Here to celebrate not only the 26th anniversary of the classic film, Ghostbusters, it’s also the first anniversary of Cross the Streams Radio Show.
This time, Matt Prov calls up and interviews Epic Win Burlesque, who will be doing their best rendition of Ghostbusters. Besides the interview we have plenty of other things to discuss about.
We hope anyone with any concerns or questions or hate mail, please write to Brendan, Matt or Drew at ctsradioshow@gmail.com
Here are the items on this episode.
Intro & Monologue
Matt Prov’s Interview with the people behind EPIC WIN Burlesque “GHOSTBUSTERS!”
Commercial-Ghostbusters 2 Alarm Clock
Roundtable with Mike Tigani from the Ontario Ghostbusters and Michelle Goodridge, a Ghostbusters Fan. Thing we talk about are:
Men in Black 3D (Matt Prov Rant)
Sims 3 – Expansion Pack
Improv Everywhere Ghostbusters video
Ivan told Ernie they have a second draft
Fujishoji releases pachinko machine in Japan – Ghostabustas!
Ontario Ghostbusters Updates!
Cross the Streams at Fan Expo
Commercial-Kurt Fuller Ad
Goodbyes & Bill Murray Prank Call to Wal-Mart
Bloopers
Episode 7
Special Guests: Epic Win Burlesque,Mike Tigani from the Ontario Ghostbusters and Michelle Goodridge (just a Ghostbusters Fan)
Following Cross the Streams’ appearance at the Toronto Comic Con last weekend, the Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet posted this clip of unused footage on YouTube… Unfortunately, that unused footage was of our interview!
On March 27th, 2010, correspondents Brendan and Matt went to the Toronto Comic Con armed with a camera, microphone, proton packs and their friend Trevor. Both men run into Ontario Ghostbuster, Mike Tigani who teamed up with pair and ventured to find Ernie for an Interview.
The 3 busters chatted it up with Ernie and had planned and interview, and he was nice enough to answer a few questions they had to ask right there and then.
Here is a transcript of a question Brendan asked Ernie when meeting in person and catching up after the previous interview that was held via phone.
Brendan Mertens:Ernie, what do you have to say to the woman who dates us, die hard Ghostbuster Fans? Do you owe them an apology?
Ernie Hudson: (laughs) It’s like baseball. They may not like the sport, but they’ll have to play along if they want to be with the guy.
Shortly after the meet n’ greet between everyone, and Just before the Interview, Ernie opted to pose with all 3 Die Hard Ghostbuster Fans. However, just after the photo op and signing it, the fire alarms went off. Interfering with the interview he had been slotted.
The trio then found themselves being asked to leave the building due to the alarm. The interview had to be post pond to a further ate, but fear not Ghostbuster/Winston fans, those questions you have emailed in will be answered in all good time.
We hope all enjoy the News Bulletin that Matt and Brendan have put together for us.
Cross the Streams Correspondents Brendan and Matt are currently in Toronto at the Wizard Comic Convention… Hopefully they’ve met up with Ernie Hudson and are asking him all the questions you loyal listeners submitted!
If you’re going to be at the Comic Con too, Matt will be dressed in full Ghostbusters garb fulfilling the role of “that guy” that dressed up as a GB!!!
Stay Tuned for updates…
*Update* Brendan and Matt passed along this pic of them with Ernie and some other guy named Mike!?
During his travels through YouTube, Brendan discovered this nugget of GB history – Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray plugging a little, unknown movie on the stage of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. After watching this clip, I wish I was alive at a time when Bill Murray was actually enthused about something GB related!
The audience reaction to the teaser clip alone is worth watching this interview! Enjoy…
There were few things that you looked forward to in any given elementary school day: recess, getting to see the cute sixth-grade teacher Mrs. Bull who was a good twenty years your senior, running home from the bus to catch cartoons in the afternoon, and… oh yeah, before it became un-cool to bring your own lunch to school — lunchtime…
I was among the fortunate who were blessed with a new lunchbox every year, and looking back – it was interesting the gimmicks and devices that were used to sell things to us to occupy those lunchboxes year after year.
