Plot
While dining at an Italian restaurant, Jon and his fiancee Olivia Stewart spot the Ghostbusters chasing a pack of ghosts outside. The chase spills into the restaurant through the kitchen. Jon wants to hire the team to deal with a ghost at the family mansion and grabs a business card, but Olivia insists on handling the ghost of her Uncle Horace herself. One of the ghosts the Ghostbusters failed to catch, a creature later called the Sprite, hitches a ride on the couple's car back to the house.
At the Stewart Mansion in Glen Cove, Horace's ghost wanders the halls searching for something he cannot remember, unaware that he is dead. Jon and Olivia dress in sheets and chains to scare him off, but Horace finds the dropped business card and calls the Ghostbusters himself to get rid of what he takes for intruders. Janine Melnitz takes the call, and the exhausted team only agrees to the job once she mentions the Stewart name and old money.
When the team arrives they blast Horace, then stop when he explains that he is the one who hired them, which is also how he learns he is a ghost. Egon Spengler picks up a second presence on the PKE Meter: the Sprite, which has been painting mustaches on portraits and breaking windows in the mansion. After the Sprite snatches Olivia and dances a tango with her fifteen feet in the air, Egon swings from a chandelier to rescue her and the team traps the ghost. With the haunting over, Horace finally remembers that what he was looking for was not an object but a chance to say goodbye to his niece. He tells Olivia he loves her and disperses peacefully. Olivia and Jon decide to keep the mansion and raise their family there rather than sell it.
Cast and characters
The regular Ghostbusters appear in their animated forms: Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler, Ray Stantz, Winston Zeddemore, and Janine Melnitz. Slimer does not appear.
The regular voice cast is credited as Lorenzo Music, Frank Welker, Maurice LaMarche, and Laura Summer, with Julie Miller listed as a guest voice.1 LaMarche based Uncle Horace's voice and appearance on the comedian Ed Wynn.
Guest characters
Uncle Horace is the ghost at the center of the story. He wanders the Stewart Mansion unable to remember what he was searching for, unaware he is dead. His voice and appearance were modeled on comedian Ed Wynn. He served as a gentle, confused presence rather than a threat, and his storyline resolves when he finally remembers he simply wanted to say goodbye to his niece.
Olivia Stewart is Uncle Horace's niece and heir to the mansion. She wants to sell the property but cannot because of the haunting.
Jon is Olivia's fiance. He repeatedly misnames the team, calling them the "Ghost Smashers" three times.
The Italian Diner Ghosts are the group of poltergeist-class apparitions the team is pursuing at the episode's opening. The Ghostbusters chase them into an Italian restaurant, eventually corralling them using three Ghost Traps. Peter captures one by throwing a plate of pasta at it, making the ghost go intangible to dodge the food, then snaring it in a proton stream while it laughs.
The Sprite is the episode's primary antagonist and the one-off ghost that drives the real plot. Classified as a Class 5 entity, it is described as a brown ghost with an artichoke-shaped head and a cream-white beak. Its behavior is childlike: it paints mustaches on family portraits, smashes windows, plays "When the Saints Go Marching In" on an instrument, and tangos with Olivia in midair. The Sprite escaped capture at the restaurant by stowing away on Jon and Olivia's car, which is how it ended up at the mansion.
Equipment and locations
The team uses the standard kit: Proton Pack, particle thrower, Ghost Trap, PKE Meter, and Ecto-1. A radio is also used at the firehouse. Action moves between the team's firehouse, the Italian restaurant, and the Stewart Mansion.
The Stewart Mansion is the Stewart family residence in Glen Cove on the north shore of Long Island. The mansion is described in the episode as "pretentious without being ostentatious." Uncle Horace notes it has an attic, a basement, a well, and a pantry. After Olivia inherits it, the haunting prevented any sale from proceeding. By the episode's end, she and Jon choose to stay and raise a family there.
Production
The episode call sheet and SAG report list production number 76022.1 The same paperwork records recording sessions on September 12, 1986 and December 17, 1986.1 LaMarche is also listed on the call sheet as having voiced Winston in this episode, which contemporaries attributed to actors covering for an absent castmate.1
Trivia
When the Ghostbusters crash into the restaurant, Peter says "I've always wanted to do this" and hurls a plate of pasta at a ghost, echoing his line at the Sedgewick Hotel in the first film, where he pulled a tablecloth instead.
Jon repeatedly misremembers names, calling the team the "Ghost Smashers" three times. "Ghost Smashers" was an early working title for the original Ghostbusters film.
Uncle Horace reads the team's slogan from the business card, with a line about "trolls on the bridge" that points back to the episode Troll Bridge. The card also gives the team's phone number as NO GHOST, or 664-4678. This is the first time that number is stated in the animated series; the 1984 film used 555-2368. The 664-4678 number had earlier appeared as 1-212-NO-GHOST in the 1985 novelization of the film.2
Uncle Horace attempts a scary voice and says "Who knows what evil lurks in the brains of ducks? Me do, me do." This is a parody of the catchphrase of pulp-magazine hero The Shadow, who claimed to know "what evil lurks in the hearts of men."
The first song the Sprite plays at the mansion is "When the Saints Go Marching In," prompting Winston to identify the style as Dixieland.
After the Sprite is trapped, Winston remarks he will not tango again, a callback to the ghost's midair dance with Olivia.
When the Ghostbusters return to the firehouse after the restaurant job, Peter mentions the World Trade Center.
The episode title plays on the song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf."
Animation errors
When the Ghostbusters are capturing ghosts in the restaurant, Egon appears at the scene but then is shown back at the kitchen door fighting ghosts simultaneously, an apparent continuity error.
Home video
The episode is included on Volume 2, Disc 1 of The Real Ghostbusters DVD collection.3
