05.27
Founded in 1997 by Shades McPherson, Jen Spengler and Tim the Terror Dog. Nightsquad’s original premise was just a little social group of Ghostheads who made their rounds on Bill Emkow’s Ghostbusters Message Board in the wee hours of the morning as opposed to during the day. It continued as such even taking on a new member, Bo Holbrook. Sometime after Nightsquad’s inception, the idea of turning the small social group into a legitimate “Ghostbusters Franchise” was being tossed around. A serious roadblock to this happening was the fact that all the key members of the group lived in different states; Ohio, West Virginia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, to be exact. The only Ghostbusters franchises in existence were regional with all members living in at least the same state.
So a revolutionary idea was put forth, It was suggested that Nightsquad would be based around artistic rendering of the members and self-made literature of their adventures, rather than around building props and taking pictures of themselves in their equipment. It was decided and this would be the new direction that Nightsquad took creatively as it gradually began to formulate itself into a viable Ghostbusters Franchise.
During this time Shades McPherson had began to show interest in bringing one of his best friends into the fold of the group, This young man was “Ecto Ernie” Slaughter. The group felt that five members would be too much for the small group so early in it’s life. In a move that was highly debated over Nightsquad’s 10-plus years in existence, Tim The Terror Dog was unceremoniously ejected from the group, And Ecto Ernie was brought in. Members cited his lack of online presence over the years as an example, coupled with the fact that he contributed little creatively. Tim The Terror Dog would hold this grudge for years before dropping out of the Ghostbusters Community entirely.
It wasn’t long after this incident that Bo Holbrook took the reigns as the “Leader” of Ghostbusters: Nightsquad, and it’s head-writer. Always a controversial member of the Ghostbusters Community, Holbrook’s attitude and general abrasive nature led to a conflict with Shades and Ernie. Tempers flared for some time before Holbrook ejected both of them from the group, citing “Emo Faggotry” as the main reason for their expulsion. The feud would last for quite awhile before all 3 of them made peace with one another.
It was during this time of conflict that Bo Holbrook and Jen Spengler became a couple both online and in real life. Both of them becoming the only mainstay members of Nightsquad to weather all storms the group faced. They would continue their relationship online for nearly 5 years before finally settling into a small apartment on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, PA on April 9th 2003.
After the ejection of Shades and Ernie from Nightsquad, The membership of the group was very thin. During this time, Nightsquad ALMOST blinked out of existence. This was until Bo Holbrook went to Vincent Belmont with a proposition: They revive the franchise with well-respected members of the community. Belmont thought it was a fine idea, and with that, they managed to procure the services of well-known Ghostheads Ben King, Adam Bestler, and Eric Rose.
It was during this time that Nightsquad reached it’s absolute peak in production of fan fiction, and popularity. Nightsquad’s stories had reached the number one spot, as ruled by fan ratings, on Ghostbusters.net’s section for Fan Fiction. Nightsquad had also opened up it’s own offical website, maintained by Eric Rose, with it’s own Message Board. Nightsquad’s Message Board would eventually end up being infamous during the reBolution, as it marketed itself as an alternative to Ghostbusters.net. It maintained that spot of popularity and infamy for a full year, before the group dissolved again.
All good things must come to an end, as many members of Nightsquad’s 2nd Incarnation began to mysteriously drop off the map. Almost all of the new members of the group began showing up online less and less, Including trusted associate Vincent Belmont, who later asserted “Personal Issues” for his departure. After a time, Holbrook began to question what the point of keeping the team together was, when nobody was around anymore to produce anything except for himself. So, Much to the chagrin of the new members of the group, Holbrook decided to dissolve the team once more in favor of bringing back Shades and Ernie both fictionally and in reality.
The founding members of Nightsquad had long since worked out their differences of the past and decided to give it one more go. Although everyone was on good terms again, this was a low for Nightsquad as far as product goes, Holbrook was far too consumed with the reBolution to write, and the other members were never keen on writing to begin with. It would continue this way before another conflict with Shades lead to the second, and FINAL, separation of the founding members of Ghostbusters: Nightsquad.
On April 9th 2003, Nightsquad took a drastic step towards the real. As mentioned earlier, Bo Holbrook and Jen Spengler finally moved in together, just outside of Pittsburgh. It was during this time that Spengler had introduced Holbrook to her good friend Tom Morgan. Not long after meeting Tom, Holbrook extended him the offer to be in Nightsquad. Morgan gladly accepted.
It wasn’t long after this that Nightsquad met the two men who would change the group forever. They would be taken from a solely fan fiction-based franchise to a real life, legitimate franchise. During the 2004 Pittsburgh Comicon, Holbrook and Spengler met up with Cliff Roswell and Zac “Yeti” Crago. This chance meeting eventually lead to several trips by Roswell and Crago to just hang out. During one particular session at Tom’s apartment, Holbrook extended the offer of membership to both men. They gladly accepted, while simultaneously dissolving their own Tri-State Ghostbusters franchise in the process.
Eventually Tom Morgan would depart from the group of his own volition, swayed by his
dislike of Pittsburgh in general, and his dream of owning his own hobby shop. This brought
membership down to 4 once again…until a conflict between Cliff Roswell and the ENTIRE team
arose which lead to his “quitting” and the group collectively deciding he was far too much trouble to work with, on a professional and personal level.
This had brought the team down to 3 members, Including Holbrook, Spengler and Crago. Until a chance meeting of Jeff Chrismer (a.k.a TheRazorsEdge) at the 2005 Pittsburgh Comicon offered up the opportunity to add the 4th and final member of the group. The proposal was made and Chrismer accepted, going so far as to live with the group at their Pittsburgh apartment until a mutual parting of ways in 2007.
Currently, all members of this final incarnation of Nightsquad remain in the group. Although it hasn’t been the most prosperous time for the group, it has been the most enjoyable since the group was founded in 1997. The group has ventured into new creative fields such as The Nightsquad Show hosted on Youtube. As well as a small cross promotion with Jason Yungbluth of Deep Fried fame. The group has also decided to retire itself from the fan fiction side of things, turning the reigns over to Fritz Baugh over at Nightsquad: Classic.
