To avoid duplicating the exact same content on multiple pages of this site, this post has been deleted, and I refer you to the Filming Locations: 33 St. Mark's Place, New York page for the content that was here. I'll keep the comments open in case you'd like to comment on the stock footage being used in this Monk episode.

More stuff I found on a CD-R I burned about 10 years. This time it's two pieces of multimedia that are no longer on their origin websites. In one case, the origin website is no longer online.

Thanks to GB Fans, I've learned that new photos were added to the gallery at Ghostbusters.com. The new images inspired me to expand upon something I started a few months ago, and make a page here at Spook Central dedicated to the images on Ghostbusters.com. Now you no longer need Flash to view the images and they can be easily downloaded (just right-click on a full-size image and select Save Image As). Amongst the new images on the site is the best quality copy I've seen of the Ghostbusters II photo showing Eugene Levy's deleted role in the film as Louis's cousin Sherman:

Time Inc., the folks who publish People magazine, have done something really cool. They have made every issue (from issue #1 on March 4, 1974 to about a month ago - with some missing in between) available for free viewing on their website. They're in text and page scans, with even the ad pages scanned in, and searchable to a very limited degree. You can even download each magazine in its entirety in PDF format! All for FREE! They've also done something similar with their flagship publication, Time Magazine, only without the PDF's and page scans. I wish all publishers would do this. You can imagine the vast amounts of information, knowledge, and human history sitting in their vaults never to be seen again.

Below are some of the People and Time articles I found about Ghostbusters and/or cast and crew from the movies or animated series. There are probably more, but this was all I could find. The search engine on the People site is woefully inadequate. It only pulled up the GB2 premiere article. Everything else I found manually by browsing and looking through the pages. If you find something that I didn't, post a comment with the links. Be sure to state what issue and "page" number (the last set of digits in the file name is the "page" number I'm going by, not the actual page numbers in the magazines). FYI: If you have a program that can extract images from PDFs (most are shareware), you're better off extracting the page scans out of the PDFs rather than downloading them from the site (the PDFs are on the main page for each issue). The images in the PDFs are roughly 1680x2200, which is MUCH larger than anything on the site.

• May 28, 1984 - The Hot New Flicks (pages 43 & 44)
  The kings of comedy this season may be Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Harold (Stripes) Ramis, soon to be known as Ghostbusters. The trio play three parapsychologists who lose their grant and moonlight, if you will, as eccentric exorcists. Recalls Ramis of the filming, "Danny, Bill and I had to act against characters who weren't there. 'Look scared' was the main direction. Then, 'Look more scared.'"


• June 4, 1984 - GB1 Ad, page 101


• June 18, 1984 - GB1 Review, page 11


• April 3, 1989 - Kristy McNichol Describes the Breakdown That Nearly Killed Her Career
  (Kristy was the blonde girl in the sub in the EGB ep "Dry Spell", though you probably know her best from the television series "Empty Nest" and "Family".)


• July 3, 1989 - GB2 Review, pages 15 & 16


• July 3, 1989 - GB2 1989 Premiere


• Celebrity GB Fan - Ashley Tisdale (Oct. 27, 2008)
  Does High School Musical's resident diva believe in the supernatural? "No, not really," she says. "I love ghost movies, though. Ghostbusters was a good one."


• Celebrity GB Fan - Michael Cera (June 27, 2009)
  "Ghostbusters is kind of like the reason I wanted to be an actor." - The Year One star Michael Cera, when asked about his favorite Harold Ramis (who played Egon) movie, to E! News

• May 6, 1929 - Science: Ghostbusting
  Yes, about 50 years before Filmation had a television series with the name, and 55 years before the famous movie, the words "Ghostbuster" and "Ghostbusting" appeared in Time Magazine - possibly for the very first time anywhere. If Filmation never copyrighted the name, Columbia Pictures never should have paid up, as this shows precedent that Filmation didn't create the word/name. Anyway, the article isn't about catching ghosts, but rather busting fake mediums.


