| Ghost Whisperer season 1 | |||
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DVD cover |
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| Country of origin | United States | ||
| No. of episodes | 22 | ||
| Broadcast | |||
| Original channel | CBS | ||
| Original run | September 23, 2005 – May 5, 2006 | ||
| Home video release | |||
| DVD release date | Region 1: October 31, 2006 Region 2: July 9, 2007 Region 4: May 23, 2007 |
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| Season chronology | |||
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| List of Ghost Whisperer episodes | |||
The first season of Ghost Whisperer, an American television series created by John Gray, commenced airing in the United States on September 23, 2005, concluded May 5, 2006, and consisted of 22 episodes. The series follows the life of Melinda Gordon (Jennifer Love Hewitt), who has the ability to see and communicate with ghosts. While trying to live as normal a life as possible—she is married and owns an antique store—Melinda helps earthbound spirits resolve their problems and cross over into the Light, or the spirit world. Her tasks are difficult and at times she struggles with people who push her away and disbelieve her ability. In addition, the ghosts are mysterious and sometimes menacing in the beginning and Melinda must use the clues available to her to understand the spirit's needs and help them.[1]
Ghost Whisperer's first season aired in the United States (U.S.) on Fridays at 8:00 pm ET on CBS, a terrestrial television network, where it received an average of 10.20 million viewers per episode.[2]
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Melinda Gordon is a young woman from the fictional town of Grandview, New York who has the ability to see and communicate with the dead. Melinda lives with her husband Jim Clancy. She is the owner of an antique shop called "Same as it Never Was." Ghosts seek Melinda's help in relaying a message or completing a task that will put the spirit to rest, and allow them to cross over into The Light (which is possibly Heaven). Those who died with unfinished business become earth-bound and can not cross over, and Melinda, as their earthly representative, helps them to find peace. The show does not present the ghosts as having sinned; rather it is the spirits' own guilt that condemns them, and their own fear of judgement that keeps them from "crossing over" into an afterlife.
The first season introduces us to Andrea Morano (Aisha Tyler), Melinda's best friend and co-worker. Andrea knows of Melinda's gift, and often helps her figure out why a certain ghost is earthbound. Throughout the season, Melinda repeatedly catches glimpses of a ghost named Romano, a former cult leader from Europe who influenced his followers to commit a mass suicide in 1939. His own suicide transformed him into an earthbound negative entity. Romano attempts to do the exact opposite of Melinda and gather earthbound souls and prevent them from crossing over into the light.
At the end of the season, a plane crashes just outside Grandview. Melinda and Romano struggle over the 300 souls of people who die in the crash. Melinda convinces most of the ghosts to cross over, although Romano convinces a select few to come with him. Melinda suffers a huge personal loss when it is revealed that Andrea was killed when she was driving en route to her brother's home, as she feared he was on the plane.
Ghost Whisperer is based on the work of "Spirit Communicator" James Van Praagh,[3] who is co-executive producer[4] and regularly updates a blog about the show through LivingTV.[5] The stories are also said to be based in part on the work of "Spirit Communicator" Mary Ann Winkowski.[6] Development of the show dates back to at least two years before its premiere.[7]
The show was produced by Sander/Moses Productions in association with CBS Television Studios (originally Paramount Network Television in season one and ABC Studios (originally Touchstone Television in the first two seasons) and CBS Paramount Network Television in seasons two and three).
The show was filmed on the Universal Studios back lot in Los Angeles.[8] One area on the lot is Courthouse Square from the Back to the Future trilogy, though it has been drastically modified to depict Grandview. For example, the clock tower in Back to the Future has been completely covered up. Cast and crew members believe that the set gets visits from real spirits.[9]
Sound effects were completed at Smart Post Sound.[10] Visual effects for the pilot and some season one episodes were completed at Flash Film Works.[11] Visual effects for nearly the entire series were created at Eden FX.[12]
Creator John Gray grew up in Brooklyn, New York, which is not far from Grandview-On-Hudson, west of the Hudson River. Piermont is often referenced in episodes as the neighboring town, which is accurate to real life as Grandview-On-Hudson is actually located just north of Piermont. Professor Rick Payne worked in the fictional "Rockland University," and perhaps not coincidentally, the actual Grandview, New York is a village located in Rockland County, New York.
