FALL PREVIEW: "GHOST WHISPERER"

by Josh Wolk

Photo above by Gavin Bond

Jennifer Love Hewitt thought she'd be doing a different show this season. She'd come up with an idea of playing a TV sports reporter, and have been developing the TV sitcom IN THE GAME at ABC for nearly a year. The pilot was shot, retooled, and recast, shot again.....and then killed by the suits at ABC. "Within four days of that show not going away, I got the GHOST WHISPERER script," says Hewitt, who was last seen on series TV in 1999's short-lived PARTY OF FIVE'S spin-off, TIME OF YOUR LIFE. "My agents saw me start to cry (when 'Game' was canceled), and they said 'Oh my God, we have found something great,' and this happened to be there. It was meant to be." What a mystical turn of events: The death of her sitcom brought Hewitt to a drama about communicating with.....the dead.

The 26 year-old actress plays Melinda Gordon, a small town, newly married medium who helps spirits complete their unfinished earthbound business so they can be alley-ooped into the proverbial light. But is crediting the show's appearance in her life to a spiritual force an eerie coincidence---other worldly powers lead actress to a supernatural role----or a practical decision? "I've read horoscopes and watched ghost movies and heard stories of people being haunted, but I had never really put too much thought into (ghosts) before," she says. "My mind is much more open to it now, but it kind of has to be...to convince other people and other tons of skeptics to believe in it every Friday night."

The idea for GHOST WHISPERER came from a man who knows from spirits, famed medium JAMES VAN PRAAGH. His 2002 autobiographical CBS miniseries, LIVING WITH THE DEAD, haunted 17 million viewers, and he based the story of Melinda on the talent of 'ghostbusters' MARY ANN WINKOWSKI, who he met on his short lived syndicated TV show BEYOND. (Winkowski serves as a consultant on 'Whisperer'.) CBS paired Van Praagh with writer and executive producer John Gray ("Martin and Lewis"), and two fleshed out the pilot, making Hewitt's character an antiques shop owner, and giving her a best friend with a secretive past ("24's" AISHA TYLER) and a husband ("Miss Match's" DAVID CONRAD) who, ironically, works as a paramedic. "He's committed to keeping people on this side of the lifeline, her gift is keeping her on the other side," says Conrad. "He has a weird fascination with what she does, but there's also a (feeling of) 'Nuh-huh, not this one.'"

A suburban married woman who helps dead people sounds a bit MEDIUM, but Gray says his show was in development before the NBC hit came on in January 2005. "It was disappointing," admits Gray, who claims he first heard of MEDIUM after he delivered CBS his pilot script. "When we looked at their pilot, we knew we'd inevitably be compared, but we were relieved because it felt different." CBS Entertainment president NINA TASSLER, who scheduled the show in the network's de facto supernatural time slot (after all, this is where JOAN OF ARCADIA lived for two years), says discerning viewers will be able to differentiate between the two series. "There's a strong audience appeal for this kind of show. And with our story, she does not solve crimes. This is much more of an emotional journey."

Hewitt isn't worried either: "I like MEDIUM. But it's very different.....(Patricia Arquette's character) is very removed from the ghosts. In our show, I'm really these people's last best friend."

Every week Melinda will be approached by a new ghost, and she'll have to uncover what they need. Gray says that the stories will vary widely in tone, from spooky (a dead serial killer tries to off one last victim) to darkly humorous (an old, recently deceased boyfriend of Melinda's returns to win her back) to weepy (a fallen Vietnam veteran is desperate to find the grown son he never met). Come to think of it, they're all kind of sad: These are dead and grieving people we're talking about here. "You'll cry every week," says Hewitt, "because it's a drama, and that's our job."

While Hewitt is taking care of the audience emotions, Van Praagh will be taking care of the ghosts. As a co-executive producer, he also serves as the unofficial technical adviser, which means keeping the writers from breaking any "Ghost Rules". "For instance, a ghost can walk through walls....but a ghost cannot break a window," he says. "I just want to make sure it's kept very, very real." If you're kind of skeptic to whom the very idea of keeping the deception of ghosts "real" is akin to learning the proper way to saddle a unicorn, then Tyler is on your side. "James has done quite a few demonstrations and he's a lovely dude, but I don't participate," she says. "Not because I think he's a fraud---I think he believes in what he does. But I like to retain my skepticism, I find it valuable for what I do in life." Hewitt remains open-minded, but diplomatically so. "I love the idea of my character being able to talk to these people and finish their life stories and making them feel better about it all," she says. "If for no other reason, I believe in it for the hopeful aspect it brings to people." True---because if life after a dead pilot is grand, then life after death must be spectacular.

Story: © 2005 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.
Image (above): © 2005 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.
"Ghost Whisperer" Images (below): © 2005 Touchstone Television LLC - Wat Disney Company.
All rights reserved.

The pilot episode with guest star WENTWORTH MILLER (who Love worked with before on an episode of Fox's TIME OF YOUR LIFE).....

.....and Love with her "Ghost Whisperer" co-star AISHA TYLER.