Ghostbusters (franchise) - Cultural Impact

Cultural Impact

According to the director commentary on the Ghostbusters DVD, the movie's cultural impact was felt almost immediately; the director noted many schools were calling up Columbia pictures shortly after the movie's release to say that their students were playing games of "Ghostbusters". The building that was Dana Barrett's apartment building in Ghostbusters has, since the release of the film, been known as the Ghostbusters Building, and along with the Hook and Ladder Firehouse, have become a real world New York City tourist attractions. In May 2010, the group Improv Everywhere, at the invitation of the New York Public Library, staged a Ghostbusters-themed "mission" in the same reading room used in the film. The video game Burnout Paradise pays homage to the franchise with a car titled the 'Manhattan Spirit', which is based on the Ecto-1.

The movie Be Kind Rewind includes an extensive sequence in which Jack Black, Mos Def and others recreate the first Ghostbusters movie using props and costumes made by themselves, a guest appearance by Weaver, and a version of the theme sung by Jack Black.

The movie's catchphrase, "Who you gonna call?", has been uttered in many other films and television shows:

• In the movie Casper, Aykroyd reprises his role of Stantz in a brief cameo, saying the line with a modified callback of "somebody else" instead of "Ghostbusters".
• That scene is reprised in the 1990s adaptation of the Casper cartoon series.
• The original catchphrase is used in the Doctor Who episode "Army of Ghosts",
• The line is used in the Fringe episode "The Road Not Taken"
• It is also used in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The TV series Supernatural references the film in the episode "Ghostfacers". A series of short films sponsored by car company Volkswagen entitled "See Film Differently" includes one offering a humorous look at "A Day In The Life At The Ghostbusters Fire Station." In the How I Met Your Mother episode "The Rebound Girl", the character Marshall believes the universe is telling him to become a Ghostbuster.