9 Things We Learned From Crackle’s ‘Cleanin’ Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters’

Dan Aykroyd’s original Ghostbusters script was set in the future and leaned heavily on science fiction, with many parts taking place in outer space. Harold Ramis noted that the original plot dealt with “a hole torn in our reality envelope” and led to the Ghostbusters traveling inter-dimensionally into another world. If this version of the movie had been shot, the whole final third of the film would have been special effects. Eventually, director Ivan Reitman convinced Aykroyd to set the film in New York City.

“I said to him, ‘Dan, there’s a great idea here, but I really think it should take place today,” Reitman said. “It should be in a real city on earth, i.e., New York. All this fantastic stuff will be much more impressive set against the reality that we knew.”

Both Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis originally wanted John Candy to play the character of Louis Tully. While the role eventually went to fellow Canadian legend Rick Moranis, Reitman relayed a story about Candy wanting to take the character in a different direction.

“[Candy] called back and he said, ‘Well, I’m thinking of doing him in a German accent, and he’s gotta have dogs… big German Shepherds,'” Reitman said. “And I said, ‘But John, you can’t have dogs at all because part of the plot is there are these dogs on the roof and people are going to get confused and the story’s complicated enough.’ And he just got adamant that he had to be a German person and he had to have German Shepherds.”

Ramis provided another reason why Candy didn’t appear in Ghostbusters. “John wanted too much money. He kinda got agented right out of the movie.”

Sigourney Weaver not only impacted the film with her on-screen charisma, but the actor’s script note ended up having a major influence on the finished product. Weaver suggested to Reitman that Dana should become possessed in Ghostbusters. His reaction?

“I thought, oh my God am I going to have another John Candy conversation?” 

Eventually, Reitman agreed with Weaver’s note. After a memorable audition that included Sigourney acting like one of the terror dogs, Reitman made a call that would change the movie forever.

Continued Reitman, “I remember calling up Dan and Harold and saying, ‘She was saying she should be possessed, and you know, it sort of makes sense.”‘

“Eddie Murphy, myself, and John were supposed to be the original Ghostbusters,” Aykroyd mentioned in the documentary.

This fact is relatively well-known, but… wow. As much as we all adore Bill Murray and Harold Ramis, who wouldn’t want to see this version of Ghostbusters on the big screen?

“Slimer was intended to be the spirit of John Belushi,” sculpter/puppeteer Mark Siegel divulged in the doc. Added Aykroyd, “Definitely it’s John. No doubt.”

Aykroyd also revealed that he was writing one of John’s lines when he heard that his former SNL castmate had passed away.

The character of Winston Zeddemore was initially supposed to have a much bigger role in Ghostbusters.

“It wasn’t until we got ready to shoot the movie that the part had been rewritten and then totally changed,” Hudson said. “Somebody dropped the script off at the room I was staying in at the Mayflower Hotel in New York; it was actually the night before we started shooting. The character originally comes in on page six and now he’s on page 68, which is really hard for me to come to grips with. I wrestled with that a lot.”

The next morning, Hudson arrived on set to discuss the changes with Reitman. To make matters worse, the production assistants didn’t initially recognize the actor so they wouldn’t let him on set.

Continued Hudson, “It started off being a little frustrating, but it all worked out. The first week was difficult.”

The shooting script for Ghostbusters referred to Slimer as a “misshapen potato with a pushed-in face and spindly arms,” which, c’mon guys… rude. He may be a ghost, but he’s a ghost with feelings.

Slimer got his now iconic name from the classic line “He slimed me.” Initially, the specter was named “Onionhead.”

“Ghostbusters, whaddaya want?!”

Potts not only discussed the potential Janine/Egon romance in the documentary, but she also talked about how her nanny helped her capture the role of Janine.

“I remember at the time I had a Brazilian nanny who was really cute, and she had a very whimsical way of putting herself together,” Potts revealed. “I said, ‘I got this funny audition, and I’d like you to dress me for it.'”

The rest, as they say, is history.

As far as movie climaxes go, it’s difficult to top the arrival of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. But interestingly enough, Aykroyd’s original script had the delicious, terrifying giant showing up halfway through the movie.

How exactly do you heighten the action after an enormous marshmallow man waddles on-screen? Ramis said that in the original script “things got bigger from there.”