Plot
At a 1950s-themed restaurant called the Big Greaser, a ghost rises out of a sewer manhole, stomps several patrons' cars, and dances to the rock-and-roll music. In the firehouse rec room, Peter Venkman and Slimer are watching a horror movie when the phone rings and sends them off the couch. The team rolls out in Ecto-1. At the restaurant the ghost, pretending to work the drive-thru, smashes a diet apple turnover in Peter and Slimer's faces, then possesses the giant Big Greaser statue. The Ghostbusters melt the statue down, wrangle the ghost out, and Ray Stantz traps it, but Peter suddenly feels ill.
Back at the firehouse, Louis is working reception when he hears moaning from upstairs and charges in with a Proton Pack, only to find Peter is the one moaning. Louis blames Peter's fast-food habit, but the real culprit turns out to be a diet potato chip Louis got as a free sample from a man he met two days earlier, on a Thursday. Peter's temperature spikes, a thermometer explodes, and he floats above his bed, so Louis calls a doctor. The visitor introduces himself as Doctor McCatheter. After running tests, McCatheter declares that Peter has developed a serious allergy to ghosts that will only worsen unless he retires from ghostbusting and moves away. When Slimer clutches Peter, his face swells and breaks out in lesions, which McCatheter cites as proof. On his way out, McCatheter urges Louis to give everyone more of his New Spirit Chips. In an alley he sheds his human disguise and flies off as a ghost.
With Peter sent to stay at Janine Melnitz's apartment (Janine notes this is the only way to get back at them for totaling her car), his symptoms improve. Meanwhile the rest of the team can't stop eating the foul-tasting chips. Egon Spengler connects the allergy to the chips after Louis reveals he only met McCatheter two days earlier; the others' symptoms flare up around Slimer, and the years of ectoplasmic residue in Ecto-1 triggers them too, forcing them to chase a bus on foot. They confront McCatheter at his dilapidated new office but are too sick to attack. McCatheter flies to the firehouse, dons a uniform and Proton Pack, takes Ecto-1 out on a call, and invites the ghosts he encounters to a party at the firehouse. He even quotes the Ghostbusters slogan when responding to a call. Louis and Slimer are driven out.
Egon's solution is forced exposure: lock the team in a room with a concentrated source of ectoplasmic energy and build up an immunity. Using Janine's apartment and Slimer, the allergies fully manifest as ghosts and are then trapped right out of the team. Cured, the Ghostbusters storm the firehouse, capture McCatheter's guests, and with Louis's help reel McCatheter in and trap him. Because her apartment was wrecked, Janine moves into the firehouse while it is repaired, and ends the episode by hogging the bathroom.
Featured Ghosts
The Greaser Haunt
The unnamed ghost that opens the episode is a 1950s greaser-styled entity attracted to the music at the Big Greaser restaurant. It emerges from a nearby sewer manhole, smashes several cars, scares patrons off, and hides in the drive-thru speaker to ambush Peter when he tries to order. After dousing Peter with a diet apple turnover, the ghost possesses the giant Big Greaser mascot statue and animates it. Winston Zeddemore, Ray, and the team melt the statue and wring the ghost out, with Ray making the trap. The ghost was voiced by Dave Coulier. In the episode's call sheet, the character is listed as "Ugly Ghost." The same footage was reused (in edited form) for a cameo in the later episode "It's About Time."1
Doctor McCatheter
Doctor McCatheter is the episode's primary antagonist, a ghost who disguises himself as a physician to take down the Ghostbusters. He arrives at the firehouse claiming to be a doctor opening a new office in the neighborhood and hands Louis the free sample of New Spirit Chips that cause the allergy. The chips make humans allergic to ghosts and to anything connected with them, including the ectoplasm-saturated Ecto-1. Once the team is incapacitated, McCatheter takes over their operation, quotes the Ghostbusters slogan while out on a call, and throws a party for other ghosts at the firehouse before he is finally captured. McCatheter was voiced by Stanley Ralph Ross.1
McCatheter appears again in the episode "Jailbusters," where a prosecutor ghost shows his photo (in human form) in a flip book. In the IDW Comics series Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue 2, the character Dr. Cleese is visually modeled on McCatheter's human disguise form.
McCatheter's Guests
The assorted ghosts McCatheter recruits during his impersonation of the Ghostbusters are rounded up and trapped when the team storms the firehouse at the episode's climax. These one-off background entities have no individual names in the episode or its production documents.
Production
The episode was recorded on May 19, 1989, according to the episode call sheet and SAG report.1 The regular voice cast included Dave Coulier, Frank Welker, Maurice LaMarche, Buster Jones, Kath Soucie, and Roger Bumpass, with Stanley Ralph Ross as guest voice.1
The Big Greaser restaurant is a parody of the Bob's Big Boy chain. Doctor McCatheter's name plays on the medical catheter. From this episode onward, episodes in the series no longer open with an introduction card.
Continuity
From this episode forward, Janine's hairstyle matches her look in Ghostbusters II, a hint at the episode's timeframe, and Louis Tully's first appearance points to the same period. Within the episode, both Egon and Janine refer to the team having busted ghosts for years without ever going out of business, which sits awkwardly against the opening of Ghostbusters II and suggests events unfold somewhat differently in the animated continuity.
References
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Marsha Goodman (1989). Episode Call Sheet and SAG Report, "Something's Going Around" (1989).
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Eatock, James and Mangels, Andy (2008). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection booklet, p. 31. CPT Holdings, Inc.