I’m sure you already know where I’m going with this: Ecto-Cooler.
But bear with me while I build dramatic tension a bit… Gotta give the people what they pay for. Wait; do I get paid for this? Guys? Anyway…
I could wax nostalgic for pages and pages about all the food stuffs that were available for my school lunch as a kid (Dunkaroos, Fruit by the Foot), but from around 1981 to 1990ish, there was a war being fought on the grocery store shelves.
The war to be the sugar water “drink” of choice in kids’ lunchboxes.
Think about it, Hi-C, Kool-Aid, Squeez-It, Capri-Sun, I could go on and on with the options that were available for kids to implore their parents to buy for them. Each, of course, had some sort of a gimmick that set them apart from their competition in the hopes that maybe leading you to obesity or diabetes in pouch form would be more appealing than the other guys.
I remember, as a kid, the “juice” isle stretched as far as the eye could see, with all sorts of juice box, pouch, and bottle options to choose from. It only makes sense that the marketing folks would spend countless dollars to make you identify their brand above all others. (Now, juice boxes are relegated to an end cap or a small shelf next to the “real” juices… interesting, no?).
But while Squeez-It and Capri-Sun had unique packaging that was immediately identifiable, Kool-Aid and Hi-C stuck to the tried and true juice box format. So what could they do to get notice? Kool-Aid opted for awesome advertising with the oft Seth MacFarlane parodied Kool-Aid Man, who became more identifiable than any of the flavored drinks they sold. Plus Kool-Aid devised the genius idea of Kool-Aid points, which you could redeem packages of their juices for “Kool” (nyuck, nyuck) usually Kool-Aid Man themed gear.
Hi-C, on the other hand, had me sold the minute they developed a Ghostbusters themed beverage in Ecto-Cooler.
It’s a pretty genius idea, actually. When you think about it on the simplest level, the drink has absolutely nothing to do with the Ghostbusters property. The first thing that comes to mind when seeing the mucus-like ectoplasm in the Ghostbusters film and in the animated show isn’t “citrus tangerine goodness.” (Unless there’s something the fan community isn’t telling me?) The drink wasn’t even really the same green color as your favorite paranormal entity and mine. But it didn’t matter, the minute they slapped Slimer on the packaging and named the flavor “Ecto-Anything,” it was sold to me.
This is what Star Wars did to us… but I digress…
Having had parents with a strict “milk once a day” rule – Ecto-Cooler at lunch meant that I had to endure drinking low-fat milk for dinner every night, but I didn’t care. It was worth it. Ecto-Cooler made me feel cool. Like I was drinking an officially endorsed drink from the Ghostbusters. No matter what a dweeb I actually was in real life, I was a Ghostbuster at lunch. Which, okay, arguably still made me quite the dweeb. But endearingly so, right? Right?
I would beg and plead with my mom at the grocery store for Ecto-Cooler like a Mogwai wanting a snack after midnight. When Hi-C stated selling two liter cans of their beverages, the thought of cracking open one of those cans gives me more joy than tapping a keg of the finest brew as an adult today. Ecto-Cooler was the drink of choice when friends came to visit, just like scotch is for the suits in their executive offices. “Hey Brian, thanks for coming over, can I offer you an Ecto-Cooler? Boy, did you see Mrs. Bull today?”
It probably makes me beyond shallow, but Ecto-Cooler became associated with childhood, it became associated with a simpler and more enjoyable time. Much like a generation before me drank YooHoo, I drank Ecto-Cooler.
Of course, once the bane of our existence known as “nutrition” became a concern for families everywhere, the portion sizes of Ecto-Cooler slowly diminished. The boxes went from being monolith-sized, to matchbox-sized. Shortly after that, it ceased to be a juice and became a soft drink. It even suddenly became “An Excellent Source of Vitamin-C” (and pure sucrose by the tablespoon, probably) before eventually disappearing completely. It was missed, but life went on as juice boxes gave way eventually to Kool-Aid Koolers, which eventually gave way to it being cool to buy my lunch and drink school sanctioned milk, which gave way to a soda machine in high school, which eventually gave way to… I don’t know… girls.
