Ghosts continues to haunt broadcast and streaming: the CBS comedy is the No. 1 comedy across both avenues.
“It’s all because of you guys,” Joe Wiseman, showrunner and executive producer told a sold out crowd at New York Comic Con (NYCC) Friday. “It makes us wanna do more, and do better.”
The series returns for its sixth season Oct. 29 with a two-episode Halloween special. “We love doing Halloween episodes, we do it every year,” Wiseman shared. He promised the audience that the one-hour special would resolve with Pete’s disappearance at the end of last season.
The new season offers some changes, should Pete return, however. Ben Feldman will return as Kyle, a character who can see ghosts. Star Rose McIver, who plays Sam, had a baby; her character is in Australia to cover for McIver’s maternity leave. For the show, Sam’s novel is adapted into a film. To that end, someone must help her husband, Jay, portrayed by Utkarsh Ambudkar, manage the ghosts, which he can’t see.
“We are in our own episode of New Girl while being in an episode of Ghosts,” said Ambudkar. He described his experience on set with Feldman as a buddy comedy.
Arondeka also stars in this season’s Christmas episode, which is a Die Hard tribute. The series also pays tribute to The Hangover with Jay and Kyle, who reconstruct a wild night out where they lose Mark, the inn’s handyman, after a ghost possession. “We’re doing a lot of interesting stuff this season, it’s great,” Ambudkar enthused. In another episode this season, a Mary Poppins-type character tries to bring order to the ghosts in the mansion.
For the series return, the special introduces Hetty’s sister, Mustaschioed Margaret, a ghost trapped in a mirror. The episode includes “five or six flashbacks” and a revelation about a “fundamental truth in her life,” Rebecca Wisocky, who portrays Henrietta “Hetty” Woodstone, said. “There are a lot of little tidbits that are historical to the Victorian era,” she added, after the audience watched Hetty snort cocaine off a mirror in a sneak preview of the special.
Hetty won’t be the only ghost resident to experience revelations. Flower also has a journey of self-discovery. Sheila Carrasco, who plays Susan “Flower” Montero, told the audience: “In my mind [Flower] makes more sense.” This arc “may or may not involve “Couples Thor-apy” between Flower and Thor, Wiseman said, referencing her boyfriend, Thor, and his predilection to act as a therapist for the ghosts.
A sidebar about who the cast would like to possess led to a revelation from Wiseman that the new season would include a ghost-on-ghost possession, possibly in this season’s homage to The Hangover.
Season 6 of Ghosts premieres on CBS with two back-to-back Halloween episodes Oct. 29.