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Jennifer Love Hewitt | Melinda Gordon |
| David Conrad | Jim Clancy |
| Aisha Tyler | Andrea Marino |
| № | # | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | U.S. viewers (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Pilot" | John Gray | John Gray | September 23, 2005 | 11.25[13] |
| Ever since Melinda was a girl she has had the ability to talk to earthbound spirits. These spirits use Melinda as a conduit to pass messages to the living; sometimes this information is too intense and scattered to understand at first. In the pilot episode, Melinda must help a sergeant named Paul (Wentworth Miller), who died in the Vietnam War, to cross over. Paul has a married son named Michael whose wife is pregnant. In the end, Michael goes to Melinda's house, where she gives Paul's compass to Michael and tells him what his father is saying next to her. | ||||||
| 2 | 2 | "The Crossing" | Ron Lagomarsino | John Gray & Catherine Butterfield | September 30, 2005 | 10.87[14] |
| Six year old Kenny Dale (played by Joseph Castanon) is killed in a train accident when the family car stalls in the path of an approaching train. Unaware that he has died and unable to find his parents, he befriends a young boy whose mother believes Kenny to be nothing more than an imaginary friend. Melinda has to go look for the boy's parents to try to convince them that their son is still with them and help him to cross over. | ||||||
| 3 | 3 | "Ghost, Interrupted" | Ian Sander | John Gray & Jed Seidel | October 7, 2005 | 11.07[15] |
| A young girl, Natalie, is placed in a psychiatric facility for her strange behavior following her identical twin sister Zoe's death. While on a field trip in town, Natalie runs away from her group and tries to hide in Melinda's shop. Melinda quickly realizes that Natalie's "abnormal" behavior is due to her sister haunting her. Zoe is earthbound because of a devastating secret she took with her to the grave: she slept with Natalie's boyfriend while intoxicated and while Natalie was asleep. | ||||||
| 4 | 4 | "Mended Hearts" | John Gray | John Gray | October 14, 2005 | 9.99[16] |
| A ghost helps Melinda save a woman who attempts suicide. Melinda learns that the ghost was the woman's fiancé and that he was an organ donor. The ghost refuses to cross over until he knows who received his heart and until his fiancee is taken care of. With a little help from a ghost-nurse in the hospital, Melinda is able to find the person the heart was donated to and puts that person in touch with the woman. It is shown that two hearts make a connection and that there might be love, enough for the ghost-fiancé to leave for a better place. | ||||||
| 5 | 5 | "Lost Boys" | Peter O'Fallon | David Fallon | October 21, 2005 | 10.55[17] |
| Andrea and Melinda are contracted to auction furniture from a community inn before it is torn down. While cleaning the basement Melinda finds the lost spirits of three boys and their dog that perished in an orphanage fire 50 years ago. Melinda tries to help the boys pass on before the inn is destroyed by a moody multimillionaire. In the end the man was revealed to also have lived at the orphanage and that, though he was presumed dead, his body was never found. But in fact, he was the only one that escaped from the fire, and he wanted to tear the place down to get rid of the bad memories. | ||||||
| 6 | 6 | "Homecoming" | Eric Laneuville | Vivian Lee | October 28, 2005 | 11.73[18] |
| Melinda helps an upset teenage ghost. Angry after having learned he was adopted, he wanders into the forest and inadvertently smashes a bee nest. Being allergic to their stings, he dies. He convinces Melinda to lead him to his biological mother, who gave him up at birth. At the end, his birth mother's daughter is going through the same path as she did. | ||||||
| 7 | 7 | "Hope and Mercy" | Bill L. Norton | John Wirth | November 4, 2005 | 12.78[19] |
| A woman who died during a routine pregnancy will not cross over until she can get her husband to stop blaming himself. Andrea deals with a con artist in a revealing manner that tells us a little more about her unknown past. | ||||||
| 8 | 8 | "On the Wings of a Dove" | Peter O'Fallon | John Gray & Catherine Butterfield | November 11, 2005 | 11.41[20] |
| The five-year anniversary of Jim's father's death is getting close and Jim begins to act very strangely. Melinda notices this change in his behavior and believes the problem might be caused by a tortured spirit lurking around. While Melinda tries to help Jim, she is also presented with the surprise visit of an old friend (played by Estella Warren). This visit brings back painful memories of times past for Melinda. | ||||||
| 9 | 9 | "Voices" | Kevin Hooks | John Gray & John Belluso | November 18, 2005 | 12.05[21] |
| Melinda and Jim's car is stolen by a troubled teen boy whose mother died. He feels that his mother betrayed him when she was alive and can't forgive her. Melinda must help him understand what his mother wants to tell him. The mother was an electrical engineer who passed via electrocution and can only communicate by EVP (Electric Voice Phenomenon) (SP) | ||||||
| 10 | 10 | "Ghost Bride" | Joanna Kerns | John Gray & Jed Seidel | November 25, 2005 | 12.25[22] |
| In this episode, an evil spirit wearing a wedding gown haunts Melinda's friend Lisa. The spirit, called Serena, is very opposed to moving on and presents a tough challenge for Melinda. This spirit is special, Melinda learns, because she died on the day she married Lisa's current fiancé. The jealous, vindictive Serena has her heart set on destroying the wedding and the couple, and does everything in her power to interfere with Melinda's attempts to set things right. | ||||||
| 11 | 11 | "Shadow Boxer" | Joanna Kerns | John Gray & Emily Fox | December 9, 2005 | 11.19[23] |
