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No One Comes to Lupusville is an episode of the animated series The Real Ghostbusters. A mysterious stranger arrives at Ghostbusters headquarters asking for help, and the team soon finds itself caught between two warring groups of supernatural creatures in an isolated town.1 It was written by J. Michael Straczynski and first aired on October 5, 1987 as part of Season 2.
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The episode carried production number 76025 and was recorded on December 3, 1986.2 It was the 29th episode in original broadcast order and first aired on October 5, 1987. On home video it appears in The Real Ghostbusters Box Set Volume 2, Disc 2, where it is the 38th episode in DVD order.
Regular voice cast members included Lorenzo Music, Frank Welker, Maurice LaMarche, Arsenio Hall, and Laura Summer. Guest voices were provided by Ruthie Field as Lyta and Hal Rayle as Gregor.
Late at night the Ghostbusters are asleep in the Firehouse, while Janine Melnitz and Slimer play poker downstairs. After catching Slimer cheating, Janine steps outside and is met by a stranger who wants to hire the team. He refuses to wait until morning, leaving an address with instructions to come the next day after dusk. As a show of good faith he hands her a bag of gold coins, then vanishes. He gives only one name for the invoice: Gregor.
Ecto-1 reaches a remote town well off the main roads. The townsfolk look as though they belong to a bygone era, and a girl named Lyta appears atop the car to greet Egon Spengler. Gregor invites the team in and explains his problem: vampires. Peter Venkman wants no part of it, but Ray Stantz notes they have never dealt with vampires, and Egon sees a chance to test the equipment on the undead. The sight of a chest full of gold settles the matter. Gregor warns that the vampires come through the forest each night at midnight, and his clock reads 11:40 pm.
In the forest the team is swarmed by bats that transform into vampires. Their proton pack streams have no effect, and in the struggle one vampire trips the destruct switch on Egon's pack. Egon throws it clear, but the explosion levels the forest and knocks everyone out. Peter and Ray wake in a graveyard and meet Orwell, who explains that he and his group could only carry the two of them. Winston and Egon have been taken by a rival faction. Orwell reveals that all the vampires were once united under Gregor, until Gregor and his followers seized the town of Lupusville and the others tried to drive them out to protect their secret existence. He proposes a temporary alliance to free Winston and Egon.
Held captive, Winston Zeddemore and Egon deduce that Gregor is himself a vampire, confirmed when a nearby mirror shows no reflection. Lyta, who serves Gregor but wants her freedom, smuggles a proton pack to Egon. Winston blasts the door open, and the two discover the original residents of Lupusville locked in a basement prison. Meanwhile Ray attunes his particle thrower to mimic the spectrum of sunlight, which destroys Gregor's followers on contact. When the imprisoned residents are freed, they reveal themselves to be werewolves, the town's true natives. The name Lupusville points to it: lupus is Latin for wolf.
Reunited, the Ghostbusters realize the danger of leaving werewolves and vampires to bite one another, turning each into the other in an endless cycle. Ray recalls that vampires cannot cross running water, so they blast a nearby dam and ring the town with water. Peter complains they were never paid, but the team does not leave empty handed: Lyta rides out with them on Ecto-1's rear bumper.
The episode's one-off characters each play a distinct role in the story. As episode-specific creatures and supporting figures, their backgrounds are covered here rather than on separate stub pages.
Gregor (voiced by Hal Rayle) is the episode's main antagonist. He is a vampire who tired of the traditional vampire way of life and led a faction that invaded and occupied Lupusville, a town whose residents were secretly werewolves. Unable to destroy the rival vampire faction led by Orwell, Gregor traveled to New York City and hired the Ghostbusters under false pretenses, claiming that vampires were threatening his people. His deception is confirmed when Winston and Egon notice he casts no reflection. His fate is unresolved at the episode's end; he is last seen in Lupusville as the vampire and werewolf factions turn on one another. A running gag has thunder and lightning strike every time any character speaks his name aloud.
Lyta (voiced by Ruthie Field) is a young girl who serves as Gregor's attendant. When the Ghostbusters arrive she becomes attached to Egon Spengler and follows the team into the forest during the vampire ambush. With Egon and Winston under house arrest, Lyta smuggles them a proton pack and negotiates her own freedom in exchange for leading them to where the town's residents are imprisoned. She leaves Lupusville with the Ghostbusters at the episode's close, riding on Ecto-1's rear bumper.
Orwell (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) leads the traditionalist vampire faction. His group upholds the old ways: living underground and keeping their existence hidden from the outside world. After the Ghostbusters are knocked out in the forest, Orwell finds Peter and Ray in the graveyard and proposes an uneasy alliance, threatening Peter's life as insurance that Ray will not fire on his comrades. He is last seen fighting in Lupusville when the Ghostbusters seal the town. In IDW Publishing's non-canon comics, Orwell appears in a poster cameo in Ghostbusters Issue #3 and in a Times Square advertisement in Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #12.
Clintock (voiced by Frank Welker) is one of Lupusville's original residents, held prisoner in Gregor's basement jail. When Winston and Egon free the captives, Clintock asks whether it is a full moon. On hearing that it is, he and the other residents transform into werewolves, revealing themselves as the town's true founders and the supernatural creatures the Ghostbusters had actually been working to protect.
The episode features the team's standard gear, including Ecto-1, the PKE Meter, the proton pack, the particle thrower, and the ghost trap. A plot point turns on Ray retuning his particle thrower to simulate the spectrum of sunlight, which proves lethal to Gregor's vampires.
