Ghostwriter (1992 TV series) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Ghostwriter |
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| Genre |
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| Created by | Liz Nealon |
| Starring |
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| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 74 (18 story arcs, with four episodes in each arc, except 1 and 5, where they have five episodes) (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Miranda Barry |
| Production location(s) | Brooklyn, New York |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
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| Distributor | Tradewinds Television |
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| Original network | |
| Original release | October 4, 1992 – February 12, 1995 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Ghostwriter (2019-present) |
Ghostwriter is an American children's mystery television series created by Liz Nealon and produced by the Children's Television Workshop and BBC Television (for the first two seasons. The series itself aired during BBC Two's Schools output). It began airing on PBS on October 4, 1992, and the final episode aired on February 12, 1995. The series revolves around a circle of friends from Brooklyn who solve neighborhood crimes and mysteries as a team of young detectives with the help of a ghost named Ghostwriter. Ghostwriter can communicate with the kids only by manipulating whatever text and letters he can find and using them to form words and sentences. The series was filmed on location in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
Contents
Overview
The series was designed to teach reading and writing skills to school children. Each mystery was presented as a case, covering four 30 minute episodes (except the first and fifth story arc, where there are five 30 minute episodes); children were encouraged to follow each mystery, and use the reading and writing clues given to attempt to solve them just as the Ghostwriter team does in the TV series.
Ghostwriter was critically acclaimed and honored for presenting a realistic, racially diverse world in its two-hour mystery stories. By the end of its third season, Ghostwriter ranked in the top five of all children's shows on American television. Ghostwriter has been broadcast in 24 countries worldwide, and generated a number of foreign-language adaptations, including a dubbed over version on Discovery Kids Latin America marketed as Fantasma Escritor.
Despite its popularity, the program was abruptly canceled after the third season due to inadequate funding. The original series was rerun from 1995 to 1999 on PBS. The UPN Kids block on UPN also ran reruns for a short time in 1997. Then, in 1999, it was syndicated on ABC for a short time. From 1999 to 2003, it aired on the Noggin cable network, which was jointly founded by the Children's Television Workshop with Nickelodeon. The show's revival The New Ghostwriter Mysteries also aired on Noggin as part of its nighttime programming blocks, The Hubbub and The N. Noggin's website featured exclusive casebook files based on the show.
Episodes
List of Ghostwriter episodes
Cast
- Sheldon Turnipseed as Jamal Jenkins
- Blaze Berdahl as Lenni Frazier
- David López as Alex Fernández
- Mayteana Morales as Gaby Fernández (1992–1994)
- Tram-Anh Tran as Tina Nguyen
- Todd Alexander Cohen as Rob Baker (1992–1993)
- William Hernandez as Héctor Carrero (1993–1995)
- Melissa González as Gaby Fernández (1994–1995)
- Lateaka Vinson as Casey Austin (1994–1995)
- Marcella Lowery as CeCe Jenkins
- Samuel L. Jackson as Mr. Jenkins (Jamal's father)
Merchandising
Created as an integrated, branded, multi-media project, the Ghostwriter brand included magazines and teacher's guides, software (Microsoft), home video, games/licensed product, and other outreach materials that reached over a million children each month. There were many Ghostwriter novels released, both novelizations of the TV episodes and new stories. They were released by Bantam Books.
Awards and nominations
- Writers Guild of America, USA, 1995
- Won, WGA Award (TV) for Children's Script—Carin Greenberg Baker, for "Don't Stop The Music".
- Young Artist Awards, 1993
- Nominated, Outstanding Performers in a Children's Program: Todd Alexander, Blaze Berdahl, David López, Mayteana Morales, Tram-Anh Tran, Sheldon Turnipseed
The New Ghostwriter Mysteries
| The New Ghostwriter Mysteries | |
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| Genre | Children's Mystery Fantasy |
| Created by | Liz Nelson |
| Starring | Charlotte Sullivan Erica Luttrell Kristian Ayre |
| Composer(s) | Alex Khaskin |
| Country of origin | Canada United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Naomi Janzen |
| Production location(s) | Toronto, Ontario |
| Cinematography | Rhett Morita |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Decode Entertainment Children's Television Workshop |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Original release | September 13 – December 6, 1997 |
In 1997, CBS aired a new version of the series, The New Ghostwriter Mysteries, but it was canceled after one season due to low ratings. The new series had little in common with the original, changing Ghostwriter's on-screen appearance, introducing entirely new characters, and getting rid of the serial format of the original series. The series was filmed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and featured a new team of three kids: Camella Gorik (Charlotte Sullivan), Emilie Robeson (Erica Luttrell), and Henry "Strick" Strickland (Kristian Ayre). Ghostwriter only had two colors, which were silver and gold.
Ghostwriter's identity
Ghostwriter producer and writer Kermit Frazier revealed in a 2010 interview that Ghostwriter was the ghost of a runaway slave during the American Civil War. He taught other slaves how to read and write and was killed by slave catchers and their dogs. His soul was kept in the book that Jamal first discovered in the pilot episode, and when Jamal opened the book he was freed.
Radio series
In the summer of 2006, BBC School Radio produced a radio series of Ghostwriter for primary school students. Character names from the TV series were retained, though voiced by new children. Music and the theme song were also kept, and a new musical jingle for children to recognize Ghostwriter's appearances was created by Sesame Workshop.
Reboot
In September 2019, it was reported that a Ghostwriter reboot would air on Apple TV+. The series premiered on November 1, 2019. The series was nominated for eight Daytime Emmy Awards.
A spin-off, Ghostwriter: Beyond the Page, will premiere April 1st.
Images for kids
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Ghostwriter: Season One DVD cover art.
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See also
In Spanish: Fantasma escritor para niños
