A Fool's Utopia 4.09.09: Positively Paranormal, Part 1: Ghost Shows

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A Fool's Utopia 4.09.09: Positively Paranormal, Part 1: Ghost Shows
by Ron Martin
4/9/09

You may have noticed a TV trend in the new millennium. Things are a little more spookified than we were used to back in the 20th century. While shows dealing with paranormal phenomena are nothing new to our television screens, in the 21st century, TV decided to tackle the whole thing head on. By the turn of the century, the paranormal interest could no longer be contained on the internet. Creatures of internet forums and webpages devoted to hunting the afterlife, hunting Bigfoot, UFOs and the like were beginning to take physical shape in ghost hunting groups and paranormal research teams. Do a Google search for paranormal investigators near your hometown and I guarantee there's one within an hour of where you live

Ghost hunting groups were practically begging TV studios to write something for them. The Travel Channel's Most Haunted was the closest anyone had come and for most ghost hunting groups, that show may as well been made in Hollywood as different as it was from the reality of ghost hunting. In 2004, the Sci-fi channel heard the begging and tried to take advantage of it by purchasing the rights to Ghost Hunters. Ghost Hunters followed the exploits of TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society), an established paranormal group out of New England. TAPS was probably chosen because of their work advising former paranormal-like shows (MTV's FEAR), but whatever the reason, the show became one of the highest rated shows on Sci-fi. When the show received the highest ratings between 2-5 AM on TV during the first live Halloween investigations, other production companies stood up and took notice. Soon, imitations popped up on the high end of the cable stations all vying for the reality/paranormal audience. Even Pilgrim Films (Ghost Hunters production company) tries to fill in the void between filming sessions with their own spinoff – and a second spinoff on the way!

As many of you know, I recap Ghost Hunters and it's spinoff show Ghost Hunters International every week here for 411. I get all kinds of emails about the shows from cast members, production crew members and just fans of the column. I get a lot of "You got to watch (insert paranormal TV Show here)" emails. I decided to do such that. While I watch mainly Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International because of my recapping duties, I have seen the other shows. What kind of paranormal TV is there out there today? Is it worth watching? Let's take a look. In this first part, I will do what I do best and relive every Wednesday night at nine.

Ghost Hunters, Sci-fi, Wednesdays 9 PM



When Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson first hit the airwaves in 2004, this was something fresh. You don't get that a lot in TV. There had been other paranormal related television shows and even some with ghost hunting aspects to it (again, MTV's Fear), but nothing like Ghost Hunters. Originally, the show was to be more documentary style showing how Jason and Grant deal with being plumbers by day, ghost hunters by night and family men all the time. That format was quickly ditched for the format we are more familiar with today; TAPS investigates, debunks or gathers evidence and presents a location as haunted or not. The first two and a half seasons were entertaining, educating (if you have every watched a single episode of this show and don't know what an EVP is, I will smack you) and provocative. Then came the first live Halloween show where the team did a six hour (at least six hours of the investigation were on camera) investigation of the Stanley Hotel. With the success of that show, Pilgrim Films stepped in and tried to fix something that wasn't broken. The show became overproduced, the percentage of haunted locations to not haunted locations took a drastic jump up and team members started acting differently. For the memory challenged, the show will replay events over and over or have someone give you a confessional talk about what we just saw play out on camera.

Season Four was the culmination of all these as a hot chick was added to the show, ghost hunters became stereotypes, most of the original cast left the show, TAPS went back on its previous rules and bylaws and basically became bored with the entire premise of the show. Kris Williams (under the guise of being an "old friend" of Jason and Grant's – why they are hobnobbing with someone 15-20 years their junior is a topic for another column all together), a pretty wannabe actress with no prior ghost hunting experience was added to the show in lieu of literally hundreds of eligible TAPS members across the country. Can we say ratings? This also was the season that Steve and Tango started acting like frat boys on the loose playing more games and joking around than doing actual ghost hunting (As an aside, for Season Five, Pilgrim Films must have gotten a lot of complaints because Steve and Tango have stopped acting the fools for the most part and have even commented to each other about being professional). Did we mention ratings? TAPS started using personal experiences as evidence at reveals making it easier for them to call a place haunted, even though in previous seasons they had said that personal experiences are not evidence.

Today Ghost Hunters has started it's fifth season under the fire of the public after allegedly faking a lot of their evidence (the 2008 Halloween show being the straw that did you know what to the camel's back. Youtube it.). On top of that, the team looks tired and bored. They are uninspired even when they have spiritual communication, mostly just sitting where they are and asking for more knocks or turning a flashlight on. They rely heavily on controversial equipment that could be the result of just about anything setting equipment off. They are reluctant to call anything paranormal or not, instead leaving home and business owners with ambiguous answers that will do nothing to help them gain more tourist dollars. That sucks for TAPS because they are on record as being proud of the fact that businesses they call haunted more than double their profit.

Ghost Hunters is as stale as they come. The show needs a makeover, or at the very least injected with some energy. What was once the best paranormal show on TV is currently resting on its reputation. The talent needs to be shuffled in and out, as well as steps taken towards mending their broken trust with the audience. This is a chore to watch.

Ghost Hunters International, Sci-fi, Wednesdays, 9 PM



Wonder what happened to those cast members that left Ghost Hunters? They pitched this idea for Ghost Hunters International to Pilgrim Films. It's the same exact format as Ghost Hunters, except for the simple fact that this team is traveling all over the world to investigate, not just America. At the start, International was a Ghost Hunters clone with just as much overproduction as GH. However, as the show evolved and all the original TAPS members left, it has started to grow into its own. The first leg of a three legged first season was uneven, to be kind. The second leg was chaotic as the cast went through no less than five cast changes. The third leg of the first season, the team had finally gelled and even with two more cast changes, seemed to hit their stride.

Gone was the original trio of TAPS members, lead investigator Robb Demarest became more comfortable in front of the camera and best of all, the various teams were not given "personalities." Unlike GH, the GHI crew switches their teams of two up frequently so we don't get stereotyped into the team of clowns, the team of giggling girls, etc. The two GH imports, Dustin Pari and Joe Chin seemed the most level headed choices and unlike their previous counterparts (Donna, Andy and Brian) did not play a large role in the first three seasons of GH. Fans did not automatically associate them with their former show. Perhaps the best thing to happen to GHI is the quitting of former Tech Manager Brian Harnois and the promotion of current tech manager Barry Fitzgerald. Unlike his counterpart on GH, Barry is constantly coming up with new gadgets to benefit the team as well as new ghost hunting techniques.

It is possible that in another seasons or so, GHI will find themselves in the same boat as GH. After all, all that traveling takes its toll on you. For now, GHI is the more energetic, thought provoking show. It gets basically the same ratings (it is in the same timeslot, but at different points in the year and is never in direct competition with GH), has the same format but doesn't have the controversy of faking evidence surrounding it. In fact, some criticisms of the show is that its evidence isn't good enough – that's just how ghost hunting works sometimes. It helps that the three members of GHI who hunted during the infamous Halloween show were the only ones who got out without criticism. That is, other than Robb is going to freak on and go on a killing spree. Until is happens, it's just speculation folks.