- For the paranormal investigation service from the 1975 television series, see: Ghost Busters
- For other uses, see: Ghostbusters (disambiguation)
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| Type | Paranormal Research Company |
| Location | 110 N. Moore Street, New York City |
| Owner(s) | Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler, Peter Venkman & Winston Zeddemore |
| Featured in | Ghostbusters (1984) |
Ghostbusters, Inc. is a paranormal research and spook control service established to deal with the rising threat of ghostly activity in New York City caused by various doomsday events. It originates from the 1984 supernatural-comedy film Ghostbusters and its subsequent spin-offs.
Overview
Founding
Ghostbusters, Inc. originally began its existence through the combined research of parapsychology professors Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler and (to a lesser degree) Peter Venkman, seemingly unimpressive faculty members of Columbia University who often found themselves scrutinized by their superiors for their seemingly fruitless research and ethically questionable experiments. Fortunately for them, but unfortunately for the people of New York, paranormal activity slowly began to see a significant increase across the city due to the effects of an inter-dimensional cross rip caused by the slow manifestation of the ancient Sumerian deity known as Gozer, a summoning made possible due to the past actions of the Shandor Architectural Firm which had designed a special building which would serve as a conduit for Gozer's arrival.
History
Gozer's activities saw a significant increase in ghostly activity, which spurred the young Columbia professors into starting their own ghost hunting business, the "Ghostbusters", which they would use to continue their paranormal research as well as study the ectoplasmic and psychic fluctuations which now permeated throughout the city. Now outfitted with the latest in ghost hunting equipment courtesy of Egon Spengler, as well as a fully comprehensive guide on ghosts courtesy of Tobin's Spirit Guide, their first mission at Sedgewick Hotel proving a resounding success after capturing the gluttonous spirit known as Slimer. Shortly after their founding, the Ghostbusters hired their newest recruit, Winston Zeddemore who would remain a permanent part of their team and from there the Ghostbusters enjoyed mixed to fruitful success as they were regularly called in to deal with the many dangerous threats caused by the ghosts that began manifesting throughout many parts of the city. These battles gradually led to an official confrontation with the source of the anomalies, Gozer itself which had finally materialized in the city's Shandor Apartments building, with the group eventually defeating the dark entity after a monstrous battle with its marshmallow-based avatar.
Their battle against Gozer would result in great publicity for the Ghostbusters and earn them more business than ever as they went on several more escapades against many other dangerous foes who appeared as a result of Gozer's initial disturbances, with paranormal activity constantly fluctuating at irregular intervals, with some days involving uneventful standard hauntings while others saw disaster-level events due to the arrival of similar demonic tyrants, such as Samhain and Cathulhu drawn by Gozer's defeat, but each of these many deadly encounters were dealt with accordingly by Ghostbusters, Inc. ingenuity, and they were even surprisingly aided at times by their first captured ghost, Slimer.
Unfortunately, the company found itself regularly antagonized by city officials and the press who devalued their achievements by passing them off as dangerous hoaxes, which was only made worse by decreasing spectral activity, eventually leading to a major lawsuit against Ghostbusters, Inc. five years after their founding, resulting in them being barred from their research and losing their business, with Ghostbusters, Inc. being forced to become a children's party entertainment service run out of Ray's Occult Books. This would not deter them however, as the Ghostbusters would eventually reunite and regain their former business following a resurgence of ghostly activity as a result of the ghostly return of the ancient Carpathian sorcerer, Prince Vigo Von Homburg Deutschendorf who sought to conquer the world in a bloody siege. Fortunately the Ghostbusters were once again successful against this new threat and their business saw a great boom made all the more better by new mayor Jock Mulligan's strong support for the ghost hunting enterprise.
