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"Ghostbusters, whaddaya want?!?"
- Janine Melnitz; Ghostbusters
Janine Melnitz was the receptionist that worked for the boys in grey at the Firehouse. She, like the four Ghostbusters and Slimer, is usually present in all Ghosbusters media.
History
Ghostbusters
Janine was the first person hired to work at the Firehouse. She staffed the phones and kept track of appointments, calls, messages, etc. While initially extremely bored with her job, once the boys picked up more and more clients, she began to complain of being overworked. After Dr. Venkman implied that perhaps she'd find more pleasure in another low-wage job, she took offense, but stopped her complaints. When Walter Peck showed up to shut down the storage facility, she tried to stop them, but the Police Captain, along with all of Walter's paperwork, gave her no choice. Before the explosion at the firehouse, she kept watch with Egon Spengler over Louis Tully.
After the guys blow up the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, sending Gozer back to its own dimension, Janine is seen at the entrance of the building, hugging Egon, as he heads to the Ecto-1.
Ghostbusters II
In late 1989, Janine was re-hired following the Ghostbusters' capture of the Scoleri Brothers during their trial. She soon responded to a new phone call. After hearing what the customer says, she smiled and replied, "Yes, we're back." In the weeks after, the Ghostbusters were flush with business. In one instance, she was entrusted with two Traps by the guys and walked off to deposit the ghosts in the Containment Unit. She becomes attracted to Louis Tully, the staff accountant.
Venkman hired her to babysit Dana Barrett's son Oscar while he went on a date with Dana. When Louis asked her out, Janine had to decline but invited him to instead come with her to babysit. They ended up making out in Peter's apartment. Later, when the Ghostbusters are stuck at the Manhattan Museum of Art, she lends Louis one of Egon's uniforms.
Ghostbusters: The Video Game
Janine retains her job of monitoring the phones at the Firehouse, arranging appointments, and the other secretarial work involved in keeping the Ghostbusters business operating. She is seen in the scene before the Rookie is introduced, she is holding calls, and gets a rather odd one when a customer wants to know if they can contact a dead relative to get the combination for a safe. If the Rookie sticks around for a while between investigations, he can overhear some of Janine's phone calls, including some complaints of having used up all of her float holidays, copier problems, a mix up involving ordering dragon blood, and general remarks on the franchising of the Ghostbusters establishment.
On Thanksgiving morning, Janine's favorite pair of pumps broke and Lester's was out of her favorite flavor of tea, chamomile. While the Ghostbusters were returning from Shandor Island, Janine was rendered unconscious. When she came to, Ilyssa Selwyn was missing, the Containment Unit was shut off again, and the Firehouse in shambles. She attempts to explain what happened to the team when a NY News 6 report reveals tremors at Central Park.
Secondary Canon History
IDW Comic Series
Janine attended elementary school at P.S. 47 and had two dates for her senior prom on June 16, 1977. She worked the register at a Big Greaser before applying to the Ghostbusters. During the interview with Peter, Janine saw Egon and was instantly attracted to him. She quickly agreed to take the job before Peter even offered on account she could smell desperation a mile away. At some point after the Shandor incident of 1991, Janine broke up with Louis Tully.
Janine arrived at the Firehouse unaware 3/4 of the Ghostbusters were murdered hours earlier. She found Peter inside, who was really Fred possessing the body, and clued him the Ghost Traps were in the storage room next to the Containment Unit. Fred then knocked Janine unconscious and gathered up the Ghostbusters' equipment.
After Koza'Rai banished the Ghostbusters, only Janine Melnitz was left. He banished her to Versailles, France in the year 1780. Armed with only a Proton Pack, Janine was teleported into the middle of a party. While the people didn't believe she was from the future, they hired her to deal with the ghost of Leonardo da Vinci. Without a Trap, Janine reasoned with Leonardo and convinced him to use his skills for a greater cause. Ghostbusters Versailles was born. After recruiting three employees, Janine's team went on many busts; including taking on Morgan Le Fay, singing Gargoyles of Notre-Dame, Viking Ghosts, and a Slime Entity. She also had a brief one night stand with one employee. Upon capturing the Slime Entity, Janine learned four of its victims were the original Ghostbusters, who arrived earlier in search of her. Janine agreed to return with them to the present, if she got a promotion.
