THURSDAY THEME PARK: Ghostbusters at Universal Studios
The recent release of The Real Ghostbusters cartoon series on DVD got me thinking about Universal Studios back in the early ’90s when they still had the…
Ghostbusters Spooktacular Show
In the early to mid 1990s, the Ghostbusters were the top stars at Universal Studios Florida, at least in my eyes. Not only did they drive Ecto-1 around the park fully-dressed for the occasion, but they also had a fantastic stage show featuring Slimer, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, and a whole lot of ghostbustin’.
Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of great videos of the Ghostbusters Spooktacular attraction out there, as video cameras were not quite as common in the early ’90s as they are today. There are a couple of YouTube videos that are decent, but aren’t really something that you’d want to sit down and watch from beginning to end. Fortunately, Universal Studios released an official video called Universal Studios Florida: The Magic Of Movies that contains really great footage of the Ghostbusters in action:
It’s not the entire show but at least you can get a feel for it and remember what was so much fun about seeing Venkman, Stanz, Spengler, and Zeddemore blast away with their proton packs live and in-person.
There are actually 9 parts to that video on YouTube, taking you on a complete tour of Universal Studios’ attractions as they were in the early ’90s. Good stuff.
More great Ghostbusters Spooktacular videos can be found here, including a commercial for the attraction.
So what became of Universal Studios Florida’s version of the Ecto-1? It appears that it was sold in a stripped-down condition to a collector for around $45,000 and he’s been restoring it ever since:
Be sure to visit TheEcto1.com for photos of the restoration process (especially in this forum thread). I’d love to see this thing driving around on the streets.
Ultimately, the Ghostbusters attraction area was replaced with a show based on Twister and, until recently, the facade of the firehouse remained relatively untouched, with only the Ghostbusters-specific items removed from the outside. However, the upcoming Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit roller coaster has now carved giant a hole right through it, leaving little hope for a return to the ghostbusting days of old:
Such a sad sight to see.
Did you ever see the Ghostbusters attraction at Universal Studios? Do you miss it? Let me know in the comments.
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You know the firehouse most likely will get many of the recently removed elements back (other than the window) when they are done building Rockit… they need to test it but the artwork and model showed the building with a hole where the window was for the track to blast through.
The first Ghostbusters show was awesome! The second one, not so much. Kinda like Beetlejuice.
Universal in the 90′s was great. I really miss the Ghostbusters, Beetlejuice, the Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera and Back to the Future…
I MISS THE GHOSTBUSTERS FROM BEING AT UNIVERSAL I LIKE THE SECOND VERSION THE BEST WITH LUIS TULLY AND WALTER PECK WHEN I FIRST SAW IT IT LOOKED REAL LIKED THEY ARE SHOOTING AT THE GHOSTS THE TROWERS LOOKED SO REAL LIKE FROM THE MOVIE I WAS 2YR’S WHEN I SAW IT
BACK IN THE 90′S THE REASON WHY THEY CLOSED IT MY COUSIN MARVA TOLD ME A SICK UNIVERSAL GUEST GOT IN THE SHOW AND GOT TOO SICK AND SUED UNIVERSAL AND WAS REPOSIBAL FOR THE CLOSURE SO ANYWAY THERE WAS AN OLD SOUNDSTAGE WHERE MURDER SHE WROTE AND HERCULIES AND XENA USED TO BE AT AFTER THEY CLOSED THE NEW ONE DOWN IT WAS EMPTY FOR YEARS BUT THE GOT ME AN IDEA.IF YOU WANT THE GHOSTBUSTERS BACK TO UNIVERSAL STUDIOS THAT IS THE PLACE THE PUT THE AT THE ABANNDON SOUNDSTAGE WHERE MUDER SHE WROTE WAS AT
WHEN THEY BRING IT BACK WE WONT BE SAD ABOUT IT BEING GONE FOR A LONGTIME
i saw and i loved! ghostbusters was a awsome show. did you see the live show they did with beatlejuice. just seeing this site brings back a lot of memories.
new films should be out in 2012…………so bring back the show, eco 1 and the firehouse.
Just wanted to give you a heads up that your article isn’t 100% accurate about the sale of the Ecto-1.
A fellow by the name of Paul did indeed buy the Ecto-1 from Universal, and it was indeed stripped down. But he was able to make a deal with Universal for the roofrack that belonged on the car, and he didn’t pay $45,000 for the car, that’s how much he sold the car when he was done restoring it to 100% movie accuracy.