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How different would the Subway/River of Slime scenes been if Venkman was with them? And would you like him being with them in those scenes more or less? I think I liked that he was not there since it gave Ray, Egon, and Winston a chance to shine. I also think Venkman would have added a little too much humor to the scene. I have heard though that the real reason it was written with Venkman going on a date with Dana instead was that Bill Murray refused to be covered in slime again.

I don't see them as being much different than what we ended up seeing, had Venkman been with them.

And agreed, it presented an opportunity for Winston, Egon and Ray to have a nice sequence to themselves.

I can see the Winston part originally being written for Venkman.

I would have preferred him there only to have more scenes of the entire team. It's in-character for Peter to shrug off doing investigative work and only be around for ghostbusting. That part of the job gets him media exposure. In reality, Murray avoided slime on GB2 like the plague. That was probably in his contract! Winston shines in this scene and feels more like a unified member of the team all the while Peter gets to have a good portion of the movie devoted to him trying to get back with Dana.