Extreme Ghostbusters

How about something positive for a change, a show that gets it right?

In the mid-90s there was a cartoon show called The Extreme Ghostbusters. The idea is that a middle-aged Egon is teaching classes about paranormal stuff at a college when bad stuff starts happening and he recruits his class of four to become a new ghostbusters team. It was a little on the cheesy side, but pretty well written, especially for a spin off. One of the students is Garratt, a fearless adrenaline junkie in a wheelchair.

His disability is very rarely mentioned, and no back story or explanation is given for it. There is only one episode where some FBI investigators mention that he was born disabled. He is a classic jock with a big heart, he is always ready to go in first and he’s always upbeat. In one episode there is a demon that is tempting people with their deepest desire and twisting it against them. When he tries to tempt Garratt, the desire that he finds is that Garratt wants to be a champion wheelchair basketball player. I LOVE that the show didn’t give in to the temptation to make his greatest desire to be not disabled.

I think the best episode of the show is the one with the golum. It acknowledges Garratt’s disability, but does so in a very positive way. Garratt runs into a friend he grew up with and they do a scam together in which the friend, Spencer, talks an able-bodied team into playing basketball with them for money, pretending that having Garratt on his team is a way of giving the other team an advantage. Of course, Garratt is great at basketball and they beat the other team.

Spencer introduces Garratt to some other friends and makes fun of Garratt’s geeky crowd (the other ghostbusters). Garratt starts spending more and more time with them. At one point they get some parachutes to jump off the top of a NYC building. One of the new friends says to Garratt, “Too bad you’re stuck in that wheelchair, you’ll miss out on all the fun.” Garratt sarcastically mutters, “Yeah, poor me, stuck in a wheelchair” and he takes the parachute and does it.

Once he’s proven himself to be “cool” his new friends reveal that they are behind some recent vandalism at a local synagogue. Meanwhile the other ghostbusters have been uncovering clues that someone at the synagogue has summoned a golum, a mythical Jewish monster to protect it.

The new friends insist on bringing Garratt along to do it again and he is disgusted with them. He tries to stop them, but it is the golum that really gets them to run and then it turns on Garratt. Together with the other ghostbusters they bring the monster down, but it is Garratt who goes the extra mile to kill it.

I’m not the only one who was impressed with Garratt’s character. The creator of the character was interviewed in New Mobility magazine and the interviewer had lots of positive things to say. (It’s been too many years and I can’t locate the interview on the Internet, unfortunately).

Oh, I just found this interview, which I think is just as good!

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