Plot
At a darkened hospital room, the Ghostbusters open fire on a strange-looking ghost and trap it, then bring up the lights. The whole thing was a staged show to entertain the children's ward, with Slimer playing the "ghost" under a sheet. Egon explains that they used low-level lasers during the demonstration so the equipment would not cause any harm. Dr. Perkins tells the team that the children's ward is in financial trouble and needs $50,000 by the end of the week. The Ghostbusters want to help but do not have the money. As Ecto-1 returns to the firehouse, a man watches from a parked car.
The man follows them inside and introduces himself as Marty Tillis, president of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Company. He wants to feature the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in a commercial. The team is reluctant, but Tillis offers $50,000 if the shoot goes well and promises to invite the hospital's children to watch. Peter agrees and shakes on the deal.
In the basement, the Ghostbusters puzzle over how to bring Stay Puft out of the Containment Unit without releasing everything else. They volunteer Slimer, who is terrified but agrees to go in for the children's sake. Fitted with a transmitter pack, Slimer is trapped and placed inside the unit, where he runs into several captured ghosts before finding Stay Puft. Stay Puft agrees to help and heads for the grid, unaware that the Phantom has hidden under his collar. The team loses Slimer's monitor feed when a neighbor's blender causes line interference.
Egon releases three escaped ghosts back into a trap outside the firehouse and switches on a homing signal to guide Stay Puft toward the commercial site. As Stay Puft follows Ecto-1, the Phantom reveals itself, harassing the marshmallow man and scorching the roof of the car. Ray recalls that the Phantom can burn holes through cement. Stay Puft swats at the ghost and causes heavy property damage, then gets wedged between two buildings while chasing it. The Phantom kidnaps Slimer and corners Egon and Ray in an alley, but Peter and Winston fire on it from aboard Ecto-2, freeing Slimer.
The team lassos Stay Puft from Ecto-1, and Slimer squeezes in to grease him with slime so the car can pull him loose. Egon strengthens the homing signal and finally draws Stay Puft to the commercial set at Battery Park. Below ground, the Phantom melts the street with its pyrokinetic powers, miring Ecto-1 and Stay Puft. The ghost welds the car's doors shut and uses a construction crane to toss Ecto-1 into the harbor; Winston activates the car's water raft and they surface. Stay Puft grabs the crane and catches the Phantom, and the Ghostbusters trap it. Tillis, thrilled with the footage his cameraman captured, writes a $50,000 check and hands it to Dr. Perkins as the children play with Stay Puft and Slimer.
Production
"Sticky Business" was written by Richard Mueller, who contributed several scripts to the series. The episode's recording session took place on May 27, 1987, with the broadcast following that October.2 On home video it appears on The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection box set in Volume 3, Disc 4.
Notes
The episode reuses the Ecto-1 water raft conversion when the Phantom hurls the car into New York Harbor. While searching the Containment Unit, Slimer passes earlier captured entities, including Ghash and Precious, recolored green rather than their original red. The Phantom's escape connects this episode to the larger roster of recurring ghosts in The Real Ghostbusters.
Several of Peter's lines lean on period pop-culture references. During the Phantom's pursuit he quips that the attacker "sure wasn't the Red Baron," nodding to the World War I German flying ace best known in pop culture as Snoopy's imagined enemy in the Peanuts comic strip.3 When Stay Puft becomes stuck between two buildings, Peter calls the group "a bunch of fluffernutters," a play on the peanut butter and marshmallow creme sandwich. He also jokes that ruin will leave them "running a fruit stand in Toledo," and remarks that he has always hated goodbyes.456
