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Film > Ghostbusters II > Ghostbusters II - The Oprah Winfrey Show
"The Oprah Winfrey Show"
(with the cast of "Ghostbusters II")
(June 12, 1989)

Play Video
Assembled by Alex Newborn to be as complete and best quality as possible.

Below is the full transcript of the episode, transcribed by me, Paul Rudoff. The video above, as well as the text below, includes the two portions that were edited from the episode found on the Ghostbusters 1 & 2 4K/Blu-ray 2019 set, which is detailed here. The video shown above was frankensteined together by Alex Newborn using the Blu-ray copy as the base, with four portions from a VHS TV recording edited in to provide the complete episode. The TV-recording segments, which are obvious due to their much lower quality, can be found at 15:01, 23:34, 37:07, and 43:45. They came from the original highly-compressed 320x240 video that I originally had embedded above. Eventually I will re-transfer the episode from my VHS tape and provide Alex with the better material so he can make a higher-quality complete copy. (PS: Check out the description of Alex's YouTube upload for a time-coded list of highlights and audience cameos.)


Oprah Winfrey: Well, the year was 1984 when those four ray-gun toting maniacs burst on the scene, and five years later "Ghostbusters" remains the top-grossing comedy of all time, and at long last the stars of the original return to Ghostbuster headquarters beginning June 16th -- that's this Friday -- when "Ghostbusters II" premiers at movie theaters everywhere.

Please join me now in welcoming the cast of "Ghostbusters II" -- Annie Potts, Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, and Ernie Hudson! All right. The Ghostbusters are back! Well -- well, now, they're here. We're glad to have you all here. I mean, we've never had the entire cast of anybody's anything, so we're really glad to have you on this show.

First of all, see, aren't sequels hard to do? Were you wary about doing a sequel? Because you worry about it being as good as the first. I'll start with you, Bill.
Bill Murray: That's really Harold's question. They are hard because they're always worse than the original generally. I think only the horror movies get better because they get more -- they get to spend more money, but maybe "Godfather II" was better. Some people fight about that, but they're hard. We didn't want to make it just to make an exploitation movie and just to make another movie because people would come and see it, so we spend a lot of time thinking about it. This is really a straight question. I wish you'd give me something like, you know, "Do I wear pajamas to bed," or something.
Oprah Winfrey: You guys --
Bill Murray: That's pretty much it, isn't it Harold? Did I get it?
Harold Ramis: Yeah. I think we were -- the first one was so successful. I mean, our fear of doing another was great, and we --
Oprah Winfrey: Were you even a little surprised by the success of the first one? I mean, really?
Harold Ramis: No.
Oprah Winfrey: Really?
Bill Murray: No.
Oprah Winfrey: Not at all?
Bill Murray: Not at all.
Dan Aykroyd: Well, here's the reason. Because, I think, all of us had been working in our careers individually sort of training for the, you know, symbiosis of the first movie. You know, I even had done successful things with Billy before, and we'd all been kind of working towards it, so it was kind of -- I think, it was our post-graduate course more or less, and so, I think, we had confidence in our own work. I mean, I -- as far as the dimension of exactly how big it was, no one could tell, but we knew it was gonna be successful and not a flop anyway.
Oprah Winfrey: Two hundred twenty million dollars worth of success?
Dan Aykroyd: More than that.
Harold Ramis: Well, I remember Dan said that -- when we were ready to do the first one, he said that after "The Blue Brothers" they didn't do a lot of merchandising because he didn't want his face on every lunch box in America, and then he -- when we were doing "Ghostbusters" he said, "Now I do want my face on every lunch box."
Oprah Winfrey: Would you look at this. These guys came armed. I asked him how old he was.
    [audience members wearing the Kenner Proton Pack toys]

Audience Member: Question for Bill. I just graduated college --
Bill Murray: I can see that.
Audience Member: I was wondering if there were any openings on the team?
Bill Murray: College graduate, guys, what do you think?
Dan Aykroyd: Overqualified. I'm sorry.
Oprah Winfrey: Since "Ghostbusters 1", Miss Sigourney Weaver has been a double Academy Award nominee.
Bill Murray: Everybody yell.
    [audience cheers wildly]


