Okay, let’s have a real quick show of hands… how many of you out there in Ghostheadland were first exposed to the original Ghostbusters film not in the theaters, not on home video, but on the original ABC “Sunday Night at the Movies” airing of the film?
The event atmosphere surrounding the national broadcast television premieres of films has all but dissipated in this on-demand, streaming, DVD/Blu-raying, bit-torrenting, digital cableing world that we live in, so even the thought of being excited for a movie to air on ABC might be lost on some of the younger ‘heads out there. But let me tell you, when a new release film was going to air on TV back in the “good-old days”, you were sitting in your family room with the VCR cued up and the remote in-hand to record it. Video rentals, especially in the small remote town in Colorado that I’m from, were a special occasion reserved for weekends or birthday parties. And forget owning VHS tapes. They certainly weren’t as cheap as the home video items that currently populate the five dollar bin at your local Wal-Mart. Waiting for the movie to air on broadcast TV (unless you had a friend or relative cool enough to tape the movie off HBO for you) was the ONLY way that to feasibly own a copy of the original Ghostbusters film.
So, my strong love affair with Ghostbusters insisted upon one Sunday evening (best I can recall circa-1987), where I monopolized the two TVs in the Benjamin household. One to record the movie, and the other for me to watch as I very slowly and deliberately took at least an hour to get ready for bed, much to my parents chagrin. What can I say, Sunday Night at the Movies interfered with bedtime for this then six-year old.
Ghostbusters airing on ABC’s Sunday Night at the Movies certainly was an event that was not to be missed and for me, it was recorded from start to finish on a Memorex tape that has survived nearing a thousand views. That tape and I stood through thick and thin, through attention moving from Ghostbusters to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and then moving to the ladies, the Sunday Night at the Movies version of the film followed no matter where I went. And when Ghostbusters II aired on HBO, and my grandfather was kind enough to tape it for me, the stalwart Memorex tape was joined by its companion. And they endured for years to come…
It’s for this reason that I’m going to come clean and make a true confession that no true Ghosthead should ever have to admit:
I hadn’t seen the true theatrical version of Ghostbusters until my early teenage years.
Yes, yes, I know – that’s about as shocking of a revelation as telling Star Wars geeks that you never saw the first two films but loved Return of the Jedi — but until I got older and wiser, I never knew of difference between the Sunday Night at the Movies version that I had watched over and over and held near and dear to my heart… and the store-bought VHS version that fate would put into my hands somewhere around 1992/1993.
Getting home from the store that night and popping in the true version of Ghostbusters was like seeing it for the first time. Pete Venkman was a bad-ass bursting out of the ballroom doors at the Sedgewick and not exclaiming a sentiment about joy that I couldn’t make sense of, but informing the world they had kicked some ass. Walter Peck apparently lacked necessary genitalia instead of being “a rodent of some sort.” And my God, there was a whole missing scene where Ray got a happy ending.
It was that moment, seeing the first film for the “first time”, that really got be back into the franchise that I loved as a kid but had waned away from as I hit junior and senior high school. Combined with a visit to Universal Studios in Florida shortly after, the purchase of the first Ghostbusters movie and my rekindled interest was the main reason that fate steered me to Alta Vista the moment that I ventured onto “the internet” and discovered the Ghostbusters Homepage.
And here I am, another Private Sector column waxing nostalgic again. It’s hard not to venture into the past during the holiday season, and especially as I’m sitting in my old bedroom, visiting my folks for Christmas… and the old die-hard Memorex tape of the Ghostbusters Sunday Night at the Movies showing sits directly in front of me on the shelf…
Happy Holidays from myself and from the fantastic proprietors of the websites in which you’re reading The Private Sector. The column will be on hiatus next week as I take a much needed vacation (and finally get to researching and interviewing folks for a long-planned column) but we’ll be back in 2010 with all-new ways for you to kill time at your favorite Ghostbusters websites. As always, if you have questions, comments, or need a sponsor as you venture into a fierce hot dog eating competition, I’m always here for you by emailing netsolo@aol.com.
