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"Venkman's Ghost Repellers" is an episode of the animated series The Real Ghostbusters. It first aired on October 20, 1987, as part of the show's second season, carrying air-order number 40 and DVD number 22 on the Time Life Complete Collection set (Vol. 1, Disc 4).1 The story was written by Richard Mueller,1 and brings back Peter Venkman's con-man father, who turns up in New York peddling worthless "ghost repellent" ponchos that bear the Venkman name.
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A tanker off the New Jersey coast runs into an unusually thick fog. The captain hopes it isn't the New Jersey Parallelogram, an anomaly described in the episode as "like a small, nasty version of the Bermuda Triangle," but it is. The ship collides with the anomaly and vanishes.
At the Firehouse, a radio report describes the disappearance: the tanker went down about 130 miles west of Ambrose Light, the seventh ship lost in the area since 1980. Ray wants to investigate and notes the region holds enough psychic energy to theoretically raise Atlantis, but Peter declines because no one is paying them. Then Janine walks in wearing a red poncho and tells the guys to read its tag: "Venkman's Ghost Repellers." Peter is horrified, and Egon worries they could be jailed for fraud. The repeller does nothing when tested on Slimer. Peter's father, Jim Venkman, shows up, and Peter talks him out of selling any more of them, pointing out that he is still cheating people even if there is no law against it.
That night, after a job at a warehouse, the Ghostbusters give directions to a lost truck driver looking for Dr. Mulch of the MS Applegon, who is mounting an expedition into the Parallelogram. Egon warns that the area is a zone of dangerous cross-rip convergence and psychic turbulence, but the driver shrugs it off and heads to Pier 70 to deliver a load of Venkman's Ghost Repellers.
Three days later the Coast Guard visits the Firehouse. Captain Koenig asks the team to help rescue the Applegon, and Peter only agrees after Koenig says the words "Ghost Repellers." Meanwhile Jim, feeling guilty after hearing the expedition is overdue, rents a speedboat at the East River Marina and races out to help.
The Coast Guard and the Ghostbusters reach the fog bank and the Parallelogram's energy gate. Egon reverses the polarity on his P.K.E. Meter to detect reality and locate the Applegon. They tow the ship back, then spot Jim's empty boat and go back in for him. Inside, they pass the wreck of the Bismarck and catch glimpses of other lost vessels, including a pirate ship, before reaching a dome-like structure where ghosts have cornered Jim. Their blasts weaken the structure; as it collapses, everyone escapes and watches the Parallelogram sink into the ocean. Egon regrets not being able to study it. Back home, Peter gets a postcard: his father has taken a job selling ice boxes to Eskimos in northern Alaska, which sets up the later episode "Cold Cash and Hot Water."
The New Jersey Parallelogram is an interdimensional portal situated just west of Ambrose Light, at the convergence of several major shipping lanes in Lower New York Bay. The earliest incident attributed to it on record is the disappearance of the Battleship Bismarck in 1941. Egon characterizes its interior as a zone where the laws of physics have been "crumpled up like paper": gravity does not behave consistently between objects, and reality is detectable only by reversing the polarity of a P.K.E. Meter. The portal is unstable; when the dome structure inside is weakened by proton streams it collapses entirely. This is its only appearance in the series. The Parallelogram Ghosts are the unnamed entities inhabiting the realm. They vary widely in form, from origami-inspired figures to half-eaten fish bones to bird-like and scorpion-like creatures. When Jim Venkman falls into a dome structure inside the Parallelogram, origami ghosts pursue him and corner him there until the Ghostbusters arrive. One of these entities appears in a background cameo on page 37 of Ghostbusters Annual 2018, visible above Jillian Holtzmann. The Ghost Repeller is the episode's central prop: a plain red poncho sold by Jim Venkman as supernatural protection, advertised as an invention by the father of the chief Ghostbuster. When Peter tests one on Slimer, it has no effect. Jim offers to cut the team in on profits and requests their endorsement; Peter declines and persuades him to stop selling them. Jim nonetheless delivers one final bulk shipment to Dr. Mulch at Pier 70 before the expedition departs, setting the plot in motion.
The regular voice cast featured Lorenzo Music as Peter Venkman, Frank Welker as Ray Stantz and Slimer, Maurice LaMarche as Egon Spengler, Arsenio Hall as Winston Zeddemore, and Laura Summer as Janine Melnitz. Ron Gans provided a guest voice.1 Lorenzo Music also voiced Jim Venkman in this episode; in the call sheet the character is listed as "Pops."2
The episode carries production number 76009 and was recorded on July 2 and July 3, 1986.2 Writer Richard Mueller, a Coast Guard veteran who had served aboard a cutter, wrote the story as a tribute to the service; on the DVD commentary he notes that the cutter shown is accurate except for its colors. He has also said that Dr. Mulch's name derived from the Murch character in the film The Hot Rock, and that the torpedo sequence may have been influenced by The Hunt for Red October, which he had recently seen while writing the script.3
Richard Mueller first created Peter's father in his paperback adaptation of the original Ghostbusters film.4 Although "Venkman's Ghost Repellers" aired before "Cold Cash and Hot Water," in story terms it takes place earlier, and its ending leads directly into that episode.
Two versions of the episode exist. In the scene where the Ghostbusters rescue Jim, one cut uses the show's regular score while the other plays "Hometown Hero," a song performed by Tahiti from the series soundtrack album. The alternate music version appeared on a Magic Window home videocassette released in the 1980s.3
Several continuity errors appear in the episode. Captain Koenig briefly appears inside Peter's office, yet in the same sequence is visible standing behind a file cabinet. Peter and Egon's proton pack handles are rendered in pinkish-red in two scenes. After the MS Applegon is rescued, edits between shots suggest the ship's crew are still wearing the red ponchos, but subsequent shots show them without the ponchos.
Jim Venkman recurs across The Real Ghostbusters. After this episode he resurfaces in "Cold Cash and Hot Water," where his refrigerator-selling venture in Alaska leads him to the imprisoned entity Hob Anagarak, and again years later in "The Treasure of Sierra Tamale," with Dave Coulier voicing the character in his later appearances.5 The call sheet for "Cold Cash and Hot Water" likewise lists Jim as "Pops," consistent with this episode.2 This was the only episode to feature the Ghost Repeller poncho. After the Pier Ghosts are trapped early on, the Ghostbusters briefly run into the truck driver from "Sea Fright," whose truck was blown up.
The episode's ending left a small Easter egg in the IDW Publishing comics line. On page 19 of Ghostbusters Issue #7, a miniature refrigerator bearing a tag reading "From Dad" appears among props in the background, referencing Jim's ice-box-selling venture at the close of this episode.
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
Eatock, James and Mangels, Andy (2008). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection booklet, p. 8. CPT Holdings, Inc. ↩ ↩2 ↩3
Goodman, Marsha (1986). Episode Call Sheet and SAG Report, "Venkman's Ghost Repellers." ↩ ↩2 ↩3
Richard Mueller, visual commentary, The Real Ghostbusters - "Venkman's Ghost Repellers." Time Life Entertainment DVD. ↩ ↩2
Eatock, James and Mangels, Andy (2008). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection booklet, p. 8. CPT Holdings, Inc. The booklet credits Mueller's paperback adaptation of the Ghostbusters film as the first appearance of Peter's father. ↩
Benjamin, Troy and Goldberg, Craig (2025). The Real Ghostbusters: A Visual History, p. 195. Dark Horse Books, Milwaukie, OR, USA. ISBN 9781506749273. ↩
