''Ghostwriter'' is a

children's A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person young ...

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ( ...

television series created by Liz Nealon and produced by Children's Television Workshop and

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

. It began airing on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

on October 4, 1992, and the last episode aired on February 12, 1995. The series revolves around a multiethnic group of friends from

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

who solve neighborhood crimes and mysteries as a team of youth detectives with the help of a ghost named Ghostwriter. Ghostwriter can communicate with children 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.

Overview

The series is designed to teach reading and writing skills to schoolchildren. Each mystery is presented as a case, covering four 30-minute episodes (except for the first and fifth story arc, where there are five 30 minute episodes); children are encouraged to follow each mystery and use the reading and writing clues given to attempt to solve them just as the Ghostwriter team does.

Episodes

Cast

* Sheldon Turnipseed as Jamal Jenkins *

Blaze Berdahl Blaze Autumn Berdahl (born September 6, 1980) is an American actress best known for her roles as Lenni Frazier in the children's television series ''Ghostwriter'' and Ellie Creed in the film ''Pet Sematary'' (1989). Early life Berdahl was bo ...

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 Marcella Lowery (born April 27, 1946) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Geoffrey Owens' mother, Francine Tibideaux, on ''The Cosby Show'', Jamal Jenkins' grandmother on ''Ghostwriter'' from 1992 to 1995, Anna Eldridge in the ...

as CeCe Jenkins *

Samuel L. Jackson Samuel Leroy Jackson (born December 21, 1948) is an American actor and producer. One of the most widely recognized actors of his generation, the films in which he has appeared have collectively grossed over $27 billion worldwide, making him ...

as Mr. Jenkins (Jamal's father)

Critics and merchandise

''Ghostwriter'' was critically acclaimed and honored for presenting a realistic, ethnically 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. Created as an integrated, branded, multi-media project, the ''Ghostwriter'' brand included magazines and teacher's guides, software (

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

), home video, games/licensed product, and other outreach materials that reached over a million children each month. There were many ''Ghostwriter'' novels released, both

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

izations of the TV episodes and new stories. They were released by Bantam Books. Noggin's website featured exclusive casebook files based on the show.

Broadcast and home release

''Ghostwriter'' has been broadcast in 24 countries worldwide, and generated a number of foreign-language adaptations, including a dubbed over version on

Discovery Kids Discovery Kids (stylized as Discovery K!ds) is a brand name owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Starting as a television segment within the Discovery Channel, the brand expanded as a separate television channel. Most of its worldwide channels were e ...

in Latin America marketed as ''Fantasma Escritor''. Despite its popularity, the program was abruptly canceled after the third season due to inadequate funding after the BBC pulled out of co-producing the show. The original series was rerun from 1995 to 1999 on

. From 1999 to 2003, it aired on the Noggin cable network, which was jointly founded by the Children's Television Workshop (now known as Sesame Workshop) with Paramount's

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

. The show's revival ''The New Ghostwriter Mysteries'' also aired on Noggin as part of its nighttime programming blocks, The Hubbub and

The N The N (standing for Noggin) was a nighttime programming block on the Noggin television channel, aimed at preteens and teenagers. It was launched on April 1, 2002, by Viacom and Sesame Workshop. Before the block's introduction, Noggin's daytim ...

VHS releases

During the mid-1990s, ''Ghostwriter'' was released on VHS by Republic Pictures Home Video. The company released "Ghost Story", "Who Burned Mr. Brinker's Store?", and "Into the Comics" with their respective story-arc episodes edited together into a feature-length format.

DVD releases

In February 2010, it was announced that Season 1 of ''Ghostwriter'' would be released on DVD by Shout! Factory. The 5-disc set, running 870 minutes long, was released on June 8, 2010. Supplements are a trivia game and a casebook. The entire series except for the last two story arcs were also released by GPN.

Awards and nominations

Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America is the joint efforts of two different US labor unions representing TV and film writers: * The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), headquartered in New York City and affiliated with the AFL–CIO * The Writers Guil ...

, United States, 1995 ** Won, WGA Award (TV) for Children's Script—Carin Greenberg Baker, for "Don't Stop The Music". *

Young Artist Award The Young Artist Award (originally known as the Youth in Film Award) is an accolade presented by the Young Artist Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in 1978 to honor excellence of youth performers, and to provide scholarships for young ...

s, 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''

In 1997,

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

aired a new version of the series, ''The New Ghostwriter Mysteries'', as part of their educational '' Think CBS Kids'' block, 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 Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada, and featured a new team of three kids: Camella Gorik (

Charlotte Sullivan Charlotte Sullivan is a Canadian actress. Career Sullivan began acting professionally as a child. Her first on-screen role was an extra in a Liza Minnelli music video. She has had starring roles in the film ''Harriet the Spy'' (1996) and the ...

), Emilie Robeson (

Erica Luttrell Erica Luttrell is a Canadian actress. Personal life Luttrell was born in Toronto, Ontario to a Tanzanian mother and an American father. Luttrell is the youngest of four sisters. She can speak some French and Swahili. In August 2019, Luttrell ...

), and Henry "Strick" Strickland (

Kristian Ayre Kristian John Ayre (born November 19, 1977) is a Canadian actor, best known for his portrayal of the character Radu from the Nickelodeon children's science fiction show ''Space Cases''. Early life Kristian Ayre was born in England, and moved to ...

). Ghostwriter only had two colors, which were

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

and

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

Ghostwriter's identity

''Ghostwriter'' producer and writer Kermit Frazier revealed in a 2010 interview that Ghostwriter was 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 spirit was kept in the book that Jamal discovers and opens in the pilot episode, freeing the ghost.

Radio series

In Summer 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 arranged jingle for children to recognize Ghostwriter's appearances was created by Sesame Workshop.

Revival

In September 2019, it was reported that a ''Ghostwriter'' revival would air on

Apple TV+ Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...

. The series premiered on November 1, 2019. The series was nominated for eight

Daytime Emmy Award The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences ...

s. A spin-off, ''Ghostwriter: Beyond the Page'', premiered on April 1, 2021.

References

External links

* * * *
''BBC School Radio: Ghostwriter''

Announcement at ''TV Shows on DVD'' website – ''Ghostwriter'': Season 1 on DVD

Analysis in The Atlantic
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