Friday, July 1, 2016

Ghostbusters: The Lean Years (Part 2)


Previously in the Lean Years series...

Previously in the Countdown To GB16 series...

Ghostbusters- Passing The Torch.


GB16 is two weeks from today!!
We're getting there!

So, this week, I look over with a microscope how I got through the bigass gaps in GB canon, and stayed (barely) sane.


1984


Ghostbusters comes out.
And, I remember at 9 years old being subliminally sick of all these damned ghost and demon stories where you couldn't fight back.
You just had to either gloomily survive the ghosts, or use religious bullshit, and even that seemed to have a 50/50 success rate.

So, as soon as I saw the trailer, and the no-ghost logo, I exclaimed "finally!!!".

Finally a story where you can fight back.
And it was gonna be funny, so laughter was going to be a weapon against fear as much as the rayguns.

I was hooked immediately.
The film itself surpassed expectations.

And, with my recent investigations into my lost memories, I really know why Ghostbusters was a sigh of relief.
"The Demon Murder Case".
That came out just the year before this.
Fuck you, Lorraine Warren, fuck you.
And thank you, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis.
You were the antidote to a lot of childhood trauma.

And that's why I'm excited about GB16, Lorraine Warren has made a big fat comeback with those stupid fuckin' Conjuring movies, so another generation needs a laughter enema to purge that horseshit the way I did as a kid.

Other things that were out in 1984...



A Nightmare On Elm Street, Gremlins, Terminator, and Search For Spock.

These other franchises are going to sync up in interesting ways, so pay attention.


1985

No Ghostbusters. :-(
Had a year to wait for even the damned cartoon, and didn't know at the time it was going to exist.
BUT, we had it on HBO, and a home recorded tape, so that held me over for awhile.

Also, Hurricane Gloria swept through, dropped a couple trees in our lawn, ripped out our power cables, and accelerated our move from the trailer, to the house my dad built next to it.

It took almost three weeks for the power company to get around to us, and wire us up.
We put power to the house instead of the trailer, and moved in, and that was that.

Moved our stuff, had the trailer hauled away for firemen to burn, built dad's garage where the trailer used to be, and there you go.

Only one who missed that fuggin' dump was the cat.

Ever since, I've divided my life into "when we were out in the trailer", and "when we moved out of the trailer".

Big life-changing flick to come out I guess was...hmm...


Freddy's Revenge, I guess.
Thanks to Ghostbusters, I wasn't scared of paranormal anymore, and that one being on HBO started me on the path to digging this franchise.

Gave my friend Steve nightmares though.

Later on "Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter", got me though.
But only because serial killers aren't supernatural, so that shit could happen.
Course, even later on, Jason became supernatural, and that took the scares right out of it for me.
It was all still subliminal though.
I wasn't officially consciously a skeptic yet.

Other flicks out in 1985...



Goonies (the story with that one happened out in the trailer), Fright Night, Rocky 4, and Weird Science.
Honorable mentions to Back To The Future, and Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.


1986


The Real Ghostbusters premieres on ABC.

Again, finally!

Big life changing movie...


Transformers The Muthafuckin' Movie!!!!!

Told all my stories about it here.

Other flicks out in 1986...





Aliens, Labyrinth (miss you, David), Voyage Home, and Stand By Me.

Honorable mentions to The Fly, Manhunter, Howard The Duck, Jason 6, The Wraith, Little Shop Of Horrors (with Rick Moranis!), Karate Kid II, Big Trouble In Little ChinaTop Gun (ARRGGH!!), Maximum Overdrive.

Yeah, I know, it was quite a year.


1987


RGB still on TV.

Big life changing movie...

Shit....can't pick just one....



Its gotta be a four-way tie between Princess Bride, Robocop, Dream Warriors, and Evil Dead 2.
(Ash Williams, the 5th Ghostbuster. ;-))

And I told all those stories in the links.

I think I started going to Sweetser by this time.
Yeah, I know it, because Spaceballs was just a faint murmur when I got there, and had totally come out by '88.

Kinda fitting that Dream Warriors came out the year I ended up in Sweetser, since the place is basically Westin Hills.

Other flicks out in 1987...



Spaceballs (with Rick Moranis!!), Masters Of The Universe, The Monster Squad, and Predator.

Honorable mentions to Lost Boys, Over The Top, The Running Man, Superman 4, Creepshow 2, and Hellraiser.


1988


RGB still on TV.

Big life changing movie...


Alien Nation, I guess.
It's not a fave now, I never watch it, it's not in my collection, but I must have loved the shit out of it, because I watched every episode of the TV series (which started up the very next year), and all the reunion movies.

I'd call that a fandom.
Yep, I was in for the long haul with that one.

Other flicks out in 1988...



Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Beetlejuice, Twins (by Ivan Reitman!!), and The Great Outdoors (with Dan Aykroyd!!).

Honorable mentions to Child's Play, Freddy 4, Willow, They Live, Hellraiser II, The Blob, I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, and The Naked Gun.


1989


Ghostbusters II (again, FINALLY!!!), and RGB still on TV.

Big life changing movie...


Fuggin' BATMAN, man!!!

And now, we start to overlap with "Star Wars: The Lean Years".

And then, the Batman series carries us over into the late 90's, but...we've got some Ghostbusters on TV years left, so....

Other flicks out in 1989....



Pet Sematary, Honey, I Shrunk The Kids (with Rick Moranis!!), Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, and Christmas Vacation.

Honorable mentions go to Back To The Future II, Last Crusade, Final Frontier, Uncle Buck, The Abyss, The Burbs, and Freddy 5.


