Plot
At the Firehouse, Janine Melnitz, Slimer, and Louis Tully are handling the day's chores when the Ghostbusters return, each carrying a Ghost Trap and covered in slime. The four downplay the job they just finished and hurry off to separate invitations. Peter Venkman heads to a Ladies' Charity Function where he is to be auctioned off as a date. Ray Stantz is booked as a guest speaker at a comic book convention. Winston Zeddemore is off to shoot a Fizz Up TV commercial. Egon Spengler has won an annual scientific achievement award and goes to the university to accept it. On the way out, Louis again asks Peter to sign the checks, and again Peter puts him off.
Each event turns out to be a setup. At the Manhattan Ladies Club the doorman tells Peter there is no meeting scheduled, but Peter goes in and finds the room full of ghosts that swarm him. Ray reaches a closed Civic Auditorium and is grabbed after entering through the back. Egon's award banquet is held in a janitor's closet, where he is pulled inside before the sign vanishes. Winston mistakes the ghost holding a film slate for a crew member in monster makeup, and is taken too.3 The four pass through a vortex and land in a building Egon identifies as the Ghostworld.
Back on the physical plane, Louis worries when the team does not return. He examines the invitations, notices they are all written in the same handwriting, and a P.K.E. Meter reading confirms ghosts are behind them. Janine, Louis, and Slimer suit up and check each location, finding Egon's bow tie and matching readings at all four. In the Ghostworld, a prosecutor ghost charges the Ghostbusters with kidnapping and imprisoning ghosts. The Judge ghost finds them guilty and has them hauled away.
Slimer leads Janine and Louis to a portal to the Ghostworld at an abandoned tunnel near the East River, which opens at midnight. They make their way in past a wave of slime. Inside the prison, the captured Ghostbusters fail at digging an escape route and find the mess-hall food no better than the cells. Janine and Louis visit the team disguised as their parents and signal a plan to move at lights out. Slimer lifts a guard's keys, but a prisoner warns that the Ghostbusters have already been taken to the "Armpit" to be executed.
At the edge of the pit, a ghost arrives with a pardon from the Ghost Governor, but the Governor manifests from the letter and personally shoves the team in. Janine and Louis open fire on a pillar near the pit, Slimer pushes it over, and the Ghostbusters climb the fallen pillar to escape. The Governor returns with a pair of giant Terror Dogs, and the team races for the closing portal, jumping through just as it shuts while the Governor and his dogs cannot stop in time. Everyone arrives back in New York City at dawn. Peter declares that Janine is getting her raise, and in thanks she tousles his hair, which everyone says in unison that he hates.
Ghosts and locations
Ghost Governor. The main antagonist of the episode and the supreme authority in the Ghostworld. He is depicted as obese and green-skinned, with white hair, a mustache, and a pronounced Southern accent. He arrives at the Ghostbusters' scheduled execution carrying a "pardon," only to manifest in person from the letter and shove the team into the Armpit himself. After they escape, he declares "Now who ya gonna call?" to his assembled subjects, who answer "Not the Ghostbusters!" He then pursues the escaping heroes with a pair of giant Terror Dogs but arrives at the portal too late and cannot stop in time. The Governor is voiced by Roger Bumpass, who also plays a regular cast role in the episode.
Judge Ghost and Prosecutor Ghost. The Judge ghost presides over the mock tribunal and finds the Ghostbusters guilty after a prosecutor ghost reads out charges of kidnapping and imprisoning ghosts. A flip-book of cards shown during the trial depicts Samhain, the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, the Boogieman, the Ghostmaster, and Doctor McCatheter as evidence of the team's alleged crimes.
Terror Dogs. A pair of large Terror Dogs accompany the Ghost Governor in the episode's climax. They are distinct from the Zuul and Vinz Clortho incarnations of Terror Dogs known from the films; here they serve as the Governor's enforcers and chase the team toward the closing portal.
Ghostworld. The episode's primary setting beyond the portal. It contains a courthouse, a prison facility with substandard food and single-eyed scavenging creatures, and the "Armpit," an execution pit at the edge of which the Governor springs his deception. The only portal accessible from the physical plane opens at midnight in an abandoned tunnel near the East River.
