EPISODE ONE
- Production Number: 101
- Show Number: 1
Title: DARKNESS AT NOON PART 1- First Air Date: 9/1/97
A ghostly ghoul named Akira is released by unsuspecting subway tunnel construction workers and she's ready to spread her disease through the whole city! Who ya gonna call? Actually, the only Ghostbuster still in town is Egon, teaching at Columbia University. His class of only four students soon gets the field trip of their lives when they have the opportunity to help Egon bust the spook. The show leaves us hanging with Kylie's possesion by Akira.
Production Supervisor Shannon Muir's comments:
- "Darkness at Noon" was originally a one part script. It made it all the way through storyboards before we realized it was far too long -- either eight minutes needed to go on, or I think about eleven minutes had to go. Going into detail about building the new equipment is where we bought most of the time, though there's other additions scattered throughout. The actual production numbers are 101 (part 1) and 140 (part 2); this was at my suggestion because it was just easier to deal with. Otherwise part 2 would have been production number 121 -- that's how far along we were when the splitting decision was made -- and I found that to be a lot less neat. Thankfully those with the power said OK.
- Janine's original character design called for her to have slacks. They went back to a skirt just as the boards for "Darkness at Noon" went overseas and not all the panels were changed. I had to spend late into the night pasting a miniature picture of Janine with skirt onto all the storyboard pages as a sidebar and note to make her ON THAT MODEL.
- You notice Kylie's clothes design also changed? She was originally supposed to have the outfit she wears in 97% of "Darkness at Noon" but it was agreed that the costume needed to be simplified. I don't know why we didn't do the same thing to her that we did to Janine on the storyboards, maybe because Kylie had so much more screen time. However, if you pay attention, there is ONE SEQUENCE in "Darkness at Noon" where Kylie wears the casual clothes she'll have for the rest of the series -- when she summons Grandma Rose. This was originally a mistake on the part of the board artist not using (either by ignoring or not being supplied, I forget) the right model that neither I nor the director caught. I didn't notice until I saw the animation. In hindsight, I really like it. It gets you used to the new costume, and is in a stand-alone sequence where the continuity isn't broken. So it's not jarring when you see it later.