By this point, Different Strokes was starting to go very down hill, but with some very special guests, John Astin ( best known for his role as Gomez Addams on The Addams Family ) and the legendary Ray Bolger ( well known for his legendary role as Hunk/The Scarecrow in the 1939 classic MGM film The Wizard Of Oz ), the two legendary men helped kick off season 7 with a bit of a bang and slight scare.
In this season opener, Sam and Arnold go to a house that is said to be haunted by a ghost, from a story told by the maintenance man of the apartment ( John Astin ), but when the boys go to check out the story to see if it is true or not, Arnold's two friends help add to the scare, but this only causes Sam to be totally afraid, and at one point he vanishes, only to run home to tell Mr. Drummond and his mother where he and Arnold had gone to. At first the boys have been told to never to return and they are also scolded for trespassing, but the boys do not listen and end up going back to the haunted house, but this time, in an ode to the 1984 blockbuster film Ghostbusters, Sam and Arnold immitate the film, but they soon learn the house is not haunted after all, that the old man named Clarence Markwell ( Ray Bolger ) is not really dead, he only likes to scare off people who trespass on his property.
For the time it was in the 1980s, the effects were played out rather well, and having two legendary actors from beloved things like The Wizard Of Oz and The Addams Family makes this episode enjoyable, but had this been a normal episode, it would have not been so good.
In this season opener, Sam and Arnold go to a house that is said to be haunted by a ghost, from a story told by the maintenance man of the apartment ( John Astin ), but when the boys go to check out the story to see if it is true or not, Arnold's two friends help add to the scare, but this only causes Sam to be totally afraid, and at one point he vanishes, only to run home to tell Mr. Drummond and his mother where he and Arnold had gone to. At first the boys have been told to never to return and they are also scolded for trespassing, but the boys do not listen and end up going back to the haunted house, but this time, in an ode to the 1984 blockbuster film Ghostbusters, Sam and Arnold immitate the film, but they soon learn the house is not haunted after all, that the old man named Clarence Markwell ( Ray Bolger ) is not really dead, he only likes to scare off people who trespass on his property.
For the time it was in the 1980s, the effects were played out rather well, and having two legendary actors from beloved things like The Wizard Of Oz and The Addams Family makes this episode enjoyable, but had this been a normal episode, it would have not been so good.
