(first published by USA Today on 2/22/2011 and 2/23/2011, but given out by Atari to all sites on 2/24/2011)

MEET THE ROOKIES
Even though they're inexperienced each one has their place in the team and they work together as a whole to bring down the bad guys. Whatever is waiting for them today, the first day at work, they'll meet it head on, with all their daring, skill and courage.

About the Game
Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime brings arcade style gameplay to the beloved franchise. Strap on your proton packs for an all new ghostbusting adventure! Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime brings paranormal activity to Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Network and PC Download! With 4 new playable characters and a whole new team of Ghostbusters, get ready for a fast-paced battle against the evil spirits that lurk in New York City to take down Dumazu the Destroyer!

Game Features
• 12 levels of arcade-style Ghostbusting fun with an all new cast of Ghostbusters
• Immerse yourself in the fight against the paranormal - battle ghosts in NYC's sewer tunnels, cemeteries & more
• Explore the unique powers of 3 different ghost fighting weapons
• Ride through the city in the all new ECTO-4WD as you battle evil ghosts while in transit
• Up to 4 player co-op multiplayer - combine weapon attacks with your teammates to increase the power of your attacks

Platforms: XBLA, PSN, PC Download
Target Release Date: March 2011
SRP: $9.99
Genre: Top Down Shooter, Action Adventure
ESRB: E10+
Developer: Behaviour
# of Players: 4 player co-op

Get Slimed: The Making Of The Classic Animatronic Character is a 15-minute interview with Steve Johnson, the original designer of Onionhead (later known as Slimer) for the film Ghostbusters, in which he talks about how the classic character came into being. It was recorded in early 2009 and the original 2009 cut premiered on November 20, 2009 in three parts on Steve's YouTube channel (video embedded below), and was later shown in its entirety on a bonus DVD included with the Slimer "collectible figurine" statue. The new 2010 cut of the interview was recently released by EonEntertainment onto a DVD that also includes over 200 photos and over 40 minutes of raw behind-the-scenes video pulled from Steve's archives. It is this new 2010 DVD that I am going to be reviewing and discussing in more detail.

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Massimo Piana's new site Ghostbusters Mania is officially open for business. There are some parts of the site in English and some parts in Italian, so if you need a translation of the Italian parts into English, Google is here to help. Overall, it's a very enjoyable site. Go check it out.

[UPDATE - 1/30/2011]
Massimo, being the cool cat that he is, just did a little write up about Spook Central over on Ghostbusters Mania. I'm honored. Thanks, Massimo.

I'm honored...I really am. The blokes from Shaun of the Dead decided to write a movie about me entitled, appropriately enough, Paul, and they got sexy Sigourney Weaver to star in it. I hear she plays my love interest. How cool is that?!?

Actually, that's partial wishful thinking on my part. Yes, Sigourney is in a movie entitled Paul, which is written by and stars the guys from Shaun of the Dead, but it isn't about me...unless I'm a rude, crude, grey alien who speaks in Seth Rogen's voice (I guess my name-alike Paul Rudd wasn't available). I'm not, of course. I'm actually a brown, furry alien who speaks in Paul Fusco's voice.

Anyway, the movie comes out on March 18th here in the U.S. (February 18th in the U.K.), and although I have some high hopes for it, since it's written by and stars the guys from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, from the looks of the trailer below, it looks like one of those crappy crude America comedies that we've been inundated with the past few years.


You know, I've been a talking three-eyed monkey, and now I'm a talking alien. I don't know which is worse.

My first post of the new year is actually not about Ghostbusters. This is a personal post, and one that won't even be of much use to the large percentage of you who live outside of the New York area, but it's something that I'm proud of, and wanted to make a special mention of it.

My parents, Linda & Joel Rudoff, celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary this past Tuesday. Their anniversary will be announced in the LI Life section of the Sunday January 2nd issue of Newsday. That's tomorrow, for those of you playing along at home. Although the newspaper is available on Long Island and in the City, I think the LI Life section might only be in the Long Island edition. I mean, that would certainly make sense given the name of the section.

Anyway, I'm very proud that my parents have made it this long, especially given the run of bad health they've both had these past two years. I know that they won't make it another 35 years, but I'm wishing them all the best to make it to the big 50th anniversary.

Newsday already published the announcement on their website on December 27, 2010 at 2:23 PM, correctly listed under Nassau County anniversaries, and also incorrectly under Suffolk County anniversaries, but without the photograph that should be published in tomorrow's paper.

35th
LINDA AND JOEL RUDOFF of East Rockaway were married Dec. 28, 1975. Linda is a retired home health care nurse, and Joel is a retired custodian at Nassau County Medical Center. They have two children.

[UPDATE - 1/2/2011]
Here's a scan of the anniversary announcement from today's newspaper. The photo isn't the greatest because I didn't have the best photo of them available to submit.


[UPDATE - 2/6/2011]
Newsday also owns the local This Week's Pennysaver publication, which is a free newspaper consisting mostly of advertisements. In the February 5, 2011 Lynbrook Edition, on page 6, my parent's anniversary announcement was reprinted in the "Your Special Occasions" section. The text is exactly the same as what was in Newsday, but the photo is now in black and white and has been zoomed-in a little bit. Neither my parents nor myself had any idea that the anniversary announcement was going to be republished in the Pennysaver, so it came as a great surprise when we all looked through it today. Thank goodness we didn't throw it out sight unseen, like I'm sure some people do.

