We caught an old episode of Tru Calling recently on the SciFi channel and it got us to wondering why so many shows with a premise like Ghost Whisperer fail? The Bears liked Tru Calling and it’s star Eliza Dushku is appealing in many of the same ways Jennifer is. But our interested in the show declined in the second season when they brought in a dark force in the form of her father and a “friend” who worked against Tru.

The other big failure in this area was Joan of Arcadia, the show that held the GW time slot and was canceled after two seasons just before Melinda and company came on the scene. Again, the show went down in ratings the second season when some dark forces were added to the mix.

Ghost Whisperer, in contrast, picked up viewers in its second season even though it also added dark elements. So what was the difference?

Our guess is that the other two shows faltered because of the isolation of the main character and the difficulty of understanding what was going on to create the supernatural events. That is, we didn’t know why Tru was being sent back to relive a day or why God was talking to Joan. With Melinda, it is clear that this is a trait that has run in her family for at least three generations and maybe more. And it is also clear that she has a calling to help these spirits cross over to the next level.

Mel is not isolated in the way the others were because several people know about her gift. In season one these included her mother, grandmother, husband, and partner. Season two added her new partner, her partner’s son, and the professor. So Mel is not alone. This gives her a lot of chances to discuss what she is trying to do and thus clear up plot points.

Also, the creators of GW have seemed to have studied these other shows that failed and made sure Melinda’s special power does not lock her into doing the same show again and again. Because the show is firmly anchored in the idea she is doing grief counseling with the departed, there is a whole range of possible plots -- all the ways people can die with unfinished business.

So we want to compliment the creators and writers of GW for avoiding the pitfalls of other shows that tried to explore similar topics and failed.

Melinda encounters a spirit hanging between life and death in a repeat of episode 212, "Dead to Rights" (click here for the MelindaVerse information on this episode). She encounters the spirit while visiting Mercy Hospital with Delia and her companion dog, Buddy. Maybe because the individual is hanging between life and death, Melinda has great difficulty engaging the spirit and seeks out Rick Payne's help to understand what's going on . Her first encounter with a comatose person was in episode 116, "Dead Man's Ridge" when the spirit of the dying man tried to reach out to Andrea.

In addition to Rick Payne becoming part of the cast, it looks like there is going to be a new recurring cast member in GW season 3. This will be a teenage cyber star who is introduced to us when he takes pictures of Melinda which show ghosts in the background. Here is the story from The National Ledger:

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As we read more about the star of Ghost Whisperer, The Bears continue to be amazed by how nice she is to the people she encounters from regular fans to paparazzi. In this case, it was a memorable encounter with Andy Jones, an entertainment columnist who passed away June 21, 2007. (Let’s hope Melinda was there to help with any problems he had crossing over.) For more information about Andy, check here.

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FilmStew.com
Friday, December 17, 2004

S.W.A.G.: See Where Andy Goes

For columnist Andy Jones, the holidays are a time for Jennifer Love Hewitt to magically appear at Taco Bell and for Tom Cruise to be almost close enough to touch.
By Anderson Jones
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HERE'S WHY I OWE JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT $5: Okay. So I am the only Hollywood gossip columnist who relies on public transportation to get around L.A. But you’d be amazed at some of the people on their way down the rags-to-riches-to-rags slide that I meet along the way. Recently, without a ride, I needed a taxi to get to the Warner Bros. lot for a screening of Ocean's Twelve. I only had a $100 bill to cover a $30 ride. I decided to stop at Taco Bell just across the street from Warners and rang up a grand total of $4.22 for dinner. They don't/won't take a $100. Suddenly, over my shoulder, someone hands the cashier a $20 bill. "You should be allowed to eat," a woman says. I'm stunned. Speechless. I take the 20, pay for dinner, begin to pocket the change, then hand off the cash and coins to my hero. I look up--it's Jennifer Love Hewitt. Cool. Thanks, Jennifer, I say. I'll get it back to you.

She waves me off and returns to her cell convo. I'm touched, but still don't have change for the taxi. I won't bore you with how I worked that out. Besides, there's no celebrity involved. Just to be mean, my friends are saying: "Maybe, she thought you were homeless." Still...

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Our local paper shows Jennifer’s new film (made in 2001) Shortcut to Happiness will be opening here in Des Moines on Friday, July 13. We don’t know what theater yet. But if they are showing it here in fly-over country, they are showing the movie in a theater near where you live. Give it a look and tell us what you think of Jennifer as a devil instead of a ghost whisperer.

Here’s a little information on the film from Box Office Prophets:

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Shortcut to Happiness
Release Date: July 13, 2007
Limited release

Once again Hollywood has decided to revisit the classic Faustian tale of a man who makes a pact with the Devil. This time the story features Alec Baldwin as Jabez Stone, a struggling author in contemporary New York City who sells his soul to the Devil for literary success and fame. When he comes to realize the ultimate drawback of his deal he enlists the help of Daniel Webster, played by Anthony Hopkins, to get out of it. To no one’s surprise, the Devil, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, has other plans for Jabez’s soul.

