48 Fun Facts About Ghost Whisperer

On which network did Ghost Whisperer air from 2005 to 2010?

CBS. Variety noted how oddly a ghost story led by one young woman sat among the network's gritty crime procedurals, and the sudden axe in 2010 fell after shooting had wrapped, so no true finale was ever made.

Which war had the ghost in Ghost Whisperer's 2005 pilot fought?

Vietnam. Sergeant Paul Adams went missing there in 1972 while his wife was expecting, and Melinda has to win over the grown son he never met, who takes her for a fraud, before the soldier can rest.

Which actress starred as the title character of Ghost Whisperer?

Jennifer Love Hewitt. She also produced the show and directed three episodes, the 100th among them, and years later said she would back a revival only if she kept her 'Ghost Whisperer throne'.

Which Prison Break star played the soldier's ghost in the Ghost Whisperer pilot?

Wentworth Miller. His sergeant cannot move on until he has seen the son who was born after he vanished, a guest role that aired in 2005, the year Prison Break made Miller a star.

In which fictional New York town is Ghost Whisperer set?

Grandview. An older version of the town lies buried beneath the modern one, and in season three Melinda is trapped in its tunnels until an ancestor's ghost guides her rescuers to her.

What kind of business does Melinda Gordon own on Ghost Whisperer?

An antiques shop. She runs it with her best friend, who is in on the secret and minds the till whenever Melinda has to run off after a ghost.

On Ghost Whisperer, what is Melinda's store called?

Same as It Never Was. Melinda runs it with her friend Andrea, and after Andrea's death she offers a job to the mother of a boy she has just caught shoplifting there.

On Ghost Whisperer, which relative taught the young Melinda how to use her gift?

Her grandmother. She took the girl along to funerals to pass on messages from the dead, and her death left Melinda without the one person who had never thought her crazy.

On Ghost Whisperer, what is Jim Clancy's job when the series begins?

Paramedic. Jim took up the work after watching his older brother die when they were boys, unable to save him, and he later goes back to school to become a doctor.

Which actor plays Melinda's husband, Jim Clancy, on Ghost Whisperer?

David Conrad. He and the show's star are the only actors to appear in all 107 episodes, a run that outlasts even his character's death in season four.

Which actress plays Andrea Marino, Melinda's best friend in season one of Ghost Whisperer?

Aisha Tyler. Her Andrea had been a New York lawyer before moving to town to help run the shop, and Tyler left when the character was killed off at the end of season one, returning once as a ghost.

How does Andrea die in the season one finale of Ghost Whisperer?

A plane crash. Andrea was not on board: her car lay in the path of the falling aircraft, and she goes on thinking it is her brother who has died until he runs straight past her.

Who plays Delia Banks, Melinda's business partner from season two of Ghost Whisperer?

Camryn Manheim. The Practice star plays a sceptic who, on learning Melinda's secret, calls her crazy and walks out of the shop, and who never quite stops hunting for a rational explanation.

On Ghost Whisperer, what was Delia's job before she joined Melinda's store?

Real estate agent. Delia found selling houses so stressful that Melinda offered her a place at the shop soon after they met; later in the series she returns to the trade with an agency of her own.

On Ghost Whisperer, what is the name of Delia's teenage son?

Ned. He overhears Melinda and learns about her gift before his mother does, and by the last season he is studying the occult at college and using what he learns to help with her ghosts.

On Ghost Whisperer, what does Delia's son try to shoplift from Melinda's store in season two?

Grateful Dead memorabilia. Melinda works out that a spirit has been egging the boy on, and her call to his mother about the theft is how she meets her future business partner.

Which comedian plays Professor Rick Payne on Ghost Whisperer?

Jay Mohr. He left after the season-four premiere, his professor packed off on sabbatical, because Mohr had won the lead in the sitcom Gary Unmarried.

On Ghost Whisperer, where do Professors Payne and James teach?

Rockland University. A fire on its campus in the season-four opener briefly kills Eli James before he is revived, and by the last season Delia's son is among its students.

Where does Rick Payne go on expedition when he leaves Ghost Whisperer?

The Himalayas. The trip writes the professor out because the actor playing him had landed the lead in a sitcom, and the same season-four premiere brings in his successor, Eli James.

Which actor plays Professor Eli James on Ghost Whisperer?

Jamie Kennedy. He joined in season four as the sceptic who becomes Melinda's ally, and although the two characters stay strictly friends, he and the show's leading lady were a couple for a year off screen.

After a near-death experience, what ability does Eli James gain?

He can hear ghosts but not see them. Eli dies in a campus fire and is revived, and he blames the voices on his own shaken mind until one of them turns out to be someone he knew who has died.

What subject does Eli James teach on Ghost Whisperer?

Psychology. Eli's first verdict on Melinda is that she is crazy, and he holds to it until he finds he can do almost the same thing himself.

Who created Ghost Whisperer?

John Gray. He wrote and directed the pilot after coffee with a real ghostbuster-for-hire, who told him spirits were standing around them in the Starbucks, a moment he put straight into the script.

Ghost Whisperer was based in part on the work of which real-life paranormal investigator?

Mary Ann Winkowski. The former pet groomer from Ohio is paid to coax lingering spirits out of people's homes, and the producers hired her as a consultant after a famous medium friend brought her to Hollywood's notice.

Which celebrity medium served as co-executive producer and consultant on Ghost Whisperer?

