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
LeeGood evening and welcome to Horror. I'm Lee.
ChrisI'm Chris.
AdamI'm Adam.
LeeAnd we are here to discuss this evening Ghostbusters from 1984.
Leeas 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.
LeeBut...
Leeit'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.
AdamOh, that's interesting.
Leecouldn't wait to get into all of that, which we will do.
AdamNow.
LeeHey, there will be spoilers, there will be swear, I mean it's 1984, you must have seen it literally everyone's seen it.
AdamI was going to say, why are we distinguishing that at 1984? We've we've covered fucking movies over 100 years old.
LeeThat is true.
AdamNo spoiler.
ChrisWill will we will we be unearthing any insights that have never before been thought of?
AdamHow?
LeeNo, definitely not.
AdamNo.
LeeBut 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.
LeeSo although it deals with horror topics, it is in no way a horror film, I think it's fair to say.
AdamNo, 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.
AdamAnd 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.
AdamI just like when it came out.
AdamIn fact, when it came out because I distinctly remember my dad bringing home pirate tapes of Ghostbusters and Gremlins on the same day.
LeeOh, what a day that was.
AdamAnd well, yeah, but the trouble is Gremlins then stood next to Ghostbusters and just was
LeeShadowed.
AdamIt's a good film. Yeah, it just got I but
Adamapparently that's I think they were released on the same day in America, like in the cinema.
ChrisOh my god.
AdamGhostbusters and Gremlins. So it was sort of similar sort of thing.
AdamBut also you got to remember is Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Christmas film.
LeeYeah.
AdamSo, you know, watching that but yeah, Ghostbusters fucking yeah, that just.
AdamBut 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.
ChrisReligion.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd for some reason that was the bit that that was the bit that actually gave me a sort of
ChrisOh.
AdamNone 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.
ChrisOh.
AdamI I just think it was like, I was six and religion seemed like it might be real.
ChrisYeah.
AdamOr something like that and it was like, fuck man, it's in the Bible.
ChrisYeah.
AdamThat's what they call the Bible.
AdamOf all other things. Do you know what I mean? They say this is your Bible.
AdamSo it was like, oh right, so the Bible, that's the real that's got all the.
ChrisWow.
AdamMuch in the same way that the Omen a little while, unfortunately not as six years old did freak me out.
AdamBut I think the Omen was fortunately a little bit later.
LeeSo 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.
Leeall the way through, but that moment does feel almost in isolation.
Leein that they are discussing it seriously.
ChrisSeriously, yeah.
LeeAnd there are no jokes in that two minutes or whatever.
AdamSo Apart from the best joke, which is just the silence and then, let's put on the radio.
Leeyes, 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.
LeeWhat 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.
ChrisWell,
ChrisSo, 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.
ChrisBut then I was thinking, well, I saw Ghostbusters 2 in the cinema, because I remember that.
ChrisAnd I remember the picture when he comes out of the
LeeYeah.
Christhe painting.
LeeYeah.
ChrisAnd it's like, yeah, I saw that in cinema, but I cannot quite remember exactly how old I was.
ChrisWhen I did first see this, but I was freaked out by some parts of it.
Adam
ChrisSo I don't think I saw it in 1984 when I was four.
ChrisBut
LeeA lot younger.
Chrismight not have been that much older.
LeeYeah.
ChrisMay be not but yeah, but what was funny was and I realized how long it must have been to see this.
ChrisI 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.
ChrisThere was some particularly one scene.
ChrisI was like, I don't even remember that happening at all.
AdamThat's the point though, isn't it?
ChrisMr. Mr. Akroyd enjoying himself.
AdamYeah, which was a bit that was cut out, there was a whole big scene that.
ChrisWas it?
AdamYeah, and that and the the woman that the woman who's the the ghost in that sequence.
ChrisOh.
Adamis also in all she's the woman in all ZZ Tops videos.
ChrisOh.
AdamIt's like a playboy model yeah, so.
AdamBut yeah, but this is the thing me and Lee were saying is that
Adamit's not a kids' film.
AdamIt'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.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBut it's not it's weird because nowadays it's almost like it's got to be that.
AdamIf you're aiming a film at like an adult audience, it's got to be above a certain rating.
AdamWhereas actually this this was never a family film at a push.
Chris
AdamBut this was kind of designed because one thing they said about was by the time they did Ghostbusters 2.
Adamwhen they sort of realized that it was appealing to kids and there was a fan base.
AdamNo one smokes.
ChrisRight.
LeeWell, does that count?
AdamWell, 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
Chrisit's funny so they really didn't think they were aiming it at kids.
AdamNot particularly, even though they just were doing a comedy sort of,
Adambecause 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.
ChrisOh.
AdamObviously 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.
AdamHe'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.
AdamYou know.
ChrisI will admit here I've still never seen Blues Brothers.
AdamYou can't have done.
LeeWhat?