[The Private Sector is a weekly syndicated column written by Troy Benjamin presented every Wednesday on Proton Charging, Ghostbusters.net and GB Fans as an op-ed look at the goings on in the world of the Ghostbusters franchise. Learn more about Troy at www.troybenjamin.com]
I luckily received a VHS copy at an early birthday,so I came into this world with Ghostbusters at my side and much like Troy,my original video tape that has endured countless playbacks still sits on the video shelf,right along side it is Ghostbusters II that my uncle taped off HBO for me. I do remember those sunday nights at the movies on ABC…it definitely helped ease the pain of knowing I had to get to bed shortly after just to wake up for school in the morning. Not to mention,the ABC Ghostbusters Prime-Time Halloween Special,”The Halloween Door”…me and my cousin were so excited we watched it together in full jumpsuit and kenner proton pack,with kenner ghost trap. Ghostbusters is definitely something amazing and special and to have grown up with it i feel very fortunate and just hope it will keep going long enough for a child of mine to enjoy. Merry Christmas everybody!
i actually still have it on VHS from the first time it aired on sunday night! this brought back a lot of memories! Keep up the Great work on your articles Net. Happy Holidays to all!
This sounds very familiar, almost point for point, although it was the 1986 Christmas showing on ITV for me! I still maintain the ‘knockabout of pure fun’ line is better delivered!
Like RobBritton, i had mine taped off ITV. I watched that VHS so many times that even to this day, when I’m watching my Blu-Ray, at certain points i’m expecting the advert breaks to kick in!
Sadly my copy of this very airing that my late-grandmother taped for me that night is long since gone…Don’t get me wrong – I still ahve the tape, but somewhere in my adolesence it got taped over…Not that my “Ghostheadom” has ever wained [which it only has ONCE at age 10 with TMNT], I guess I just figured that since I had a BIZILLION other copies of the 1rst Ghostbusters, this one wasn’t a neccessity…And then in the late ’90’s having perused Paul’s site, remembered that there were MAJOR differences in some scenes of this TV cut…
I’ve been kicking myself ever since…You can imagine that when Paul “aired” that cut again on his site I was as giddy as one can be…Well – Barring the horrid buffering…
Oh my gosh! This is how I found Ghostbusters as well. I had a copy of GB on VHS, but it was broken when we opened it and so I was relegated to the taped TV version. It was at least 10 years later, in my early teens that I went and saw Ghostbusters at a midnight screening and saw the swears and infamous Ray and ghost scene. I originally thought these were deleted scenes (haha). I immediately found a copy of Ghsotbusters on VHS and would get sick watching it because the pan and scan job was so terrible. The pan and scan of the ABC presentation wasn’t that bad. they at least show the newspaper clippings during the montage! Great article! Took me back, too!
It’s funny how “Taped-from-TV” has been replaced today with “Downloaded-from-Bittorrent”. (I do not support illegal downloading!)
I remember asking my parents to buy me a VHS copy of Ghostbusters, but being told by my Dad “I’ll tape it for you the next time it comes on TV; it’s cheaper that way.” My Dad sure knew how to save a buck.
I’m not sure what happened to that recorded tape. I got a legit VHS copy as a gift in the late 90s and didn’t need it anymore. It was fairly worn out by that time. Plus, Ghostbusters just isn’t the same without Ray getting a late-night surprise from a ghost.
Another great article, Net. Looking forward to reading more in the new year!
Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Star Wars- I ran all those tapes out, luckily my dad found a way to record rented videos onto a blank one. I have your Ghostbusters experience with Back to the Future 1- I prided myself on being a time traveller but our 2 hour memorex tape ran out before the sunday night movie did and I never officially saw the ending of BTTF 1 until 1999.
Thanks guys, you know – I had completely forgotten that Paul “aired” this through Spook Central not all that long ago. Did he air the commercials and all?
I can’t quite empathize with the ABC premiere of GB1, but I TOOOOOTALLY!!! remember when GB2 made it’s basic television premiere on ABC. The promo commercials for that would come on and I’d totally shoot my goon so to speak, waiting for the big night – it was SO exciting. Before that, I remember flipping the channel to HBO when GB2 was on, and since we didn’t actually get HBO, all I could see was a scrambled picture, BUT you could still hear the audio, so I would watch GB2 anyway – audio only – except that is for the occasional, momentary relaxation of the picture scrambling, and you could actually see the clear image. I can’t believe in this digital age I actually put up with, and enjoyed, that mode of viewing. I can’t believe how insanely excited we got for these television premeires so we could own them on full screen VHS, commercial-interrupted, censored, and love every second of it. ….Now we’re a bunch of spoiled, ungrateful bastards!!!
