Ghosts - What We Know So Far
TV series featuring vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and other creatures that go bump in the night are television mainstays. Long before cable channels and streaming services entered the picture, shows like "The Twilight Zone" and "The Addams Family" laid the groundwork for what would become a booming supernatural genre on television. Times may have changed, but people's tastes haven't. Audiences have more access than ever to content centered around the supernatural, and the plethora of shows proves those tastes are wide-ranging. Series like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "The Vampire Diaries," "American Horror Story," "The Walking Dead," and "Supernatural" have developed huge followings and become highly influential on pop culture.
Soon, the upcoming CBS comedy "Ghosts" will join the ranks of these supernatural shows while also putting a comedic spin on the popular TV genre. While CBS is better known as the home of multi-cam sitcoms, crime procedurals, and reality shows, the network has also continued to provide viewers with creepier fare. These offerings include Jordan Peele's reboot of "The Twilight Zone," a small-screen adaptation of Stephen King's "The Stand," and the hit series "Evil," which CBS has renewed for a third season.
For those who prefer supernatural creatures mixed in somewhat lighter fare, here's what we know about CBS' "Ghosts," including its release date, cast, and plot.
What is Ghosts' release date?
"Ghosts" is set to premiere on Thursday, October 7 (via Just Jared Jr.). News of the comedy's release date arrived over a year after the show was announced. In 2019, Deadline reported that CBS was developing "Ghosts," an adaptation of the BBC series of the same name. The single-camera comedy is written and produced by former "New Girl" co-producers Joe Port and Joe Wiseman. The original "Ghosts" premiered on BBC One in April 2019. A positive review from The Guardian noted the show is "very British" but pointed out that the series "is American in the sense of having a gag-to-airtime ratio much higher than British sitcoms normally manage these days."
The original show's mix of British and American comedic sensibilities may bode well for CBS' U.S.-based adaptation, but, historically, results have been a mixed bag when it comes to adapting British shows for American audiences. "The Office" is arguably the most successful example, but there are also many oft-forgotten failures, including "Coupling," "Life On Mars," "The Inbetweeners," and "Skins." Whether American audiences will embrace "Ghosts" remains to be seen.
Who is in the cast of Ghosts?
The cast of "Ghosts" features a sprawling ensemble. In March 2020, Deadline announced "iZombie" star Rose McIver was cast in the lead role of Samantha. McIver previously appeared on supernatural detective series "iZombie," Netflix's "Christmas Prince" trilogy, and in ABC's "Once Upon a Time" as Tinker Bell. In July 2020, Deadline reported CBS had finally found McIver's co-star and leading man: Utkarsh Ambudkar, who will play Samantha's husband, Ryan. The actor's past credits include "Free Guy," "Pitch Perfect," and Fox's "The Mindy Project" (via IMDb). The Deadline report on Ambudkar's casting also reveals CBS' complicated search for a male lead due to COVID-19: "As everyone has been at home and social distancing, the network employed Zoom chemistry reads with McIver among other tools."
Rounding out the main cast, per the "Ghosts" IMDb page, are Brandon Scott Jones ("The Good Place") as Isaac, Richie Moriarty ("What We Do in the Shadows") as Pete, Asher Grodman ("Succession") as Trevor, Rebecca Wisocky ("Star Trek: Picard") as Hetty, Sheila Carrasco ("Jane the Virgin") as Flower, Danielle Pinnock ("Young Sheldon") as Alberta, Román Zaragoza ("Stumptown") as Sassapis, Hudson Thames ("Mad Men") as Crash, and Devan Long ("Doom Patrol") as Thorfinn.
What is the plot of Ghosts?
Deadline's March report on CBS' acquisition of "Ghosts" includes a brief synopsis on the show: "'Ghosts' follows a struggling young couple, Samantha (McIver) and Jay (Ambudkar), whose dreams come true when they inherit a beautiful country house, only to find it's both falling apart and inhabited by many of the deceased previous residents."
Details surrounding the titular ghosts, their backstories, and how they wound up stuck on the estate following their deaths are sure to factor heavily into the show's story arcs. According to Den of Geek, "Ghosts" co-creator Laurence Rickard had this to say about how the American apparitions will differ from the British versions: "A lot of the character dynamics are the same, but they've changed where those characters come from geographically and their point in history."
Den of Geek also provides a general breakdown of each character. The characters who most resemble original "Ghosts" characters are: Moriarty's Pete (known as "Pat" in the original series), a scout leader from the 1980s; Wisocky's Hetty (whose UK equivalent is named "Fanny Button"), described as "a society woman from the 1800s and the wife of a robber baron" with ancestral ties to Samantha; and Grodman's Trevor, a "late '90s finance bro" whose character closely resembles '90s Tory MP Julian Fawcett.
New characters who, per Den of Geek, appear to be amalgamations of characters from the original "Ghosts" (or borrow traits from them) include: Jones' character, Isaac, a milquetoast 18th-century soldier with the ability to make humans smell bad odors; Viking explorer Thorfinn, who is the oldest ghost in the house and similar to a caveman named Robin; A hippie chick named Flower (Carrasco); Zaragoza's Native character, Sassapis; Pinnock's Alberta is 1920's singer and force of nature; and Thames' "Crash," a John-Travolta-circa-"Grease" wannabe.