The Dirty Half-Dozen

4 min read

Air Date: April 1, 1989 | Season: 1 | Episode (air): #32 | Episode (DVD): #09a

Production Number: 166002B | Recorded: August 3, 1988 | Boxset: Vol. 5, Disc 4

The Dirty Half-Dozen is the second episode of a three-part story arc in Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters, continuing directly from Scareface and leading into Sweet Revenge. Ghost gangsters Goolem and Zugg, previously exiled to the South Pole by their boss Scareface for their failure in the earlier episode, return to New York City seeking revenge on Slimer. They incapacitate the Ghostbusters with a sleeping potion, forcing Slimer to assemble six of his closest friends to mount a rescue. The episode title is a play on the 1967 World War II film The Dirty Dozen, with the "half dozen" referring to Slimer's ragtag rescue team.

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Voice Cast

Character	Voice Actor
Slimer / Ecto-1 sounds	Frank Welker
Goolem	Alan Oppenheimer
Zugg	Danny Mann
Chilly Cooper	Cree Summer
Additional voices	Charlie Adler, Jeff Marder

Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler, Peter Venkman, and Winston Zeddemore all appear but spend most of the episode incapacitated.

Plot

Ray Stantz helps Slimer set up a tent for an overnight sleepover on the Firehouse roof, then bids him goodnight. Meanwhile, Goolem and Zugg break free from the ice after tumbling over a waterfall at the South Pole. Zugg still has a vial of sleeping potion and the two declare their return to New York.

They head to the Firehouse but find the Ghostbusters, not Slimer. In a panic, Zugg dumps the entire potion on the four Ghostbusters to keep them unconscious. Goolem is furious the potion is gone, but Zugg proposes they kidnap the Ghostbusters as bait for Slimer. They load the sleeping men into Ecto-1 and drive to a commandeered mansion, not realizing Ecto-1 is leaking oil and leaving a trail. Slimer wakes to find a ransom note pinned to his Stay Puft Marshmallow Man doll.

Slimer recruits his friends one by one: ice cream truck driver Chilly Cooper, Ritz Cafe cook Luigi, and neighborhood regulars Bud, Fred, and Rudy (who is selling miniature Christmas trees early, placing the episode in February). The group follows the oil trail to the mansion. Before storming in, Slimer scouts ahead by phasing through the phone lines. He reports back and the team enters disguised as a cleaning crew. In the confusion, Fred and Slimer turn on a vacuum and suck up Goolem and Zugg, but the ghosts escape and corner Slimer in a kitchen freezer. Slimer disguises himself as a Popsicle, and though Zugg licks him, he is tossed back in disgust. The team reveals themselves and Slimer taunts Goolem into firing energy blasts at the floor, dropping both gangsters into the basement.

Slimer lures Goolem into shooting the main water line. The burst sends Goolem and Zugg rocketing outside into Chilly's waiting ice cream truck. Chilly seals the doors, drives to the harbor, and ejects the pair back into the ocean, freezing them solid again. Back at the Firehouse, nothing wakes the still-sleepwalking Ghostbusters until Slimer opens the kitchen refrigerator, and they sprint in on instinct, finally snapping out of it.

A brief tag shows the penguin from the South Pole still doggedly rowing after Goolem and Zugg.

Characters

Goolem is a mob-style ghost who leads Zugg on orders from his boss Scareface. He is voiced by Alan Oppenheimer in all three episodes of the arc, in a voice similar to his Prime Evil portrayal in Filmation's Ghostbusters. Goolem takes credit for others' plans and reacts to failure with disproportionate rage.

Zugg is Goolem's dim-witted subordinate and Scareface's nephew. He is voiced by Danny Mann. In this episode Zugg accidentally uses Sleepwalking Potion rather than Sleeping Potion on the Ghostbusters, a mistake that ultimately undoes their plan. His simple-minded cheerfulness consistently undermines Goolem's schemes.

Chilly Cooper is a recurring friend of Slimer who drives an ice cream truck through the neighborhood. She is voiced by Cree Summer and proves instrumental to the rescue, both as transport and as the one who traps and disposes of the gangster ghosts.

Slimer's rescue team rounds out the "half dozen": Luigi (Ritz Cafe cook), Bud, Fred (who spots the oil trail in the Firehouse garage), and Rudy (a street vendor). They provide distraction and muscle for the infiltration, entering the mansion disguised as a cleaning crew.

Trivia

Slimer sleeps with Ghostbusters-themed bedsheets and a no-ghost nightcap in this episode.
When Slimer exits the freezer, frost from the cold makes him look like Santa Claus, with a hat and beard of ice.
Based on Rudy's pitch for miniature Christmas trees "sold in advance," the episode is set in February.
Outside the mansion, Rudy invokes the "We ain't afraid of no ghosts" motto.
Zugg used Sleepwalking Potion by mistake rather than a standard Sleeping Potion, which is why the Ghostbusters wander around knocking things onto Goolem and Zugg throughout the second act rather than simply lying still.
The episode was recorded on August 3, 1988, and first aired April 1, 1989.

References

Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters, Season 1, "The Dirty Half-Dozen" (air date April 1, 1989; production no. 166002B)
Ghostbusters Wiki (Fandom), "The Dirty Half-Dozen" article
Ghostbusters Wiki (Fandom), "Zugg" article

The Dirty Half-Dozen

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The Dirty Half-Dozen

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Voice Cast

Plot

Characters

Trivia

References