What you Talking About, Slimer?

​Taking a break from cartoons, it should be noted that the spat of sitcoms and live action drama television shows also liberally celebrated Halloween – and sometimes with crass cross-over commercialism at their ghoulish heart. Take, for example, the Different Strokes / Ghosbusters mash-up.
  
Yep, that’s Arnold dressed as ghostbusters. I think Gary Coleman was full on forty-plus by the time this filmed.​

​This episode aired in September of 1984, about three months after the hit film was released. In it, Arnold and Sam hear about a local house that is haunted so they decide to do some investigating to determine if ghosts are real. It makes sense that they go as ghostbusters because either the show got a kick back OR the producers decided the best way to boost ratings was ape a hit summer flick that was taking the country by storm.
 
Not sure kiddos today would get much out of it, but boy does Different Strokes bring back some memories. And, not all of them good. Like, I am fairly certain I watched this episode as a kid when it first aired and was more than likely thinking, at the tender age of nine, why am I still watching this junk?
 
But it would be interesting to see what my oldest thinks of what passed as mainstream Halloween entertainment back when I was a kid – can’t shield kids from all bad things, right?

Anyway, for those similarly interested, here's a clip of the pertinent part, because life is too short to watch the ENTIRE episode - once was quite enough!

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