The Ghostbusters continued success would eventually attract the attention of the Cult of Gozer and its Shandor Foundation led by their new leader who sought to take Gozer's power for himself and unleash his own dark apocalypse upon the world. The activities by the undead cult would naturally see another major increase in spectral activity, forcing the Ghostbusters to take on another rookie recruit to deal with the rising threats. This eventually led to a series of confrontations in various buildings and facilities that had all fallen under the influence of the Cult of Gozer, putting the Ghostbusters against countless dangerous foes and demons that truly tested their mettle. This eventually culminated in a confrontation with the dark leader of the cult, Ivo Shandor himself who had returned from the grave and possessed the body of the city's mayor Jock Mulligan to enact his plans of taking Gozer's power for himself, eventually becoming a demonic god-like being hellbent on unleashing his evil upon the world. Fortunately, the Ghostbusters were once more successful against this new threat, easily making "breakfast" out of the wannabe dark god and saving the world once more from a hellish fate.
Success would follow the Ghostbusters for some time, but as always, the constantly unpredictable comings and goings of major spectral forces would lead to good days and slow days for Ghostbusters, Inc., and unfortunately, ghostly activity would drop significantly by the late-90's, forcing the Ghostbusters out of business and many of the founding members went their own separate ways and started their own new careers, with the exception of Egon who remained as dedicated to the pursuit of ghost hunting as ever and even found some success in establishing new generations of Ghostbusters at times.
Firehouse Headquarters
The company's main headquarters is a famous little firehouse on 110 N. Moore Street where most of its members resided during the peak of their careers and carried out much of their research. The firehouse had originally been abandoned for quite some and fell under the sale of Century 21 Real Estate. The company's realtor Mrs. Scott eventually sold the firehouse to Stantz, Venkman and Spengler for their use as Ghostbusters, Inc., however, Spengler initially considered the building too structurally unsound for their work time, taking note of the bad wiring and bad neighborhood, but his concerns were not heeded as the child-like Stantz was far more enthusiastic about the firehouse's amusing slide pole, thus officiating the purchase.
Following the purchase, Stantz and Spengler completely renovated much of the interior, turning the garage into a proper office and makeshift laboratory for their research as well as renovating the second floor with additional research equipment for repairing, improving and developing their ecto equipment while using the old firehouse bedrooms as their living quarters complete with fully equipped kitchen. The basement was also overhauled to now contain the highly advanced Ecto Containment Unit, a unique digital storage device designed to imprison captured ghosts, which would be of great importance to the firehouse as well as a source of great concern many a times due to risks of possible leaks.
Tobin's Spirit Guide
Staff
Founding Members
| Peter Venkman | Description |
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| Ray Stantz | Description |
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| Egon Spengler | Description |
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| Winston Zeddemore | Description |
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Recruits
| "Rookie" | Description |
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| "The last guy" | Description |
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| Kylie Griffin | Description |
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| Roland Jackson | Description |
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| Eduardo Rivera | Description |
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| Garrett Miller | Description |
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| Slimer | Description |
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Secretary
| Janine Melnitz | Description |
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Accountant
| Louis Tully | Description |
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Equipment
Ecto Containment Unit
Affiliates & Tie-Ins
Appearances
The following is a list of mentions or appearances of Ghostbusters, Inc. as an actual or ambiguously factual business in works of fiction, along with appearances by members of Ghostbusters, Inc. in other media or instances of their logos or business advertisements being seen or mentioned in-universe. This is not a list of parody appearances or of instances in media where clips from the Ghostbusters films or cartoons were shown, or of characters in other media talking about Ghostbusters as a work of fiction rather than as a business.
- Ghostbusters franchise (all media)
- Knight Rider (S3EP04) (1984)
- Urusei Yatsura (S3EP26) (1984)
- The Earth Day Special (1990)
- Casper (1995)
- The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper (S2E02) (1996)
- 3rd Rock From The Sun (S3E05) (1997)
- Men In Black: The Series (S3E11) (1998)
Trivia
- The real location of the Ghostbusters, Inc. firehouse is actually the Hook & Ladder Company 8 Firehouse in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan at 14 North Moore Street. The firehouse was built in 1903 and originally served as a fire station for the New York City Fire Department.