Paranormal lightning makes its way through the city, while the Ghostbusters and Slimer are watching TV. Ray begins flipping the channel, irking Peter and Winston. Ray eventually settles on his favourite show, called The Sammy K. Ferret Show (a slapstick cartoon about anthropomorphic animals). Ray and Slimer find it hilarious, but the others hate it. Peter and Winston even leave, then so does Egon, leaving Ray and Slimer by themselves. The TV glitches out, so Ray tries to fix it with a machine. Lighting then strikes the TV, so Ray decides to go to bed and replace it the next day, but then the TV glows.
The next day, Janine tries to watch TV on her lunch break, but some anthropomorphic animals burst out of the screen, frightening her. A cat starts chasing a mouse around with a hammer, then runs into the kitchen. The Ghostbusters enter the living room and ask her what's wrong, but Peter thinks she's joking and Egon thinks she's hallucinating from stress. Ray and Winston search the living room, but find nothing. Egon puts Janine off-duty for the afternoon, but when everyone leaves, Sammy K. Ferret himself comes to life.
Egon later detects spectral activity that isn't from Slimer, so he has everyone suit up. They intercept Sammy in the kitchen and try to shoot him, but Slimer tells them not to. Egon points out that since Sammy emitted spectral energy he must be a ghost, but Ray sides with Slimer. Sammy then throws a (harmless) bomb, draws a door to another dimension, and leaves through said door. Winston tries to pursue Sammy, but when he opens the door, a train shows up and blows his uniform off.
Sammy pops up again, and Peter goes to fire at him, but then Sammy starts shooting a cannon at the Ghostbusters. He then leaves, throwing another bomb, but this one is more dangerous. Egon explains that the longer Sammy stays in reality, the more realistic, and therefore dangerous, his cartoon props become.
The Ghostbusters drive off with Slimer in tow to track Sammy down. Winston complains that Sammy will be hard to find, but then they all discover that he's leaving a trail of cartooniness wherever he goes. Then, there's a traffic jam because the lights have come to life and are arguing over who should be red. Sammy then appears, but runs away before the Ghostbusters can trap him, then Ray turns into an anthropomorphic pig.
Peter and Egon go after Sammy on a motorbike and tangle with him, but again don't manage to catch him. Meanwhile, in the car, Winston turns into an anthropomorphic dog. They all get in the car and drive off, then they come up with the plan to attract Sammy by using humour (since Sammy likes being funny) and having Slimer perform a comedy skit. They succeed at attracting Sammy, but find he's immune to being trapped.
On the way to a live show, the Ghostbusters discuss how to trap Sammy, wondering if getting him mad is the answer, and then Egon turns into a bird. On the show, the Ghostbusters bash Sammy around to anger him, and he turns into a monster. This enables him to be trapped. Once Sammy is trapped, the Ghostbusters go back to normal, although a few of the changes still haven't reversed.
This episode provides examples of
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: One of the Sammy K. Ferret characters wears only sunglasses and shoes, another wears just shoes and gloves.
- Accordion Man: On the TV show, the poodle lady is spread out like an accordion after being crushed by an anvil. She even plays music as she walks.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Some of the Sammy K. Ferret characters are multicoloured animals, such as a pink poodle and a purple cat.
- Animate Inanimate Object: Sammy brings a parking meter, a mailbox, a tree, and two traffic lights, to life.
- Animorphism: As part of the cartoon transformations, Ray turns into an anthropomorphic pig, Winston into an anthropomorphic dog, and Egon into an anthropomorphic bird.
- Anvil on Head: The poodle woman on Sammy K. Ferret gets squashed by a falling anvil.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: While Ray and Winston entertain the possibility, Egon and Peter don't believe that cartoon animals could have come alive, despite dealing with the paranormal all the time.
- Art Shift: Sammy causes wherever he's been to have a more "cartoony" art style.
- Aside Glance: In-Universe — Sammy K. Ferret winks at the screen during his show.
- Ask a Stupid Question...: When Ray asks the others if they were watching TV, Peter replies, "No; we were just warming up the set for you."
- Attention Whore: Sammy wants all the focus to be on him and gets cranky when people laugh at other people.
- Cartoon Bomb: Sammy throws bowling-ball shaped bombs.
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: The gust of air from the cartoon train blows off Winston's uniform, leaving him in his boxers.
- Dogs Love Fire Hydrants: When Winston turns into a dog, he tells the others not to make fire hydrant jokes.
- Eek, a Mouse!!: Discussed when Janine is screaming due to the cartoon characters coming to life, but because her fear is making her tongue-tied, she can only stammer out, "I saw... a mouse!", causing Ray to think that she's just afraid of mice.
- Forced Transformation: Sammy turns Ray into a cartoon pig.
- Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Sammy wears full clothes.
- Funny Animal: The characters of The Sammy K. Ferret Show are anthropomorphic animals.
- Furry Reminder: As a pig, Ray oinks, as a dog, Winston barks and scratches his head, and as a bird, Egon squawks.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Two kangaroos in shirts and ties, a hippo in a Hawaiian shirt, a fox in a sweater, and a bull in a police shirt can be seen.
- Hulking Out: Being angry causes Sammy to turn into a giant, ugly monster.
- Humour Dissonance: In-Universe — the poodle woman becoming an Accordion Man on Sammy K. Ferret was meant to be funny, but only the easily-amused Ray and Slimer laugh. Winston even says, "You really think that's funny?!".
- Lightmare Fuel: A slapstick cartoon character gets transported to the real world, where his cartoon gags are no longer funny and are in fact a danger to New York.
- Mysterious Middle Initial: It's unstated what the "K" in Sammy K. Ferret means.
- Mythology Gag: Ray calls Slimer "spud" like he did in the movie.
- No-Sell: Sammy is immune to proton packs and ghost traps (unless he's angry).
- Percussive Maintenance: Ray bashes the TV to try to get rid of the static.
- Pun:
- Ray, after his machine causes the TV to be hit by lightning and set ablaze, says his idea "wasn't so hot".
- Egon says that Winston is "barking" up the wrong tree by assuming he and Peter will make fire hydrant jokes when he turns into a dog.
- Pun-Based Title: The tile is a pun on "stay tuned" and "toon" (short for cartoon).
- Refugee from TV Land: Supernatural lightning causes cartoon animals to leave the TV and enter "reality".
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: One of the kangaroos says, "Boing! Boing!" as they bounce, which the other finds "humiliating".
- Screaming Woman: When the cartoon characters start coming to life, Janine screams.
- Shout-Out:
- One of the programs Ray flips to has an image of a giant lizard attacking a city, referencing Godzilla.
- Peter rhetorically asks if the channel with nothing on it is showing "Married with Static", referencing Married... with Children.
- One of the shows in Winston's TV guide is The Slimsons, a parody of The Simpsons.
- The first two characters to come to life were a cat with a hammer and a mouse, a reference to Tom and Jerry.
- Show Within a Show: Ray watches a cartoon called The Sammy K. Ferret Show.
- Species Surname: Sammy's last name is Ferret, and he's applied to be one.
- This Is Reality: Ray describes Sammy K. Ferret as "only a cartoon", unaware that he's in one himself.
- Through a Face Full of Fur: The pink poodle lady on the cartoon blushes through her fur.
- Tongue-Out Insult: The mailbox sticks its tongue out at the parking meter.
- Toon Transformation: Sammy transforms several objects and people into cartoon characters, including Ray, Winston and Egon.
- Urine Trouble: Defied when a talking tree and parking meter shoo a dog away lest he pee on them.
- White Gloves: The cartoon mouse wears white gloves.
