Extreme Halloween - Part 8 ("Be Careful What You Wish For")

From September 1st to December 8th 1997, Ghostheads were treated to the first new Ghostbusters media since The Real Ghostbusters aired its last original episode in September 1991. Back in the '90s, everything was EXTREME! So, naturally, we'd get EXTREME GHOSTBUSTERS!!! Yeah, the title was dumb even back then, but at least they weren't "super". The series saw a new crew of young 18- and 19-year-olds being mentored by an older Egon and Janine, who were the only original team members left after the city's influx of spiritual energy ran dry years ago.

A lot of Ghostheads disliked the show at the time, as they wanted to see Peter, Ray, Egon, and Winston; not Eduardo, Kylie, Garrett, and Roland. Those who stuck with it - assuming they could find it, as Sony dropped it into the shittiest syndication deal possible at the time - found a show that was a lot more mature than the "kiddie" stuff ABC was peddling with The Real Ghostbusters in the latter years. I rewatched all 40 episodes last year, and was surprised by how well the show has held up 20+ years later. The writing is sharp, the acting in on point, and the character designs are fantastic. The only thing that sucks is the piss-poor animation. Sorry animators, but flickering back and forth between Photoshop filters is not how you animate proton streams.

Spook Central is giving you the chance to watch this semi-forgotten piece of Ghostbusters lore all throughout the month of October. Every day leading up to Halloween, I will present one or two episodes, with optional English subtitles, and a little bit of commentary from me. A little something to whet your appetite until Afterlife comes out next year. So, sit back, relax, and let's get EXTREME!!!!!

A ghostly salesman arrives in Grand Central Station and twists peoples' hopes and dreams into terrifying incarnations. Eduardo falls prey to the Salesman's spell and is turned into Kylie's cat, and the Extreme Ghostbusters must figure out how to outsmart the ghost before he leaves town forever.

Besides going with the age-old "twisted wish" trope, as best seen in the various "Monkey's Paw" retellings and the Wishmaster film series, this episode features my favorite dirty joke in the entire Ghostbusters franchise. What makes it even more fun is that it's an implied joke, so it was easy for writers Lara Runnels and Patricia Carr to slip it past everyone. Eduardo talks to the Salesman and, the next thing he knows, he's inside Kylie's cat, Pagan. What could Eduardo have wished for that could have resulted in that? Well, you could easily think of an innocent "clean" answer, but what immediately popped in the minds of myself and my friend Doreen Mulman, was that Eduardo said that he "wanted to be in Kylie's [insert feline euphemism for female body part]".

FAVORITE QUOTE
Garrett: Maybe he's dead.
Eduardo: Hey! That's my line.