Plot
Atop the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, Peter, Ray, and Egon fight a particularly malicious ghost. Ray throws out a Ghost Trap, but the ghost resists its pull and blasts at the men. A second blast knocks Egon off the building. He clings to the edge and loses his grip; the ghost slips free of the trap as Peter and Ray watch him fall. Winston catches him in Ecto-2, and Egon seems unshaken, while Winston blasts and traps the ghost.
That evening, Egon cannot sleep, his nerves wrecked by the fall. He tries to calm himself with warm cocoa and an old vampire movie, but the film leaves him uncharacteristically rattled. His fear grows so intense that the Boogieman, thought locked away forever, senses it and draws enough energy to break out of his realm. As Egon returns to bed, a pale blue light spills from the closet and the Boogieman steps out.
The Boogieman appears in the firehouse bent on revenge and moves to attack the petrified Egon. Slimer returns to the bedroom with a late-night snack and makes enough noise to wake the others. The Ghostbusters blast the Boogieman at full stream and drive him out into the streets. They track him to an alley, where he turns the tables, taking delight in slowly facing Egon down and soaking up his fear before a soft "Boo!" sends Egon reeling and the Boogieman escapes into the city.
At Jason's home, the Junior Ghostbusters are holding a sleepover, and Donald is telling a scary story when an old P.K.E. Meter that Egon had given Jason lights up. Jason calls Egon, who recognizes the readings as the Boogieman's. The creature tracks down the Junior Ghostbusters but is interrupted by the Ghostbusters; a tremendous roar lets him escape again. He makes his way to the closed Big Apple Amusement Park and uses his powers to twist it into a nightmare carnival, calling it the perfect place for fear to grow and thrive. Back at the firehouse, Egon modifies one of the Particle Throwers into an Atomic Destabilizer, a device meant to turn the Boogieman into a ghostly form long enough to be caught in a trap.
The Ghostbusters track the Boogieman to his carnival lair, where they are scooped onto the back of a giant serpent, disarmed by animated park statues, and taken prisoner. Slimer escapes to fetch the Junior Ghostbusters and the proton packs, while the Boogieman reveals that he means to literally scare the Ghostbusters to death, sending them through a tumbling journey into a netherworld space where they are chased, surrounded, and bound. As he feeds on their fear, the Junior Ghostbusters arrive and again distract him. Egon sheds his fear to save the children, breaks his bonds, fights through the Boogieman's goons, and catches the Atomic Destabilizer the kids throw to him. He fires, the children throw out traps, and the Boogieman and his minions are captured. Catherine asks Egon if he was scared, and he admits he was a little, but says he no longer minds admitting it.
Junior Ghostbusters
Donald, Jason, and Catherine make their first appearance in this episode, constituting the trio who call themselves the Junior Ghostbusters. Their headquarters is the Junior Ghostbusters Clubhouse, located in the basement of Jason's family home in New York. The space is decorated with posters, including one for Manhattan Island, and has a computer setup. Egon had previously given Jason an old P.K.E. Meter, which the kids use to detect the Boogieman's return. After the Boogieman breaks into the clubhouse during this episode, the children rig a Spirit Detector from household items including a baby mobile. The clubhouse later also serves as the base of operations in their next appearance in "Halloween II 1/2."
Former story editor J. Michael Straczynski said in an interview that he would never use the Junior Ghostbusters in an episode of The Real Ghostbusters.3
Production
The episode was recorded on May 22 and 27, 1987, with Arsenio Hall recording his lines on May 27.2
Trivia
The episode title spells the character's name "Bogeyman," while the show otherwise spells it "Boogieman," breaking the established spelling.
Winston works in a title drop, calling out "The Boogieman's back!" when the Ghostbusters first blast the freed creature. After the group is dropped into the carnival's netherworld, one of his lines, "Wherever we are, it sure isn't Kansas," nods to "The Wizard of Oz." One of the Boogieman's minions near the end resembles a creature from the earlier episode "Mrs. Roger's Neighborhood."
The Boogieman later appears as a trappable ghost in the video game Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed.
On page 13 of Ghostbusters 101 #2, panel 2, the monitor screens visible in the background show scenes from this episode: the moment when the Ghostbusters confront the Junior Ghostbusters in their clubhouse after driving out the Boogieman, and a separate image of Donald posed in the clubhouse.1
Animation errors
When the Boogieman bursts into Jason's bedroom, he smashes the door apart, yet when the Ghostbusters arrive later they kick down a door that is suddenly intact. While the Ghostbusters are tied up by the Boogieman, the amount of rope wrapped around them changes from shot to shot.
Episode order
By air date, "The Bogeyman Is Back" follows Slimer, Is That You? and precedes Once Upon a Slime. On the DVD ordering it follows "It's a Jungle Out There" and is also followed by "Once Upon a Slime." The episode was released on The Real Ghostbusters Box Set Volume 3, Disc 4.
References
