The Family Ghost Stories That Helped Dan Aykroyd Write Ghostbusters
Ask Dan Aykroyd where Ghostbusters came from and he can take you back generations. His great-grandfather practiced spiritualism. His father eventually wrote a book about ghosts. By the time Aykroyd was writing a comedy about people who go into business catching spirits, he had already spent years hearing about people who tried to contact them.
In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, Aykroyd recalled growing up around journals devoted to psychical research. He even remembered the name and day job of a medium his family knew. For the people who passed those stories down, the subject was something they read about and discussed at home. For Aykroyd, that history became material for a movie.
The details he chose to share
Aykroyd offered a different glimpse of his childhood in a 2004 conversation with Terry Gross on Fresh Air. He described the physical tics and nervousness he experienced when he was young and said they had eased by the time he was 14. When he talked about Asperger’s, the example he chose was his enduring fascination with law enforcement. He liked to carry a badge. Gross wondered if he was joking, and Aykroyd told her he was serious.
That small moment is worth hearing in context. Aykroyd was speaking for himself and describing an interest through a detail from his own life. The badge belonged to one part of his story. The family ghost stories belonged to another. Both show how much more specific a person’s account can be when they get to tell it in their own words.
How a family interest became a movie
Aykroyd and Harold Ramis wrote the screenplay for the 1984 film, which Ivan Reitman directed and produced. Sony’s official film page lists Aykroyd as Ray Stantz and Bill Murray as Peter Venkman. The movie’s premise gives Ray a problem he takes seriously: what happens when studying ghosts becomes a business and people begin to call you for help? His enthusiasm helps sell the joke, because he approaches that absurd job with the curiosity of someone who would spend his spare time thinking about it anyway.
Where the viral account ends
A social card that circulated about Aykroyd says Murray defended him after a journalist criticized him during a press interview. The page that shared the card later acknowledged that it could not substantiate the exchange or the quotes attributed to the actors. Aykroyd’s recorded interviews tell a story we can follow without relying on that exchange.
There is still something to take from the idea that made the card resonate. A friend who listens when someone talks about an unusual interest may discover a side of them that gets missed in a quick conversation. And the next time Ray Stantz gets visibly excited about a ghost, it’s worth remembering that the person playing him had a whole family history to draw on.
Additional references include UPI’s report on Aykroyd’s interview and his conversation with Jesse Thorn on Bullseye.
