Harold Ramis Dan Aykroyd on the screenplay for "Ghostbusters", which became one of the biggest comedy hits of all time, in which he also starred as Dr. Egon Spengler, a role he reprised for the 1989 sequel, "Ghostbusters II" (which he also co-wrote with Aykroyd). His later film "Groundhog Day" has been called his "masterpiece". His films have been noted for attacking "the smugness of institutional life ... with an impish good [will] that is unmistakably American". They are also noted for "Ramis's signature tongue-in-cheek pep talks". Sloppiness and improv were also important aspects of his work. Ramis frequently depicted the qualities
Egon Olsen talent for improvisation impressed East Germans living under a socialist economy of scarcity, more than James Bond did, fighting his enemies with the newest technological gimmicks. The gaolers of the Vridsløselille prison in Copenhagen, where Egon Olsen went at the end of each film, initiated a renaming of the street right in front of the prison into "Egon Olsens Vej" () in 2004. According to gaolers and the prison warden, "Egon Olsen has always been a very nice criminal who deserves to be honoured", and "Egon has done much for the facility. Up until today, many tourists from Eastern Germany