Friday, March 23, 2018

Ghostbusters: RGB references in ATC.



As I said here....

There's no longer any doubt in my mind Katie Dippold binged the first couple seasons of RGB when she wrote "Answer The Call". Once you refresh your memory, there's RGB Easter eggs all over ATC.
That just makes me love both things even more!!

So, its been a couple months since I burned through the marathon of RGB, my brain has re-solidified, and now I'm ready to post this.

I kept a notepad file of the stuff that matches up as I went through the episodes, and arranged them in the order they happen in the film.
Since I've seen ATC in the neighborhood of 20 times, I know it like the back of my hand at his point, so keeping it in sequence was easy.

So, here that is.
The event in ATC with the name of the RGB episode it can be found in next to it.
The parallels start when they go to the rock concert.
Up until then, it's a mix of classic movie callbacks, and original Katie Dippold & Paul Feig stuff.
  • Everyone is wacky, no one is normal (the whole show)
  • Busters disguised as wig heads (Flip side)
  • Busters at a rock concert (Banshee bake a cherry pie?)
  • Busters fight a winged gargoyle with jutting rib-cage (look homeward, Ray)
  • Trap mounted on the pack instead of clipped to the belt (the whole show)
  • A disgruntled loser human is the villain (Chicken, he clucked & Ragnarok and roll)
  • Disgruntled loser human was rejected by a girl (Ragnarok and roll)
  • A bad guy copies the Busters technology (Robo-Buster)
  • A machine built by the bad guy causes ghost disturbances (you can't take it with you)
  • A ghost grows out of a person's body (doctor, doctor)
  • Magic mirrors (Janine Melnitz, Ghostbuster)
  • A Buster is in an awkward repressed crush with the secretary (the whole show, but the biggest hints are in "Ragnarok and roll" "Ghost busted", and "Janine, you've changed")
  • A Buster has a traumatic past encounter with ghosts (the Boogieman cometh)
  • A Buster was picked on and bullied as a child (look homeward, Ray)
  • The media turns on the Busters, and skeptical reporters poke around in their business, and a beast is let loose (Egon on the rampage)
  • The secretary wants to be a Buster, but stinks at it (Janine's genie)
  • A Buster is possessed (Mrs Rogers neighborhood & Egon on the rampage)
  • Proton grenade!! (the Boogieman cometh)
  • Hypnotic dancing (play them ragtime boos)
  • Localized time travel transformation of a place (play them ragtime boos)
  • Male and female blobs driving a car (when Halloween was forever)
  • Possessed parade balloons (the revenge of Murray the mantis)
  • Stay Puft as a balloon (the revenge of Murray the mantis)
  • A Buster quotes "Wizard Of Oz", before firing proton stream (Elementary, dear Winston)
  • A ghost manifests as a giant corporate mascot (station identification)
  • A ghost becomes the logo (the copycat)
  • Logo-ghost marching down the street (every episode, title animation)
  • Busters dodge Stay Puft's stomping foot in an alleyway (Mr. Sandman Dream Me A Dream)
  • Busters taunt a giant to lure it (cold cash and hot water)
  • Using an Ecto vehicle as a bomb to close a porthole (ghosts R us)
  • Busters reverse a porthole into a giant ghost trap (knock, knock)
  • A Buster jumps into a porthole with a rope connected to save another Buster (Egon on the rampage)
  • The world in the porthole is a formless void of swirling energy (Venkman's ghost repellers)
  • A Buster comes back with white hair (the hole in the wall gang)
  • Localized time travel repairs city damage (Ragnarok and roll)

Now, some of those could be coincidence, but all of them?
Tsh, no.
No fucking way.
Especially the parade stuff.
And I KNOW they got Rowan's Ghost's movements tracked from the RGB logo ghost, because it's in the behind-the-scenes.

ATC is a big sloppy French-kiss to RGB.
No doubt about it.
And it doesn't bother me.
Like I said above, it enhances my enjoyment of both.
It plays even more into that original GB, RGB, and ATC are parallel dimensions of each other.

Anyway, now that list is handy.
I'll retro-link it back to my RGB DVD review.



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