Film & Water #51 – Ghostbusters

THE FILM & WATER PODCAST

Episode 51: GHOSTBUSTERS

Rob officially gives in to guest Nathaniel Wayne's terroristic threats and has him on to discuss the 1984 classic GHOSTBUSTERS starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Sigourney Weaver. So be good, for goodness sake!

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19 responses to “Film & Water #51 – Ghostbusters

  1. Great episode! I didn’t know about The Razor’s Edge connection, or the Rick Moranis story, so thanks for the info. Ghostbusters was a perennial favorite at my house as soon as it hit VHS, and my sister had the soundtrack, and we wore it out. We watched the toons, I had a few of the toys, and I’ve been quoting it for 32 years now. It never fails to bring a smile to my face. My kids have glommed on to it as well, so it still holds up to new generations.

    I’m hoping for the best for the new film, but I have much the same reservations as Nathaniel. I plan to see it if I hear good things about it from people I trust. I have absolutely no problem with the cast, just possibly the approach.

    Oh, and Rob, I will paper cut you AND pour lemon juice on it if you and I don’t get to talk about Smokey and the Frickin’ Bandit!!!

    Chris

  2. It kills me that my favorite episodes of this rarely feature me, but this was another solid show.
    I continue to love Ghostbusters. #TeamWinston

    My only criticism on this show, and in my ways life itself, is in Wayne’s treatment of the much, much elder Rob. Our old people are not comedy dodder. Rob’s rotting ticket can go an any minute, and we don’t need Wayne aggravating it.

  3. Great Ep. One of the most iconic movies of my childhood. Glad to see the Ancient Rob Kelly enjoyed it so much. When the wife and I took a trip to New York in 2013, the Ghostbusters Building was on the must see list and I have a nice pic out the front of it. We did by complete accident come across the Public Library I tell ya what, seeing those lions when you aren’t expecting it really freaks you out. All you can think of is that music and poor Alice and just waiting to see 3 guys hauling ass in the opposite direction yelling “We’ll get back to you.”

    I agree that the whole anti-government thing is people trying too hard to see something that isn’t there. Walter Peck is just a jerk, played perfectly by William Atherton, much like his character in Die Hard. I believe if it was anyone else from the EAP, Venkman would have played nice. Well, okay, maybe not.

    And Venkman definitely had NO idea how or why the equipment he was using in Dana Barrett’s apartment worked. I can totally hear Ray or Egon trying to explain it to him and Venkman saying “Wait wait wait. I just squeeze this blood pressure thing? Okay, I got it,”

    Like Atherton, the supporting casts is fantastic. I can’t imagine anyone other than Rick Moranis playing Louis. He nails it. We all know someone like Louis that when you get down to it is a good guy, a nice person but man they just, I don’t know, try too hard, are annoying and we take great lengths to avoid conversation with.

    I share the Ancient One’s and Nathaniel’s views on the new reboot. There is no reason it can’t be a sequel. It makes more sense to be a sequel. The original is so brilliant I don’t want them to try to recreate it and crash and burn. Some things should just be left alone.

    As for favourite lines, man there’s so many but I think it comes down to either “Back off man, I’m a scientist.” or Ray addressing Gozer “Gozer the Gozerian? Good evening. As a duly-designated representative of the City, County and State of New York, I order you to cease any and all supernatural activity and return forthwith to your place of origin, or to the nearest convenient parallel dimension.”

    1. That ought to do it, thanks very much Ray.

      Yeah, we tried not to harp on the reboot too much, partly because it’s not out quite yet. But since they don’t seem to have changed the rules in any significant way one would think being a continuation would save a bunch of time because you wouldn’t have to re-establish how all this stuff works… Unless they make the same mistake the new TMNT movies made and try to bank on the gravity of the continuity they just said doesn’t count anymore.

      But I plan to go see it tonight so we’ll see if they can pull off a minor miracle or not.

  4. I’m teaching an college undergrad summer school class this month. It’s a media studies class of about 35 students. I asked who was planning on seeing the new Ghostbusters and only 1 hand went up. It will be interesting to see how it does. If it fails will they blame it on the female cast?

    1. Not openly no, because that’d be a PR nightmare (doubly so in the wake of how openly the cast and crew confronted those who complained about it staring women.) However behind closed doors it’ll be taken as a reason to not headline tentpole films with all women.

    2. If it fails, it could be because the trailer looked VERY derivative, and unfortunately not too funny, despite a great cast.

      I’m hoping for the best, DESPITE the trailer.

