Plot
Peter Venkman had been the proud owner of a Generous Motors Y-car for less than a day before it broke down and then exploded in the Firehouse's garage. While he was still in a fit of rage, the President of Generous Motors, Mr. Abernathy, called the Ghostbusters for help. Nearly all of the Y-cars his company was building were blowing up under apparently supernatural circumstances. Peter, excited about the case, theorized they might get to meet the Queen of Soul along the way.
The team flew to Motor City and investigated the assembly plant. While Abernathy walked them through the line, a worker reported something wrong in the break room: the vending machines were firing their contents at everyone. Winston Zeddemore spotted the main outlet and the team cut power to all the machines. Egon Spengler's P.K.E. Meter immediately went active. The Ghostbusters discovered that Gremlins were behind the problems. The reopening of a section of the factory that had been sealed since World War II had released the Gremlins that were trapped there when the plant was building wartime aircraft. Ray Stantz consulted a pocket edition of Tobin's Spirit Guide while he and Egon explained the entities to Abernathy.
Abernathy's first instinct was simply to chase the Gremlins into some other company's factory. The Ghostbusters declined that approach and attempted a capture. Abernathy left to write memos about the situation. As the team considered their options, Winston pointed out that their technology was designed for ghosts, not mechanical saboteurs, and they would have to use their wits. He was promptly volunteered to walk the length of the assembly line as a decoy. The Gremlins built a giant robot out of car parts and trapped Winston inside it while they sang "We Love to Trash Cars." Unable to fire their Particle Throwers without hitting Winston, Egon suggested another way. Ray understood and siphoned the gas out of the robot, which caused it to shut down and collapse. As a parting insult, the Gremlins had already sabotaged Winston's Particle Thrower to fire party confetti instead.
Egon and Ray then built a pea-soup-green car described as indestructible. The Gremlins swarmed it, but every time they tried to wreck it, it transformed into a new vehicle. The car kept cycling through models, keeping the Gremlins occupied indefinitely. Peter dropped a giant glass dome over them, trapping the Gremlins and their endlessly morphing toy. Mr. Abernathy presented the team with a large check and, at Peter's request, arranged an introduction to Detroit's Queen of Soul.
Characters
Peter Venkman
Egon Spengler
Ray Stantz
Winston Zeddemore
Janine Melnitz
Slimer
Mr. Abernathy (voiced by Anna Mathias, guest): President of Generous Motors. He contacts the Ghostbusters when his Y-cars begin destroying themselves. A pragmatic businessman, his first instinct is to redirect the problem to a competitor rather than solve it, though he ultimately rewards the team generously.
Gremlins (voiced by Arsenio Hall and Anna Mathias): World War II-era entities sealed inside the Generous Motors plant for roughly forty years when a closed wing of the factory was reopened. They are small, mischievous humanoids with diverse individual appearances who delight in dismantling machinery. They sing the original song "We Love to Trash Cars." One of the Gremlins is named Gorner; he shares Egon's favorite color (pea soup green). The Gremlins are too numerous to trap individually; the Ghostbusters instead contain them under a glass dome while they are occupied with the shape-shifting lure car. They are classified as at least Class 5 entities.
Equipment
Trivia
- The episode was recorded on July 18, 1986.
- Writers Pamela Hickey and Dennys McCoy wrote the song "We Love to Trash Cars" for this episode. Both receive Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) residuals for it. J. Michael Straczynski called Hickey during production, had her sing it, recorded it, and gave the recording to the voice cast as a reference.
- Dennys McCoy named the Looney Tunes short "Gremlins from the Kremlin" as an inspiration for the episode. The episode was designed to annoy the Ghostbusters to their breaking point.
- Limited edition VHS cassettes of Ghostbusters II in the UK featured this episode as a bonus before the film.
- Dennys McCoy and Pamela Hickey have said this is a favorite episode of theirs.
- Peter's license plate on his Y-car is a vanity plate reading "Dr.V."
- Generous Motors is a reference to General Motors (GM). The Y-cars are a reference to the GM X-cars: the Buick Skylark, Chevrolet Citation, Oldsmobile Omega, and Pontiac Phoenix, which were subject to some of the most notorious recalls of the 1980s.
- Janine and then Slimer sing the "Inspector Gadget" theme song. Inspector Gadget was another animated series produced by DIC at the time.
- Although not named outright, the "Queen of Soul" is Aretha Franklin, one of whose actual nicknames it is. The Ghostbusters sing her most famous song, "Respect." Aretha Franklin worked with Dan Aykroyd on The Blues Brothers.
- The Ghostbusters had to sing "Respect" in a monotone because the production could not afford to license the song properly.
- The junk food in the break room is an homage to Egon and Ray's diet in the original films. Janine stocks the Firehouse kitchen with donuts, but Egon finds them "drab."
- Pulling the plugs on the vending machines is a running joke in animation writing.
- The Gremlins' first line, "I think they've seen us," is a homage to King Kong.
- The giant robot built from car parts is a homage to Transformers; it was designed to resemble Winston.
- Winston admitted during the episode that he can never pull off a bluff.
- When Winston discovered his Particle Thrower was shooting confetti, Peter suggested he rent himself out for parties. The Real Ghostbusters writers likely did not know that the live-action Winston would later perform at birthday parties in Ghostbusters II.
- Peter mentions Mars in reference to Ray and Egon's mindset while in the parts warehouse.
- Egon's favorite color is revealed to be pea soup green. Ray has a tuxedo in pea soup green; one of the Gremlins (Gorner) shares the preference.
- Ray built three cars in his last year of auto shop class.
- The episode was storyboarded in Korea.
- Pea soup green is Egon's favorite color. Ray has a tuxedo that color as well.
- There are several instances in this episode where Winston's suit is colored incorrectly.
- The guys are seen entering the employee lounge under attack, and the next shot shows them entering in a different order.
- The Ghostbusters sing Respect at the end of the episode.
Animation Errors
- In the shots just before, during, and after Peter's car explodes, Ecto-1 is absent from the garage.
- When Egon explains that World War II was a boom time for Gremlins, Winston's uniform carries Egon's color by mistake (though it retains Winston's trimmings). The same coloring error recurs after Peter says "Piece of cake."
Alternate Versions
An alternate version of this episode exists in which the Gremlins are all colored dark grey when the Ghostbusters first spot them in the factory break room, making them difficult to distinguish. In the revised version used in most releases, the Gremlins are individually colored. It is believed the grey version was produced first and the shot was revised so the audience could clearly see what the Ghostbusters are looking at. The grey Gremlins version is found on the UK "Volume 10" Magic Window VHS release. It is not confirmed whether the grey version ever aired in the United States.1
References
Quotes
(The Ghostbusters watch as the gremlins try to damage the car built as a lure, their efforts frustrated when it changes before they can even scratch it.)
:Winston Zeddemore: I don't believe it, the thing just keeps getting uglier!
:Egon Spengler: Nobody said that science was pretty, Winston.
: Peter: I scrimped and saved for that car! I wanted it more than anything in the world!
: Ray: That's what he said when I ate the last of the ice cream last night.
: Winston: Couldn't you at least have used a decent colour?
: Egon: Pea-soup green is my favourite colour!
: Ray: I have a tuxedo that colour!
: Peter: That's one of the reasons you're such a lonely man, Ray.
Gallery
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Spook Central, "The Real Ghostbusters Alternate Episodes."
