First the Jedi returned. Then the Living Dead returned. In 2018, the Summer will return in Spook Central's "Return of Shot on Site Summer". Rated R. No one under 18 will be admitted. I hope you read all of that in the Day of the Dead trailer announcer's voice. If you didn't, watch the trailer, then go back and re-read it again. I'll wait...

During the Summer of 2012, Spook Central ran its first "Shot on Site Summer" event, wherein we spent a month covering ten different Ghostbusters 1 & 2 filming locations. After a six year hiatus, we've brought back the event in order to cover all of the filming locations for Paul Feig's 2016 Ghostbusters (aka Ghostbusters: Answer The Call). Because the remake/reboot/whatever will not be added to the backend Spook Central pages, we've decided to cover it differently.

Every Sunday - henceforth dubbed Shot on Site Sundays - at Noon (Eastern) for the next several weeks (all parts available here in reverse order), we will go through the entire movie from start to finish telling and showing you where everything was filmed in or around Boston, Massachusetts; with a great deal of quick shots in Manhattan, New York; and one spot in Los Angeles, California. We will be utilizing the Theatrical and Extended cuts of the movie from the Blu-ray, as that provides the most locations than just the Theatrical Cut alone. With that in mind, SPOILER WARNING if you read any further... though I suspect that whomever wants to see the movie already has, and those who want to avoid it won't care. Those in the latter camp have probably stopped reading this post already. That's cool. There's lots of material on Spook Central about the original movies and animated series for you to look at.

The majority of locations were identified and researched by Matthew Jordan back in 2016, way before anyone else did it. Secondary thanks go to all of the fine folks on the internet who documented the filming of the movie in 2015, which helped in Matt's research. A few locations were identified by me (Paul Rudoff) and MrMichaelT. The title graphic seen at the top was created by Matthew Jordan, based on an idea by Paul Rudoff. Now that that's out of the way, let the movie begin...

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Welcome to Spook Central's special "Summer of Spotlight" event. Throughout the Summer, I'll be posting Ghostbusters Cast Spotlight entries every Wednesday at Noon (Eastern). Each entry in this series will showcase a cast member of the Ghostbusters franchise - Ghostbusters 1 & 2, The Real Ghostbusters, Slimer!, Extreme Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, and maybe even Ghostbusters 2016 - in a role that you may not be familiar with. Maybe it will be from a long-forgotten movie, a television appearance before they were a Buster, or some really weird bit part that I'm sure they no longer include on their resume! There is a HUGE SPOILER WARNING if you read this article, as I am highly likely to go into plot details.

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Welcome to Spook Central's special "Summer of Spotlight" event. Throughout the Summer, I'll be posting Ghostbusters Cast Spotlight entries every Wednesday at Noon (Eastern). Each entry in this series will showcase a cast member of the Ghostbusters franchise - Ghostbusters 1 & 2, The Real Ghostbusters, Slimer!, Extreme Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, and maybe even Ghostbusters 2016 - in a role that you may not be familiar with. Maybe it will be from a long-forgotten movie, a television appearance before they were a Buster, or some really weird bit part that I'm sure they no longer include on their resume! There is a HUGE SPOILER WARNING if you read this article, as I am highly likely to go into plot details.

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One of the benefits to the Toys R Us Going out of Business sale is that the Playmobil Ghostbusters toys are starting to come into a more affordable price range for me. I have picked up a few of them so far, and will be covering them in a series of reviews here on Spook Central. Today's figures were purchased on April 28th for the 20% off prices of $9.19 (GB1) and $11.19 (GB2). Original prices were $11.49 (GB1) and $13.99 (GB2).

A year ago, Playmobil released their first series of Ghostbusters toys, all of which were based on the original movie. That was followed up with a second series in February 2018 based on Ghostbusters II. Last month saw a third series, this time based on The Real Ghostbusters animated series. I will review as many of these as I can get my hands on, either through the Toys R Us sale, or if Playmobil sends some my way.