      Chris

      1. Well, I took the following picture 10 days ago. One of the Kristen Wiig toys at Target. 11 days before the films release and it was already on CLEARANCE. Seems Target isn’t too hopeful for this movie either.

        1. Yeah, I noticed that, too. DEFINITELY not a good sign. Of course, toy sales rarely connect with how successful the movie is. Still, you’d think they’d have at least waited until the movie was actually out….

  5. When the episode talk turned to Ghostbusters 2 I immediately recalled a life changing moment for friends of mine because of that movie.

    It was my habit to lead groups of my friends to see movies on weekends, so I’d pick the movie and arrange the group. At the time of Ghostbusters 2’s release I had lined up my dating friends Ian & Katie to accompany me & my girlfriend. After seeing poor reviews for the sequel, I switched the movie choice to Parenthood without telling them. They both looked freaked out by this choice as we arrived at the cinema, but I didn’t think much of it.

    At the end of the film, I noticed Ian & Katie were both wiping tears off their faces. I enjoyed Parenthood well enough, but it didn’t tug my heartstrings like that.

    A couple of months later Ian & Katie told their family & friends that they were having a baby and were getting married. I had taken them to Parenthood the week they’d discovered the news and were seriously considering getting an abortion.

    Earlier this year I attended the wedding of their son, possibly because of Ghostbusters 2 sucking.

  6. I was underwhelmed by Ghostbusters when I saw it at the dollar show very late in its run (possibly held over into 1985 even.) Like Gremlins, it had been the talk of the schoolyard for months, so I might have had unrealistic expectations, but I just thought it was okay. I had to wait until the summer of 1986 and the family’s first VCR in 1987 for my true mind blowers, Aliens, Big Trouble in Little China, Highlander, and to a lesser degree, Lifeforce and Howard the Duck. I did enjoy the cartoon, and feel that it was such a cut above that much of Ghostbusters’ reputation hinges on it. I also saw Ghostbusters II theatrically, and liked it better than most while obviously still preferring the original. Bobby Brown’s hit single helped narrow the gap though, and in fact I suspect I like “On Our Own” better than anything else Ghostbusters related. I watched part of the movie with my buddies a year or so ago, until I got bored and we moved on Jodorowsky’s Dune. I hope I like the reboot better, and it has more of a shot with me than most, given my modest interest in the first flicks. I’d take Blues Brothers, Groundhog Day and Scrooged over them, no contest.

    * Egon is my favorite Ghostbuster. I hope there’s a Harold Ramis inspired ghost in the new one.
    * I also really like Annie Potts, who I still have a crush on today.
    * One of the first movies I ever saw on cable was Doctor Detroit. I liked it then. I saw it again on VHS in the early ’00s. I do not like it any more a whole lot. It’s no Night Shift.
    * My golden age of SNL was the mid-80s cast. Imagine my crushing disappointment in Victoria Jackson and Dennis Miller today. Ackroyd getting his second generation Ghostbusters with those alum in 1992 might have saved us all a lot of painful YouTube tirades.
    * I almost certainly would have preferred the movie with Eddie Murphy in the part Ernie Hudson sacrificed his early career for only to have it rewritten to give most of his lines to Bill Murray. I also think Murphy and John Belushi would have been magnificent together, and Ghostbusters II would have been a better movie as a Murphy vehicle. But I like The Golden Child, so my period Murphy bias is clear.
    * Ray Parker Jr. sued Huey Lewis in 2001 over breaching the NDA in their settlement over the similarity to (the now little remarked upon) “I Want A New Drug.” I can hear it in the horns big time, which explains the settlement, but without a jury verdict maybe it isn’t so clear cut.
    * I’ll see the reboot, if only out of protest to spite the MRAs.

  7. Fun episode. I saw this in the theater when it came out and loved it. Now that I live in NYC I appreciate it even more with all the iconic locations everywhere. It was until this podcast that I discovered the adult jokes!

  8. Quick comment. Although there was indeed a lot of on-location filming in NYC, there was a significant amount of filming done in LA, as well. The interior of the firehouse, for example, was not a soundstage, but the abandoned Fire Station 23 at 225 E. 5th Street, in LA. Also, the hotel where they fought Slimer was the Biltmore Hotel at 506 S. Grand Avenue, also in LA.

    My understanding is that this was done because LA provided more favorable daytime filming hours than NYC, but I won’t swear to that.

    Anyway, I can’t speak for the new movie, which I won’t see until Netflix (if then. Can’t stand McCarthy, and although I wasn’t previously familiar with Leslie Jones, her appearances on other shows right now are making me dislike her even more than McCarthy), but just wanted to point out that not all of the original was filmed in NYC, either.

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