Plot
In the Atlantic Ocean, a pod of dolphins scatters as a volcanic island rises from the sea and two giant demons, Anshar and Kishar, manifest. They trade elemental attacks but reach a stalemate. Kishar loses interest in the fight until Anshar proposes using mortals as proxies, and the two agree to each choose a warrior. Anshar sends a great gust of wind out across the water.
In New York, Ecto-1 arrives at Sheepshead Bay Marina. Ray has bought a boat and wants to take the team on a cruise. Egon Spengler comes along for the quiet, hoping to get research done, while Peter and Slimer plan to relax. Peter is eager to get back to land for a date that evening with telephone operator 23. The boat turns out to be a small sailboat, the SS Pollywog. Ray insists it makes up in equipment what it lacks in size, though Winston Zeddemore notes there is no motor.
Hours into the trip the predicted winds fail to appear, and an atmospheric inversion bounces Ray's radio signal back. Winston gets seasick during the rough passage. A sudden gust drives the Pollywog at high speed into an island and wrecks it. Stranded, the team sets about gathering food, water, and building shelter while Egon plans to send an S.O.S. once his equipment dries out. As Ray and Peter argue, Anshar and Kishar plot to possess them, feeding off their rising negative energy. Ray is possessed near the volcano and Peter while floating in a pond.
The two repeatedly begin to transform into the demons whenever their arguing escalates, then snap back to normal with no memory of it. Egon finds the answer in his books: Anshar and Kishar are powerful spirits from Sumerian folklore, Kishar the master of fire and earth and Anshar the master of air and water. Once every thousand years they appear for a single day to battle for control of the elements. Being immortal, neither can win, the fights end in a draw, and the world's natural balance holds for another thousand years. Egon realizes they need only keep Ray and Peter in good spirits until morning.
A campfire singalong falls apart over one of Peter's jokes, triggering a full transformation. Egon and Winston rig a Thermal Powered Blaster good for one shot, with Slimer holding its antenna in a lava flow since he alone can withstand the heat. Winston takes the shot but misses, and the enraged demons give chase. The team runs out of land just as the sun rises, and Anshar and Kishar are defeated and vanish. The island then sinks. The team surfaces and lashes together a raft, using most of their clothes for a sail. Stripped to their underwear, they seem to have proven that friendship saved the day, until Peter and Ray start arguing again, just as the liner full of women they passed earlier finally turns up.
Production
Bressack had long wanted to write for The Real Ghostbusters but could never get a script past story editor J. Michael Straczynski. He eventually sold "Very Beast Friends" to story editors Len Janson and Chuck Menville. The episode was pulled from its scheduled ABC air date and postponed because of Operation Desert Storm.3 It was recorded on May 23, 1990.2
Both demons draw on real mythology. Kishar appears in Babylonian mythology, while Anshar appears in both Babylonian and Sumerian traditions. Sheepshead Bay Marina, where the team sets out, is an actual location in Brooklyn. The boat's name, Pollywog, is a common name for small craft and is also the nautical term for a sailor who has not yet crossed the Equator.
The episode is dense with pop-culture references. Peter compares Ray to Captain Ahab from Moby Dick and later to Captain Queeg from The Caine Mutiny, and at different points likens the group to the castaways of Gilligan's Island, calls Egon and Winston "the Professor and Mary Ann," and jokes that Slimer is "no Dan Quayle." While building makeshift shelter Peter remarks they are "not building the Trump Plaza." Winston invokes The Flintstones in conversation. Around the campfire the team sings "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," "Home on the Range," and a barbershop take on "The Fountain in the Park." On the sinking island, Peter compares the rising water to his parents' basement every spring. Peter also performs a lambada at one point during the stranding. Earlier, he loses a hand of Gin to Slimer aboard the Pollywog. Ray spends the finale in the Ghostbusters boxer shorts last seen in "Kitty-Cornered." Janine Melnitz does not appear.
Cast
Release
"Very Beast Friends" aired during Season 6 of The Real Ghostbusters. It is included on The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection, on Volume 4, Disc 5 of the box set.
References
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Eatock, James & Mangels, Andy (2008). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection booklet, p. 37. CPT Holdings, Inc.
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Marsha Goodman (1990). Episode Call Sheet and SAG Report, "Very Beast Friends" (1990).
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Benjamin, Troy & Goldberg, Craig (2025). The Real Ghostbusters: A Visual History, p. 53. Dark Horse Books, Milwaukie, OR USA, ISBN 9781506749273. Dennys McCoy: "The late Gordon Bressack always wanted to do an episode of Real Ghostbusters desperately. But he and Straczynski are strong personalities and he could never get past Joe, but he finally sold one to Len and Chuck. It was 'Very Beast Friends' that was basically the God of War coming down to land. It's a great script. The weekend it was supposed to air on ABC, they pulled the episode and postponed it because of Operation Desert Storm."
