Plot
One night a boy named Tommy gets ready for bed and notices his newly removed tooth. After he leaves the bathroom, a ghost appears in the mirror. Tommy tucks the tooth under his pillow and goes to sleep. The ghost, Buster, is working as a Tooth Fairy. While swapping a child's tooth for money, he stops to give Tommy a dental examination, ignoring his talking Pocket Watch, which warns that practicing unlicensed dentistry again will get him fired. Tommy wakes up screaming. His father investigates, trips over Buster's wand, and comes face to face with the ghost. Buster flees and is caught by the Tooth Police.
Having lost his job and failed at every other ghostly profession, Buster decides to join the Ghostbusters after he sees a television ad and misreads what they do. After the shock of a ghost walking willingly into the Firehouse wears off, the team agrees to let him stay, though Egon Spengler objects and predicts they will regret it. The next morning they wake to a home-cooked breakfast and are aghast at both the spread and the grocery receipt. Slimer flies in and helps himself.
When the Ghostbusters race out on a call in Ecto-1, Buster decides their driving is too dangerous and invites every ghost in New York City to a party at the Firehouse, reasoning that if every type of ghost is already there, the team will not have to rush out recklessly. They return to chaos and have to put out the literal and figurative fires the guests are causing. Using their equipment risks a hit on the main electrical grid, which would blow the Containment Unit again, so they fall back on their wits. Ray Stantz notices that items he takes from The Glutton are vanishing and realizes that so many ghosts in one place are breaking down the walls of the dimensional plane. Peter Venkman chases a Fire Sprite with an extinguisher and accidentally hits Winston Zeddemore in the face.
They find Buster in the kitchen. Unable to stop the party, Egon calculates it could go on for 14,000 years if energy levels held constant. Then his P.K.E. Meter explodes, and he realizes they might not last fourteen minutes. Ray warns that the ethereal balance is in danger: the Firehouse would vanish, tearing a hole in the continuum and endangering New York, New Jersey, and beyond.
The team extracts Buster and, on the roof, tells him the truth about their work. Seeing that he genuinely wants to be their friend, they enlist his help. Buster lures the Zombies partying next to the Containment Unit out of the basement with the offer of food. Egon and Ray set the Containment Unit to draw in every ghost in the building and then vent. Peter and Winston save Buster and Slimer by temporarily trapping them; when Peter's trap fails at first, he barely pulls Buster out as the Containment Unit hits 100 percent capacity and Egon vents. The Ghostbusters find Buster a job in a ghost town in California. He lets them keep the talking Pocket Watch, annoying as it is. As the team and Slimer clean up, Janine Melnitz arrives, the Pocket Watch immediately starts blabbing, and as it is about to comment on Egon's hair, Egon snaps it shut and tucks it into his chest pocket.
Episode characters
Several one-off characters appear in this episode.
Buster is the title character: a ghost previously employed as a Tooth Fairy who is fired after being caught giving a boy an unsolicited dental examination, his second offense of practicing unlicensed dentistry. Having failed at every other ghostly profession, he misreads the Ghostbusters' television ad and concludes they are a club he can join. Despite causing considerable chaos through naivety rather than malice, his genuine desire for friendship wins the team over. He ends the episode employed at a ghost town in California. Buster is voiced by Jeff Altman.
The Pocket Watch is a sentient, talking pocket watch belonging to Buster. It repeatedly tries to advise him and is ignored. After Buster leaves for California he lets the team keep it, and it immediately attempts to offer Egon unsolicited grooming advice before Egon shuts it. The Pocket Watch is voiced by Arsenio Hall.
The Tooth Police are the enforcement arm of the Tooth Fairy organization, responsible for ensuring Tooth Fairies do their jobs properly. Large ghosts fill the role; their uniforms feature blue jackets and pants, high black boots, bobby hats, and a molar insignia, with shoulder boards shaped like a set of upper teeth. Two officers apprehend Buster for his repeat dentistry offense and strip him of his uniform.
Tommy is the boy whose tooth Buster is collecting when the episode opens. His waking scream triggers the chain of events that gets Buster fired. His toothbrush holder resembles Mickey Mouse.
Buster's Other Guests are the collective mass of ghosts from across New York City who answer Buster's party invitation. Their gathering in such numbers disrupts the ethereal balance, threatening to collapse the dimensional plane and destroy the Firehouse. The Ghostbusters resolve the crisis by configuring the Containment Unit to pull them all in and vent them out of the building. Among the guests specifically named or seen in the episode are The Glutton (a ghost whose hoarding causes objects Ray removes to vanish) and a Fire Sprite that Peter chases with a fire extinguisher.
Cast
Regular voice cast: Lorenzo Music, Frank Welker, Maurice LaMarche, Arsenio Hall, and Laura Summer. Guest voices: Jeff Altman and Jeannie Elias.1
Trivia
Co-writer Keith Giffen is a well-known comic book artist and writer, and Robert Loren Fleming also wrote comics.1
Janine mentions that her friend Maureen tried to set her up with an orthodontist. Buster, for his part, fancies himself a good cook, and notes that he never liked Zombies because they have lousy teeth.
The ghost Peter traps in this episode resembles the one captured at the start of "Janine's Genie", except it has legs and is colored green instead of blue. Just before Egon's P.K.E. Meter explodes, mathematical constants and equations flash across its screen. Tommy's toothbrush holder resembles Mickey Mouse.
Release
In broadcast order, "Buster the Ghost" follows "They Call Me MISTER Slimer" and precedes "Night Game". In DVD order it follows "The Long, Long, Long, etc. Goodbye" and precedes "The Devil to Pay". The episode appears on Volume 3, Disc 2 of the complete-collection DVD set.
References
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Eatock, James & Mangels, Andy (2008). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection booklet, p. 23. CPT Holdings, Inc.
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Marsha Goodman (1986). Episode Call Sheet and SAG Report, "Buster the Ghost" (1986).