On a somewhat related note, searching Newsday.com for my last name shows me that they have my sister Michelle listed as part of the East Rockaway High School Class of 2003 and that there's a monetary music award named after me: the Paul Rudoff Award (worth $750). Actually, it's not named after me, but someone with the exact same name - and the spelling of my last name isn't that common - who was the founding conductor of the Island Senior Symphony. I believe I know of this other Paul Rudoff. He's probably the guy I saw in the obituaries many years ago. Let me tell you, it can really scare the hell out of you to see your name in big bold letters in the obituary section of the newspaper. It's even scarier when you consider that he came from Westbury, NY and I grew up in Westbury, NY; and (from what I've read) he contributed in some manner to the private elementary school that I used to attend. It's a real shame that we never met when he was alive. It's even more of a shame that I can't win the monetary award that bears my name.

GBMax Massimo from Ghostbusters Mania has done one of the coolest things I have ever seen. In fact, in my 14+ years of being in the Ghostbusters online community, I don't remember anyone else ever doing this. He decorated his Christmas tree with home-made Ghostbusters community decorations. Not just one or two, but at least a couple DOZEN of them! There are ornaments for Spook Central, Proton Charging, Ghostbusters Fans, Ghostbusters News, the Ghostheads podcast, the Cleaning Up The Town fan documentary, MANY of the franchises (too many to mention here), a few prop art ornaments (spy the Proton Pack in the collage below), a few cleverly-designed cast/crew character ornaments (Robin Shelby's Slimer, William Bryan's Stay Puft, Jim Fye's Miss Liberty), some official pieces (the Hallmark Ecto-1 ornament, the action figure trap), and lots, LOTS more.

The collage below will give you a taste of the awesomeness, but I highly suggest that you check out the full gallery over on Facebook. I am especially touched that he made a Spook Central ornament. It gives me the warm fuzzies to be thought of and appreciated like that. He even added a Spook Central logo to the back of his cute little Ghostbusters Mania Ectomobile (thanks to Massimo for the large photo, smaller photos of the car can be found in this Facebook gallery). Coolest... Car... Ever! I'm really honored, Massimo.

The only suggestion I would have is for Massimo to release printables of the decorations (with instructions) for the other Ghostheads who may want to do the same thing next year. Share the awesomeness! Special thanks goes out to Doreen Mulman for telling me about this.

Actress Jennifer Runyon is best known to Ghostbusters fans as Jennifer, the pretty blonde student Peter was hitting on when he administered the not-so-scientific ESP test at the beginning of the movie. There are a few videos of Jennifer's other works up on YouTube, and I thought I'd assemble them in one place for anyone who may be interested in seeing them.

First up is an in-progress clip of Jennifer being interviewed by Merv Griffin circa 1984/1985. The person being spoken about at the beginning of the clip is her father, the late DJ Jim Runyon.


The interview above was conducted while Jennifer was starring on the Scott Baio television series "Charles In Charge". Jennifer's character, Gwendolyn Pierce ... GWENDOLYN PIERCE!, only appeared in the first season on CBS, which ran from 1984 to 1985. When the series came back in syndication for its second season in 1987, her character was no longer on the show - and neither was the family Charles was originally in charge of! Season 1 is available on DVD.

1984 was a very busy year for Jennifer. Besides Charles In Charge, Ghostbusters, and being interviewed by Merv Griffin, she also starred in the feature film Up The Creek alongside Tim Matheson and Stephen Furst (both of Animal House fame). According to IMDB, our very own Frank Welker is also in the film as the voice of Chuck the Wonder Dog. Sadly, this film is not on DVD, but the old VHS tape is still available (if you're willing to pay astronomical prices for it).

A few years later, in 1988, Jennifer had a role in the George Burns/Charlie Schlatter body-swap film 18 Again!. Here's a clip of Jennifer dancing with Charlie Schlatter. This film is available on DVD.

Last week's episode of Jim Belushi's new series The Defenders, entitled "Nevada v. Dennis" (airdate 12/8/2010), featured a special guest appearance. Prominently sitting on Belushi's character's desk was a bottle of Dan Aykroyd's Crystal Head Vodka. Jim and Dan are very good friends going way, way back. Not only has Dan guest starred several times on Jim's previous series According to Jim, but Jim's brother, the late John Belushi, and Dan worked on many projects back in the day: Saturday Night Live, 1941, Neighbors (John's final film), and this little thing called The Blues Brothers. Dan and Jim even had (still have?) a "Blues Brothers" type band, and Jim was originally set to co-star with Dan and John Goodman in Blues Brothers 2000, but couldn't due to scheduling conflicts. And, heck, the role of Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters was originally written for John; and it's been said that Onionhead/Slimer was modeled after his character, Bluto, in Animal House. So with the long history of friendship between Dan and the Belushi family, it's no surprise that Jim would sneak a bottle of Dan's vodka into his show.

Earlier this year as I was doing some frame grabs from both movies I saw a few goofs that I hadn't noticed before. I stopped noting goofs on this website a long, long time ago, as there were way too many to keep track of, but I wanted to make a quick post to note these new ones that I found.

GHOSTBUSTERS - While the guys and the head librarian are walking through the main room of the library, a set light and light deflector screen can be seen in the upper right corner of the screen.


GHOSTBUSTERS II - During the baby carriage chase a guy on a bicycle falls down. When Dana falls down shortly thereafter, the bicycle is nowhere to be seen in one shot, and then right next to her in the next.




GHOSTBUSTERS II - When Louis is waiting for the bus, the Bus Stop sign next to him has small text on the side facing away from the direction that the bus is coming from. When the shot changes towards the direction of the bus, thus showing us that side of the sign head-on, it now had a bus logo on it with the words "Bus Stop - No Standing" on a gray background.