Ghost Hunters-related stories
Posted Dec 21st 2009 3:02PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Documentary, Reality-Free
I confess I've written more than my fair share of posts complaining about the never-ending march of paranormal, ghost busting shows haunting TV these days. You know the shows I refer to -- the "documentaries" promising to prove the existence of ghosts without ever finding anything resembling actual proof.
Every time I've written something bemoaning the arrival of another such show, I think it has to be over soon. There can't be another hour of clods stumbling around in night vision and reacting to sights and sounds the audience doesn't get to experience.
But, they keep coming. They keep finding nothing. But, evidently, people keep watching them. Now, we have
Ghost Intervention -- running through December. The 4-part docu-series from TLC "chronicles a case manager and a team of women with psychic abilities as they try to help different families who are struggling with paranormal activity in their homes."
Continue reading Ghost Intervention joins the ranks of paranormal stalkers
Posted Dec 9th 2009 12:16PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Late Night, Programming, Celebrities, Talk Show, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
At 8, ABC has Shrek the Halls, followed by new episodes of The Middle, Modern Family, and Cougar Town and then Barbara Walters Presents The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2009.- CBS has a new Old Christine at 8, then new episodes of Gary Unmarried, Criminal Minds, and CSI: NY.
- NBC has new episodes of Mercy, Law and Order: SVU, and The Jay Leno Show.
- FOX has a new So You Think You Can Dance at 8, followed by the fall finale of Glee.
- ABC Family has Santa Claus is Comin' To Town at 8, then Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer & The Island of Misfit Toys.
- Also at 8: BBC America has a new Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares.
- At 9, Bravo has the season finale of Top Chef, followed by a new Launch My Line.
- DirecTV 101 has a new Friday Night Lights at 9.
- Discovery has a new Mythbusters at 9.
- A&E has a new Dog The Bounty Hunter at 9, then two new episodes of Steven Seagal: Lawman.
- Syfy has a new Ghost Hunters at 9, followed by a new Ghost Hunters Academy.
- History Channel has a new episode of The Nostradamus Effect at 9, followed by a new MysteryQuest.
- Showtime has a new Inside the NFL at 9.
- At 10, FX has a new Nip/Tuck.
- TBS has two new episodes of Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns at 10.
- There's a new Dinner: Impossible on Food Network at 10.
- Sundance has a new Spectacle: Elvis Costello With... at 10.
- At 11, G4 has the series premiere of Campus PD.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
After the jump, the late night talk shows.
Continue reading What's On Tonight: Mercy, Ghost Hunters, Barbara Walters, Top Chef
Posted Dec 6th 2009 9:00AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd
I'm a recent convert to the whole ghost hunters-paranormal brand of television programming. I love watching people go into dark and scary places like abandoned insane asylums and ancient prisons to track down those pesky spirits.
Even if part of me is thinking, "Why bother the poor ghosts? They're not bothering anyone in these places. They probably just want to be left alone." But of course, people continue to do it, and we continue to watch because it's fascinating.
But one thing I'm not all that keen on is when these shows turn to unnecessary reality programming type fare. I'm talking about
Ghost Hunters Academy. I don't need to see novice ghost hunters learn how to be a ghost hunter, and then get eliminated one by one. I don't need to see them being duped with goofy fake fog or weird sounds to see how they'll react and freak out. I'd rather the real ghost hunters just get back to doing what they do best: hunting ghosts.
What about you? Are you watching -- and liking --
Ghost Hunters Academy?
Posted Dec 2nd 2009 12:16PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Late Night, Programming, Celebrities, Talk Show, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
At 7, ABC Family has Pixar Short Films (repeated at 9).- At 8, CBS has Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, followed by The Grammy Nominations Concert Live.
- NBC has Christmas in Rockefeller Center at 8.
- FOX has a new So You Think You Can Dance at 8, then a new Glee.
- Cartoon Network has a new Destroy Build Destroy at 8.
- Hallmark has The Christmas Choir at 8, followed by I'll Be Home For Christmas.
- BBC Amercia has the season premiere of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares at 8, then the season finale of Mary Queen of Shops.
- At 8:30, ABC has a new episode of The Middle.
- At 9, DirectTV 101 has a new Friday Night Lights.
- Discovery has a new Mythbusters.
