TV Talk: Conventional wisdom said ‘Ghosts’ was too much of an outlier; now it’s a hit

With all the attention on streaming series and viewers’ migration to Netflix, Disney+ and other direct-to-consumer services, it’s somewhat remarkable that the 2021-22 TV season produced two comedy hits — CBS’s “Ghosts” and ABC’s “Abbott Elementary.”

“Abbott,” already renewed for a second season, has its first-season finale at 9 p.m. Tuesday; “Ghosts” airs its penultimate episode at 9 p.m. Thursday, with its first-season finale set for April 21.

“Ghosts” became a surprise breakthrough hit despite seeming high odds against its success.

A single-camera comedy surrounded by multi-cam sitcoms on older-skewing CBS, through March 27 “Ghosts” ranked as the No. 1 new comedy series of the TV season (“Abbott” is No. 2). “Ghosts” reruns rank third among new comedies, ahead of ABC’s original episodes “The Wonder Years” (No. 4) and NBC’s “American Auto” (No. 5). “Ghosts” is the No. 2 comedy in all of broadcast television, behind only CBS’s “Young Sheldon.” And defying the CBS-skews-old assumption, the last original episode of “Ghosts” on March 31 was the No. 1 series in broadcast television for the night among adults 18-34, a demographic CBS is rarely competitive in.

The show isn’t just a hit on and valuable to CBS, it’s also the No. 1 comedy on streaming service Paramount+.

Set in upstate New York — and filmed in Montreal — “Ghosts” follows married couple Sam (Rose McIver) and Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) who inherit Woodstone Estate, a rundown mansion, and with it a raft of ghosts from different time periods, including a Gilded Age robber baron’s wife, Hetty (Rebecca Wisocky); the Viking Thorfinn (Devan Chandler Long); ’80s Scout troop leader Pete (Richie Moriarty); and 1700s militiaman Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones). Following a near-death experience in the pilot, Sam gained the ability to see and hear the ghosts; Jay cannot.

For Altoona native Joe Port, who adapted CBS’s “Ghosts” from the British series of the same name with long-time writing partner Joe Wiseman, it’s been a long road to this overnight success.

Port’s TV comedy writing credits date back to the 1999-2000 UPN animated comedy “Dilbert,” and he has worked on “Just Shoot Me,” “Last Man Standing,” “New Girl” and “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist,” as well as pilots that never made it to series and plenty of short-lived programs, too (“1600 Penn,” “The Crazy Ones,” “Me, Myself & I”).

Port is quick to credit the original British “Ghosts,” available to stream on HBO Max, for laying the groundwork for CBS’s American adaptation.

“I think it’s just a nice marriage of these period dramas that people seem to love right now and these warm comedies that are appealing,” Port said. “It’s kind of a good mash-up of ‘Ted Lasso’ and ‘What We Do in the Shadows.’ We’re a supernatural comedy with a little more heart.”

Port says the writers leaned into writing stories that couldn’t be done on other shows.

“We wanted there to be a ghost aspect to everything,” he said. “We also have to have a little bit of heart at the end of the episode as long as it’s earned. They’re not all tear-jerkers, and they shouldn’t be, but there should be some substance that grounds the bigger, funnier elements.”

A college history major, Port drew on his Altoona upbringing and the city’s Gilded Age Baker Mansion “that just happened to be two blocks from my house” in creating “Ghosts.” Though the mansion in the show looks nothing like the one in Altoona, Port cribbed the first names of Baker’s first owners, Hetty and Elias, for two of the show’s ghost characters. Port was back in Altoona in October and visited Baker Mansion, home of the Blair County Historical Society.

“They told me they’re receiving out-of-state visitors for the first time because of the show,” Port said.

With “Ghosts,” a rare series that grew in popularity throughout its first season, so, too, did viewer scrutiny.

Why were some ghosts always missing from early episodes? Port says on a new show with a large cast, it’s not unusual for some actors to be “fractional series regulars,” meaning their contract will call for them to be in, say, 10 of 13 episodes.

“We knew going in who the people were that were fractional. That was established before we even cast it,” Port said. “Joe and I had a big chart, and we just wanted to make sure that not too many people were missing in any particular episode.”

Deciding who would sit out a particular episode was often story-driven, Port said. When “Ghosts” became a hit, the showrunners were able to afford to get all the characters in each of the back five episodes of the season, and they’ll all appear in all episodes of season two, which CBS already ordered.

Port also clarifies that Crash, a James Dean-type with a severed head who was in the pilot, was never intended to be a series regular.

“I think we want to have a flashback at some point,” Port said, “but we just haven’t had him back where we needed the actor there.”

A headless Crash was spotted in a fall episode, and his headless body showed up again in the recent “Trevor’s Pants” episode.

This week’s episode, “Attic Girl,” features a “mean girl” teen ghost who died on her prom night in the 1980s, and Alberta (Danielle Pinnock) discovers she has another special ability. In the April 21 season finale, Sam and Jay put the finishing touches on their bed and breakfast and discover Thorfinn put a Norse curse on them before getting to know them. Isaac attempts to talk to his love interest.

“It’s not really a cliffhanger, but it sets up some stories,” Port said. “And there might be some stuff that people could read cliffhanger into if they are so disposed.”

Port said writing episodes for season two began in March with filming starting in June, two months earlier than most broadcast network comedies, to take advantage of better Montreal weather.

Port’s favorite episode of season one featured Jay getting possessed by Hetty.

“I think we definitely want to do another possession, not necessarily of Jay and not necessarily with Hetty,” Port said, offering one other hint about season two: “I think we might see a dinosaur.”