There was a time around 2002 or 2003ish that Ecto-Cooler made a quiet and understated return, re-themed and renamed Screamin’ Tangerine. And I’m not ashamed to say that I, Troy Benjamin, at that time about to graduate from college, bought juice boxes by the case full. It was all a desperate attempt to take myself back to that moment in my childhood that Ecto-Cooler reminded me of.
Okay, well and when we discovered how good Ecto-Cooler and Vodka combined; it also became a means to inebriation.
But it’s strange to think that a marketing ploy during a highly competitive era where beverage companies were throwing everything at the wall to see what stuck became associated in such ways.
And it’s funny how much I want it back.
(The Private Sector is a weekly syndicated column written by Troy Benjamin presented every Wednesday on Proton Charging, GB Fans, Ghostbusters.net, and Cross the Streams as an op-ed look at the goings on in the world of the Ghostbusters franchise. Learn more about Troy at www.troybenjamin.com)
We all hope you enjoy the following episode of Cross the Streams Radio Show. Do you want to ask Ernie a question we didn’t cover? Want to ask him a non related Ghostbusters question? Well you Can? how? Through Cross the Streams Radio, that’s how. In 2 weeks from this date we’ll be talking with Ernie and if you’d like to get your question answered by Ernie himself, send us what you want ask and we’ll actually ask Ernie.
Where do you send your questions to Ernie? Over at: ctsradioshow@gmail.com
Intro
Monologue
Ghostbusters News – GB3, Bill Murray on Letterman, Dapper Dan Original Autographed Art Contest
Commercial
Audio Email
Brendan and Ernie Hudson Interview
Goodbyes
Matt’s Song
Check out Cross the Streams Radio Show: Episode 6 with special guests star Ernie Hudson! We talk to Ernie for over 30 minutes about some of the biggest Fanboy Questions that a Ghosthead would want to ask a Ghostbuster. Don’t believe me? Check out this audio snip-it:
CLICK HERE to get a glimpse of Ernie Hudson’s first appearance on Cross the Streams Radio Show.
Hey there, folks. After a bit of a hiatus so that you wouldn’t get any more fatigued of my gibberish than you probably already are, The Private Sector is back. And this week, I’m going to come clean by getting something off my chest. Something that’s been weighing on me heavily since age eight… try not to hold it against me… all right… here goes… I stole Winston.
Whew… that felt good. Literally confessing your crime to the bajillions of good folks that read these fine Ghostbusters fansites (and most likely my mother, who will be reading this after hearing that her boy is a thief through the grapevine). I guess that a story is in order.
I was eight. And while my family lived comfortably, admittedly it was difficult for my wonderful and remarkable parents to keep up with my hungry appetite for the fine Real Ghostbusters related products that Kenner was releasing en masse. I wanted desperately the Ghostbusters’ trademark firehouse headquarters, but such a luxurious purchase just wasn’t possible at the time (for the record, I built my own firehouse out of spare house siding that was in my father’s garage, probably far more rewarding for my creativity but not for my Dad who had purchased said materials to patch holes before the winter). Even purchases of the individual action figures were very selective and planned out because my parents were able to buy the figures for me so infrequently…
Egon Spengler (the original blue jumpsuit version with Proton Pack) was first. He was my favorite character, so his priority as a purchase obviously was elevated. For the longest time, he was the only Ghostbuster (with the help of Robocop and Batman) to fend off Granny Ghost (whom I had received as a birthday present from a friend) and all of the invisible ghosts in my imagination. Egon was the lone Ghostbuster, breaking the first rule by venturing out into business on his own. Fighting ghosts in lands foreign to New York like an old Fisher Price castle my parents purchased for me several years before… or the bathroom.
Egon was soon joined by the original brown suit release Pete Venkman, and then quite a bit later the Fright Features Ray Stantz (because Ray just wasn’t Ray to me without the Ecto Goggles). A few other ghosts joined them including a Kenner Stay Puft I had fortuitously come across at a neighborhood garage sale, for the then hefty price tag to me of fifty cents.