On one Christmas Eve, while the Ghostbusters went to see Woodrow Wainwright Fraser III, Peter had Janine work through until midnight and guard their $1 million check payments. When the Ghost of Christmas Present brought the team and Fraser to the Firehouse, Janine looked extremely angry while taking phone calls despite being paid time-and-a-half.
During one Halloween day, Janine is less than pleased with Ray and Peter's cost of living increase offer on the grounds her job is anything but typical. After witnessing Artie Lester's $50,000 proposal rejected by the team, Janine secretly calls Lester and takes him up on it herself. She arrives to the Tobin Mansion and discovers Lester did not cancel his Halloween gala. Clad in a modified uniform with Winston's Proton Pack, a Ghost Trap, and a P.K.E. Meter, Janine investigates and finds Sam Hain in a secret passage. However, she loses the trap and becomes stuck in a supernatural soft spot between reality and the nether realm.
While the Ghostbusters crash onto the Hain Estate, Janine figures out the circumstances surrounding Hain's death and manages to empathize with him. Ray bursts into the room and wrangles Sam Hain. As Egon pulls Janine from the soft spot, she tells them to stand down and promises Hain they would give him a proper burial. Hain accepts and goes back to the other side just as the spot closes at midnight. Janine then kept the remainder of Lester's $50,000 fee after the funeral costs were paid.
During the Infestation, Janine is the unlikely hero who indirectly reveals a solution to the dozens of escaped Poltergeists and Zombies by throwing a loaded Trap at a Zombie's head. The trap opened and the Poltergeist was drawn to the soulless Zombie. Both were changed, one could now be kept indefinitely in the Containment Unit while the Zombie could now be safely dispersed without the threat of Necrotic Slime being spread.
In one of Ray's precognitive dreams, Janine was talk show host of "The Ja'nine Show" and a segment featured the Ghostbusters. The next day, Janine received a flower bouquet from her boyfriend, Roger Baugh. She and Winston allowed Alan Crendall to confide in them about a paranormal curse that turned out to be Slimer. Hours later, she summoned the Ghostbusters to meet with a visitor named Jim Silver, who was possessed by Idulnas. Several weeks later, Janine broke up another argument between Peter and Peck. Ray noted she seemed to be behaving overly aggressive. One week after the Fantastic Land case, Janine visited Peter in the hospital on the way to a Yoga class. After Peter gloated about his perfect health, Janine handed him a gift from Ray and left smiling as Peter voiced his "appreciation."
About a week later, Janine and Roger bumped into Egon outside of Delgado's Gym. This was the first meeting between Egon and Roger. After Egon abruptly walked off, Janine already sensed Egon was busy thinking of something else - the ambient P.K.E. in the Tri-State area. Towards the end of summer, Roger took Janine out on a date to attend a special performance of Don Giovanni for charity at the Metropolitan Opera House. Janine became irritated and took the unwitting Roger away from the Firehouse for dinner after the guys gave him a hard time. The date came to end when the Phantom of the Opera manifested. Janine called up Ray but the Ghost Smashers arrived first.
In the fall, Janine was shocked to be asked by Egon point blank if she was trying to make him jealous by dating Roger. Egon went on to admit he noticed how over the years she made advances on him then tried to date someone shared superficial characteristics with him, eventually got bored and dumped them, and resumed aggressive flirtations. Egon even once made a flow chart of her process for contrasting purposes while he was studying a haunting at a chapel in Yonkers. Janine was insulted and stormed off.
In February, when the Ghostbusters were abducted, Janine formed a new team with Kylie Griffin and Special Agent Melanie Ortiz to find them. After three months, the growing ghost population became a problem. Janine took up a call from a repeat customer named Mr. Parker. The trio captured the Jail Jaw Ghost but were arrested. Walter Peck convinced the Mayor and his staff to let them go and allow them to continue their work. Janine possessed irreplaceable security access to the Containment Unit and remained on the team. She was forced to accept Peck's conditions of taking on a PCOC liaison, taking part in PR events, and accepting Ron Alexander on the team.
