The third episode of the first season of Dennis the Menace (1986).
Cheer Up
Mr. Wilson slips on Dennis' skateboard and has to go to the hospital. Once there, Dennis arrives to cheer Wilson up, which means Wilson is in for the time of his life.
Ghost Blusters
The kids discover an abandoned old gothic house that Dennis decides would make a great clubhouse. The kids begin cleaning the place up until a pair of ghosts appear. The others want to leave the place, but Dennis, who never once sees the ghosts, chides them for being scaredy cats, and gets them to stay. Finally the "ghosts" are revealed as a couple of crooks who are using the old house to hide their ill-gotten gold, and using "scare tactics" to frighten the kids away.
The Life You Save
Dennis saves Margaret's life, and she won't let him forget it. Desperate to get Margaret out of his hair, he tries to arrange to have the girl save his life. All his efforts are futile... until an escaped grizzly bear happens on the scene.
"Cheer Up" provides examples of:
- Butt-Monkey: Mr. Wilson. He gets hospitalized after he injures his arm and leg thanks to Dennis leaving his skateboard on his front porch and causing him to trip on it. When Dennis comes to visit him, Mr. Wilson gets attacked by his hospital bed due to Dennis having mistaken the remote to it for the television remote, then he gets dragged into a race with Mrs. Green and lands in a pediatric medical crib, where he gets mistaken for an ugly baby. At the end of the episode, Dennis catches Chicken Pox and has to stay in the hospital as his roommate.
- Chickenpox Episode: Downplayed; Mr. Wilson becomes hospitalized when he injures both his arm and leg after tripping on Dennis' skateboard, and Dennis comes to visit him in an unsuccessful attempt to cheer him up. At the end of the episode, the doctor examines Dennis and discovers that he has Chicken Pox. To both Dennis' delight and Mr. Wilson's horror, Dennis has to stay in the hospital as Mr. Wilson's roommate.
- Cool Old Lady: Mrs. Green, an elderly lady in a wheelchair, challenges Dennis and Mr. Wilson to a race. Dennis and Mr. Wilson win because the nurse catches her out of her room.
- Goo Goo Getup: After winning the race against Mrs. Green, Mr. Wilson gets launched out of his wheelchair and lands in a pediatric medical crib, ending up with a pacifier in his mouth. When the nurse shows a new father to him, the father says "That's my son? Ew!"
- Injured Limb Episode: Mr. Wilson injures both his arm and leg in this episode as a result of accidentally tripping on Dennis' skateboard.
- Murphy's Bed: When Dennis comes to visit Mr. Wilson, he tries to cheer him up by turning on the television, but the remote he grabs is for Mr. Wilson's hospital bed, and the buttons he presses cause it to attack him. All the while, Dennis is completely oblivious to this happening as he wonders why the television isn't turning on. This gag is repeated at the end of the episode when Dennis is revealed to have Chicken Pox and has to stay in the hospital as Mr. Wilson's roommate.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: This episode ends with Dennis becoming Mr. Wilson's roommate, much to the latter's ire, as Dennis has come down with a case of Chicken Pox.
"Ghost Blusters" provides examples of:
- Asshole Victim: The Dinkle Gang scare Dennis' friends to keep them away from treasure, but also suffer a series of Amusing Injuries thanks to Dennis, who is oblivious to their presence the entire time.
- Bedsheet Ghost: The Dinkle Gang disguise themselves as ghosts and haunt Joey, Margaret, and Gina. However, Dennis is oblivious to their presence.
- Easy Come, Easy Go: Dennis and his friends find Old Mann Kragett's treasure in the Kragett house, but when the police come to arrest the Dinkle Gang, they take the treasure and use it to pay the house's back taxes.
- Fat and Skinny: The Dinkle Gang has the skinny member in a blue bedsheet and the fat member in a pink one.
- Haunted House: When Joey loses his kite, Dennis and his friends go to the Kragett house, which has been abandoned for years, and is believed to be haunted. Joey, Margaret, and Gina keep seeing ghosts (really the disguised Dinkle Gang), but Dennis sees nothing, and thinks the house will be perfect for their new clubhouse.
- Portrait Painting Peephole: Two framed pictures have these, which the Dinkle Gang hide behind when Dennis and his friends walk up the stairs.
- Security Cling: After Margaret hears a spooky noise, she jumps into Dennis' arms, clinging to him in fear, only for Dennis to shrug, thus dropping her in the process.
- Shout-Out: This episode's title is a reference to the Ghostbusters franchise. A
sound-alike of the Ghostbusters theme song plays in the scenes where the disguised Dinkle Gang appear. This should come as no surprise, as DiC Entertainment created both this cartoon and The Real Ghostbusters. - Spiders Are Scary: Margaret certainly thinks so. When Gina complains that she hates spider webs, Margaret sees a spider and says that she hates spiders even worse.
"The Life You Save" provides examples of:
- Bears Are Bad News: Dennis tries to invoke this by disguising Ruff as a bear and having him chase him so Margaret will save him. Margaret doesn't fall for it, but the disguised Ruff attracts a real bear in a love-struck state.
- Crying Wolf: When Dennis sees a real bear, he calls for Margaret to save him. However, because he had already disguised Ruff as a bear, Margaret thinks Dennis is playing another trick. She realizes he wasn't kidding this time when she sees the real bear.
- Glass-Shattering Sound: At the end of the episode, Margaret practices her scales, but her dreadful singing causes the window behind her to break. She blushes in embarrassment after this happens.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Margaret's singing voice is so dreadful, it scares away the bear that the disguised Ruff attracts and breaks her window.
- I Owe You My Life: Margaret becomes extremely loyal to Dennis after he saves her from a runaway shopping cart. Dennis gets annoyed with her when she gets him kicked out of a baseball game, and fakes life-threatening stunts to get her to save him so they'll be even. One of these stunts involves having Ruff in a bear-skin rug chase him, which Margaret doesn't fall for. However, the disguised Ruff attracts a real bear in a love-struck state, which Margaret scares away with her dreadful singing.
- ISO-Standard Urban Groceries: Margaret is seen carrying a brown paper grocery bag in the beginning of this episode, and as a result, she can't see the runaway shopping cart heading towards her.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Margaret's singing frightens the bear to the point where it runs back to the truck it rode in, feeling safer there.
- Wingding Eyes: The bear's eyes turn into hearts when it sees the disguised Ruff, thinking he's a real bear.