1990


I finally got Ghostbusters & Ghostbusters II on official home video...


...and RGB was still chugging along, even though by now, it had pretty much jumped the shark.

Big life changing movie....

...it's a two fer...


Arachnophobia, and Ghost.

Go back to my "Princess Bride", link, and the story in there...and I've mis-remembered it all these years!
It's totally wrong!!

I didn't see "Arachnophobia", instead of "Princess Bride", I couldn't possibly have, because they came out in different years!!

I remember now!!!
I saw "Planes, Trains and Automobiles", instead of "Princess Bride", and I saw "Arachnophobia", instead of "Ghost"!!!!

I don't feel as bad now!
"Planes, Trains and Automobiles", is fucking awesome!

Anyhoo, they make fun of "Ghost", in the trailer for GB16, so all of that comes full circle.

And John Goodman went on to make awesome Coen Brothers movies, and everyone thankfully forgets "Arachnophobia".

Other flicks out in 1990...



Total Recall, Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesDarkman, and Gremlins 2
(another franchise born alongside GB).

Honorable mention goes to Misery, Edward Scissorhands, Jacob's Ladder, Predator 2, Nightbreed, Dick Tracy, Robocop 2, Chucky 2, Frankenhooker, Wild At Heart, and Back To The Future 3.


1991


RGB comes to an end.
And it was time for it to go.
Network suits mutilated it.


Also, even though it didn't come out until 2009, the video game occurs here.
Interesting it's set the same year the show died.

So, as far as I knew, the era of Ghostbusters was over forever.
I think maybe the ancillary stuff like figures and comics trickled along for a year or so after, but this was pretty much it.

But, by now, I had other stuff.
1992 had "Batman Returns", and "Batman: The Animated Series".

Anyhoo, big life changing movie...


T fucking 2.

Nuff said.
(But if not, click here)

Other flicks out in 1991...



Undiscovered Country, Silence Of The Lambs, Cape Fear, Freddy's Dead.

Classic Trek ended, Freddy ended, and T2 was the last truly good Terminator movie.
Ghostbusters fizzled out right when everything alongside it in '84 did.

Anyhoo, honorable mentions go to Beauty and The Beast, Addams Family, TMNT2 (arrgghh!!), Bill & Ted 2, Career Opportunities, Thelma & Louise, Hook, Chucky 3, People Under The Stairs, Fisher King, Naked Gun 2, and What About Bob?.

Then, 1992, 1995, and 1997 were Batman movies, plus the aforementioned "BM:TAS". and that took us through until...


1997


Extreme Ghostbusters had its one and only season.
Of episodes, it still played for two seasons.
Syndication, see.


Also, the Alien Nation TV movies lasted until now.


Which feels weird, because the SW Special Editions came out, and they don't feel like they all belong in the same decade.

Eh, the 90's never knew what they wanted to be.
Some stuff asserted itself as Seattle grunge, some of it was goth, and some of it was trying to keep the 80's going as 80's 2, electric boogaloo.
Hey, speaking of!


Batman & Robin killed the Batman franchise.
So, via EGB, GB outlived Batman after all.

Hmm, can't think of any big life story for this year, except for how much I was anticipating the SW prequels.
And, I was working at Wal-Mart.
Snnkkt, ptooey.


Other flicks of 1997...



Men In Black (fitting!), Alien Resurrection (I guess the story with this is my other big life story thingie), Austin Powers, and Starship Troopers. 

Honorable mention goes to...screw it, nobody.
I'm tired, I've been writing this all day, and I hate 1997 for personal reasons (Wal-Mart).


Then, prequels got us to '05, Marvel movies got us to '09, then...


The Video Game came out.
But, I wasn't tuned into it yet.

Then, 2011...


The IDW series started with Infestation, and for me, it was the year of hell, which I like even less than 1997.
Looking forward to that dumb series kept me sane during massive grief and fear.
And looking back, the Ghostbusters part was the best part, possibly the only good part.

So, it got me back into Ghostbusters without knowing it at the time.
And the Busters saved my sanity yet again.

Thank you, IDW.

And then, yadda yadda, and we're up to now.

So, that's what filled the gaps.
In the real world.
Next time, I'll try to fanfic what went on in the movie world.

Ooof, that went way longer than I planned.

THE END!!!!!


2 comments:

B. D. said...

Do you still like "The Goonies"? I've caught parts of it on TV and such again over the years and good lord parts of it are painfully awkward and really badly acted and cheesy. In particular I'm guessing Joe Pantoliano isn't terribly proud of this movie.

"Big life story"...in 1997? YOU FOUND JASON-WORLD!!!! It had to have been 1997, what year were you making fun of $Legion$ for "NFL Blitz"? Okay, maybe it was 1998. I really don't know. I know *I* found J-World in 1997 because the first thing I did with everyone there was post my big "top 25 SNES Games of ALL TIME" list and fight with $Legion$ about "Star Fox 64." Which was 1997.

Did you know that the costliest movie of the 1980s was actually Roger Rabbit? $70 million. T2 cost $100 million four years later.

Diacanu said...



Oh, holy shit you're right!
It was 1997!
Next year, I'm gonna have to have a big anniversary post.

Yeah, I even had a flashback to being at Wal-Mart in the break room plotting how next I was going to zing $Legion$ or Josh.

Well, thanks for catching it, these comments add that back in.
My tired ass brain tried to think of things like the Goonies story, and could only remember "punch in, move pallets, punch out, uhhhh...".

As for Goonies as a movie....yeah, it's mostly nostalgia.
Gotta admit.
The Cyndi Lauper video that goes with it is actually better.
Seriously.

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