LeeHang on, wait, wait, wait, take that back a fucking step.
LeeYou've never seen the Blues Brothers.
ChrisNo.
AdamWell, fair enough.
LeeIt's oh, it's it is one of the only musicals that is absolutely.
ChrisNot only will you sit through, you actually think is arguably one of the best films.
LeeYeah, absolutely, 100%.
AdamIt is a genuinely great film.
AdamAnd 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.
ChrisYeah, I agree.
AdamAnd 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.
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd that's about it really.
AdamThere'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.
AdamBut it's just yeah, and similarly, I think Ghostbusters is like sort of it was just a comedy film.
AdamBut so Dan Aykroyd wrote a script.
Adamthat was huge and the original concept was that the Ghostbusters were a were
Adamone of a franchise like basically like insect like pest control, like insect exterminators.
Chris
AdamSo 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.
Adamwere also commonplace and they just happened to be one franchise in the whole conglomerate of Ghostbusters and everything else like that.
LeeYeah, and that was reading said they also they they busted ghosts through time and space.
LeeSo it was going to be so ridiculously massive like this, like like it was.
Leeand that was the problem with it, like it was such a a huge concept.
Adamit was unchious it was unwieldy, it was a.
LeeIt was a monster.
LeeI just I'm the article I read was saying that when they took it to Ivan Reitman.
Leehe said if we shoot this as it is, it's going to cost in excess of 200 million.
Leeand that was in 1982 money.
AdamYeah.
LeeSo I mean cause it was yeah, it was ridiculous.
AdamBut then similarly from what I gather when Dan Aykroyd wrote the Blues Brothers, the original version of the Blues Brothers was the script.
AdamThe script was the size of the phone book.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd 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.
AdamAnd 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.
AdamSo they got Harold Ramis in because he'd done
LeeOh, yeah.
LeeHe'd done stripes at this point, hadn't he?
Adamyeah, 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.
AdamAnd so Ivan Reitman, yeah, he'd done stripes with Harold Ramis and Bill Murray.
Adamthat I remember watching that, I don't remember it that well, to be honest.
LeeI only saw it for the first time three or four years ago and it was okay.
AdamYeah.
AdamI 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.
AdamSo it wasn't just Blues Brothers, we saw like Animal House and that.
LeeDefinitely far too fucking young to have watched Animal House.
AdamBut we'd see that.
AdamAnd but yeah, so we'd rent out stripes and neighbors, you ever seen neighbors with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd?
LeeIt'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.
AdamYeah, no, I don't remember it being great.
AdamBut 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.
AdamBut
LeeYeah, 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.
AdamYeah, well, in fairness, what the starring role versus being part of an ensemble team.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, and it did I mean did really well as well.
LeeOh 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.
LeeIt's.
AdamWell, the highest grossing films of 1984, this was number one.
Chris
AdamBut this is the list.
AdamSo Ghostbusters number one, then Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Gremlins.
AdamThe Karate Kid, Police Academy, Footloose, Beverly Hills Cop.
AdamStar Trek 3, the Search for Spock, Terms of Endearment and Romancing in the Stone.
LeeWhy aren't we having these years anymore?
AdamWell, there were
LeeWhat's going on?
AdamI had a quick jot down of some other films from 1984, Never Ending Story.
AdamDune.
AdamSpinal Tap, Terminator and of course, a nightmare on Elm Street.
ChrisYeah.
LeeFucking hell, we all the cost.
ChrisThat's that's quite a year.
LeeWhat is going on?
AdamI thought it was quite a was and yeah.
AdamAnd the best the best part is is those last few didn't weren't even in the top 10.
AdamBut they were sort of, you know, they are still films.
ChrisThey've held their ground.
AdamYes, definitely.
AdamBut 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
AdamSo it's the origin story of how the Ghostbusters come to be.
LeeOh, I didn't realize that was what the rewrite was.
AdamYes, so what they did was is they were kind of like, so I then Reitman basically said, well show me how this starts.
AdamAnd so it moves to be the idea.
AdamAnd they were like, well, that's why they're all doctors.
Chris
Adamis because you would have this is basically like a startup.
Chris
AdamBut 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.
ChrisOr at least 66% who know their shit.
AdamYeah, exactly.
AdamAnd 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.
AdamI mean, to a greater or lesser extent, clearly, Vanquishment isn't either.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBut but he's the gift of the gab, he's the.
LeeYeah, yeah, he's the salesman in it.
AdamHe's the front person, yeah, he's the he is the businessman end of it weirdly.
ChrisDon't let him deal with the the EPA though.
ChrisAnd you'll be fine.
AdamWhich I'm really interested that Ted now really likes two movies where the EPA are evil.
ChrisOh.
Adamthis and the Simpsons movie.
AdamWhere they're putting the dome like And
Adambecause 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.
AdamOr on TikTok because I think he just posts his TikToks on Instagram.
