Plot
The Ghostbusters chase a Bus Driver Ghost piloting a flying bus at the George Washington Bridge Bus Station. They dodge the bus, which crashes to the street below, and the ghost flees into the station. Following the PKE Meter, they find it gorging on sweets in the cafeteria. Winston fires but misses, and the ghost escapes toward Gate 13. Peter deduces the ghost is hiding inside another bus. Ray covers the front, Egon the rear, Winston the emergency exit, and Peter boards. After Peter reduces the bus to wreckage, the ghost surrenders, and the team emerges with a full trap as reporters and the Director of the New York Port Authority gather to congratulate them. Peter pauses to ask about the Mayor.
The press is upstaged by Barbara Mentee, Special Executive Assistant to Charles Foster Hearse III, the publisher of Spooks Illustrated, Boosweek, and Popular Phantasmics. Mentee says she selects the year's Ghost Hunter of the Year. She drives the Ghostbusters in her limousine to the Slime Life Building, where Hearse explains in the penthouse that Charles Foster Hearse the First built a publishing empire out of his love of the supernatural, and that his ghost now haunts the family mansion, Hearse Castle. Whoever catches the ghost by sunrise wins the award. Winston argues that they work as a team but is overruled.
At Hearse Castle, part of the grounds is covered in artificial snow, and a cathedral named San Simoleon has been imported from a European trip. The team enters through the servants' entrance. Winston tries once more to talk the others out of competing, then is left alone when the ghost manifests, says "Rosebud," and chases him. Egon is grabbed by vines in a greenhouse and levels the dome firing at Hearse. Ray is buried under books in the library, including volumes of Rasputin's Spiritual Exercises and Rottweiler on Olfactory Manifestations, and gets a paper cut. Peter draws Hearse into the recreation room, where the ghost possesses a billiard-ball construct that shatters against a set of double doors. A lightning-caused blackout leaves the three firing blindly, and Ray is hit.
Searching the basement, they find Winston buried in a junk pile, and he pulls out a red sled stenciled "Rosebud." Hearse reappears and possesses an Egyptian statue, driving the team outside into the snow. Winston rides the sled with the others piling on, Hearse chasing as a snowball. After they spill, Hearse lands on the sled. He only wanted to ride it one last time, and disperses peacefully. When Mentee asks who caught the ghost, the four point at one another in unison. Later, at the Firehouse, Winston drops off the Ghost Hunter of the Year issue and chides the others for chasing the prize, until Peter notices Winston's name is misspelled, at which point Winston takes the magazine and walks off.
Background and references
The episode is built around nods to Citizen Kane (1941). Hearse's dying word "Rosebud" and the red sled echo the film's newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane, and the names Hearse Castle and San Simoleon play on the real Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California. The fictional magazines are parodies as well: Boosweek is a play on Newsweek and Popular Phantasmics on Popular Mechanics.
Several smaller gags run through the script. Ray says he read Spooks Illustrated as a child, and Egon admits he always dreamed of being on its cover. Ray mentions learning about Hearse's library from a show called "Haunts of the Rich and Famous," a parody of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous." Peter jokes about a "Swimsuit Issue" in reference to the annual Sports Illustrated feature, compares the halls of the Slime Life Building to The Wizard of Oz, and references King Kong as the group passes through the castle gatehouse. Winston's red sled reminds him of one he had as a boy. Elsewhere in the episode, Winston mentions Peter's mother, and Peter drops a reference to Huey Lewis.
According to the Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection booklet, Barbara Mentee was voiced by Anne Curry.1 Slimer does not appear, and Janine Melnitz makes a silent cameo at the end with no dialogue. In one animation error, Peter's line "Of the swimsuit issue?!" is delivered in Ray's voice.
The character of Charles Foster Hearse I later received non-canon cameo appearances in the IDW Publishing comic line: a painting version appears on page one of Ghostbusters Issue 8, and he appears again on the subscription cover of Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue 13.
The title was later reused in Ghostbusters: The Video Game, where "Ghostbuster of the Year" is the highest rank in the realistic versions' multiplayer mode.
Episode navigation
By air date, "Ghostbuster of the Year" follows The Cabinet of Calamari and precedes Egon's Dragon.