But Winston, the heart and soul of the Ghostbusters, was always noticeably missing.
By the time another purchase was granted by the folks, the original Winston with proton pack and jumpsuit was long gone from stores – replaced by the horrid Fright Features Winston who always looked like a strange ventriloquism dummy with his unhinged jaw. And why was he in a Formula One racer outfit? Fright Features Winston felt like a fraud to me. An imposter sitting on the pegs among his Kenner brethren. When given the opportunity by my parents to finally pick up Winston, I was stubborn and always passed said Fright Feature figure up.
Until one day… at a yearly check-up at my pediatrician’s office… I was sitting waiting in a patient room for the doctor to arrive. And there he was…
Sitting, surrounded by Fraggle Rock McDonalds toys and a couple Ninja Turtles in a box of toys conveniently placed on one of the exam tables (presumably to distract the patient from the terrifying injection the nurse or doctor was preparing to stick you in the arm with) – was the original teal green suit release Winston.
Now, I was raised Catholic so things that I haven’t even done already unexplainably weigh heavily on me. So the first thought in my head wasn’t “I’m going to steal this thing”, it was actually, “No way! That’s such a rare figure that I can’t find, what’s it doing here?” That figure sitting in the Tupperware tub might as well have been the Lost Ark of the Covenant to me after the couple of years that I had pined for it.
But as much as I eyed the figure, I did nothing during that visit but marvel at its presence.
Until a year later, once again – by chance the same exam room, the same tub of toys, Winston still in there (but noticeably a lot of the Ninja Turtles toys missing). Once again, first thought was, “No way! Him again! How cool!” Nowhere near, “I’m going to deprive dozens of Ghostbuster fan kids at this doctor’s office of a moment of joy getting to play with a Winston figure by stealing it…” And besides, I was (then) eight years old. Do you know what the punishment for stealing is to an eight-year-old kid in the late 80s? No, are you kidding me, man… not a stern talking to or a time out, my God, this was the time when parents weren’t all politically correct and bashful about sprawling you over their knee and beating the snot out of you. Children actually feared and respected their parents instead of dragging them around on a leash. There was no way that this good kid would even think of such a thing let alone do it…
Until the doctor injected me with one of those aforementioned needles in the arm.
Then I wanted vengeance.
They had inflicted pain and drawn blood from me. They took something forcibly from me without my permission. It hurt emotionally and physically and, to quote an immortal movie, “Son of a bitch must pay…”
So I took him.
Teal jumpsuited Winston was smuggled away from that hellish prison where children were tortured with no reward. He wasn’t stolen. He was freed. Or so I told myself at the time… until later when Catholicism kicked back in and the guilt weighed so heavily on me that Winston taunted me. He remained on the shelf because I felt guilty to play with him. I couldn’t sleep at night in fear of the punishment to come for what I had done.
It was a long and difficult year until I had made up my mind that, on next return to the doctor’s office, I would return Winston to where he came from. Just as I had smuggled the action figure from the pediatrician’s office a year prior, I snuck him back in and despite not being in the same exam room that time around, deposited him back into a tub of toys.
And funny enough, there he stayed and remained. Each and every year that I visited my pediatrician (healthy, of course – as they had special quarantined lobbies and exam rooms for the sick kids), Winston would be spotted occasionally.
For all I know, he’s still there to this day.
Unless some new generation of young Ghostbuster fan is considering liberating Winston from his sterile confines…
Don’t hurt me, mom.
(The Private Sector is a weekly syndicated column written by Troy Benjamin presented every Wednesday on Proton Charging, GB Fans, Ghostbusters.net, and Cross the Streams as an op-ed look at the goings on in the world of the Ghostbusters franchise. Learn more about Troy at www.troybenjamin.com)
On the latest installment of Cross the Streams Radio Show, we deal with the latest rumors and truths to the film that may or may not be in pre-production, Ghostbusters 3. We sit down and talk to GB.org and GBfans.com Moderator Ben King along side with Ghostheads Podcast co-host Jason Hughes.
We hope you all enjoy Cross the Streams Radio Show and will continue to listen to future broadcasts…who knows who will be on next.
