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"Citizen Ghost" is the eleventh episode of The Real Ghostbusters, first aired November 22, 1986 as part of Season 1. Told largely in flashback, it reveals how and why Slimer came to live with the Ghostbusters in the days right after their film battle with Gozer.1 The episode was written by J. Michael Straczynski.
The title is a play on the film Citizen Kane, which similarly frames most of its story as flashbacks recounted to a reporter.
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Cynthia Crawford, a television reporter for UBN News, arrives at the Firehouse by taxi to do a pre-interview with Peter for a segment on the history of the Ghostbusters. Janine greets her but keeps her from going upstairs, and just as Cynthia finishes a countdown a huge explosion goes off in Egon's laboratory. Peter takes Cynthia down to his office. When Slimer drifts through, Cynthia wonders why a team of ghost catchers keeps a ghost in their own home, so Peter begins the story of how Slimer joined them.
After the battle with Gozer, the team's headquarters was wrecked and all the captured ghosts had escaped. They set about rebuilding the Firehouse and the Containment Unit, this time building it larger to avoid future overflow. Their first order of business was to burn their original uniforms from the movie, which had soaked up a dangerous amount of psychokinetic energy during the Gozer fight. Conveniently, Janine had bought them new uniforms she had forgotten to mention before they left, so they changed into their current outfits.
Burning the old uniforms became Peter's job, and he put it off. He kicked the pile next to the rebuilt Containment Unit, not realizing it sat beside one last undiscovered crack. The uniforms began absorbing energy leaking from the crack, and in the rush of rebuilding Peter forgot about them entirely.
Once the Firehouse was finished, the team sat down to a meal, and Slimer, who had been lurking, swooped in and stole the food. They chased him off and wondered why he had stayed when every other ghost fled. Janine suggested he was lonely and that they were the first people to pay him any attention; the others dismissed the idea. Over the following days Slimer appeared more and more, and each man reacted differently: Egon wanted to study him, Winston wanted to befriend him, Ray wanted him as a pet, and Peter wanted to blast him for sliming him back at the Sedgewick Hotel.
One night the old uniforms started to walk, taking on the appearance of their former wearers complete with spectral proton packs. These Spectral Ghostbusters went upstairs and attacked the sleeping team. After grabbing their own packs, the Ghostbusters fought back and drove the ghosts off, and realized Peter's failure to burn the uniforms had let them take on a life of their own.
The Spectral Ghostbusters returned during a later case, intent on replacing the team. Back at the Firehouse, Egon reasoned that since the doubles were made of ectoplasmic energy, they could either be disarmed or worn down until they ran out of charge. The doubles then stole Ecto-1, which still had the team's proton packs inside. Peter grabbed a spare pack, but it held only half a charge, not enough against four opponents.
Egon noticed the doubles grew weaker with every shot, so someone had to draw their fire long enough to drain them. Ray volunteered, but Slimer rushed in instead, flying around to absorb the blasts. When Peter called out "Good job, Slimer," the ghost stopped to thank him and took a hit. Believing the doubles were spent, Peter blasted them for hitting "his little buddy," knocking them out of the Firehouse. The team recovered their packs from Ecto-1 and trapped the Spectral Ghostbusters. Peter relented and let Slimer stay.
Cynthia thanks Peter and leaves. That night the team watches the finished broadcast and learns the whole segment is about Slimer rather than them. It annoys Peter at first, but he shrugs it off.
"Citizen Ghost," along with "Take Two," covers a good deal of the animated series' canon. It addresses the aftermath of Gozer, the team's switch to new uniforms, and how Slimer became the Ghostbusters' resident ghost. Within the flashback, Peter instantly recognizes Slimer as the green ghost who slimed him at the Sedgewick Hotel during the first film, and Ray names him "Slimer" mainly to needle Peter.
Egon explains that ectoplasm behaves like putty: the more energy it absorbs, the larger it grows, until it is large enough to "wake up and walk away."3
Several offhand character facts surface during the episode.3 Peter jokes that the lab explosion "took most of Bayonne," a city in New Jersey, and recalls a third-grade fight with a kid named Rick. Ray mentions he was born in the Bronx. Janine name-drops Meryl Streep while waiting with Cynthia in the reception area. When Egon checks out the rebuilt Containment Unit, he tests Peter by rattling off components and slips in a "transwarp drive," a propulsion term borrowed from Star Trek. As with the other Season 1 episodes, the score draws on The Real Ghostbusters soundtrack, here featuring the song "Charge You Up."
A photo hanging near Peter's office shows the Firehouse after it was wrecked in the first film. Storyboards for a deleted opening would have started Peter's story on a framed photo of the Shandor building in its post-battle, "marshmallowed" state before panning to the ruined Firehouse; the finished episode opens directly on the Firehouse ruins.4
One notable animation error occurs when Egon delivers the line "I don't know, but I think we're about to find out!" in response to Winston asking whether Slimer tricked the Spectral Ghostbusters into depleting their energy. In that moment, Spectral Egon's mouth moves as though he is the one speaking, apparently a lipsync error during compositing.3
The episode has been nodded to repeatedly in IDW Publishing's Ghostbusters comics. Its title appears on a newspaper clipping in Ghostbusters Issue #5. Slimer's adoption is referenced in Ghostbusters Crossing Over Issue #2. Cover B of Ghostbusters Crossing Over Issue #3 recreates the moment the Spectral Ghostbusters marched into the Firehouse; on that cover the doppelgangers represent Eduardo Rivera from Extreme Ghostbusters, Janine Melnitz from the Prime Dimension, Ron Alexander from the Prime Dimension, and Jillian Holtzmann from Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, and a box of contaminated flightsuits with a note referencing Egon's warning to destroy them (which Peter ignored) appears at the right edge of the image.5 In IDW 20/20, the way Wat 50-S reveals himself is drawn as a deliberate visual echo of the Spectral Ghostbusters' emergence in this episode.6 The Subscription Cover of Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #1 features a non-canon cameo of the robot, purple lizard, and tape recorder seen on Peter's desk in this episode.7
The episode appears on home video as part of The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection (Box Set Volume 1, Disc 2).8
The episode is preceded by "Take Two" and followed by "Janine's Genie" in both air-date and DVD order.
Eatock, James & Mangels, Andy (2008). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection booklet. CPT Holdings, Inc. ↩
Marsha Goodman (1986). Episode Call Sheet and SAG Report, "Citizen Ghost" (1986). ↩ ↩2
The Real Ghostbusters, "Citizen Ghost" (1986). Time Life Entertainment DVD. ↩ ↩2 ↩3
Boyette, Pat (2009). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection Volume One, Disc Five, "Citizen Ghost" storyboard. CPT Holdings, Inc. ↩
IDW Publishing. Ghostbusters: Crossing Over Issue #3, Cover B (2018). ↩
IDW Publishing. Ghostbusters: IDW 20/20 (2019). ↩
IDW Publishing. Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #1, Subscription Cover (2012). ↩
The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection, Box Set Volume 1, Disc 2. Time Life Entertainment. ↩