(Chris Farley in the audience)
Sigourney Weaver: See, this is just a continuation of the torture.
Oprah Winfrey: Yeah, I heard you had to hear that a lot on the set from Bill.
Sigourney Weaver: Right, right. Luckily the movie is over now.
Bill Murray: To be nominated twice in one year. [shakes his head in sarcastic agony]
Sigourney Weaver: Oh, well, anyway.
Oprah Winfrey: So, did they joke about it a lot with you?
Sigourney Weaver: Yeah, yeah.
Oprah Winfrey: And so did you feel -- I don't know, because being nominated, double Academy Award nominee, I mean, did you feel like perhaps going into "Ghostbusters II" that it might be perhaps a little beneath your station in life?
Sigourney Weaver: Well, I hoped they would think that, but I don't think they did. I mean it's so rare that you get the opportunity to work with, you know, your friends again. So I think that's -- I think when it actually happened, it was so spontaneous from everybody, sort of ooomph, you know, I think -- I think we did it also for sentimental reasons, not just work reasons.
Oprah Winfrey: Yeah, Annie, was it like reunion?
Annie Potts: Yeah, it was. I mean, I was working on a series at the same time. So it was like mini reunions, kind of flying in, but yeah, it was like that.
Oprah Winfrey: So, was there a spirit of familiar camaraderie all the time on the set or? -- I can imagine that sometimes at two in the morning that camaraderie -- I read where you were saying, Sigourney, that everybody is so giving and so giving and I wonder how giving everybody is at 2 AM when it's below freezing.
Ernie Hudson: Well, yeah, well, I think, ah -- yeah, it was. I think at two in the morning, I think we all felt --
Sigourney Weaver: We were so giddy at that point, we gave without thinking.
Harold Ramis: I can honestly say, there's never been a fight or an argument that I remember among the cast members.
Oprah Winfrey: Really?
Bill Murray: Well, wait a minute.
Sigourney Weaver: but that's until today. We still have the weekend to get through.
Dan Aykroyd: The director's not here.
Harold Ramis: The director's not here.
Dan Aykroyd: Yeah, between the director and cast members.
Oprah Winfrey: Yeah, wasn't -- I was reading someplace that one of the most difficult scenes to film, that during one of the most difficult scenes, the camera wasn't working and then the director says, "Look, I'm sorry, we gotta shoot it again." You all thought he was kidding?
Ernie Hudson: Yeah, I thought he was kidding. It was like the worst night of my life. It was freezing, we were drenched in this stuff, and it was wet and cold and --
Dan Aykroyd: We were drenched in slime. Slime after -- at a certain temperature begins to congeal. So, our heads were like blocks of ice. It was like three in the morning down by the Battery Park there in Manhattan and the wind was whipping around the point. And ah, you know, we thought, "Hey, we're bonded for life." We were in this hole together, the three of us, you know, it was like, "I swear, what color Rolls Royce do you want, man? I mean, whatever you need, you know." And then he comes back the next day and says, "We didn't get it camera jammed up" and we went, "Ha, ha, ha, sure, sure. Well, good night." No, had to do it again. And -- unbelievable, just -- I mean, you know, like a nightmare.
Ernie Hudson: I think the second time -- Yeah, the second time I think was a little easier. We had gone through hell, I think, so the second time through was kind of interesting, I thought.
Oprah Winfrey: Oh, really? See, I understand there's some kind of moral, but sort of somewhat buried, ah, moral significance, because you all wrote it, to this "Ghostbusters II" thing because the slime only emerges when there's really negative energy from human beings.
Harold Ramis: The slime is a metaphor for um, for um, for bad, negative human emotions which we feel are dragging down the big cities in a certain way ... and New York is the example.
Oprah Winfrey: I like the idea of you - you're all gonna be there this Friday June 16 when it opens - of you singing "Kumbaya" to get the slime to go down.
Harold Ramis: Yeah, that may only be available on the ... [laughing] ... on the limited edition, the special edition Ghostbusters. I think that was edited out.
Oprah Winfrey: Ok, all right.
Sigourney Weaver: It should be pointed out that Bill Murray in the second movie did manage to go through the whole thing without getting any slime on him.
Dan Aykroyd: He avoided wearing the big packs, too. He hates wearing those packs. And I designed a pack especially just to really weigh him down and somehow he wiggled out of it.
Oprah Winfrey: We'll be back with the cast of "Ghostbusters II" in just a moment.
    [commercial break]
Oprah Winfrey: I wonder about, about ah, comedies. How do you know -- I know when you all sit down to write this, Harold and Dan. But when you're writing it on paper, it may read funny. How do you know that what you've written is going to be funny? Especially, around the third or fourth or fourteenth take?
Dan Aykroyd: [points to Bill Murray] When he starts to talk it, it's funny.
Harold Ramis: Well, ah -- there's -- some people say every movie is really three movies. It's the movie you set out to make, it's the movie you think you've made and the movie you find out that you did make when it's over. So, usually -- the script is like the best you can do before you actually get there and find out how it's really gonna feel when you're doing it. So, we start every shooting day by taking the script we've got and reading through it. The crew is sent out, we sit down on the set. We read through it and we go, "This will not work. It's too long, it's not funny enough, we need a joke here, we can lose this, we can play the whole scene in half the time" and then we start using our improvisational skills, and writing, not ad-libbing while the camera's rolling, but preparing what we're going to say in the upcoming scene.
Oprah Winfrey: And so, do you find that some of the best scenes are improv?
Harold Ramis: Yeah, not ad-lib, not spontaneous--not, although Bill will take some liberties while the camera is rolling. But it's sort of guided improvisation. Planned improv.
Oprah Winfrey: And do you like working that way?
Sigourney Weaver: Um, I find that it really keeps you on your toes. I don't think I'm the best at it, let's put it that way. But you have to sort of run with it. Especially because all my scenes are with Bill. I just try to keep up with him.
Oprah Winfrey: Would you say, is it not easy doing a romantic scene with him? Because, you know what I mean.
Sigourney Weaver: I don't want to embarrass myself, but I think it's very easy to do romantic scenes ...
    [audience laughs]
Bill Murray: If you girls are at home that are unsure about your improvisational abilities --
Oprah Winfrey: Well, I would think he would make it so funny for you that it's hard to concentrate sometimes.
Sigourney Weaver: Um, but that's -- I think women fall in love with people who make them laugh. So, I think --
Oprah Winfrey: Oh, do tell, Sigourney.
Sigourney Weaver: Well, I think that's true. I'll talk a vote. No, but, um, I think that's true. So, I think it helps.
Dan Aykroyd: That's what got me through high school, I tell you. It wasn't the way I look.
Sigourney Weaver: Oh, come on.
Oprah Winfrey: Ok. I want to call for a clip of the slime test. Let's take a look at this.
   
