
	Love Doesn't Die

Release Date:

November 14, 2008

Press Release:

SciFi Channel

OK! Spit it out, PK!.....

by Kathie Huddleston

Not Jim! Oh, Ghost Whisperer Powers That Be, how could you kill Jim Clancy (David Conrad), one half of television's most adorable couple?!

Yes, folks, unfortunately, in the Nov. 7 episode of CBS' Ghost Whisperer, "Imaginary Friends and Enemies," Jim was accidentally shot while trying to help a troubled man. While it initially looked like Jim was going to be OK, he died--YES, HE DIED--after a complication from surgery.

OK, the creepy ghosts underground had warned ghost whisperer extraordinaire Melinda (Jennifer Love Hewitt) that death might brush off on what she touched, and she sure touched Jim a lot. But still?

Well, Ghost Whisperer executive producer P.K. Simonds promises that death is only a new beginning for Melinda and Jim.

"What we want the audience to remember is that we're doing these things because you want to make the show resemble life in the sense that life gives you lemons, and, if you're a heroic character like Melinda, you make lemonade," Simonds said in an interview.

"It's going to kick off what is in effect a hugely romantic story, really, for Melinda and Jim, but in a way that I think most people would never have expected," Simonds added. "We're just really thrilled to be allowed to do this. It is one of the dividends of doing a show about the beyond, because it lets you relax some of the rules."

Fans can rest assured the romance is not over, Simonds added. "It gets more complicated, but does not change," he said. "A lot more complicated. We love Jim, and obviously Melinda loves him. We feel like there are fairy-tale elements to this show, and that relationship is one of them. They are people who are destined to be together, no matter what. But we thought, this season, what if we took the 'no matter what' to another level?"

OK, P.K. Simonds, but we do remember way back in the season-one finale when a plane crashed on top of Melinda's best friend, Andrea (Aisha Tyler). Hasn't Melinda suffered enough?

"We're completely confident that the audience will be thrilled by what we're doing and not devastated, but thrilled, because the point is not to make everybody miserable," Simonds said with a laugh.

"I always felt like it's a show that is about death in many ways, and death is scary to people," Simonds said. "Death is scary to our characters, and it's scary in reality. A show that deals with death in that way needs to give its audience some sanctuary, some places that are safe, and that relationship is one of those places."

According to Simonds we'd better stay tuned. Episodes seven, "Threshold" (Nov. 14), and eight, "Heart and Soul" (Nov. 21), will continue the story arc. "It is a romantic story and a romantic resolution. ... For the people who stick with us, they're going to be very rewarded," Simonds said. Ghost Whisperer airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT. The series stars Hewitt, Conrad, Camryn Manheim and Jamie Kennedy.