5 min read
The Copycat is an episode of the animated series The Real Ghostbusters. A shape-shifting Metamorph nicknamed the Copycat invades the Firehouse and turns the team against one another by impersonating each of them in turn. The episode first aired on December 5, 1987, as part of the show's third season, and carries broadcast episode number 090 (088 on DVD). It was written by Michael Reaves.1
Join the community
Free accounts post in the forum, upload to the gallery, edit the wiki, and follow your favorite franchises. No credit card. No catch.
While the Ghostbusters are plagued at the Firehouse by a Metamorph dubbed the Copycat, the creature changes its shape to match anything it sees, and animosity quickly builds among the team as each member blames the others for acts of malice.2
Ecto-1 pulls up to a posh residence, where the Ghostbusters and Slimer meet their client, Mrs. Campbell. A ghost has broken all her china, rearranged her furniture, and scared her dog, Pieface. Egon Spengler runs a preliminary scan with his P.K.E. Meter but finds no supernatural activity. Slimer wanders to the kitchen, where two turkeys are sitting out. One of them hops off the table, changes into the shape of Pieface, and scares the real dog. As the team leaves, the fake Pieface jumps out a window, turns into the No-Ghost logo, and rides off on the back of Ecto-1.
Back at the Firehouse, the team splits up. Winston Zeddemore works on Ecto-1, Ray Stantz and Egon test the Transdimensional Portal, and Peter Venkman and Slimer head down to do laundry. The Metamorph, disguised as a hamburger, lures Slimer away, then takes Peter's form and spills oil on Winston before slipping off as a lamp. The creature impersonates Janine Melnitz to pry into Egon and Ray's work on the portal, then takes Egon's form to cut the lab's power and run off. The arguments escalate until Egon realizes the disguised entity gave itself away by saying something he would never say. He recognizes they are dealing with a Metamorph.
Egon triggers a lockdown using shutters impervious to ectoplasm that he recently installed throughout the building, sealing the Copycat inside. The team searches room by room. In the lab, the Copycat impersonates one of Egon's "brains," tricks him into firing at the Transdimensional Portal, and lets a Terror Dog through. The Ghostbusters blast the creature back and Egon shuts the portal. The Copycat then emerges from a limited-edition Captain Steel comic in the form of the superhero and easily scatters the team.
Ray Stantz remembers that Metamorphs are playful and proposes a trick: get Slimer to coax the Copycat into a copycat game and lure it into taking the form of a ghost so it can be trapped. Slimer calls the creature out, and it imitates him. The two trade insults while the team watches, unsure which is which. Once the real Slimer is drawn to safety with the promise of a candy bar, the Ghostbusters trap the Copycat.
The Copycat is a Metamorph: a shapeshifting ghost with the ability to assume the form of any person, animal, or object it encounters. Because assuming a shape suppresses its P.K.E. signature, the creature is effectively invisible to the P.K.E. Meter as long as it maintains a form, making it one of the most difficult ghosts in the series to locate and identify. It can also replicate the abilities of whatever it copies, not merely its appearance. When impersonating Captain Steel it gains the superhero's powers; when it morphs into a proton stream it moves and behaves like one.
Over the course of the episode the Copycat assumes numerous forms: a cooked turkey, Mrs. Campbell's dog Pieface, the No-Ghost logo on the rear of Ecto-1, a hamburger, Peter Venkman, a lamp, Janine Melnitz, a flower, a vase, a table, Egon Spengler, an armchair, a block of cheese, one of Egon's brain specimens in a jar, a limited-edition Captain Steel comic book, Captain Steel himself, one of Peter's hula girl desk lamps, a proton stream, a footstool, and finally Slimer.
Because a Metamorph has no confirmed true ghost form, it cannot be captured unless it is currently shaped as a ghost. That constraint drives the resolution of the episode: Slimer tricks the Copycat into imitating him, at which point the Ghostbusters have a valid target for their trap. The Copycat's fate after capture remains an open question: whether it stays locked in Slimer's form or goes on shapeshifting among the ghosts already held inside the Containment Unit was never addressed.
The Copycat is voiced by Jesse Goins. One of its signature lines during the episode is "Who you gonna call? Hahahahaha." The character makes two later appearances in IDW comics: a Copycat doll in burger form can be spotted in the bottom row of a Fantastic Land stand on page five of Ghostbusters Issue #6, and the character makes a non-canon cameo on the subscription cover of Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #18.3
The episode featured the regular voice cast of Dave Coulier, Frank Welker, Maurice LaMarche, Arsenio Hall, and Kath Soucie, with guest performances by Adrienne Barbeau and Jesse Goins.1
The episode carries production number 140009.1 Recording sessions were originally scheduled for June 10 and June 12, 1987, but were canceled, and the episode was instead recorded on August 3 and August 7, 1987. Dave Coulier recorded alone on August 7, 1987.1 The episode appears on Vol. 3, Disc 5 of The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection DVD set.2
Slimer sings part of the Ghostbusters theme song during the episode. Ray claims to own the only limited edition of a Captain Steel comic book in existence and reaffirms that Captain Steel is his favorite comic. According to Egon, he never uses the phrase "just because," which is how he deduces that an impostor took his form.
When the Copycat jumps off the No-Ghost logo on the rear of Ecto-1, the original logo briefly blinks on screen. Peter holds out Slimer's favorite chocolate bar to draw the real Slimer to safety; that candy is later identified in "The Two Faces of Slimer" as Triple Caramel Crunchie. The events of this episode are recalled in "Deja Boo."
In both broadcast and DVD order, "The Copycat" follows "Big Trouble With Little Slimer" and precedes "Camping It Up."
Marsha Goodman (1987). Episode Call Sheet and SAG Report, "The Copycat" (1987). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4
Eatock, James & Mangels, Andy (2008). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection booklet, p. 27. CPT Holdings, Inc. ↩ ↩2
Ghostbusters (IDW Publishing). Ghostbusters Issue #6; Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #18 (subscription cover). ↩