Production
According to the episode call sheet and SAG report, "Jailbusters" carried production number 201007 and was recorded on July 5 and 6, 1989, with Frank Welker recording alone on July 6.2
In this episode Janine wears her pink uniform and Louis wears his green uniform, differentiating their on-screen appearance from the standard jumpsuit color used elsewhere in the series.
Trivia and references
The title nods to "Jail Busters," a 1955 Bowery Boys film released by Allied Artists on September 18, 1955, and the thirty-ninth entry in that series. The same comedy team made the 1946 film "Spook Busters," sometimes cited as an inspiration for Ghostbusters.
The episode is dense with gags. Winston warns Peter not to say "We're not in Kansas anymore," a jab at "The Wizard of Oz," and Janine later quips about the lack of a yellow brick road as they head into the Ghostworld. Ray notes that the team had two chances at a fair trial: "zilch and none." Egon dubs the mess-hall meal "Eyeball Helper," a play on Hamburger Helper, and Peter begins reciting the opening of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address at the edge of the Armpit. Running through the whole episode is Peter's loud objection to having his hair messed up, repeated often enough that his complaining is what leads Janine and Louis to the prison.
During the trial, a ghost shows flip-book cards of villains the team has supposedly trapped in the Containment Unit, including Samhain, the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, the Boogieman, the Ghostmaster, and Doctor McCatheter. Their appearances do not all line up with series continuity: the Ghostmaster, seen earlier in "Short Stuff," had not actually been captured, the Boogieman was only turned into a ghost and trapped at the close of "The Bogeyman Is Back," and McCatheter is shown in his human form rather than as a ghost.
A recurring background detail, a giant Fizz Cola sign to the left of the Firehouse throughout the series, ties into Winston's bogus Fizz Up commercial. The single-eyed scavenging creatures in the ghost prison, which resemble a large eyeball with two legs, appear in a smaller form skittering in the cells and in a larger form when Peter tries to dig an escape route with a spoon. The ghost being led to the Armpit for execution bears a resemblance to the classic Ghostbusters logo ghost. The episode also reuses footage internally: the Judge ghost hitting the gavel and the sequence of Janine, Louis, and Slimer entering the Ghostworld each appear more than once.
Animation errors
The production contains a number of animation continuity mistakes. The no-ghost logos are missing from Janine and Louis's uniforms in several shots. When Janine says "We were gonna discuss the pay raise you promised," her lip movements do not match the dialogue. When Janine, Louis, and Slimer leave the Firehouse in the Ecto-1, the garage interior appears empty behind them. In the scene approaching the location where Egon was to receive his award, the interior of the Ecto-1 is missing when the doors are open, revealing the background instead. Janine and Louis are shown wearing the orange prison jumpsuits when departing Egon's award location, before they have entered the Ghostworld. After the Ghostbusters are pushed into their cell, Winston's dialogue ("Nobody told us how long we're in for") plays while his mouth remains wide open without moving.
The Ecto-1's license plate reads "Ecid-1" in the scene where it arrives at the gateway to the Ghostworld. Janine and Louis approach a clown-like ghost with Neutrona Wands drawn, but in the next shot the wands are holstered. The waistcoat worn by the clown ghost alternates between green and yellow between shots. The same clown ghost appears inexplicably in front of Janine and Louis in a later shot, floating backward as they walk forward, without having been reintroduced. When Janine and Louis reach the bars of the Ghostbusters' cell, the animation shows their hands appearing to grab the bars but composited behind them rather than in front (a cel-layering error).
As the Ghostbusters escape the Armpit, they briefly appear in their normal uniforms rather than the orange prison jumpsuits they have been wearing, before the next shot corrects this; the same error recurs briefly as they run toward the portal. When Janine and Louis blast the large pillar, the animation cel for the pillar itself is missing from the frame until it begins to fall. Slimer is shown descending the firehouse pole carrying traps that are rendered entirely in black and yellow stripes rather than the correct colors. Louis briefly appears to have two mouths in his close-up as he and Janine exit the building. When the Ecto-1 is driving toward camera, the vehicle rolls backward briefly before moving forward.
Release
"Jailbusters" appears on Volume 4, Disc 2 of the Time Life Entertainment box set release of The Real Ghostbusters. In both air-date and DVD order it follows "Future Tense" and precedes "The Ghostbusters Live! from Al Capone's Tomb!"
References
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
