Continuity mistake: When Venkman is going to the restaurant and calls a cab, the Ecto-Mobile pulls over and the 3 Ghostbusters exit. The 2 women walking down the street pass behind them twice. (00:57:55)
Revealing mistake: The second mink in the coat that comes alive is a blatant glove puppet. (01:19:50)
Continuity mistake: When a ghost makes people freak out of the theater, there's a man with a brown scarf who runs towards the camera holding a pop corn bucket. When the angle changes, he's inside the theater, exiting the place again. (01:19:30)
Continuity mistake: When Dana gives her shopping bags to Frank the doorman, the lettuce is either hidden or coming out depending on the shot, and a long brown bag appears and disappears depending on the angle focusing. (00:01:10)
Continuity mistake: When the ghost is about to kidnap the baby, Oscar stretches out his right arm. A split second later, from a different angle, the arm is resting by his side. (01:15:45)
Continuity mistake: Dana chases the pram and a biker falls seconds before. She passes next to him and meters ahead, she falls on the curb with no one around. In the close-up, the bicycle has appeared next to her. (00:02:00)
Continuity mistake: During the trial, the coffee pot swaps the side it's facing between the front and back shots. (00:28:55)
Continuity mistake: During Oscar's physical, Ray is holding the recorder in his right hand, then as the camera switches to the reverse angle his tape recorder is in the left hand. (00:16:50)
Continuity mistake: Ray answers the phone getting a momentary break from Peter's questioning. He picks up the receiver holding a pencil between index and middle finger, but when the camera angle changes the pencil is gone, and he later picks it from the book on the desk. (00:14:35)
Continuity mistake: When Janusz is knocked off the ladders while painting Vigo's eye and Vigo comes to life in the painting, the brush he was using is in different positions on the floor depending on the shot. (00:22:30 - 00:23:05)
Continuity mistake: While Dana is cleaning her baby for the bath, the bottle and sponge next to him move around between shots, the tissue popping out appears/disappears randomly, as does a towel on the corner. (00:45:20)
Continuity mistake: When Stantz and Egon watch the computer encyclopaedia, in the close-ups the information shows up in several single lines, but in two big paragraphs in the wide angles. (00:47:30)
Visible crew/equipment: When they're yelling at the pink slime, one of them places a toaster next to the slime. A big lighting screen gets reflected on the metal structure. (00:40:40)
Revealing mistake: When the Statue of Liberty is about to smash the museum's glass dome, the shot outside is really bizarre: The Statue is standing on a park, with a pink cloud covering what is supposed to be the museum. Yet the lower part of the cloud plus the people around it, show that there is no building nor any foundations there: Just a superimposed pink cloud over an empty field. (01:31:35)
Continuity mistake: When the statue starts to walk it has irons and cables attached to the sole of its sandals. When it's walking downtown the shoe is clean and like new (most likely the first miniature has been replaced by a human in disguise). (01:28:20 - 01:30:15)
Continuity mistake: Dana and Venkman watch the painting for the first time while Janosz climbs a ladder. His hand swaps between grabbing the railing or raised, between shots. (00:43:45)
Continuity mistake: The pink slime in Dana's tub grows up to a height of 6 feet. then a frame later it's really small and it's growing-up again. (00:45:45)
Continuity mistake: While Egon and Stantz check out the computer screen, the books on the right change positions between shots. (00:47:30)
Continuity mistake: In the museum, when Dana is trapped and the Ghostbusters lay on the floor, right before Vigo grabs the baby, Vigo's hair is fluffy and messed up. A shot later it's straight and neatly brushed. (01:34:40)
Continuity mistake: While the Statue of Liberty walks down the street, the shoe swaps from a blatant rubber sneaker with the welded planks painted on it, to a more-realistic shoe with real layered planks. (01:30:15)
Answer: SpikeTV didn't alter the movie except for editing for time and content. The scene you saw was in the original film and the way the river looked was a combination of two things, the camera angle and the poor special effects of the time.
moviemogul