James Van Praagh. Television had already told his life story in the miniseries Living with the Dead, and it was he who led the show's makers to the Midwestern ghostbuster whose cases shaped the pilot.

On whose Los Angeles back lot was Ghost Whisperer filmed?

Universal Studios. The town square is the lot's Courthouse Square, better known as Hill Valley in Back to the Future, and before the sets came down the star filmed a farewell tour of them for fans.

On which night of the week did Ghost Whisperer air?

Friday. Variety called it a low-visibility slot, yet by its fourth season the show was winning its 8 p.m. hour every week with the biggest audiences of its run.

On Ghost Whisperer, which book of fateful dates passes into Eli James's keeping at the end of season four?

The Book of Changes. Its pages hold dates that matter, past deaths and even the day Melinda's baby is due, and its last guardian, Eli's former girlfriend, hands it on to him as a ghost.

Which network showed interest in picking up Ghost Whisperer after its cancellation, then passed?

ABC. Its sister studio co-owned the series, and its scheduling chief admitted the network had 'talked a lot about' taking it, but the deal fell through nine days after the cancellation.

On Ghost Whisperer, what does Melinda's mother do with her gift?

Represses it. She can see ghosts but will not admit it, and her refusal to accept the same gift in her daughter kept the two estranged for years.

What was the title of Ghost Whisperer's companion web series?

The Other Side. It tells its stories from the ghosts' point of view, and its first lead, a dead delivery boy named Zach, later steps out of the web series and into the TV show to seek Melinda's help.

On Ghost Whisperer, how did Jim and Melinda first meet?

He rescued her from her apartment. In season four the two marry a second time on the very street where they met.

In season two of Ghost Whisperer, whose ghost finally forces Melinda to tell Delia about her gift?

Delia's husband. Some years dead, he turns up when another man starts courting his widow, and Delia's first response to the news is to call Melinda crazy and quit, though she is soon back at work.

Ghost Whisperer's composer, Mark Snow, is best known for the theme of which 1990s paranormal series?

The X-Files. Snow found that theme's echoing accompaniment by accident, resting an elbow on his keyboard with a delay effect switched on, and half of its famous whistle is his wife's.

In Ghost Whisperer's final season, what are the 'Shinies' that only Melinda's son can see?

Ghosts of children. They have already moved on, are drawn to shiny objects, and it is their gathered light that finally drives the dark Shadows out of Melinda.

On Ghost Whisperer, what is the name of Jim and Melinda's son?

Aiden. He is named after Jim's late father and arrives in the season-five opener, minutes before the story leaps years ahead to show him as a small boy who sees more than his mother does.

Why is Melinda's baby surnamed Lucas on Ghost Whisperer?

To honour Sam, whose body Jim took over. Sam Lucas dies in an accident and moves on at once, and Jim's lingering spirit steps into the empty body, so the child is born to a father the world knows as Sam.

How does Jim die in season four of Ghost Whisperer?

An embolism after a gunshot wound. The surgery on his shoulder goes well, and Melinda grasps the truth only when the husband murmuring at her side proves to be his ghost, as the monitors flatline behind them.

Ghost Whisperer's star twice won Best Actress on Television at which awards for science fiction, fantasy and horror?

The Saturn Awards. Her first win, in 2007, came at the expense of Patricia Arquette, whose psychic drama Medium had beaten Ghost Whisperer to the screen by a matter of months.

On Ghost Whisperer, who is the ghost Paul Eastman to Melinda?

Her father. The man she had believed was her father had killed him and buried him under the family home, and Paul finally saves Melinda by seizing that man's body and hurling it down the stairs.

Which rival ghost whisperer returns in season three of Ghost Whisperer claiming to be Melinda's half-brother?

Gabriel Lawrence. He checks into a hotel as 'Gabriel Gordon', hands Melinda a packet of family pictures that lures her into the buried old town, and then blocks the tunnel behind her.

On Ghost Whisperer, what had the dark spirit Romano been in life?

A cult leader. He talked his followers into a mass suicide, and as a ghost he works the same trick on the newly dead, telling them that judgment awaits if they move on so that they stay with him.

On Ghost Whisperer, which ghosts warn Melinda that her gift has a price?

The Watchers. They are spirits who chose to stay behind to help the living, and their warning that death may rub off on what Melinda loves comes true a few episodes later, when her husband is killed.

Which Angel actress guest-starred on Ghost Whisperer as Tessa, Melinda's ghost-whispering ancestor?

Amy Acker. Her Tessa has lingered beneath the town for generations, not knowing what became of her baby daughter, and moves on only when Melinda, her descendant, tells her.

On Ghost Whisperer, what is the name of Melinda's mother?

Beth. Played by Anne Archer, she sits on a long-buried family secret and gives it up only when a ghost from her own past presses her to tell her daughter the truth.

Ghost Whisperer's final season jumps ahead to which day for Melinda's son?

Fifth birthday. Every year the day has brought sickness or some mishap, a 'birthday curse' that turns out to be the visits of a woman who died in childbirth on the day he was born.

On Ghost Whisperer, what does Melinda learn that her young son is?

An empath. He soaks up the feelings of everyone near him, which is why he fell ill each year when a grieving ghost paid him her visit.

What is the title of Ghost Whisperer's series finale?

"The Children's Parade". It aired three days after the network axed the show and had been shot as an ordinary season-ender, which is why the story simply stops with no farewell.