Ghostbusters
01:09:10
About
It’s part 2 of our ‘New York’ series - the city so nice they podcasted about it twice - and we finally get to “Ghostbusters”. A film in which… well, it’s “Ghostbusters”. Surely you’ve seen it? The original and still best; whatever your take on the films that followed; this is a stone cold 100% classic. With visual effects and character comedy that (pretty much) stand up to this day, it surely counts as one of the finest celebrations of the Big Apple as ever put on the silver screen. A true family film (if you ignore to supernatural blowie) with jokes for the adults, and rip-roaring adventure for the kids, it’s those kids that it first entranced who are now spearheading the renewed interest and revival of the franchise . With that design classic of a logo and Ray Parker Jr.’s ear worm title song simply everywhere, 1984 belonged to the Ghostbusters (despite the release of a number of other incredible films that year) and it was, to quote Dr Peter Venkman, “a legitimate phenomenon”. Watch (or, more likely, re-watch) to avoid spoilers and join us.
We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!
Famous lines
- "Who ya gonna call?"
- "Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!"
- "Don't cross the streams." — Egon Spengler
- "Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say "YES!""
Quotes verified against Wikiquote.
Transcript
Show full transcript
Lee Good evening and welcome to Horror. I'm Lee.
Chris I'm Chris.
Adam I'm Adam.
Lee And we are here to discuss this evening Ghostbusters from 1984.
Lee as we were just discussing before we started recording, Adam and I, yeah, we were wondering how we've never covered this, but we've decided we realized the reason we've never covered it is because everybody everywhere has seen it.
Lee But...
Lee it's got, it's got so many spin-offs and interesting backstories and stuff that, yeah, when Adam said it's one to discuss, I, I ended up in a bit of a rabbit hole on the backstory of how the whole thing came about in the summer. So as soon as he said, yes, yes, yes.
Adam Oh, that's interesting.
Lee couldn't wait to get into all of that, which we will do.
Adam Now.
Lee Hey, there will be spoilers, there will be swear, I mean it's 1984, you must have seen it literally everyone's seen it.
Adam I was going to say, why are we distinguishing that at 1984? We've we've covered fucking movies over 100 years old.
Lee That is true.
Adam No spoiler.
Chris Will will we will we be unearthing any insights that have never before been thought of?
Adam How?
Lee No, definitely not.
Adam No.
Lee But I mean, and that's what I love about this because I mean, another I think another part of the reason we never really covered it so much is although it is a film about ghosts, I saw this film at seven years old and was in no way at all even the vaguest bit scared. I just thought it was absolutely brilliant.
Lee So although it deals with horror topics, it is in no way a horror film, I think it's fair to say.
Adam No, it's supernatural, but it's it has I think it has a few that could be considered horror moments, mostly sort of jump scares if nothing else.
Adam And weirdly enough, I watching it, I remembered that the one thing that freaked me out when I was a kid, because again, yeah, I would have been like six or seven when I saw this.
Adam I just like when it came out.
Adam In fact, when it came out because I distinctly remember my dad bringing home pirate tapes of Ghostbusters and Gremlins on the same day.
Lee Oh, what a day that was.
Adam And well, yeah, but the trouble is Gremlins then stood next to Ghostbusters and just was
Lee Shadowed.
Adam It's a good film. Yeah, it just got I but
Adam apparently that's I think they were released on the same day in America, like in the cinema.
Chris Oh my god.
Adam Ghostbusters and Gremlins. So it was sort of similar sort of thing.
Adam But also you got to remember is Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Christmas film.
Lee Yeah.
Adam So, you know, watching that but yeah, Ghostbusters fucking yeah, that just.
Adam But the one bit that got me was where Winston and Rye are just driving along in the dark talking about religion, revelations and like prophecy from the Bible.
Chris Religion.
Chris Yeah.
Adam And for some reason that was the bit that that was the bit that actually gave me a sort of
Chris Oh.
Adam None of the jump scares or anything like that sort of, you know, I was because yeah, I think you were you were a deep philosophical six-year-old.
Chris Oh.
Adam I I just think it was like, I was six and religion seemed like it might be real.
Chris Yeah.
Adam Or something like that and it was like, fuck man, it's in the Bible.
Chris Yeah.
Adam That's what they call the Bible.
Adam Of all other things. Do you know what I mean? They say this is your Bible.
Adam So it was like, oh right, so the Bible, that's the real that's got all the.
Chris Wow.
Adam Much in the same way that the Omen a little while, unfortunately not as six years old did freak me out.
Adam But I think the Omen was fortunately a little bit later.
Lee So I think I think that moment in the car is one of the only moments of levity in the whole like it is literally just a fantastic comedy.
Lee all the way through, but that moment does feel almost in isolation.
Lee in that they are discussing it seriously.
Chris Seriously, yeah.
Lee And there are no jokes in that two minutes or whatever.
Adam So Apart from the best joke, which is just the silence and then, let's put on the radio.