    [the "Ghostbusters II" slime test scene plays]

Ray Stantz: We've been experimenting with the plasm we found in the subway tunnel. [to Egon] Careful.
Peter Venkman: Should I get spoons?
Egon Spengler: Don't bother. Watch this. Try it, Ray.
Ray Stantz: YOU! You worthless piece of slime. You ignorant disgusting blob.
Egon Spengler: You're nothing but an unstable short-chain molecule.
Ray Stantz: You foul obnoxious muck.
Egon Spengler: You have a weak electro-chemical bond.
Ray Stantz: I have seen some disgusting crud in my time, but YOU take the cake. You're a -- You're just --
Winston Zeddemore: [to Ray] Hey, hold it, hold it, hold it.
Peter Venkman: This is what you do with your spare time?
Ray Stantz: Peter, this is an incredible breakthrough. I mean, what a discovery -- a psycho-reactive substance. Whatever this stuff is, it responds to human emotional states.
Peter Venkman: Mood slime. [turns to the slime] Oh, baby.
Winston Zeddemore: You mean this stuff actually feeds on bad vibes?
Ray Stantz: Like a cop in a donut factory.
   
Oprah Winfrey: All right. [audience applaudes, as Oprah is handed a bucket of slime] Don't you find it interesting -- this is a bucket of slime. Thanks. Isn't it interesting how the slime as taken on sort of a personality of its own. You were saying, I think I read where you were saying --
Dan Aykroyd: If you like that suit, don't get any on it.
Oprah Winfrey: That one of the stars of this film is the slime. [Oprah dips her hand into the bucket of slime] Actually, it feels like Dippety-Do.

