TVSquad

On Thursday October 18th, I attended a blogger event for CBS at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. After waiting a surprisingly long time to clear security (all the while the security guard kept my driver's license with him), I finally started my tour of the Ghost Whisperer stages. Along with a tour of the show's set, the press event also included interviews with the executive producers, a sneak preview of the Halloween episode (airing October 26th), and a tour of the show's back lot (in the context of the Universal Studios R.I.P. experience). Completely unrelated to Ghost Whisperer but interesting all the same, we got a sneak preview of How to Survive a Horror Movie: All the Skills to Dodge the Kills and an interview with writer/director Seth Grahame-Smith.

The Set of Ghost Whisperer:
The first and last part of the press event included a set visit to the Ghost Whisperer stages at Universal Studios. For those of you who have seen the show, you'll know that Melinda and Jim's perfect house is quite large with long hallways and staircases. However, that is not the case when you see the stages. The house, which was fully decorated for Christmas, is separated into two stages: (1) a first floor that includes a foyer, living room, dining room, kitchen with a fully stocked fridge, and a staircase that goes nowhere and (2) a second floor with their bedroom and bathroom that's bigger than the living room. So, in all those scenes where Melinda and Jim are running up the stairs to go consummate their seemingly perfect marriage, they come to an abrupt end at the top of the cut-off staircases. The bathroom really is huge and a dream bathroom (except for the whole being on a TV set thing). I was informed that they changed the colors of Melinda's house from season one to season three. Season one had darker more Gothic colors for Melinda's home (and wardrobe) while season three has warmer tones to reflect Melinda's compassionate personality.

We also toured the file room which was furnished with old papers and real dust (a good use of old papers that would have been shredded anyway, I must add). Lastly, we toured Professor Payne's office. The office is bigger than last season's. The enlargement happened because Jay Mohr who started as a guest star who wouldn't go away is now a full member of the cast. They neglected to explain whether his character on the show was given a promotion at the university hence warranting a larger office. Set decorator Donald Krafft does a great job of furnishing Professor Payne's office though. There are many pictures of the occult on a drawing broad and various tribal skulls and animal skeletons. I did find the books particularly interesting: nothing on the paranormal or supernatural just some novels by Danielle Steel, Nelson DeMille, and John Grisham.

Finally at the end of the evening we toured the Ghost Whisperer back lot on foot, armed with flashlights. This tour is part of the Universal Studios R.I.P. experience going on now in California and Florida (usually called the V.I.P. experience). So, to review, we experienced a ghost tour on a set for a TV show about ghosts. Just wanted to clarify. There was one interesting ghost story though. Apparently after filming last season's finale where a car falls on/just misses Jennifer Love Hewitt's character, Melinda Gordon, the actors and crew watched the footage from the scene and Hewitt wasn't the only one on film. As Jennifer walked away from the car, a man got out of the car and walked off the frame the other way. According to everyone present for the filming, there was never anyone in the car to begin with. Not really believable yet slightly disturbing, I know.

Interview with the Producers of Ghost Whisperer and Sneak Peak at the Halloween episode:

After I saw the Ghost Whisperer stages (sadly, I did not get to see the underworld stage as they were filming there), I got to meet the producers of the show: Ian Sander, Kim Moses, and P.K. Simonds (the last just called in because he was at home writing in his Snoopy slippers). They said a bunch of boring stuff about their ratings and popularity in the 18-34 year-old demographic which I won't get into. They did however mention some interesting stuff about this season of Ghost Whisperer. While the show would always have its emotional through-line (think of the pilot where Wentworth Miller a.k.a. hottie from Prison Break was a war vet who wanted to see his child), they were going to make it scarier, edgier, and more mysterious. This season's mythology would focus on the underground that Melinda discovers in the Grandview city archives. It will deal not only with the mysteries of the town but also mysteries of Melinda's own ancestry. Perhaps there is a reason Melinda and Jim moved to Grandview. In other words, the show will look inward: what is buried inside Melinda and her family? In fact, the sneak preview of the Halloween episode revealed that Melinda will discover more about her half-brother Gabriel, her father, and his relationship with Gabriel's mother (who was put in a mental institution).

One thing I must point out -- why have a Halloween episode if the whole show is basically just one big Halloween episode? I didn't get what was so "Halloween" about it. However, Ghost Whisperer does have a web-based interactive video called The Scariest Story Ever Told and that did seem very "Halloween" (forgive my use of Halloween as an adjective, I will stop now). Basically, the cast of Ghost Whisperer starts the story each saying a line. You can record yourself saying the next line and submit it. The digital media people at the production offices will pick the winners and edit the story together.

Interview with Seth Grahame-Smith author of How to Survive a Horror Movie and Sneak Peak at Dodge the Kills:

I know this next part is completely unrelated to Ghost Whisperer but it was part of the tour and actually pretty cool. I got to meet the author of How to Survive a Horror Movie: All the Skills to Dodge the Kills Seth Grahame-Smith. (Side note: I also got a signed copy of the new book.) Why is CBS involved with this author (who is also responsible for a producer of Clark and Michael)? They backed a series of webisodes to be aired this Halloween seasons at www.dodgethekills.com. The webisodes are training videos (Grahame-Smith is the narrator) on how to stay alive if you find yourself in a horror flick such as: Know Your Ghosts, How to Defeat a Killer Doll, How to Survive a Space-Based Horror Movie and What to Do if Your Corn Has Children in It.

I had a pretty good time at Universal Studios that evening. It was an interesting experience to walk through the sets. While I didn't get to go into any other sets except Ghost Whisperer, the very first door I saw while searching for the rendezvous point was for Desperate Housewives. The sign for the stage read: Bree's Entry, Bree's Livingroom, Bree's Kitchen. I kind of gasped and realized that I was actually walking in the land of television magic. A little sappy, I know, but it still felt cool.