Lee yes, so as I say Adam and I were both the same, we both saw this on pirate VHS literally as soon as it came out.
Lee What was your history with it, Chris? Because obviously you are slightly younger than us, so this would have come out when you were a lot younger.
Chris Well,
Chris So, so I I was trying to think, when did I last see it? And it was a very long time ago and it could have been younger than 10.
Chris But then I was thinking, well, I saw Ghostbusters 2 in the cinema, because I remember that.
Chris And I remember the picture when he comes out of the
Lee Yeah.
Chris the painting.
Lee Yeah.
Chris And it's like, yeah, I saw that in cinema, but I cannot quite remember exactly how old I was.
Chris When I did first see this, but I was freaked out by some parts of it.
Adam
Chris So I don't think I saw it in 1984 when I was four.
Chris But
Lee A lot younger.
Chris might not have been that much older.
Lee Yeah.
Chris May be not but yeah, but what was funny was and I realized how long it must have been to see this.
Chris I totally saw the adult references in this that I never got at all when I was young. I was like, I must have been young enough to not get like, you know.
Chris There was some particularly one scene.
Chris I was like, I don't even remember that happening at all.
Adam That's the point though, isn't it?
Chris Mr. Mr. Akroyd enjoying himself.
Adam Yeah, which was a bit that was cut out, there was a whole big scene that.
Chris Was it?
Adam Yeah, and that and the the woman that the woman who's the the ghost in that sequence.
Chris Oh.
Adam is also in all she's the woman in all ZZ Tops videos.
Chris Oh.
Adam It's like a playboy model yeah, so.
Adam But yeah, but this is the thing me and Lee were saying is that
Adam it's not a kids' film.
Adam It's just it happened to be at a point that ratings wise it there wasn't anything in it extreme enough that it wasn't above a PG.
Chris Yeah.
Adam But it's not it's weird because nowadays it's almost like it's got to be that.
Adam If you're aiming a film at like an adult audience, it's got to be above a certain rating.
Adam Whereas actually this this was never a family film at a push.
Chris
Adam But this was kind of designed because one thing they said about was by the time they did Ghostbusters 2.
Adam when they sort of realized that it was appealing to kids and there was a fan base.
Adam No one smokes.
Chris Right.
Lee Well, does that count?
Adam Well, yeah, I mean the amount everyone's got face on in this because but no one no one was thinking that was a, you know, people were smoking on the telly, no one considered that as a
Chris it's funny so they really didn't think they were aiming it at kids.
Adam Not particularly, even though they just were doing a comedy sort of,
Adam because it was like Dan Aykroyd wrote it and it was and how Bill Murray was well, Dan Aykroyd wrote the original script and he was writing it for so long that originally it was going to be him and John Belushi was going to be Venkman.
Chris Oh.
Adam Obviously like John Belushi died and while he was still writing Ghostbusters and and to his face, it's a pretty good fucking hit rate from Dan Aykroyd though.
Adam He's like, you've created all what the two things you've created are probably like certainly from a fancy dress point of view, iconic and like the Ghostbusters and the Blues Brothers.
Adam You know.
Chris I will admit here I've still never seen Blues Brothers.
Adam You can't have done.
Lee What?
Lee Hang on, wait, wait, wait, take that back a fucking step.
Lee You've never seen the Blues Brothers.
Chris No.
Adam Well, fair enough.
Lee It's oh, it's it is one of the only musicals that is absolutely.
Chris Not only will you sit through, you actually think is arguably one of the best films.
Lee Yeah, absolutely, 100%.
Adam It is a genuinely great film.
Adam And it and if you enjoyed this and but but then that has sort of like it certainly has more references in it than Ghostbusters does that makes it out as particularly an adult film.
Chris Yeah, I agree.
Adam And and that's, you know, it's not sort of like but it's not like hardcore, I mean, there's just there's a lot of swearing.
Chris Yeah.
Adam And that's about it really.
Adam There's a lot of there's a lot of swearing and references to sex, but no actual sex or nudity or anything in the Blues Brothers.
Adam But it's just yeah, and similarly, I think Ghostbusters is like sort of it was just a comedy film.
Adam But so Dan Aykroyd wrote a script.
Adam that was huge and the original concept was that the Ghostbusters were a were
Adam one of a franchise like basically like insect like pest control, like insect exterminators.
Chris
Adam So in his version of it, it was set in the future, ghosts were commonplace and people who dealt with ghosts as a sort of pest control service.
Adam were also commonplace and they just happened to be one franchise in the whole conglomerate of Ghostbusters and everything else like that.
Lee Yeah, and that was reading said they also they they busted ghosts through time and space.
Lee So it was going to be so ridiculously massive like this, like like it was.
Lee and that was the problem with it, like it was such a a huge concept.
Adam it was unchious it was unwieldy, it was a.
Lee It was a monster.
Lee I just I'm the article I read was saying that when they took it to Ivan Reitman.