Dan Aykroyd: You're a bold woman.
Oprah Winfrey: Sort of like Dippety-Do.
Bill Murray: Well, I'd like to take a shot at your improvisational ability.
Oprah Winfrey: Can I have a towel someplace, too? You know, it's great. It feels pretty good, actually.
Bill Murray: [points to a woman in the audience] This woman's shirt will do. Right here. Do you mind?
Oprah Winfrey: What is this stuff, though, actually? What is it?
Harold Ramis: It's a food starch, I think.
Dan Aykroyd: A food starch, yeah.
Bill Murray: It's a Chinese food starch. I know it's not funny to talk about this week --
Oprah Winfrey: No, it's not. No, it's not. So, what -- what happens -- No, it's not, Bill. What -- what -- don't they have to make it fresh every day, I heard?
Bill Murray: Can someone help her with that towel? This is insane.
Oprah Winfrey: Don't they have to make it fresh every day?
Bill Murray: Every few hours they make it fresh.
Oprah Winfrey: Wow.
Harold Ramis: There was a scene where, I think the 40,000 gallons of it were used in one shot.
    [audience gasps in disbelief]
Sigourney Weaver: There's a special gun that sprays it.
Oprah Winfrey: [points to the toy Proton Packs two members of the audience are wearing] Not unlike those guns. [turns to an audience member] Yes. You understand -- Your question?
Audience Member: I had a question for Bill Murray. I wondered if he smirks naturally or if he does it on purpose?
Dan Aykroyd: It's in the family.
Bill Murray: I think it's genetic. Ah, I think that ah, long -- generations of Irish men were beaten for pig stealing and our faces just ended up this way. I don't know. I don't know. I don't mean to be smirking. It's just -- it's a look that says "I'm really interested in what you're saying," I guess.
Oprah Winfrey: [to audience member] You had a question? Yes.
Audience Member: Yeah, this is for Bill Murray also. I was wondering, ah -- one of my favorite acts on Saturday Night Live was your nightclub singer, and I was wondering if you could do a little bit for us.
Bill Murray: [singing] Oh, G.I.'s who have been drafted. Viet Vets who have been shafted. They all know the words to the theme from "MASH".
Audience Member: You've eluded to how messy it is doing the film, but how long does it take to clean up, like after you've been slimed? It looks quite messy in the movie. Just how messy is it?
Dan Aykroyd: Well, it -- it -- after it's on you, it kind of ah, it kind of, you know, congeals and hardens and it becomes -- you know, you kind of look like Alfalfa. You know, it -- it -- it stiffens up, you know. And ah--
Harold Ramis: Then it peels off like sunburn after a while.
Dan Aykroyd: Yeah, but you have it in your ears for weeks. You know, it's like, I'm still getting it out, you know. It dissolves in water. It's not, it's not too bad.
Oprah Winfrey: It's not too bad. See, it feels fresh, clean, natural. There are some celebrities -- ah, some relatives of the celebrity Ghostbusters lurking in our audience and we're gonna get them to tell us some childhood dirt when we come back.
    [commercial break]
Oprah Winfrey: [to some audience members] All three, all three up. Sisters to? ... Bill Murray.
Laura: Laura.
Nancy: Nancy.
Peggy: Peggy.
Oprah Winfrey: I feel like you're gonna sing now.
Bill Murray: No. Please, no.
Oprah Winfrey: All right. Best Bill Murray story?
Nancy: For the world?
Peggy: Probably when he locked my friends out on the roof when my parents weren't home one time and he locked us out on the roof and all my friends were ready to jump before my parents came home. And just before they pulled up in the driveway, he let us out.
Bill Murray: Timing.
Nancy: Well, then there's the peanuts for Christmas presents, Bill. Come on. One year we were all doing things like getting an extra dollar by cleaning the basement, cleaning the garage. And Bill wasn't too worried about doing any of these extra works to get things done. And we were concerned until Christmas morning when we found out why. He had bought one can of peanuts, took some tinfoil and wrapped it in ten little packs. And that's what we got from him that year.
Oprah Winfrey: Generous. Generous. Thank you. You have a story?
Bill Murray: To a fault.
Laura: No, I really don't. He's great. He's great.
Oprah Winfrey: Yeah. Was he always pulling jokes on you guys? You always knew he was gonna end up like this?
Laura: No, we were kind of surprised that he -- No, I mean, that the things he pulled on us at the dinner table ten years before that, now he's doing and getting paid for it.
Oprah Winfrey: That surprise you, Bill?
Bill Murray: I'm surprised I gave any of them peanuts.
Oprah Winfrey: I was asking this question earlier about when do you know about writing a script, how do you know it's funny. When did you know, Dan, you were funny and that you could market your humor?
Dan Aykroyd: Hmmm ... well, that would have been very early on in life, I guess, from just feedback from, you know, teachers in class. I got the class laughing but not the teacher, and I realized I had something. Probably as early as grade one. And my parents sent me to dramatic training when I was about 11 years old. They saw they had a hyperactive kid here, and that needed to channel it somehow. So, I started studying improv and I started writing for TV when I was 18. So, I've really been it this business quite a, quite a while. So, I guess it was grade one, yeah. I kissed a girl then, but she didn't think it was funny. But most of the kids thought I was. The teachers did not like me, though.
Oprah Winfrey: Well, what kind of grades did you get?
Dan Aykroyd: Ah, through elementary school and high school, not bad. In college, some A's, some C's, some F's.
Oprah Winfrey: Because, see, I look at Sue and I -- Sue. You called her Sue earlier. That's why I said that. -- Sigourney, and I think, "You know, you look like the kind of person who got great grades."
Bill Murray: She's such a little--
Sigourney Weaver: That's the impression I like to give. But unfortunately, that was not always the case.
Oprah Winfrey: Annie, did you get great grades?
Annie Potts: No. No, I didn't really care.
Oprah Winfrey: But you do care now and it's real important for kids to stay in school, isn't it, Annie?
Annie Potts: Yes, it is. I certainly wouldn't want to give anybody the impression that it's not something to work at just because I threw my books in the locker at the end of every day and forgot it. Now I can't help my second grader with his math. He burst into tears the other day because I couldn't tell him what six times eight was. "I know you know it, you're just not telling me." I said, "I don't know it."
Oprah Winfrey: This is Bill's brother. What's your name?

Joel: I'm Joel. I'm number nine of us. But, ah, I think it's curious that Billy is making the kind of money he is. You can still admire his clothes and walk with him still. You know, he'll leave the house -- we're the same size. But, I'd rather actually ask Sigourney a question ... because I can see him anytime.
Oprah Winfrey: What did he just say? Ok.
Joel: In "Working Girl" when you came back from the hospital, did you realize you had the big gorilla with you? Was that a plug?
Sigourney Weaver: No, it wasn't. It was supposed to be a joke about Fay Wray and King Kong. And I explained to Mike Nichols that I had made this gorilla movie and he looked at me as if he was sure that nobody would ever see a gorilla movie so there's no problem worrying about. But, ah, I think it worked all right.
Oprah Winfrey: Little did he know you were gonna be a double nominee.
Sigourney Weaver: Double nominee.
Oprah Winfrey: We'll be back in just a moment. Back in a moment.
    [commercial break]
Oprah Winfrey: I just wanted you to know that Harold Ramis's parents are here. I just want you all to stand up, be acknowledged.

