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Venk-Man! is the 109th episode of The Real Ghostbusters by air date, first broadcast on November 11, 1989 during the show's fifth season. Written by Richard Mueller, it is a fifteen-minute episode in which Peter Venkman is accidentally given superpowers and reinvents himself as a costumed hero called "Venk-Man," with Slimer as his sidekick.1
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In his laboratory, Egon Spengler runs a set of tests on Slimer using a Proton Electroencephalograph combined with a Particle Thrower. The new ghost ray is meant to make Slimer itch, but instead it makes him laugh. Ray Stantz looks in, worried for Slimer, and Egon explains the circuit board is missing a resistor and that he may have accidentally isolated a ghost's pleasure center.
Across the hall, Peter is loading up a weight bench to get in shape for the beach. He piles on too much weight, gets flipped into the air, and crashes onto Egon's test rig, where a stray proton ray strikes him. Peter wakes up in bed surrounded by the others, glowing, suddenly able to fly, and bulked up with enormous strength.
On a call at a museum, the team can't get a clear shot at a ghost without hitting the statues. Peter steps in, shrugs off the ghost's attack, grabs it by the tail, and stuffs it straight into an open trap, ignoring the usual safety steps. Photographers crowd around and the press christens him "Venk-Man." Peter leans into the fame, putting on a homemade superhero costume and recruiting Slimer, dubbed "Super Spud," as his sidekick. The two go on patrol together, including a stop at the zoo to deal with a Mouse-Ghost, a rat-like entity that had been menacing the elephants. Winston Zeddemore grows fed up with the media circus, and Janine Melnitz is buried under calls from people who only want to talk to Venk-Man.
Egon delivers the bad news: the circuit boards from his experiment have self-destructed, and Peter's powers are only temporary and could vanish at any moment. He has already warned Peter, who is too cocky to listen. While answering a haunting at the Brooklyn Ironworks, Venk-Man's strength fails him mid-fight against the Ironworks Spook, a two-headed ghost. He loses his powers entirely and nearly falls into a vat. Slimer can't lift him, so Ray blasts the ghost, Winston traps it, and Winston pulls Peter and Slimer to safety. In the basement afterward, a chastened Peter burns the costumes and apologizes for being a "meat head." The team makes up over a suggestion of pizza, with Peter asking for two, one for Venk-Man and one for Super Spud.
The episode carries production number 201019 and was recorded on July 12, 1989.2 It aired between The Halloween Door and Trading Faces in broadcast order; in the home-video running order it falls between Loose Screws and Slimer Streak. On the DVD release, it is catalogued as episode 113A and appears on Vol. 4, Disc 3 of The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection. The regular voice cast for this run of the series included Dave Coulier as Peter, Frank Welker as Ray and Slimer, Maurice LaMarche as Egon, Buster Jones as Winston, and Kath Soucie as Janine.
"Venk-Man!" is the only episode of the series whose title card uses lowercase letters. During his early enthusiasm Peter jokingly calls himself "The Incredible Hunk," a riff on the Incredible Hulk. The pairing of Venk-Man and his pet sidekick Super Spud echoes Superman and his dog Krypto. Venk-Man also turns up as a guest on an Oprah-style talk show called "Okrah," dispensing teen dating tips, and at one point he and Super Spud are headed to the Waldorf Astoria when they are diverted to the Ironworks call.