The two figures that I will review today seem like they came out of an '80s sitcom... When Janine Melnitz dies, she leaves her teenage daughter Kylie in the custody of a father she has never met; or rather, two fathers - Egon, a straight-laced and formal man; and Elon, a wild artist. It's head-spinning hilarity this Tuesday on NBC in My Two Spenglers!

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Back in 1984, a promotional phone number was set-up for the original Ghostbusters movie. You would call and hear a pre-recorded message from Bill & Dan. Sony used this same type of promotion again in 2014 and 2016 for the 30th anniversary and the Feig film, respectively.

It should go without saying, but I know that I have to say it: DO NOT CALL THESE PHONE NUMBERS. The older phone numbers do not work anymore. They now belong to other businesses who won't appreciate being harassed by Ghostbusters fans. Just listen to the audio messages embedded below.

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In 1988, Topps released a 90 card, 11 sticker set entitled Fright Flicks. Each card featured a photograph from one of 14 horror movies of the previous 10 years, with a humorous caption beneath it. The card backs featured frightening "Did It Ever Happen?" urban legends, which told a Twilight Zone-like tale in 100 words or less. The stickers poked similar fun, with puzzle pieces on their backs. The set was a "modern" version of Topps' Creature Features set from 1973, which featured Universal movie monster film stills with funny and punny captions below them. The template for both of these sets goes back to 1959 with the Funny Monsters set, which featured drawings of monsters in various situations with a joke caption underneath.

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Next year is the 35th anniversary of Ghostbusters, and I suspect we'll get new Blu-ray releases of both original films in honor of the event (each including one new bonus feature to justify the re-purchase, like the recently-discovered Fort Detmerring scene footage). Hopefully, Sony will also see fit to finally release the entire series of Extreme Ghostbusters on DVD. Are you listening, Sony? Well, we may have gotten a look at the new master used for the Ghostbusters II Blu-ray.

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Insight Editions has been releasing high-quality collector's-worthy Ghostbusters books for the past few years, and last year we got two. Ghostbusters: Ectomobile Owner's Workshop Manual (reviewed here) was the obviously release, but Totally Awesome: The Greatest Cartoons of the Eighties was another, and it likely slipped under the radar for most. This 160-page hardcover tome was written by Andrew Farago (curator of San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum), with a foreword by legendary voice artist Russi Taylor (Minnie Mouse, the kids in DuckTales, Baby Gonzo in Muppet Babies, etc.). Coming in at a nice size of 9.5" x 11.5" closed, in full color print on high-quality paper, the book comes factory-sealed, so you'll know that you're getting a new, clean, untouched copy.

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Since switching to a new server a few weeks ago, Spook Central and subsite The Corner Penthouse had been having severe issues with the blog software. The blog provides Spook Central with its main page, and runs the entirety of The Corner Penthouse. After a few days of having to disable the blog while we worked on the problem, we have managed to restore it, while at the same time upgrading it to the latest version. Unfortunately, that created a new set of problems because all of the skins and plugins from the old version were not compatible with the new version.

Right now, we have managed to get both sites back to 95% visual accuracy with (near) 100% functionality. Raffaele and I... well, mostly Raffaele, will continue to work on getting things back to 100% all around. Meanwhile, everything functions well enough that I will be able to write the reviews and articles that I have had to put off since all of this started.

We used this upgrade as an opportunity to make the site fully HTTPS-compliant, so you'll have a secure connection here. Not that we're providing any sort of sensitive information, but it seems like everyone loves secure this and secure that, so why not provide that as well.

Thanks to everyone for their patience.

-- Paul

Way back in August 2011, I had some special Spook Central 15th Anniversary patches made to honor the site's milestone. I thought they were all gone, so I never sent any to Ghost Corps when they started collecting patches from the various franchises a few years ago. Recently, I found that I still had a few in my secret stash. I sent it to the Ghost Corps crew along with a nice letter on my translucent slime green stationary. Thanks to Eric Reich for the photo of one of the last remaining Spook Central patches in their display case. I bet mine is one of the only patches they have from a website!