Harold's Mother: Harold got married in June, and they had the best wedding. But the best part of the wedding was when they came down the aisle, after the marriage, dancing to "In The Chapel" ... "Going To The Chapel." It was great.
Oprah Winfrey: Thank you for that. Thank you. [to Ernie Hudson] Ernie, didn't you get your break -- you got a break from Gordon Parks? Is that how you got started in all this?
Ernie Hudson: Ah, that was the first um, actual role I did, yeah. "Leadbelly" with Gordon Parks. A few years back. Long time ago.
Oprah Winfrey: And so, is this what you always aspired to do? It's really interesting how people end up in life. You know, everyone says "I'd like to be an actor or I'd like to do things." And then when you end up doing it, does it fulfill what you thought it would?
Ernie Hudson: Well, I kind of came to acting after doing a -- after working with relatives here in the front who live in Chicago. And after working in a few foundries, I thought, "There's gotta be a better way to make a living." So, this is great.
Oprah Winfrey: There is a better way. [to audience member] Yeah, you wanted to say?
Audience Member: I just wanted to let Ernie know that we're related. You're actually my brother. I didn't think you'd recognized me here in the audience. So, I just want to say "Hi."
Ernie Hudson: Oh, Hi. Hi. [audience laughs and applaudes] I'm afraid to ask. I -- You know.
Oprah Winfrey: Ok. Where'd you come from?
Audience Member: I'd like to ask Bill Murray, with your strong stage presence and unique delivery, did you ever think about becoming a stand-up comedian when you first started?
Bill Murray: Ah, I thought if everything else failed, yeah, I would try that. No, it's -- that's too hard a life, really. They, ah, they don't have enough food, they don't have food, they mostly work in bars.
Audience Member: That's why I'm skinny.
Bill Murray: They don't eat enough. And um, I don't know, we've tried it. We've been around that life a little bit. It just seems more difficult, you know. I'm basically lazy. That involves getting up and working every night I really have no interest in that kind of profession.
Oprah Winfrey: It seems that, you know, "Saturday Night Live" did so much for so many people's lives. At the time you all were in the midst of doing it, of course, it seemed like it was a lot of fun to do, but did you know that it would lead to other things? Because now I think, now when a cast member goes to "Saturday Night Live," they would in later years think, "Well, great. I'll do this for a year and then I'll go out and really be famous?"
Dan Aykroyd: Well, I think they've gotta put a little more time in. And, you know, this cast now that's on the show is really quite good and they're doing excellent work, I believe. And a -- But they should definitely hang in there for a couple more years, you know.
Bill Murray: Maybe eight, nine. Well, it's the same as at Second City, too. I mean, when we all came out of Second City--
Oprah Winfrey: The Second City group's here. Yeah! [audience cheers] Right, Bill. Yes?
Bill Murray: It seemed like, well -- and Harold, you know, and Harold and Dan and ... Sigourney had no background. Ernie was in the foundry and you were in that reform school, right, Annie? But it seemed like that was a great job. And you take the job, you do it for six months, and then you sort of just sit back and wait. But it is hard we were just very lucky.
Dan Aykroyd: It's great that Second City and Saturday Night Live are going strong as institutions, because these are the training grounds for new comedians and new comic thinkers. And a -- you know, thank you, General Electric, and a -- for keeping that on the air, you know what I mean?
Oprah Winfrey: Uh-huh. Yeah, you understand. [to audience member] Yeah?
Audience Member: Yeah, I have um, two questions. One is, Sigourney Weaver, um, you were in "Aliens" before "Ghostbusters" and that was really dramatic. And, I'm wondering, how did you get on "Ghostbusters" when it was a comedy?
Sigourney Weaver: I had to audition a lot.
Audience Member: You did the audition?
Sigourney Weaver: I had to go in and give a taped audition. And I, I know the director was very dubious about whether I could do this. I think they were all a little dubious. They're probably still dubious. But anyway--
Dan Aykroyd: They wanted you so bad, you don't even know.
Sigourney Weaver: I jumped around, and I turned into a dog and I barked and howled and I ate the cushions and he -- I looked up and he's standing -- sitting there going like this [illustrates the shocked expression on the director's face], and I got the job. But I did have to prove myself.
Audience Member: I have another question for Dan and Bill. Um, I'm wondering with Gilda's death, you know you were close, I wonder how that affected you?
Dan Aykroyd: Well, we weren't happy about it. I mean, I mean, you know, it's just sort of, it kind of just brings it all home about life and immortality and mortality. And the way she'll live on is in her work. And we do remember her in that way. And, um, you know, when you lose a good friend, obviously there's, unless you're a robot, you know, you've got to feel grief. And, ah, it's just good that she went quietly and had someone who loved and supported her in the end, you know, to -- you know, to kinda get her through that difficult period. I look forward to reading her book. And that, ah, may provide a little comfort.
Audience Member: How about you, Bill?