Lee he said if we shoot this as it is, it's going to cost in excess of 200 million.
Lee and that was in 1982 money.
Adam Yeah.
Lee So I mean cause it was yeah, it was ridiculous.
Adam But then similarly from what I gather when Dan Aykroyd wrote the Blues Brothers, the original version of the Blues Brothers was the script.
Adam The script was the size of the phone book.
Lee Yeah.
Adam And they had to like there was whole sequences in there that they just took out like Dan Aykroyd had this whole explanation sequence of why the car is super powered because he parks it under power lines or something like that.
Adam And it was just you so basically like the Blues Brothers, they just went no, that's ridiculous and slimmed it down and similarly with this.
Adam So they got Harold Ramis in because he'd done
Lee Oh, yeah.
Lee He'd done stripes at this point, hadn't he?
Adam yeah, he'd done but he'd also done they sort of he did Second City TV which was kind of like Saturday Night Live which is obviously where Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray came from.
Adam And so Ivan Reitman, yeah, he'd done stripes with Harold Ramis and Bill Murray.
Adam that I remember watching that, I don't remember it that well, to be honest.
Lee I only saw it for the first time three or four years ago and it was okay.
Adam Yeah.
Adam I seem to because because I think my dad really liked all the Saturday Night Live guys, he liked John he really liked John Belushi, he really liked Dan Aykroyd, so we'd seen we saw all of their stuff.
Adam So it wasn't just Blues Brothers, we saw like Animal House and that.
Lee Definitely far too fucking young to have watched Animal House.
Adam But we'd see that.
Adam And but yeah, so we'd rent out stripes and neighbors, you ever seen neighbors with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd?
Lee It's on my shelf and I really I I I've put it on twice now and I've got the first 10 minutes in and not got any further and then not had the ambition to go back and finish it, but I I need to see it.
Adam Yeah, no, I don't remember it being great.
Adam But this was like the whole batch of films that we sort of did in rotation, Great Outdoors as well, because it had Dan Aykroyd in it.
Adam But
Lee Yeah, so Eddie Murphy was the other one who was supposed to originally be in Ghostbusters, but apparently it took so long for the rewrites and everything that he got offered Beverly Hills Cop and was like, see you.
Adam Yeah, well, in fairness, what the starring role versus being part of an ensemble team.
Lee Yeah.
Adam You know, and it did I mean did really well as well.
Lee Oh yeah, I yeah, I was going to say I'm sure I heard this made 300 million or something on its first first came out.
Lee It's.
Adam Well, the highest grossing films of 1984, this was number one.
Chris
Adam But this is the list.
Adam So Ghostbusters number one, then Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Gremlins.
Adam The Karate Kid, Police Academy, Footloose, Beverly Hills Cop.
Adam Star Trek 3, the Search for Spock, Terms of Endearment and Romancing in the Stone.
Lee Why aren't we having these years anymore?
Adam Well, there were
Lee What's going on?
Adam I had a quick jot down of some other films from 1984, Never Ending Story.
Adam Dune.
Adam Spinal Tap, Terminator and of course, a nightmare on Elm Street.
Chris Yeah.
Lee Fucking hell, we all the cost.
Chris That's that's quite a year.
Lee What is going on?
Adam I thought it was quite a was and yeah.
Adam And the best the best part is is those last few didn't weren't even in the top 10.
Adam But they were sort of, you know, they are still films.
Chris They've held their ground.
Adam Yes, definitely.
Adam But yeah, so they got in Harold Ramis to write it with him and that's when they sort of said I will change it to be
Adam So it's the origin story of how the Ghostbusters come to be.
Lee Oh, I didn't realize that was what the rewrite was.
Adam Yes, so what they did was is they were kind of like, so I then Reitman basically said, well show me how this starts.
Adam And so it moves to be the idea.
Adam And they were like, well, that's why they're all doctors.
Chris
Adam is because you would have this is basically like a startup.
Chris
Adam But it's like you've got, so you have to have three guys who really know their shit to be able to actually build and create the concept of trapping ghosts.
Chris Or at least 66% who know their shit.
Adam Yeah, exactly.
Adam And then and then Winston sort of remains the character who comes into it, you know, he's not part of the business that he's not part of the team that develops all the stuff.
Adam I mean, to a greater or lesser extent, clearly, Vanquishment isn't either.
Chris Yeah.
Adam But but he's the gift of the gab, he's the.
Lee Yeah, yeah, he's the salesman in it.
Adam He's the front person, yeah, he's the he is the businessman end of it weirdly.
Chris Don't let him deal with the the EPA though.
Chris And you'll be fine.
Adam Which I'm really interested that Ted now really likes two movies where the EPA are evil.
Chris Oh.
Adam this and the Simpsons movie.
Adam Where they're putting the dome like And
Adam because you know oh John Dies at the End, the guy who wrote John Dies at the End, Jason Pargin is really worth following on Instagram.
Adam Or on TikTok because I think he just posts his TikToks on Instagram.