- A&E has the season premiere Dog The Bounty Hunter at 9, then the series premiere of Steven Seagal: Lawman (two episodes).
- Food Network has a new Throwdown with Bobby Flay at 9.
- Syfy has a new Ghost Hunters at 9, followed by a new Ghost Hunters Academy.
- Fine Living has a new Whatever, Martha at 9.
- There's a new Inside the NFL on Showtime at 9.
- At 10, ABC has a new Eastwick.
- NBC has a new Jay Leno Show at 10.
- TBS has a new Tyler Perry's House of Payne at 10, followed by a new Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns.
- FX has a new Nip/Tuck at 10.
- Travel Channel has a new Man vs. Food at 10.
- Current has a new Vanguard at 10.
- Also at 10: Bravo has a new Top Chef: Las Vegas, then the series premiere of Launch My Line.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
After the jump, the late night talk shows.
Continue reading What's On Tonight: Rudolph, The Middle, Ghost Hunters, Lawman
Posted Nov 18th 2009 12:13PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Late Night, Programming, Celebrities, Talk Show, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
At 8, CBS has a new Old Christine, followed by new episodes of Gary Unmarried, Criminal Minds, and CSI: NY.- NBC has a new Mercy at 8, then new episodes of Law and Order: SVU and The Jay Leno Show.
- FOX has a new So You Think You Can Dance at 8, followed by a new Glee.
- The CW has the season finale of America's Next Top Model at 8, then a new behind the scenes episode of America's Next Top Model.
- Cartoon Network has a new Destroy Build Destroy at 8.
- At 8:30, ABC has a new episode of The Middle, then new episodes of Modern Family, Cougar Town, and In The Spotlight with Robin Roberts.
- At 9, DirecTV 101 has a new Friday Night Lights.
- Discovery has a new Mythbusters at 9.
- History Channel has two new episodes of WWII in HD at 9.
- Syfy has a new Ghost Hunters at 9, followed by a new Ghost Academy.
- Fine Living has a new Whatever, Martha at 9.
- Showtime has a new Inside the NFL at 9.
- At 10, FX has a new Nip/Tuck.
- Comedy Central has the season finale of South Park at 10.
- There's a new Top Chef: Las Vegas on Bravo at 10.
- TBS has two new episodes of Meet the Browns at 10.
- Food Network has a new Dinner: Impossible at 10.
- Current has a new Vanguard at 10.
- Also at 10: Travel Channel has a new Man vs. Food.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
After the jump, the late night talk shows.
Continue reading What's On Tonight: America's Next Top Model, Mythbusters, Cougar Town, Nip/Tuck
Posted Nov 11th 2009 12:10PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Late Night, Programming, Celebrities, Talk Show, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
- At 8, ABC has The CMA Awards.
- CBS has a new Old Christine at 8, followed by new episodes of Gary Unmarried, Criminal Minds, and CSI: NY.
- NBC has new episodes of Mercy, Law and Order: SVU, and The Jay Leno Show.
- FOX has a new So You Think You Can Dance at 8, followed by a new Glee.
- The CW has a new America's Next Top Model at 8.
- There's a new Secrets of the Dead on PBS at 8, then a new P.O.V.
- Cartoon Network has a new Destroy Build Destroy at 8.
- G4 has the season premiere of Human Wrecking Balls at 8.
- At 9, TBS has two new episodes of Tyler Perry's House of Payne, followed by two new episodes of Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns.
- DirectTV 101 has a new Friday Night Lights at 9.
- Syfy has a new Ghost Hunters at 9, then the series premiere of Ghost Hunters Academy.
- Discovery has a new Mythbusters at 9.
- Fine Living has a new Whatever, Martha at 9.
- History Channel has a new Nostradamus Effect at 9, then a new Mystery Quest.
- Showtime has a new Inside The NFL at 9.
- At 10, FX has a new Nip/Tuck.
- Bravo has a new Top Chef at 10.
- Comedy Central has a new South Park at 10, followed by the season finale of Secret Girlfriend.
- Food Network has a new Dinner: Impossible at 10
- Also at 10: Spike has a new Ultimate Fighter.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
After the jump, the late night talk shows.
