Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1470092
ased on the hit BBC show of the same name, Ghosts, the CBS Studios and Paramount+ comedy hit, has a great premise: Samantha (Rose McIver) and Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar), a cheerful freelance journalist and up-and-coming chef from the city, respectively, both throw caution and money to the wind when they decide to convert a huge, run- down country estate they inherited into a bed & breakfast, only to find th t it's inhabited by the many spirits of deceased residents, who now call it home. The departed souls are a close-knit, eclectic group, and the spirits were anxious about the commotion, a renovation and a B&B will create in their home. Though it's nothing compared to when they realize Samantha can actually see and hear them. The executive producers and showrun- ners are Joe Port and Joe Wiseman, who got their start when they fir t met in 1998 while working as assistants, and ironically sharing a cubicle, on the animated com- edy Dilbert. Dilbert executive producer Larry Charles read Port and Wiseman's spec script for King of the Hill, and after- wards made them writers on the sitcom's second season, giving them their fir t writing credit as collaborators. Since then, the duo has written for such notable series as Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, The Last O.G., The Odd Couple, The Crazy Ones starring Robin Williams, 1600 Penn, New Girl, Last Man Standing and Just Shoot Me. In addition, they have written and produced numerous pilots, including What About Barb?; Joe, Joe & Jane; and Rebounding. In an exclusive interview for Post, I spoke with Joe Wiseman about the duo's challenges of creating and running the show and the post workfl w. What sort of show did you set out to make? "We both loved the British show so much and everything about it, from the tone to the way it dealt with the ghosts. It was hard-funny, but also quite emotional, and we loved how it's about ghosts, but it's also very grounded and you care about the people. One very smart thing they did was making all the ghosts look real rather than transparent and all flo ty, and that really helped humanize them and made them all very relatable. Yes, they are ghosts, but they're also former human beings that still possess a lot of human characteristics. And that also helped a lot production-wise, in terms of visual effects and so on." How tough was it adapting the British show? "We both felt it was actually a very portable idea, as you take this very clever, funny premise, and then you can populate it with all sorts of archetypes from American history. So one of the fir t things we did was make a list of 20 to 25 archetypes, and then whittled it down to the crew we have. We tried to make sure we had different points of view and different personalities, like the Native American and flapper girl and hippi . In 'American-izing' it, we added these new ghosts and that allowed us to explore more American themes and characters." Do you like showrunning? "We do, but it's an all-consuming job on this as we have a very large cast and there's just always so much going on, es- pecially when we get into production, as you're writing future episodes, shooting the current one, coming up with ideas and planning upcoming storylines, and editing. And you have to be on-stage, so it's nice having a partner, especially one you trust, as you can split up some of the huge workload and help each other." What are the challenges of showrunning this? "The big challenge is that we shoot in Montreal, but all the writers are here in LA, where Joe and I also live, but as it's a fir t-year show, we end up spending a lot of time in Montreal, figuring ou the tone and dealing with the various directors. Normally on a show, you have all the writers next to the stage, so when you rehearse a scene, you can grab a couple and make any changes. But on this, because of all the COVID restrictions on-set and so on, we just had one writer on-set with us, so that made it far harder. Luckily for the writing part, because of COVID, we were all used to working via Zoom calls, but it was defini ely a new wrinkle to the job." How tough was the shoot? "It's always tough on a TV schedule. In Montreal they just work 10-hour days, which is great, but you have to make sure you get all the coverage you need. If we have a large scene, we don't shoot a lot of singles. If there's eight people in a scene we'll do a lot of two, three shots, and that'll be the coverage. We have to be very efficient, and I think t t helps the show look different from other TV shows. For most of the scenes with ghosts, we'll do a couple of takes without them — not necessarily for Jay's point-of-view, but to remind the audience that only Sam can see them. We have three DPs — Pierre Jodoin, who shot Episodes 102 to 113; Sylvaine Dufaux, who shot Episodes 114 to 117; and Ronald Plante, who shot Episode 118 — and the show has a very lush, cin- ematic, period-piece look, which is quite rare in a 30-minute TV comedy." GHOSTS' EP/SHOWRUNNER JOE WISEMAN CREATING AND POSTING THIS 'AMERICAN-IZED' HIT COMEDY B DIRECTOR'S CHAIR www.postmagazine.com 12 POST MAY/JUNE 2022 BY IAIN BLAIR Showrunners Wiseman (center) and Port (right), on-set.