| In this episode a woman who recently died will not pass over until her young son, who is a boxer, reconciles with his father, her husband. Melinda is enlisted to help this family come to terms with their loss but has a lot of difficulty getting these two men to reunite. | ||||||
| 12 | 12 | "Undead Comic" | Eric Laneuville | John Gray & Doug Prochilo | December 16, 2005 | 10.89[24] |
| Melinda encounters the spirit of a dead comic who is confused and doesn't understand his current state of existence. Melinda learns that this comic took his own life and she helps him make amends with all those people he left behind before he passes over. Also in this episode, Jim is threatened by the antique shop's recent business boom. | ||||||
| 13 | 13 | "Friendly Neighbourhood Ghost" | David Jones | John Gray & Lois Johnson | January 6, 2006 | 11.31[25] |
| While a man moves in across the street from Melinda, she notices that presence of a ghost as well. He turns out to be the grandfather of her neighbour's former girlfriend, who disappeared and is presumed dead. Her grandfather promised to not rest until he finds out what happened to his granddaughter and therefore haunts the man day and night. | ||||||
| 14 | 14 | "Last Execution" | James Frawley | John Gray & David Fallon | January 13, 2006 | 10.92[26] |
| The spirit of a man follows Melinda home from an art gallery. This ghost haunts Melinda into getting in touch with his daughter who is having serious problems since his death. Meanwhile, Jim is sued for trying to help a woman after her injury. | ||||||
| 15 | 15 | "Melinda's First Ghost" | Peter Werner | John Gray & Catherine Butterfield | January 27, 2006 | 11.62[27] |
| Melinda remembers how her relationship with her mother got strained when she re-encounters the first ghost (Abigail Breslin) she ever saw. When younger, Melinda's mother could not deal with her daughter's prodigious and supernatural gift; this led to a growing rift between the two. Now Melinda must reunite with her estranged Mother to help save the spirit of this young girl. | ||||||
| 16 | 16 | "Dead Man's Ridge" | James Frawley | John Gray | February 3, 2006 | 10.62[28] |
| In this episode, Andrea is the one being haunted by a ghost. It starts with things moving in her apartment, until she gets to scared that she asks Melinda for help. The ghost keeps coming and going, saying that he is not dead and that he has to show them where his brother is. Going through some old photoalbums, they find out that the ghost is a former colleague of Andrea. | ||||||
| 17 | 17 | "Demon Child" | Eric Laneuville | John Gray & Jed Seidel | March 3, 2006 | 12.40[29] |
| While shopping for antiques at a local home, Melinda encounters a spirit of a malicious boy (David Dorfman) who is terrorizing his family. The boy died after an accident that no one wants to talk about, not even his mother. Everyone blames his former nanny for his death. He particularly haunts his baby sister, for no reason and terrorizes the nannies. One evening, Melinda gets a phonecall from the ghost, who says : 'Who is watching the baby now?' | ||||||
| 18 | 18 | "Miss Fortune" | James Chressanthis | John Gray & Emily Fox | March 10, 2006 | 10.34[30] |
| The circus arrives in town and brings with it the spirit of a man who thinks his brother murdered him. Melinda must help this ghost come to terms with his death and his brother. And during all this, they discover a hidden secret. | ||||||
| 19 | 19 | "Fury" | Peter Werner | John Gray & Rama Laurie Stagner | March 31, 2006 | 10.22[31] |
| Melinda must help the ghost of an African-American man who had been attacked and killed by a lowlife, racist white co-worker in the 1970s. The ghost, named Ely Fisher, is haunting the prosecutor (now a judge) who had enough evidence but still failed to file charges against the white co-worker. Melinda tries to help Ely find justice and help his son, Randall, to change his racist views before they are passed on to the next generation - his grandson, Jameel. | ||||||
| 20 | 20 | "The Vanishing" | Ian Sander | John Gray & Catherine Butterfield | April 7, 2006 | 10.05[32] |
| After waking up from a coma caused by a head injury that put her in the hospital for a week, Melinda can no longer see or hear spirits. She fears she has lost her gift. At the same time, a person who she helped, Diane Shields, comes to her in need of her help. She asks Melinda to help her brother's daughter, who experiences strange and bizarre things after the recent death of her boyfriend during a football practice. Later on, she realizes that it isn't her gift that has vanished but somehow the ghosts have been drifted away from Grandview. | ||||||
| 21 | 21 | "Free Fall" (Part 1) | John Gray | John Gray | April 28, 2006 | 10.00[33] |
| Melinda experiences a sense of intuition when she realizes that a plane is going to crash when the spirits of the pilot and flight attendant contact her. Melinda tells Andrea about her premonitions and Andrea is worried for her brother who was meant to be flying out from Johannesburg that very day. Andrea and Melinda attempt to warn people about the impending crash, but when Melinda informs Andrea that the plane was from Johannesburg, Andrea decides to head over to her brother's apartment in an attempt to contact him. | ||||||
| 22 | 22 | "The One" (Part 2) | John Gray | John Gray | May 5, 2006 | 11.06[34] |
| (Continued from "Free Fall") Andrea seems to know that there is something that her friend isn't telling her. The souls from the crash go at the crash site as Melinda encourages them to cross over; because of the sheer mass of souls Melinda and other people who are alive can see the light. (This is the only episode in which the light is visible onscreen.) However, the wide-brimmed hat spirit convinces some of them to stay earthbound. Melinda must keep the mysterious evil spirit from capturing the souls and also must reveal to Andrea how the plane crash killed her and she is now an "earthbound spirit." | ||||||
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