Continue reading What's On Tonight: CMA Awards, Glee, House of Payne, Ultimate Fighter
Posted Nov 7th 2009 3:01PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows
The
Ghost Hunters name is starting to rival
CSI and
Law & Order in the spinoff department. What else do all three of these franchises share? There's just as much hard paranormal evidence in the last two as appears in the first.
Please don't misunderstand me -- since I've gone off on this topic before. I'm not saying ghosts don't exist. I'm not saying there's no afterlife. I don't begrudge any scientific investigation into parapsychology or realms described as paranormal. I'd just like any of the endless march of "ghost-based" shows to dig up one scintilla of proof that they found something and, therefore, deserve to be on TV every week.
The latest entry is Syfy's
Ghost Hunter's Academy -- sort of
Most Haunted meets
The Rookies from the 70s. Each week, ghost hunting "professors" (the show's conceit, not mine) Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango welcome first-time paranormal investigators onto
The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) team.
Continue reading Syfy's Ghost Hunters Academy busts spirits with rookies
Posted Nov 4th 2009 7:29PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Animation, South Park
Even though the show has been on forever, I still enjoy my weekly dose of the new
South Parks. But lately, they seem to be running out of targets or have narrowed their focus too much on one particular evil: reality television.
The season opener featured a rather nasty swipe at Disney's Jonas Brothers. The recent "Dead Celebrities" chortle-fest took a much needed pot shot at
Ghost Hunters, aka, "the gayest f#*$ing show on television." And last week launched an all out attack on Discovery's
Whale Wars and
Deadliest Catch, particularly against
Whale Wars star Paul Watson.
The show has always been a bitch to write and making every episode a satirical masterpiece is impossible without suffering a full-on breakdown. But should the show lay off reality TV and take some bolder shots at reality, which as we all know are two completely different things?
Posted Oct 31st 2009 9:36PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Programming, OpEd
Part of my Halloween tradition is to watch the
Ghost Hunters Halloween Live special, broadcast (live, of course) from some spooky place somewhere in the country. Tonight, the crew is at the Essex County Hospital in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, along with some recruits from the new
Ghost Hunters Academy, which premieres Wed., Nov. 11 at 10/9c.
It's pretty cool because you can
log into the Syfy Web site and watch the live feeds on several cameras positioned around the hospital in dark tunnels and ancient rooms. There's even one in the morgue. If you see something suspicious, you're supposed to hit the "Panic Button" and the team will go check it out like hungry hound dogs.
I'm not sure what's so intriguing about all of this, but it's pretty fun. Maybe it's the interactive nature of viewers helping the team search for ghosts. Is anyone else watching? Have you seen anything spooky on the live-feed cameras? I haven't, but I'm still looking!
Posted Oct 31st 2009 12:10PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
Biography Channel has a Celebrity Ghost Stories marathon all night.- HBO Family has a Ghost Trackers marathon all night.
- At 7, Syfy has Ghost Hunters Halloween Live Countdown.
- At 7:30, FOX has Game 3 of The World Series.
- NBC has College Football at 7:30, Notre Dame vs. Washington State.
- At 8, ABC has College Football, USC vs. Oregon.
- Food Network has Spooky Cake & Candy Cook-Off at 8, followed by two Halloween episodes of Challenge.
- TCM has 1941's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at 8.
- At 9, CNBC has a new Suze Orman Show.
- BBC America has a new Robin Hood at 9, then a new Graham Norton Show.
- Bravo has 13 Scarier Movie Moments at 9.
- Animal Planet has a new Dogs 101 at 9.
- At 10, CBS has a new 48 Hours Mystery.
- History Channel has The Real Wolfman at 10.
- At 12:30AM, Cartoon Network has two new episodes of Bleach.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
Don't forget to set your clocks back one hour before going to bed!
Posted Oct 29th 2009 1:31PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Programming, OpEd, Video
I've never been big on scary ghost stories -- perhaps I'm still traumatized from my older siblings scaring the crap out of me in my early years. But for some reason, I've found myself watching
some of the ghost hunter-type shows on the air right now. I'm actually looking forward to the Oct. 30 live broadcast of
Ghost Adventures from the
Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. Asylums are darn scary even in broad daylight.