Janine did not get off to a good start with the liaison, Jack Hardemeyer. The provocative coveralls he made the team wear angered Janine. She protested they would be regarded as a punchline and wouldn't be taken seriously. To her further dismay, Jack had the regular coveralls stored away and the team was forced to go out in a call in the other ones. Upon returning back, she showed Jack how spending over one hour running through brush did to everyone's legs. Janine threatened to call out Jack on talk shows as a sexist ratbag if he didn't get them back their regular coveralls. Jack countered with putting Ron in shorts, too, but Janine simply yanked harder on his tie. Jack acquiesced and Janine went off to take a shower.
The next day, Janine was visited by a ghostly Swedish ancestor and informed she was to face the Grendel at midnight as part of a test of bravery handed down from generation to generation to those in his bloodline. Jack wanted to make an event of it but the Ghostbusters kept the details of the test secret. On Jack's instructions, Ron outfitted Janine with something flashy. He introduced an upgraded Compact Pack with Boson Dart capability. The New Ghostbusters were called to something "hinky" in Midtown Manhattan. Just after they wrapped up their bust, the Grendel manifested at 6 pm. After tossing Melanie and Ron, the Grendel chased after Janine. Janine called up Kylie, who was away on a consult, and solicited advice on how to defeat the Grendel. Kylie advised her to stand up to the Grendel. Janine fired a Proton Stream but it broke free. Irritated by its resistance, Janine fired a Boson Dart and dispersed its left arm. While it was in shock, Janine wrangled and trapped the Grendel. The ghost ancestor reappeared and angrily informed Janine she failed the test. Apparently, she was supposed to face the Grendel not knowing if she would die or not. Taking advice from Kylie was against the rules. During the stand off, a rip opened and detonated the ghost. The original Ghostbusters had returned from their interdimensional prison. Overjoyed with their return, Janine kissed Egon on the lips then apologized.
After the Collectors' incident, Janine settled back into her role as secretary and coordinating with PCOC. The Draugar came up with a plan to take Janine's soul and offer it to Hel to payback their debt. While watching television at Roger's Apartment, Janine was suddenly immobilized and began discharging Yellow Slime from her eyes. While Roger went to get help, Janine began floating in mid-air and was completed covered in the ectoplasm. Egon's attempt to neutralize it with positively charged Psychomagnotheric Slime failed. Egon and Roger took Janine to the Firehouse where Egon attempted to utilize his Gris-Gris. Nothing happened to Janine after contact was made. Instead, Egon and Roger ended up transported in Janine's mind and worked their way from the fringes to where Janine was being held. Egon managed to convince the Draugar to return them all to their bodies then he trapped them. Roger was disturbed from walking through her memories and elected to talk about it over racquetball on Thursday.
After her ordeal on the mental plane, Janine began having weird dreams about a fat man with sunglasses. Janine went to Ray's Occult Books and consulted with Kylie. She wanted to make sure nothing was left behind in her head after Egon and Roger rescued her from the Draugar. However, there wasn't any material on the subject. Their conversation was interrupted by Peter's arrival. Despite claiming vacation time, Janine was annoyed when Peter insinuated it was unpaid personal time then sick time at best. She returned to the Firehouse and found Egon looking over results from a self-analysis. Janine couldn't make any sense out of Egon's concerns and went to go lay down.
During Winston and Tiyah's wedding, Janine received an unexpected call from Dana Barrett. Janine set up a meeting at the Pequod's on Columbus the next day. Recalling a photo of Oscar from last Christmas, Janine reminisced about when he was just a baby. When Dana showed Janine her leg wound, Janine became alarmed and thought it should have been an official call to the Ghostbusters. However, upon listening to Dana's desire to keep Oscar safe, stay away from Peter, and not get sucked into another supernatural event, Janine honored her request to have the incident investigated discreetly. Janine assured Dana she would send associates who wouldn't tell Peter anything then shifted to small talk about her rejoining the Philharmonic. However, their conversation was broken up when several vehicles outside Pequod's began floating. Janine took a rain check with Dana and called in the Ghostbusters. Later that day, she sent Melanie and Kylie to see Dana. Janine took part in the Tiamat battle and Hart Island investigation.