• Jan. 3, 2005 - The Many Faces of Bill [Murray]


• July 7, 2009 - Radio Host Casey Kasem Retires
  I though he retired a few years ago when Ryan Seacrest took over. Anyway why would he retire on the exact 39th anniversary of his show, when pushing it one more year and retiring on the 40th anniversary makes much more sense. After all, the show is called American/Casey's Top 40.

I was watching the movie last month and noticed a few things that I didn't notice before. There are a few "cameos" that may have gone unnoticed by many. The list below doesn't include credited cameos, such as Bobby Brown, Jason Reitman, Catherine Reitman, Cheech Marin, or Judy Ovitz (wife of former CAA talent agency boss Mike Ovitz, who was the agent for Murray, Aykroyd, Ramis and Reitman at the time). Screen caps have been cut down, DVD time codes in parenthesis.


Hanging on the walls of the television studio office where Peter films World of the Psychic are photos from real television series. The only two that can be made out clearly are Nakia (1974) and Top Cat (1961). These can be seen in the widescreen version on the left of the frame as Peter walks out just after doing his show.


The guy on the left in the foreground, dining with the woman (Judy Ovitz) who will eventually get slimed moments later, is Peter Mosen. He's an old school Ghosthead, profiled in The Real Ghostbusters magazine, Fall 1990 issue, who even donned a jumpsuit and trotted out his replica Ecto-1 to represent the Ghostbusters for NOW Comics at Comic-Con in August 1988.


I bet you never noticed this one before! I've been watching the movie for 20 years and noticed it for the first time this year! The guy on the far right in the blue jacket is none other than director Ivan Reitman. He had a voice cameo in Ghostbusters (as Zuul and Slimer), but decided to put in an "in the flesh" appearance in the second film - which is only fitting seeing as how he had his kids do the same. Oh, and how do I know that that is Mr. Reitman? Well, it's pretty much an exact match for a shot of him on the set of the movie as seen in the Electronic Press Kit:



Notes & Not Cameos
* Vigo - It has been theorized by me and Chris from Proton Charging that Max von Sydow, who provides the voice of Vigo in Ghostbusters: The Video Game, may be the uncredited voice of Vigo in Ghostbusters II. However, until I have concrete proof - an interview with Mr. von Sydow would be nice - this is only a theory and not a legit hidden cameo.

* 55 Central Park West & Church - I thought that these buildings seen at 80:47 were Dana's apartment building and the church next door. Using Google Maps I've determined that they are NOT those buildings, but actually a row of buildings on the other side of Central Park. The buildings are, from left to right, a temple located at roughly 841 5th Ave. going up to an apartment building at the corner of E. 61st St. and 5th Ave.

* Al Franken - I originally thought that the suspicious-looking guy in the background of the television studio office at 11:03 was Al Franken, but the general consensus is that it's not him. I can buy that, but I'll still never be able to watch that scene without that guy sticking out to me.

It was twenty years ago today, on June 16, 1989, that Ghostbusters II premiered in theaters all across the United States. I wasn't amongst the lucky fans who got to see it that day, but I did get to see it in the theater during its initial run. I went with my mom and sister to the theater at Roosevelt Field mall in Garden City, New York, probably as a present for my 12th birthday (June 25th). I don't remember too much from that day...I don't even know if the theater is still there as that mall has changed SO much in these past twenty years...but I do remember seeing Slimer fly out from the Statue of Liberty at the end, which is a bit missing from all of the home video versions. The theater was a multiplex, and I also remember that after Ghostbusters II was done, we snuck in to see Star Trek V.

Anyway, in honor of this special anniversary, I present the cast of Ghostbusters II on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Although I should have done it four years ago when the second DVDs first came out, I finally put up Home Video Image Comparison pages for Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. With the Ghostbusters Blu-Ray disc set to be released exactly one month from today, this was probably a good time to add these comparisons as the 2005 DVDs, I suspect, are a good representation of what you'll find on the Blu-Ray disc.

