Wasn’t it in one of the drafts that he arrives at his destination without even noticing the erratic driving or the ghoul at the wheel?
It’s in three!
The August, September and October '83 drafts all contain a second ‘callback’ scene later in the montage, immediately preceding the deleted ‘3D movie house’ scene, where the businessman is still unaware anything paranormal is occurring.
Here’s the wording from the August draft. The other two are virtually identical.
"EXT. STREET
The cab driven by the corpse weaves through traffic at breakneck speed. Cars are forced up on the curb. Pedestrians run for safety.
INT. THE BACK SEAT
The Businessman is reading the Wall Street Journal, oblivious to the whole situation."
Alex
Haha, that’s hilarious! Wish we coulda seen that. Today it’d be some zombie Uber driver and a clueless yuppie on their smartphone. There’s something rather Jacques Tati-esque about the social commentary in that and the 3-D horror show scene. Just when I thought I couldn’t appreciate the movie any more…
@ghostengineer: Egon also wears the Ghost Trap on his pistol belt twice, once in " Short Stuff" when all four Ghostbusters bail out of Ecto 1 since it was taken over by one of the bounty hunters sent by the Ghost Master and again in “Ghost World” when he goes to the amusement park. Mrs. Spengler then takes it off his belt and uses it when Egon is dealing with the ghost controlling Janine. I think that might be more examples of this, but I can not recall any at the moment. This a good catch, its certainly one detail that I have overlooked even since I got a copy of The Real Ghostbusters on DVD from Time Life.
Thanks Venkman Jr. I was never a fan of the later seasons for obvious reasons and Short stuff is one of those episodes I never watched again. I believe this season came out about the same time as GB2 which could be why they went with hanging the trap from the belt ? Personally, I don’t think it looks right for RGB but hey, if you decide to cosplay that, now you have an excuse to.
@ghostengineer: Short Stuff is from season four (1988) one year before Ghostbusters II came out in theaters. 1988 was also when Kenner released the Ghost Trap roleplaying toy which had a pull out belt clip to hang the trap on your belt. I am guessing this is wear the animators got the idea for the Ghostbusters to do this from. Plus Ray Stantz carried the Ghost Trap on his pistol belt in the original movie, so it does stand to reason that the animators having seen Ghostbusters would have wanted to do this on the show at some point.
Don’t take this the wrong way but in the finished film we see the guy get in the cab with the ghoul driver and then it shows the taxi crash into some trashcans making it seem the passenger is hurt or killed.
The taxi does not crash. It is a car that swerves out of its way that then crashes into the trash cans and three skinny trees.
[quote=mrmichaelt post_id=4937422 time=1595481789 user_id=24972]The taxi does not crash. It is a car that swerves out of its way that then crashes into the trash cans and three skinny trees.
[/quote]
Just for due diligence, I also checked my copies of the multiple takes/angles of this stunt which Sony once had available for purchase as ‘stock footage’.
(More on that here…
Spook Central - Ghostbusters Stock Footage - theraffon )
From a different angle, the oncoming car doesn’t even touch the trees, it brakes before coming into contact with them.
This frame is from the very end of that clip, after the loose hubcap has rolled off the sidewalk and fallen flat. You can see it in the middle of the frame, above the Y in the word SONY in the watermark.
So, in rapid order the driver sees the taxi going the wrong way down a one-way street, swerves, jumps the curb, hits garbage cans which don’t stop his forward motion, and brakes to a stop before touching the trees.
I don’t see it as fatal or even particularly injurious.
Alex
Just for due diligence, I also checked my copies of the multiple takes/angles of this stunt which Sony once had available for purchase as ‘stock footage’.
(More on that here…
Spook Central - Ghostbusters Stock Footage - theraffon )
From a different angle, the oncoming car doesn’t even touch the trees, it brakes before coming into contact with them.
This frame is from the very end of that clip, after the loose hubcap has rolled off the sidewalk and fallen flat. You can see it in the middle of the frame, above the Y in the word SONY in the watermark.
So, in rapid order the driver sees the taxi going the wrong way down a one-way street, swerves, jumps the curb, hits garbage cans which don’t stop his forward motion, and brakes to a stop before touching the trees.
I don’t see it as fatal or even particularly injurious.
Alex
[/quote]
I somehow forgot it waa another car that crashed into the trashcans.
Just rewatched the episode “Take Two,” and noticed that the number on the private jet that they take to Hollywood is “G84” or possibly “GB4” (it’s kinda hard to tell). Either way, since the characters B and 8 are interchangeable, it looks like code for GB84, or Ghostbusters 1984, the very movie which makes an appearance at the end of the episode. Neato.
Just watched “You Can’t Take it with You,” and at one point Peter says, “Go get 'em, Tex!” which is an obvious nod to his line in the first film, “Nice shootin’, Tex!”
That reminds me in the episode Beneath these streets when Peter gets covered in toilet paper after getting soaked in water, Ray gets all happy about it and Peter says, “This makes you happy!?” It reminds me of the scene in the movie after Peter gets slimed by Slimer and Ray is all happy about it. It is sort of a nod.
In the episode The Hole in the Wall Gang, the character Madame Limburger describes along with her husband the paranormal phenomena they’ve experienced in their old mansion. Venkman replies with what I am pretty sure is a joke about wild sex:
In the episode Masquerade, there’s an advertisement for Camel cigarettes. In a dang kid’s show! Granted, it doesn’t actually say “cigarettes,” or feature the iconic image of the camel itself, but the arced font is essentially the same as the real Camel logo. I’d say there’s no mistaking it. Gotta love the 80’s.
It being arced doesn’t automatically make it a reference to the cigarettes, it was (and still is) common to arc text across a window pane for signage.
As for the choice of the word itself, often the background artists would paint nonsense combinations of letters or words just so there was the suggestion of a sign.
You are certainly correct that arced fonts are tolerably common in business logos, but I think the smoking gun (no pun intended) is the word “Camel” itself. In America at least, the only time people encounter the word “camel” in daily life (aside from maybe “■■■■■■■■■”) is in connection to the cigarettes. We don’t have camels roaming around Ohio, or even camel mascots for our sports teams. Certainly, there are no other products named “Camel.” And that it’s an arced blue font (with the same kind of sideways horseshoe-shaped capital E) makes me certain the artist had ciggies in mind.
I think the look of the E is more the result of it being a sloppy bit of free-handed painted writing than by design, the ‘M’ in particular looks very poorly rendered, and the “A” and “L” are missing their distinctive strokes.
Happy 35th anniversary of when RGB premiered on TV!!!
Just rewatched the original Nosferatu on the occasion of its 100th birthday this month, and something dawned upon me: Count Orlok is an awful lot like the Boogieman from The Real Ghostbusters, or rather vice versa, the Boogieman is an awful lot like Count Orlok.
Consider the big pointy nose, pointy ears, pointy teeth, the long fingernails, pale skin, and gothy frock that he wears. Not only that, but the Boogieman’s creeping shadow brings to mind some of the most iconic imagery from Nosferatu, and the Boogieman’s domain is pure German Expressionism, with doorways distorted and stairwells askew.
There are other obvious parallels as well, such as both characters’ exclusively nocturnal activity, their ability to psychokinetically open doors, and their habit of preying upon people in their bedrooms. I could go on further, but I think the point is made; the Boogieman was almost certainly inspired (in part) by Nosferatu (and the Boogieman’s domain was perhaps inspired by other works of German Expressionism, such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari). As for what motivated that bonkers blue mullet, I haven’t the faintest clue, but I like it.