Maybe I'm just getting in a Halloween mood. Maybe I need something to jolt my psyche into fast-forward. Whatever the reason, I'm currently into ghosts -- even though I have to believe they're just sitting around laughing with glee over all the people who are out looking for them. I probably won't see
Paranormal Activity, though, because I DO want to sleep again, after all. But
Extreme Paranormal on A&E will suffice just fine.
Continue reading What's Hot on SlashControl: Extreme Paranormal
Posted Oct 24th 2009 11:02AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Programming, OpEd
It's that time of year when we get all the deliciously creepy shows and movies haunting our TV sets as we head into Halloween. Turner Classic Movies is airing some great ones this weekend, including
Poltergeist,
Dr. X, and
The Blob. Check out
their schedule to see when they're airing.
I have to agree with John that sometimes
the ghost hunter shows don't always deliver. Then again, sometimes just the idea of where they're going is frightening. Last night, I watched an episode of
Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel, and the guys took their gear into the bowels of an abandoned insane asylum. I happened to grow up in a town with an abandoned insane asylum (converted to very nice retail/business now), and I know firsthand that these places are pretty creepy.
Continue reading Ghost Adventures: Asylums and castles and prisons, oh my!
Posted Oct 23rd 2009 7:02PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows
If a show like
Top Chef never found a meal, would you watch it? If
Ice Road Truckers couldn't find snow, would you pay attention?
Yet, every week, paranormal investigation shows like
Ghost Hunters or
Paranormal State hit the air and unveil the whole pile of absolute squat they found. Now, there's a new contender in the "Hey! Look! We found pretty much nothing!" category with the Discovery Channel's
Ghost Lab.
Each week two thick slabs of Texas beef named Brad and Barry Klinge (right) take their Everyday Paranormal investigation team out into the wild haunted yonder. They come armed with their traveling "ghost lab" -- a 24-foot car hauler "capable of providing 200,000 watts of electricity to power audio, video and photo analysis stations; flat-screen televisions and an interactive touch-screen smartboard."
Continue reading Ghost Lab haunted by dispiriting lack of spirits
Posted Oct 16th 2009 2:04PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Reality Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Food/Home/DIY, Programming, The Simpsons, Children, Reality-Free
I visited the pumpkin patch last weekend and totally massacred a 30 lb. pumpkin and feasted on its flesh, so I am officially in the Halloween spirit. Luckily, there's a crapload of TV to help sustain my ghoulish mood. TV Tango has compiled a pretty comprehensive list of
Halloween-themed programming starting today and going through the rest of the month.
Some of the highlights include a
Moonlight marathon starting today on SyFy, as part of their "31 Days of Halloween" programming. On Sunday,
The Simpsons is airing their 20th "Treehouse of Horror" episode, while Monday has a some good kids' fare, with Halloween-themed
America's Funniest Home Videos on ABC Family, and
Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie on Disney.
Continue reading For the rest of the month, TV is all Halloween, all the time
Posted Oct 14th 2009 12:23PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Late Night, Programming, Celebrities, Talk Show, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
Hallmark has an I Love Lucy marathon all night.- At 8, ABC has a new Hank, followed by new episodes of The Middle, Modern Family, Cougar Town, and Eastwick.
- CBS has a new Old Christine at 8, then new episodes of Gary Unmarried, Criminal Minds, and CSI: NY.
- NBC has new episodes of Mercy, Law and Order: SVU, and The Jay Leno Show.
- FOX has a new So You Think You Can Dance at 8, then a new Glee.
- There's a new America's Next Top Model on The CW at 8.
- PBS has a new American Masters at 8.
- Discovery has two new episodes of Mythbusters starting at 8, followed by a new Time Warp.
- At 9, Syfy has a new Ghost Hunters, then a new Destination Truth.
- History Channel has a new Nostradamus Effect at 9, followed by a new MysteryQuest.
- Showtime has a new Inside The NFL at 9.
- At 10, FX has the season premiere of Nip/Tuck.
- Bravo has a new Top Chef: Las Vegas at 10.
- Comedy Central has a new South Park at 10, then a new Secret Girlfriend.
- Current has the series premiere of Vanguard at 10.
- Food Network has a new Dinner: Impossible at 10.
- Also at 10: Travel Channel has a new Man vs. Food.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
After the jump, the late night talk shows.
Continue reading What's On Tonight: The Middle, South Park, Nip/Tuck, Man vs. Food
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