Yes, sadly, I am 100% certain that the Blu-Ray will use the inferior and altered 2005 transfer instead of something that actually resembles the original film print. Common sense says that Sony didn't go through the trouble of doing the high-definition transfer back in 2005 just so they could resample it down to standard definition for DVD. You know that they had more plans for that transfer than that. I see that transfer in use in the video game trailers (the ones that use film clips). It saddens me to see those clips at the 720 resolution, with colors all blown out and the contrast turned up so high that you see all of the film grain. It looks bad on DVD at 480 resolution, it looks worse at 720 resolution, and it's gonna look like total shit at 1080 resolution on Blu-Ray.

Anyway, if someone can help with high-quality "direct from the disc" Blu-Ray screen captures next month (and maybe even scans of all package art, liner booklet, and the disc itself), that would be of tremendous use to me. I'd like to not only provide Blu-Ray shots for the comparison page, but maybe also try to put together an entire page just for the Blu-Ray, like I did for each of the DVDs.

I just added a lot of new and/or improved video files to the following pages.

On the Ghostbusters Deleted Scenes and Ghostbusters II Deleted Scenes pages, scroll down to the very bottom of each to the Alternate Footage section/playlist. I added new alternate footage and better copies of all that was there, plus clips from the movies to compare to the alternate footage. So all of the alternate footage from the ABC 1/29/1989 broadcast of Ghostbusters is on the page.

In the GB1 Multimedia: Video section, I added these two new videos to the player's playlist:
* WABC Advance Promo for Sun. Jan. 29, 1989 Broadcast
* WABC Promo (Sunday, January 29, 1989)

Many thanks to Lanny White for finding the advance promo, which is advertising the Sunday, January 29, 1989 broadcast that I aired live online two weeks ago for its 20th anniversary. You'll notice that the advance promos asks if you "need a little help?" and the promo that aired before the movie ends with "help is on the way". It's nice that the person(s) at ABC who put these promos together tied them together like that. You won't get that kind of attention to detail these days.

Since I just found the cover art for the Blu-Ray release on Amazon.de, I thought this would be a good time to recap what we know so far. By the way, the Blu-Ray is not yet available for pre-order on the US Amazon site.

Ghostbusters 1&2 Blu-Ray
* Release Date: October 21, 2008.
* Two-disc set with suggested list price of $56.95.
* The set will be one of the first on a 50 Gig Blu-Ray disc instead of the regular 25 Gigs.
* The disc will include games, episodes of the cartoon.
* GB2 only available in set.
* Includes a digital copy of both films.
* Special Feature: A picture-in-picture "Slimer Mode".
* Special Feature: Exclusive featurettes.
* Special Feature: A photo gallery.

Ghostbusters 1&2 DVD Double-Feature Gift Set
* Release Date: October 21, 2008.
* Two-disc set (presumably) with suggested list price of $39.95.
* Bonus Item: Collectible scrapbook.
* Bonus Item: Stay Puft Marshmallow Man figurine.
* Bonus Item: Trading cards.
* Bonus Item: Slime.

(sources: Proton Charging article #1 and article #2)

A quick little update... the calm before the storm, sort of speak.

I have just added three model sheets given to me by writer Steve Perry to The Real Ghostbusters Production Artwork page, and four Scoleri Bros. concept art pieces to the Ghostbusters II Behind The Scenes Page 2. This is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what to expect over the coming weeks. I'm working on almost 100 video files to add to the site, with many more to be recorded. So expect many more updates over the course of the Summer to tide you over until the Ghostbusters video game and other goodies are released at the end of the year.

Also, James Eatock just sent over a sneak peek at the cover of Cereal Geek issue #4. Being the horror issue, you can probably guess what fab foursome adorns the cover. No, not the Zombie Beatles. Try again. Anyway, the issue will be out in July, and you can buy it from the Cereal Geek website (for you European blokes) or from Graham Crackers Comics (for the rest of us) when it becomes available.