the display of Zunk on the P.K.E. Meter from "Ghosts R Us".
On page 7 of 35th Anniversary: The Real Ghostbusters, the montage is similar to "Ghosts R Us" and "Robo-Buster" when a similar rival company starts busting ghosts taking all of the Ghostbusters' gigs away.

References[]

↑ Marsha Goodman (1986). Episode Call Sheet and SAG Report - "Ghosts R Us" (1986).
↑ Eatock, James & Mangels, Andy (2008). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection booklet, p. 3. CPT Holdings, Inc.
↑ Marsha Goodman (1986). Episode Call Sheet and SAG Report - "Ghosts R Us" (1986).
↑ Benjamin, Troy & Goldberg, Craig (2025). The Real Ghostbusters: A Visual History, p. 68. Dark Horse Books, Milwaukie, OR USA, ISBN 9781506749273. Dan Riba says: "In order to get the episode done right, we left the studio and went to Kevin's house. I would storyboard a section, and Kevin would storyboard a section. Then I'd be doing cleanup on pages that Kevin was feeding to me."
↑ Benjamin, Troy & Goldberg, Craig (2025). The Real Ghostbusters: A Visual History, p. 163. Dark Horse Books, Milwaukie, OR USA, ISBN 9781506749273. Richard Raynis says: "We didn't do that as much with The Real Ghostbusters, but I do remember the storyboard for 'Ghosts R Us,' I thought Eddie Fitzgerald could do some cool sequences with the ghosts. He did a lot of comedy stuff with the ghosts, but I worried that we were taking too many liberties with the script, so I wanted to show it to Michael Gross first, to get his reaction. I went out to his house and showed him the storyboard. He looked through it and said that we did just the right amount of plusing. A day or two later, the storyboard came back from the writers filled with red ink and expletives. I found myself in a tribunal with the writers and Michael Gross, who just turned to me and said, 'Sorry, I had to side with the writers on this one'."
↑ Benjamin, Troy & Goldberg, Craig (2025). The Real Ghostbusters: A Visual History, p. 68. Dark Horse Books, Milwaukie, OR USA, ISBN 9781506749273. Line reads: "The animators were running at a full sprint, and "Ghosts R Us" looked to be near the finish line first, while "Killerwatt" still needed time."
↑ Benjamin, Troy & Goldberg, Craig (2025). The Real Ghostbusters: A Visual History, p. 68. Dark Horse Books, Milwaukie, OR USA, ISBN 9781506749273. Kevin Altieri says: "I was working on the sequence where the chocolate factory explodes and all the chocolate is raining down while Slimer is filling his gut. That just happened to be the day that ABC came by for a visit and that board was on my desk. They were very happy."
↑ Ecto-1 (2009).The Real Ghostbusters-"Ghosts R Us" (1986) (DVD). (DVD ts. 1:14). Time Life Entertainment.
↑ Dan Riba (2009).The Real Ghostbusters-"Ghosts R Us" (1986) (DVD). (DVD ts. 3:30). Time Life Entertainment.
↑ Ray Stantz (2009).The Real Ghostbusters-"Ghosts R Us" (1986) (DVD). (DVD ts. 6:20). Time Life Entertainment.
↑ Dan Riba (2009).The Real Ghostbusters-"Ghosts R Us" (1986) (DVD). (DVD ts. 14:17). Time Life Entertainment.
↑ Len Janson (2009).The Real Ghostbusters-"Ghosts R Us" (1986) (DVD). (DVD ts. 14:38-14:40). Time Life Entertainment.
↑ Kevin Altieri (2009).The Real Ghostbusters-"Ghosts R Us" (1986) (DVD). (DVD ts. 16:12). Time Life Entertainment.
↑ Dan Riba (2009).The Real Ghostbusters-"Ghosts R Us" (1986) (DVD). (DVD ts. 16:45). Time Life Entertainment.
↑ Kevin Altieri (2009).The Real Ghostbusters-"Ghosts R Us" (1986) (DVD). (DVD ts. 17:30). Time Life Entertainment.
↑ Kevin Altieri and Dan Riba (2009).The Real Ghostbusters-"Ghosts R Us" (1986) (DVD). (DVD ts. 18:00). Time Life Entertainment.
↑ Eatock, James & Mangels, Andy (2008). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection booklet, p. 3. CPT Holdings, Inc.