Plot
A street crew is tearing up the road outside the Firehouse. A private detective named Phillip Spade watches and notes how much the neighborhood has changed in the forty years since he left: the health club used to be Maxi's Bar, and a frozen yogurt shop now sits where Sam the Tailor was arrested for bookmaking. Spade has no idea why he is back. The crew's work opens a fissure, and a giant black creature emerges from the hole and scatters the workers. Peter, leaning out of a bedroom window, is annoyed at the noise on a Saturday, but the rumbling pulls the team out to investigate.
The Ghostbusters open fire, and the creature retaliates by firing rays of green light at the crew's bulldozer and backhoe, bringing the machines to life. The vehicles chase Peter and Ray, nearly crushing them before stalling out. Winston is left dangling Egon over a wall just as the backhoe's shovel stops inches from Egon's face. The creature dissolves into smoke and disappears back down the hole. Spade, now realizing he too is a ghost, follows the team into the Firehouse, understanding he has returned to deal with Blackie and that he will need help.
In Peter's office, the team pores over a map while Winston stitches up his jumpsuit. Slimer, digging in the trash, catches Spade's scent and finds him. Ray wants more research before acting, and Egon suggests they consult Tobin's Spirit Guide along with old newspapers and books on the region's history. Bored, Peter heads upstairs to change and eat. Spade tries to speed things along by opening a window; the gust scatters the research, but his own newspaper lands on Peter's desk. The team spots an article about the theft of King Todd's treasure and a photo of the detective who investigated it: Phillip Spade himself.
Egon proposes going into the sewers to capture the creature, noting that a terrestrial invasion may have agitated it. Spade follows the team down. In a tunnel sealed off for about thirty years they find a cave-in, and the creature attacks. Spade throws himself in front of Peter and calls the creature by name, Blackie, before the team retreats. Back at the Firehouse, the team rushes past Janine, who is listening to her Walkman. Spade appears to the Ghostbusters and explains everything. Forty years earlier he was hired to guard the King Todd exhibit on loan to the museum. The treasure's jewels were said to be cursed, which did not deter Blackie, the greatest thief alive. After Blackie stole the treasure, Spade tailed him, only to watch a green light engulf Blackie and transform him into the Guardian of King Todd's Treasure. Spade never found the treasure, and Winston realizes it has been in the sewers all along.
The team and Spade return to Blackie's lair, grab the treasure while Spade distracts the creature, and race Ecto-1 to the city museum to return the jewels to King Todd's sarcophagus and break the curse. With Blackie close behind, they haul the treasure to the basement, pry open the sarcophagus, and Peter throws the treasure inside singlehandedly. Blackie freezes and reverts to his human form. Spade unmasks him and tells him it is time to move on. As the two ghosts depart, Blackie asks who those strange men were; Spade tells him they were the Ghostbusters, and they had real moxie.
Characters
Phillip Spade
Phillip Spade is the ghost of a private detective who operated in New York City in the 1940s. He was hired to protect King Todd's Treasure while it was on loan to a city museum. After watching Blackie steal the treasure and then being transformed by the Egyptian curse into a monstrous guardian, Spade tailed Blackie to the sewers but lost him and never recovered the jewels. He died with the case unsolved.
Forty years later, Spade returned to the physical plane as a ghost, drawn back to finish what he started. Initially invisible to the Ghostbusters, he attempted to steer them toward clues before revealing himself. In the climax, he distracted Blackie while the team returned the treasure to the museum. Spade can pass through solid structures, fly, and teleport. His hard-boiled voice-over narration runs throughout the episode in deliberate imitation of the film-noir style.
Spade was voiced by Maurice LaMarche, who also voiced Egon in the same episode. His name fuses two icons of the detective genre: Sam Spade, from Dashiell Hammett's fiction and Bogart's screen portrayal, and Philip Marlowe, from Raymond Chandler. His appearance and speech also draw directly on Bogart's portrayal of Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon (1941).
Blackie
Blackie is the episode's antagonist, a thief active in New York in the mid-1940s and considered by Spade the greatest thief alive. Unafraid of the alleged curse on King Todd's Treasure, he stole the jewels from the museum, concealed them in the Manhattan sewers, and was subsequently killed and transformed by the curse into the Guardian of King Todd's Treasure.
In his transmogrified form, Blackie stands roughly twenty feet tall as a black, hunchbacked monster with long arms, short legs, and a head that appears to melt into its shoulders. He wears an Egyptian striped headcloth. As the Guardian, he can animate machinery by firing energy beams from his fingertips, with the possession expiring once he leaves the immediate area. He also displays telekinesis (levitating and hurling rocks) and considerable physical strength. Egon described him as "a new and unique spirit entity" and "an unknown spiritual manifestation"; no standard PKE classification was determined.
In the mid-1980s, Blackie emerged from the sewers after perceiving the road construction crew near the Firehouse as a terrestrial invasion. Once the Ghostbusters returned the treasure to King Todd's sarcophagus, the curse lifted and Blackie reverted to his human ghost form. He and Spade departed peacefully. Blackie was voiced by Sam Kwasman.
In the IDW Ghostbusters comic series, Blackie makes a background cameo on page three of issue six as a fountain at Fantastic Land.
Cast and crew
Regular voice cast: Lorenzo Music as Peter Venkman, Frank Welker as Ray Stantz and Slimer, Maurice LaMarche as Egon Spengler and Phillip Spade, and Arsenio Hall as Winston Zeddemore. Sam Kwasman provided a guest voice as Blackie. Janine Melnitz appears in the episode but has no dialogue.
The episode was written by Pamela Hickey and Dennys McCoy. Its production number was 76056.2 The voice cast recorded the episode on September 26, 1986.12
Production notes
Phillip Spade's name and characterization combine two icons of the private-eye genre, Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, and his voice-over narration throughout the episode evokes that style. Peter does an impression of Bela Lugosi while the team works through the sewers.
The first draft of the script, dated July 25, 1986, differed from the aired version. In that draft, Peter and Ray fled the bulldozer into a junkyard, where Peter spotted a red rusted sports car and remarked he once owned one like it.3 The same draft had Janine fielding calls from Mayor Lenny, the Governor, and an encyclopedia salesman.4
In the aired version, when the team returns to the Firehouse after the first sewer encounter, Janine is seen listening to her Walkman. In the museum climax, Peter singlehandedly lifts King Todd's treasure and throws it into the sarcophagus, though earlier in the episode the same treasure required two Ghostbusters to carry it.
Continuity
The episode is part of The Real Ghostbusters Season 2 and appears on Volume 3, Disc 2 of the DVD box set. By air date it follows The Bird of Kildarby and precedes Cold Cash and Hot Water. In the DVD ordering it sits between Moaning Stones and Buster the Ghost.
References
-
Eatock, James and Mangels, Andy (2008). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection booklet, p. 22. CPT Holdings, Inc.
-
Marsha Goodman (1986). Episode Call Sheet and SAG Report, "The Long, Long, Long, etc. Goodbye" (1986).
-
McCoy, Dennys and Hickey, Pamela (2009). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection Volume Three Disc Five, "The Long, Long, Long, Long, Etc. Goodbye" Script, pp. 6-7. CPT Holdings, Inc.
-
McCoy, Dennys and Hickey, Pamela (2009). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection Volume Three Disc Five, "The Long, Long, Long, Long, Etc. Goodbye" Script, p. 10. CPT Holdings, Inc.