Bill Murray: I don't believe anything that Dan said, of course. But, ah, it's true. She was a really extraordinary person. Harold knew her very well as well. And, ah, well we had a lot of fun, we really had a lot of fun. And a --
Dan Aykroyd: She was so warm and generous with people. And ah, she was one of those people that, you know, once you met her for the first time, um, she kind of took you in, you almost felt that you were a special friend, you know. And she was like that with everybody. She had a lot of people that, ah, she loved and loved her back because she was just so open. And a -- Really the kind of person that when, you know, she walked into a room, the whole presence would, you know, magnetize to her, you know. Yup, great lady.
Oprah Winfrey: Thank you very much. We'll be back in a moment.
    [commercial break]
Audience Member: My question is to Bill Murray. And in the first "Ghostbusters", the classic scene was when your little green friend was coming toward you and he slimed you. And I wanted to know, how do you interact and react to things on the screen that you can't see?
Bill Murray: The same way I do in real life, ma'am.
Audience Member: I have a question for Harold Ramis. Um, you write most of the best comedies ever. But why do you give Bill Murray all the good lines? Why don't you steal some of them for yourself?
Harold Ramis: Ah, ha, ha. That's interesting. I have two personalities. I have a writing personality and an acting personality. And a -- as Oprah was saying about how do you know something's funny, when you write it, you don't know. So, I don't want to take the chance. So, we give him all the risky lines.
Oprah Winfrey: How do you all write this? If you and Dan write it, do the two of you sit in a room or does he write some and then you write some and you get together?
Dan Aykroyd: Every conceivable way. We've a -- sometimes we write separately and then go over each other's work. Sometimes it's the classic -- it's like "The Dick Van Dyke Show," you know. I'm Morey Amsterdam and he's, you know, lying on the sofa, and someone types and someone talks. That's the way it goes.
Audience Member: I have another question about the character "The Slimer." I've -- I've heard that, you know how he drank to excess and ate to excess, that someone said that was based on, kinda like a thing about Belushi. Is that -- any truth to that?
Dan Aykroyd: Um, a little bit, yup. Absolutely, in a way, sort of.
Audience Member: Maybe?
Dan Aykroyd: Yeah, there is a resemblance.
Oprah Winfrey: I -- I want to know what -- so this -- so this is opening this Friday. So, I'll ask this of Annie and Ernie. Are you gonna to go to the theater? Will you be -- were you gonna go with everybody else? Do you all like the idea of seeing it with the masses? Or will you--
Dan Aykroyd: The best place to see a movie in a world is in Times Square on Friday or Saturday night.
Oprah Winfrey: Yeah.
Dan Aykroyd: That is really a gas.
Bill Murray: Everybody's coming out. Get your coats.
Oprah Winfrey: So, are you gonna -- so, like it opens this Friday. Would you, like, take a date or go and--?
Ernie Hudson: Yeah, well, I have kids. I have four sons. And, so I like to hang out with them and we go and ah, and see it with people. And it's a different experience than seeing it -- we'll see it before it opens, but it's, like, a different crowd. So, it's kinda nice to just go in the theater and just have fun watching it and watching people enjoy it.
Oprah Winfrey: You gonna tell your son what six times eight is and then go?
Annie Potts: Yeah, something like that. He was around the set quite a bit so he knows some of what's happening.
Oprah Winfrey: [to audience member] Yeah, your question? Yes?
Audience Member: Well, my husband wanted me to ask, whose idea it was for the Stay Puft Marshmallow guy? He just thought it was great.
Dan Aykroyd: Well, everybody's. I mean, you know, when you collaborate on something like this, it's -- [audience laughs] -- it's, ah, everybody's idea.
Audience Member: My question's for Bill. You made reference to this at the start of the show, and I'm sure all the women in America would like to know, do you wear pajamas to bed?
Bill Murray: Only when it's very, very cold.
Oprah Winfrey: All right. What's your question?
Audience Member: Yes, I'd like to ask Annie Potts, whose hair looks very beautiful today --
    [audience applaudes]
Bill Murray: Come on, Yeah.
Audience Member: I mean, in the last "Ghostbusters" film, you had -- it wasn't really a small role, but it was kind of small, and they didn't show you as much as they showed everybody else. I want to know if you have a larger role in this film?
Annie Potts: Yeah, I do, actually. And I was -- I was really, um, flattered to -- to -- to come back because, um, they had to really work around an impossible schedule for me. And I had run into Harold a couple of times and I said, "Aww, I really wanna do it." And, so they -- they made it happen. So, I have some very funny stuff.
Oprah Winfrey: I heard there's nerd love.
Annie Potts: Nerd love. [laughs]
Oprah Winfrey: Nerd love is like no other, I hear, too.
Bill Murray: Tell them. Tell them.
Annie Potts: Well, I don't want to give it away, but Rick is just great.
Bill Murray: A very special man.
Oprah Winfrey: [to audience member] Yes?
Audience Member: I'd like to ask Ernie Hudson, how do it feel to work with a bunch of comedians, like Bill -- which one of you all's Bill? [audience laughs] Bill, Dan, and Harold?
