Spook Central Live Online Video Event (1/29 At 8 PM EST)

Last year I obtained a recording of Ghostbusters from its airing on ABC on Sunday January 29, 1989 (presumably at 8:00 or 9:00 PM EST), complete with all of the commercials (the only thing missing is the scrolling end credits, which cut off after 10 seconds). I thought that it would be killer to stream the entire broadcast with commercials on January 29, 2009 - 20 years to the date of the original broadcast. So, that's what I'm doing in this one-time-only live internet re-broadcast.

The broadcast includes all of the commercials and bumpers, the opening promo (one which is not currently on the site), all of the known alternate footage, and even some newly discovered alternate footage. Yes, you read that right, I found five new pieces of alternate footage. This includes one completely different line, one shorter line, one new shot (to cover dialog removed), and two instances where dialog was removed but the background audio remains. Can you find all five?

As you probably could have guessed, the movie is edited, time-compressed (sped-up), panned & scanned, has commercials, and is from a horrible film print. Some bright areas of the picture are blown-out and unnaturally white. Since this doesn't appear to happen during the commercials, I can't fault the videocassette. From what I remember, ABC was never given good film prints of the movie. At least it's not as bad as the blue-tinted print that was in circulation on TV in the mid-to-late 1990s.

There are also two brief instances where the audio goes low a couple of times during the movie. One is during the Ray/Winston car scene, the other is during the static end credits. These, and a tape defect during the first set of commercials, are the only significant tape defects. Not bad for a 20 year old videocassette.

I will be the first one to admit that this is NOT the ideal way to view the movie. I know that the film is already up on Hulu, and that all of us already have the film on DVD and can watch it whenever we want. This certainly won't take away from Sony's DVD sales or even the Hulu views. However, the major positive is that you'll be able to view the movie in a way that it hasn't been seen in 20 years. For everyone in their late 20s and older, this is a way to relive the communal/shared experience of seeing it as an "ABC" live broadcast - this time TOGETHER IN THE SAME (VIRTUAL) ROOM!

Oh, yeah, in the last commercial break, keep an eye out for Judith Hoag in a Burger King commercial. People of my generation will remember her as April O'Neil in the first live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie in 1990. People of the current generation probably know her best as the mom in the Halloweentown movies on the Disney Channel.

Finally, I'd like to give major thanks to: AJ Quick for his help in promoting the event, loaning me his chat room, and hosting the frameset in order to fix an issue with showing the chat room in it; Ben King for putting together the poster you see on the upper right and for assistance during the private test broadcast last night; Raffaele Ruffaldi for his assistance during the private test broadcast last night; and Chris Stewart for his help in promoting the event. And, of course, major thanks to everyone who attends the broadcast tonight.