Nearly a decade before Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis strapped on their proton packs in “Ghostbusters” (1984), “F-Troop” alumni Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch embraced their inner Bowery Boys to deliver plenty of warmed-over schtick and slapstick as “The Ghost Busters” (1975).
This relic of Saturday morning television will be our topic this week, on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, as our special guest will be Roy’s son, Ryan. Roy and I will offer our personal recollections of the era, wallowing in a morass of boyhood nostalgia, while a no-doubt-befuddled Ryan will lend a more clear-eyed perspective, having come to the episodes for the very first time.
Spencer (Storch), Tracy – a “trained” gorilla (actually Bob Burns in a fur suit) – and Kong (Tucker) tackle a different supernatural menace each week. These range from the obvious (Count Dracula, a mummy, and a werewolf) to the fairly offbeat (the Flying Dutchman, Morgan le Fay, Erik the Red and Brunhilde, and the Canterville Ghost).
Make no mistake, this is print-the-first-take comedy, with Tucker occasionally fumbling his lines, but anchoring all the business with his straight man authority and exasperation. Storch, in particular, demonstrates that he can polish even the stalest joke and serve it up on a velvet pillow. But it’s Tracy the Gorilla who gets all the surreal, Harpo Marx bits, putting on funny hats and doling out the prop comedy. At its worst, the show is like live-action, low-budget Scooby-Doo. At its best, it’s latter-day Vaudeville.
Guest stars include Carl Ballantine, Billy Barty, Johnny Brown, Bernie Kopell, Ted Knight, Jim Backus, Joe E. Ross, and proto-Bowery Boy Huntz Hall, along with a rogues’ gallery of familiar faces from sitcoms, movies, and television commercials of the 1960s and ‘70s.
If you’re of an age that you remember Charles Nelson Reilly as a Bic Banana or Timer hankering for a hunk of cheese, you’ll want to be on hand for the next “Roy’s Tie Dye Sci Fi Corner.” Bring your Count Chocula to the comments section. We’ll be chasing the ghosts of our childhood, as we livestream on Facebook ,this Friday evening at 7:00 EDT!
https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner
Watch the original episodes here:

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