Oprah Winfrey: Ok, that was a good question. That was good. Ok, Ok, he'll answer it. [points to Ernie Hudson] That's Ernie and he'll answer it. Ernie, yeah?
Ernie Hudson: Yeah, I'm Ernie. That's my cousin, actually. I'll probably -- but, ah, the guys are great, everybody's great. It's a wonderful group of people. I know I'd say that even when they're not here. They're really wonderful.
Bill Murray: We're gonna leave and see if he says that.
Oprah Winfrey: We'll be right back. I tell ya.
    [commercial break]
Oprah Winfrey: Um, I think I read in the "Rolling Stone" article, Sigourney, where you said that doing "Ghostbusters" with all these guys was like being in a class with bad boys.
Sigourney Weaver: Um, well, just with boys. I went to a girl's school, so I was deprived. And, so I -- I make up for it by, ah, being one of the gang here.
Oprah Winfrey: Anybody want to tell us about any particular pranks we should know about that we would never know about unless you all told us?
Harold Ramis: We're not really a prankish group. Ah, you know, we're not like practical jokers. Most of the things that happen are real and spontaneous and would make no sense to anyone else. It's--
Oprah Winfrey: You had to -- you had to be there. So, motherhood's introduced in "Ghostbusters II".
Sigourney Weaver: That's right.
Oprah Winfrey: Now there are some who say that the way you work with the -- with the babies, the baby, or the twins, is, um, is indicative that you somehow wanted a child yourself and there is a yearning somewhere.
Sigourney Weaver: Me, personally?
Oprah Winfrey: Um-hmm.
Sigourney Weaver: Well, yeah. No, the twins were wonderful. And they -- they're show steelers. They're great. They're brave little creatures.
Oprah Winfrey: See, they're not really twins, it's one person, but in the movies they have twins who play babies. You all know that, don't you?
Sigourney Weaver: Four hours each.
Oprah Winfrey: Yeah, yeah. And so why, why particularly -- was there a particular reason why motherhood was introduced or just because?
Harold Ramis: We wanted -- when we decided to do this movie, one of the things we decided was that it should (1) say something moral and, and (2) somehow reflect our lives, what had happened in the five years after the first movie. And one thing that had happened to a few of us was parenthood. And, ah, and family and this, ah, and we thought, ah -- originally we had written it that, ah, Sigourney and -- it was Sigourney and, and Bill's character's child.
Sigourney Weaver: But we didn't believe it.
    [audience laughs]
Harold Ramis: But we wanted to deal with our own, ah, paternal and maternal instincts. You know, so--
Oprah Winfrey: Is it because -- I, well, you know, don't have children, but I understand it changes everything about the way you lead your life. Does it change the way you write?
Harold Ramis: Ah, I feel a little more responsible these days about what I say and don't say or what I--. Um, the first screen play I ever sold was "Animal House."
Oprah Winfrey: Well, now.
Harold Ramis: The fear that my daughter might actually pick up those values now is terrifying, you know.
Dan Aykroyd: You know she's gonna meet someone like Bluto, too. I'm telling ya.
Oprah Winfrey: [to audience member] Yes, yes?
Audience Member: I have a question. I have a question for Annie Potts. You're in a successful television series and you've been in successful comedy movies. Which do you find more challenging to work in?
Annie Potts: Um, well, they -- they all have different, ah, challenges. I like -- I like to do it all. I mean, you know, this series is great 'cause it's -- it's really stable and, ah, I know what I'm doing seven months of the year. And I'm a practical girl and that appeals to me.
Oprah Winfrey: All right, we'll be back in just a moment. Back in a moment.
    [commercial break]
Audience Member: Harold Ramis, I wanted to know if you were worried about promoting the movie with all the other blockbusters that are out this summer?
Bill Murray: Well, the one we're most frightened of is called "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids." It stars our friend Rick Moranis. Because it's gonna be the end of a friendship if he outdraws our movie. But, ah, actually, we hear that movie's very good and that's the only one we like and the only one we recommend to anybody ... besides "Ghostbusters II".
Oprah Winfrey: Do you, ah -- I understand -- do you -- do you all have interest, as in points, in the film? Because I understand a lot of people worked for scale just to get it done?
Bill Murray: I worked for scale. No, we worked, ah -- well, how did they -- it's all, it's all a little different.
Harold Ramis: They couldn't -- the, the, the, the budget -- the movie couldn't have been made, we're told, if we'd all taken, ah, our normal, ah, fees at the top. 'Cause the production budget, just getting it on the screen cost so much. So we all -- some of us deferred our, uh, salaries for, uh, some interest in it. Go speak to my attorney up there.
Oprah Winfrey: This woman just said, "That beats working for peanuts, Bill."
Bill Murray: Really? Yeah, well, maybe you'd like to defer your peanuts ... on the chance that there'll be peanuts next year.
Audience Member: Yeah, I had a question for, uh, Harold. Um, about the, the ghost. Did you guys have any legal problems 'cause it looked like, you know, the "Casper" series?
Harold Ramis: Yeah, there was a little stir over that.
Dan Aykroyd: There was a ruling in court.
Harold Ramis: The "Casper" people tried to sue us.