This adaptation of Steven Vincent Benet’s The Devil and Daniel Webster is just one of a number or versions most recently done loosely in the Brendan Fraser vehicle Bedazzled, where Elizabeth Hurley played Mr. Scratch’ Somewhat under-appreciated, it featured a fine, sly, continentally seductive performance by Elizabeth Hurley. I’ll see Shortcut to Happiness, however, just to compare her work against that of the slightly more kittenish quality of Ms. Love Hewitt.

Baldwin, who has shown to be surprisingly adept at comedy in his numerous appearances on Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock, also assumes the responsibilities of director for this movie.

It also features current SNL cast members impressionist/comedian Darrell Hammond and the very funny Amy “No One Knows Who That is, REEGGG!” Poehler. Also in the cast is Jason Lee, who was involved in the divinely themed Kevin Smith film, Dogma. (D. James Ruccio/BOP)

Monday, July 9, 2007
© 2007 Box Office Prophets, a division of One Of Us, Inc.

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[BrieSearching sent us this information in an email. She has also posted it in "Spoilers" at HGW.]

Didn't know if you'd seen it or not and thought I would pass it along to you.
  
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07/05 - Episode 3.01 - The Underneath: Melinda meets a young woman named Jennifer who has come to sell items from her parents' home, then helps her connect with her father Ray, who was killed when Jennifer was 2 years old. Ray blames Melinda's mother for his wife's death shortly after his own. A young man named Justin takes pictures of the crowd when Melinda receives an award and when he notices something strange, he shows them to her. She takes the pictures to Professor Payne to get his opinion and Melinda brings up the possibility that the ghost in the picture is her father. Source: SpoilerFix.com

This week, we get to see a repeat of episode 211, "Cat's Claw." In the first scene Melinda and Jim have just come in after a cold night shopping only to discover their upstairs bedroom has turned into a tropical rain forrest. But that's only the beginning as Melinda gets swept away to the in several visions -- or perhaps astral travels -- to discover Rick himself may have a ghost. Click here for the MelindaVerse information on this episode.

The Bears will meet you on chat after the show.

Here's something a little lighter. We have a confirmed sighting of her and Ross McCall waiting to see a "secret" performance by Paul McCartney atAmoeba Records in Hollywood Wed, June 27. Here is the TMZ story.

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Paul McCartney -- No Love for Jennifer Love?
Posted Jun 28th 2007 3:05PM by TMZ Staff
Filed under: Paparazzi Video

It was a bizarro scene last night in Hollywood -- with Kenny G getting better V.I.P. treatment than Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Sir Paul McCartney must not be a "Ghost Whisperer" fan, because poor little JLove waited in line with everybody else who showed up for his "secret" performance last night at Amoeba Records in Hollywood. Hewitt didn't seem to mind, as she was seen happily signing autographs from the queue.

Alanis Morissette was spotted driving around the building with TMZ's favorite "Cheers" star Woody Harrelson, while Kenny G and his lady breezed in through the store's side entrance. Also caught at the show: Lukas Haas and John Larroquette.

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Check out the video.

We have been thinking about what it would take to create a forum atmosphere where members were comfortable sharing their thoughts about Ghost Whisperer. TheorizeLife0 and The Bears were thinking about this back in March when we brainstormed about ways to get more participation. We didn't have any great ideas then but we did think of a lot of little things that could help.

The first important thing The Bears see are the discussion rules. Too many of them and members are afraid to post what they think. Too few rules and anarchy develops. Our thinking is you have to play it like Calvin Ball (from the old comic strip Calvin and Hobbs) where the rules are whatever the person with the ball says they are. For example, we think any discussion of GW needs to include the possibility of bringing up religion or politics because the stories make a lot of references to them. The boundary line would relevance to show. That is, no promotion of a candidate or religious point of view -- just discussion.

Which brings up something we think is very important -- staying on topic. We got good feedback whenever we tried to bring a discussion thread back to the topic. Most members are too polite to mention an off-topic post so it is essential that the moderators stay alert for them. Similarly, we think gentle persuasion is the best way to discourage negative or hostile posts. It avoids having a lot of rules people aren't going to remember anyway and gives the flexibility to judge on a case-by-case basis.

We'd like to hear your ideas about how to make a GW forum work. What have you found you like about other forums? And what didn’t you like? Give us your comments.

Boy are The Bears confused by CK’s post on Mon Jun 25, 2007 5:22 pm! Does he want more members on the message board or not? AOL is the largest ISP in the US with over 20 million members. Banning them doesn’t make any sense to us. And  while we agree that there is a lot of trouble with spammers in Russia (domain .ru) we have seen people from that country posting on other boards who like Ghost Whisperer.

What’s the cost of leaving someone signed up who has not posted yet? We ourselves signed up for another message board in November of 2005 and didn’t make our first post until February 2006. BTW, we made over 300 posts after that.

And what is this about no disagreements? We are in a discussion about our favorite show and it is almost certain that not all of us will see things the same way. The key thing is that disagreements should be about the the subject, not with each other. In other words, no personal attacks. And that is the rule we want to apply to this blog.

The Bears want to know what you think?