Yeah I was on the tale end of this type of thing, being born in 1990,I honestly don’t know how I first saw the GB’s.
But I do remember my first tape of both the “Official box set” with the big box the GB 1 teaser image on the front and the GB 2 one on the back then each tape cassette had the “Official” movie poster on it, not that I knew that at the time. Sometimes I woudl just look at the art I don’t know why but I’ve always though the posters and art were the coolest part.
Now owning the posters ((Hanging on my wall above my bed to keep the Boogieman and the Grundal at bay.))I look back and think how cool those movies were and how much I’d look at the box cases. I liked the cartoon but the movies were without a doubt my favorite. I can and still do quote the movies any chance I’m given. And while I’m sure I’m not the only one the movies always seemed weird without the swearing.
Yes, my childhood copy of Ghostbusters was the network television premiere on ABC. Did anyone else have the three spots during the movie where it cut to static, or was that a screw-up by our local affiliate? I was not only unaware of the swearing in the original, I was unaware of what happened during those moments of static.
The first, in the library: “You’re right, no KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK”
The second, just after Janine gets the call from Sedgewick: “KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK… serious.”
The last, outside Dana’s rehearsal. “He’s just a friend.” “A friend huh?” “An old friend.” “KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK”.
Anyone else get that? Of course, I memorized the movie with that static in there. I’m actually caught off guard when I watch the blu-ray and those three scenes play without the static.
To the best of my memory, here are the differences in the ABC version.
When Venkman is studying the effect of negative reinforcement on ESP ability, we never find out what “the effect” is.
When Venkman triumphantly bursts out of the ballroom, he sarcastically says, “What a knockabout of pure fun that was!”
Ray’s dream is missing.
Possessed Dana tells Peter, “I want you,” but she doesn’t specify where.
We never find out that Egon is a master of insults: “Your mother!” is missing.
Ray calls Peck “Walty Wick” instead of dickless.
Peter says it is true that Peck is some kind of rodent (he doesn’t know which).
Winston has “seen “STUFF that’ll turn you WHITE!”
Playing off Ray’s earlier comment, Peter calls Peck “Mr. Wick” instead of “Mr. Pecker.”
Confronting Gozer, Peter shouts “Heat ‘em up!” rather than making a phallic joke about the positron colliders in their hands.
What would you say if you saw a 100-foot marshmallow man heading right for you? You WON’T say “Aw SHIT!” and you WON’T say “mother pus-bucket”
We are not treated to Peter’s alternate plan of dealing with Stay Puft, with him being a sailor and all.
Last but not least, viewers were left wondering what the superintendent would think about the damage to the building.
Sorry, one more from above.
We don’t get the buggy driver’s opinion of possessed Louis’s behavior.
In case you didn’t realize I suck, here’s one more that I missed.
Dana’s reaction to her kitchen door glowing and bulging is “Oh no.”
# Ectofiend – Posted December 23, 2009 at 6:07 AM
I’ve been kicking myself ever since…You can imagine that when Paul “aired” that cut again on his site I was as giddy as one can be…Well – Barring the horrid buffering…
You guys just won’t let me forget about the horrible buffering problems! Hey, it was my first time doing internet video streaming, after all. If I ever find a copy of the original ABC airing of GB2, I’ll try it again and promise that it’ll be a much better experience.
# NET – Posted December 23, 2009 at 1:24 PM
Thanks guys, you know – I had completely forgotten that Paul “aired” this through Spook Central not all that long ago. Did he air the commercials and all?
Yup, commercials and all. Aired back on January 29, 2009 on the 20th anniversary of the particular ABC broadcast that I found on tape. The video can be viewed here:
http://www.ecto-web.org/~spookcentral/stuff/gb1_1-29-1989.htm
Hmmm.. I have one older than this. It’s a tape of the first time it ever aired on network TV. If I had any idea where my VCR is, I could put it up.