Dan Aykroyd: But it was ruled that that image is a generic depiction of a ghost everywhere in the world and that no company has a patent on it. And, ah, it was thrown out of a, a state supreme court. So, I mean, it was ruled, ruled in our favor, yeah.
Oprah Winfrey: [to audience member] Yeah, what was your question?
Bill Murray: Greatest country in the world.
Audience Member: I'd like to ask -- I'd like to ask Harold ... Ah, I'm a big fan from very early '74, '75 years at "SCTV." And I want to know how much you had in the writing of some of the famous -- like "The Leave It To Beaver Show 25th Anniversary Show" and the, ah, "Captain Combat," where you played Mr. Green Fatigues and also "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Which you'll have to -- you'll probably have to explain that because they'll probably think you're talking about the movie.
Harold Ramis: "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" was an eight-second, ah, piece where people walk into a hardware store and massacre some chainsaws. That show -- we did that show on a -- our budget was $10,000 a show. We did it, ah, with no supervision, no sponsors, no network, no producers, no one to tell us we couldn't do these things. And the thought that they're out there every night now on Nickelodeon, it just haunts me.
    [microphone problems]
Audience Member: I haven't seen any of the first two years. I mean, they throw one of your bits in every once in a while, a "Mo Green," or something, but I have not seen any of those three, which happen to be three of my favorite bits of all time.
Harold Ramis: Yeah.
Bill Murray: Well, The courts stopped them. Didn't they?
Oprah Winfrey: So, what do you guys do after you do a successful movie like this? I asked a question earlier about, you know -- of course, the movie opens this Friday, June 16th. And so what do you do after you have a movie like this? Do you just kinda go off and make another one or do you kinda sit back and wait for your laurels?
Dan Aykroyd: I don't know. Laurels? OOhhh. I don't -- I haven't -- I saw them in "Spartacus." I haven't seen them since. Ah, well ...
Harold Ramis: At least, Dan's shooting one now.
Dan Aykroyd: Yeah, I think it's on to the next thing for most of us, really. Ah, that's -- this is kind of history and we just hope it does well and people enjoy it. And it is the only real hard comedy out there this summer so we're expecting it to do well.
Oprah Winfrey: Yeah.
Dan Aykroyd: Ah, other than that, I think it's on to new, new things. Right, kids? Or what? Yeah.
Oprah Winfrey: Oh, good kids.
Harold Ramis: You wanted something more specific?
Oprah Winfrey: Yeah, I was looking for something more specific.
Dan Aykroyd: All right, I get -- I get on my Harley, man, and I just zap.
    [audience cheers]
Audience Member: I was wondering if there was a possibility for a "Ghostbusters III"? Are you gonna wait for the success of two and keep going on like the other ones do?
Bill Murray: I think -- I think everybody's fed up, don't you?
Audience Member: I don't know. Depends on how this one goes, I -- for you.
Bill Murray: Well said.
Audience Member: It's worth a shot, right?
Bill Murray: Well, we did have fun making it. There is something that's not as much fun about a sequel, but it was fun to be together.
Oprah Winfrey: Thank you.
Harold Ramis: Yeah, but then there's the way -- you look at "Star Trek V" and ah, you know, they have a plastic surgeon on the set, and I think, you know, doing, ah, doing the eye lids, you know. [Harold puts his fingers to the corners of his eyes and simulates an "eye lift" -- audience laughs] And a ...
Audience Member: It's just a -- I'm from a big family and I have a lot of nieces and nephews and my brothers and sisters told me to ask you to take it on the merchandising 'cause they're going broke buying the stuff.
Oprah Winfrey: Do you guys have anything to do with the merchandising or is that--?
Dan Aykroyd: Well, it pretty well all came out of the conception from the script. We worked with our producer, Joe Medjuck, here, and Michael Gross, one of our other staff members there, and Ivan to, to build a line of toys with Kenner, who've been absolutely fabulous and got exactly what we were trying to do. And, a -- it was funny -- when the first movie came out, you know, originally, when I wrote the script and then we all started to collaborate, you know, I said, "We should, we should have a line of toys, here." But nobody was interested until the movie performed. So, it really wasn't until the cartoon show happened, that the, ah, the toys started to sell. So, it's really like a year after the movie came out that the toy line came out. And it's really done well. And, ah, I think they've done a great job. I'm the fat one in the--
    [everyone laughs]
Oprah Winfrey: Back in a moment.
    [commercial break]
Oprah Winfrey: Well, I just -- I'm out of time. I want to thank you all for taking the time. All of you -- this is a first for the entire cast to come on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Thank you very much. Thank you all very much. See you all Friday in the theater.


SHOW CREDITS


Executive Producer
Debra DiMaio

Producers
David Boul
Mary Kay Clinton
Dianne Hudson
Alice McGee
Ellen Rakieten
Angela Thame

Directed By
Rosie Cruz-Weaver
Technical Director
Roger Brunn

Associate Producers
Rudy Guido
Sally Lou Oaks
Dan Primer

Ghostbusters Courtesy
RCA Columbia Home Video

Supervising Producer
Oprah Winfrey

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