As the battle against the possessed Ray worsened, Janine called an ambulance to tend to the injured Kylie and implored the Ghostbusters to finish things up. Janine left the Firehouse in Ecto-1b with Dana and Louis after the ambulance took Kylie into custody. Afterward, she was asked by Roger to move with him to San Francisco, where he accepted a teaching position. Janine had too much New York in her blood and stayed. She was recently signed to write a memoir about her experiences working with and around the Ghostbusters tentatively set for a Christmas release. While the Ghostbusters busted a Class 5 ghost, Janine called Kylie to the Firehouse to examine the newly built Dimensional Inverter. She hailed the Ecto-1 radio and paraphrased Kylie's findings.
Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime
Janine's role in Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime was limited to a few panels in three cinematics.
When Ray and Egon come to conclusion to let the junior team investigate the Sedgewick Hotel, Janine calls them. She is later present when everyone observes the shards of the Relic of Nilhe and celebrating victory over Dumazu.
Animated Series
She started off much like her film counterpart in character but with green pointy glasses. Later season saw her becoming less tough and more motherly as the show wanted to give good role models. To read more about the animated version of her, go here.
Personality
Janine is highly sardonic with her eccentric bosses, while taking her job in such an unusual business in stride. As such, no matter how strange circumstances become at work, she is largely unflappable. Her hobbies included racquetball and reading.
In the first film, Janine showed romantic interest in Egon, but by the second film, begins a relationship with Louis Tully.
Description
In Ghostbusters II, Janine's appearance is very different from the first film; she now has red hair, a new hairstyle, and wears humongous glasses. This new look was perhaps influenced by the Real Ghostbuster cartoon series, which was popular at the time.
Trivia
- Sandra Bernhard was offered the role of Janine Melnitz. [1]
- In the Ghostbusters II August 5, 1988 draft, Janine left an office temp job before coming back to work with the Ghostbusters. [2]
- In the Ghostbusters II August 5, 1988 draft, Janine did not babysit. [3]
- At the start of Welcome to the Hotel Sedgewick, the third message on the Firehouse answering machine is for Janine, from a Mark she met at a "I have a crush on my boss but I'm afraid to tell them" seminar. [4]
- During the events of Ghostbusters: The Video Game, Janine has a boyfriend evidenced by the picture frame on the left side of her desk. [5] [6]
- The boyfriend is modeled after a friend of someone on the Terminal Reality staff
- Originally, Winston was in the picture frame.
- Janine's favorite flavor of tea is chamomile. [7]
Appearances
Secondary Canon Appearances
- 88MPH Studios
- Ghost Busted (manga)
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- IDW Comics
- "The Other Side 3"
- "Displaced Aggression 4"
- "Working Overtime"
- "Past, Present, and Future"
- "Tainted Love"
- "What in Samhain Just Happened?!"
- "Ghostbusters: Infestation 1"
- "Ghostbusters: Infestation 2"
- Volume One
- Volume Two
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ghostbusters
- The X-Files: Conspiracy: Ghostbusters
- Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime
References
- ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:27:01-1:27:04). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Remember you offered Sandra Bernhard Annie Potts' role? "
- ↑ Aykroyd, Dan & Ramis, Harold (1988). Ghostbusters II (August 5, 1988 Draft) (Script p. 44). "Peter Venkman says: "Look, Janine, I know you left a very good position as an office temp and we appreciate your coming back, but you'll have to bear with us while we get things straightened out, okay?"
- ↑ Aykroyd, Dan & Ramis, Harold (1988). Ghostbusters II (August 5, 1988 Draft) (Script p. 60). Paragraph reads: "On their way out, they pass Louis on his way to the apartment to baby-sit."
- ↑ Mark; At start of Welcome to the Hotel Sedgewick, Firehouse 2nd Floor Answering Machine Message 3 of 7 (2009). Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Realistic Versions) - Firehouse (2009) (PC/PS3/Xbox 360). Terminal Reality. Mark says: "Hi, Janine. This is Mark. We met the other night at the "I have a crush on my boss but I'm afraid to tell them" seminar. I was wondering if you would be interested in a job as my personal assistant. Call me."
- ↑ Janine's photo frame
- ↑ Wide shot of Janine's desk
- ↑ Grab from Ghostbusters: The Video Game Central Park Cemetery opening cinematic
- ↑ Peter Venkman (2014). IDW Comics- "Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #20" (2014) (Comic p.8). Peter says: "Okay so Winston got away and Janine took the car to--"
Gallery
Overall
Primary Canon
Secondary Canon
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