FINALLY.GHOST WRITER, the best television show in the history of the Children's Television Workshop, is on DVD. I never thought the day would come, but season 1 is here.
In case you were lucky enough to have cable in 1992, let me fill you in:
GHOST WRITER was a half hour mystery series that aired on PBS in the early '90s. It was developed by the Children's Television Workshop (the geniuses behind SESAME STREET) as an educational (but entertaining) reading and writing show for older elementary school kids and middle schoolers. The plot: a gang of kids from varying cultural backgrounds solve mysteries on the streets of Brooklyn.
I did NOT have cable, so besides reruns of BAYWATCH, there wasn't much else to check out on Sunday afternoons.
As a kid, I was quickly won over by GHOST WRITER's unique blend of low production values, stilted but well-meaning teenage actors, heavy handed liberal agenda and overly obvious mysteries. Granted, the show was on public television, hence the low budget, and the actors were real teenagers, hence the bad acting, and the mysteries had to be obvious because they were aimed at 11 and 12 year olds who still needed to work on their literacy skills.
Anyway, I watched the first episode today and here's a blow by blow:
GHOST STORY -- PART I
(All the mysteries were multi-part mini-series that moved from cliff hanger to cliff hanger.)
The first episode opens with Jamal and his father looking for a trunk in the basement. Jamal, we quickly realize, is the black member of the Ghost Writer team. You can tell by his giant, primary colored clothes. Three of him could fit in his shirt.
But wait! Who's that next to 12-year-old Jamal, playing his father? SAMUEL L. JACKSON, MOTHERFUCKER! Before PULP FICTION, before SNAKES ON A PLANE, before other things Samuel L. Jackson was famous for he was -- in Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese movies. But he was also in GHOST WRITER! Still, don't get your hopes up -- he disappears after a couple episodes.
They finally find the trunk, dragging it out from under a shelf and knocking a book to the ground in the process. As the book flops open on the floor, a weird animated effect comes out of it. It looks kind of like a neon flying semi-colon. It's Ghost Writer!
They also knock a trophy off the shelf in the process and notice how threatening Jackson sounds when he says:
"Could you pick up the trophy, son?"
Jesus, Sam, this isn't a Spike Lee joint.
Cut to opening credits.
Man, I love these opening credits. It's one of those sequences where quotes from the show tell the story to catch the viewer up with the action. But. . . wait. There aren't any quotes in this one. Oh yeah. It's the first episode. None of the quotes have been said yet. We don't need to be caught up on the origin when the origin is happening in the body of the episode. Duh. I guess I'll have to wait a few episodes before the "classic" and endlessly quotable GHOST WRITER credits kick in.
Anyway, after the credits we see how Jamal spends his spare time: practicing shitty ninja moves on the streets of Brooklyn after dark. Carrying groceries in one hand and karate chopping the shadows with the other, Jamal makes his way through the park in his gigantic tennis shoes with tongues reminiscent of Gene Simmons'.
Alarmingly, Jamal spots a bunch of weirdoes with flashlights and monster masks dancing around a modern art installation in the park. After observing them in horror, he ducks out of frame -- only to hilariously duck back in again for a second look. Oh, Jamal.
Cut to: interior Huxtable residence. Just kidding. It's just the Jenkins residence. Jamal's sister Denitra (hehe) is running around, packing for college, and everyone's sassing everyone. Seems like Grandma Jenkins is the only really cool member of the family until she announces she's making a special caramel cake and Jamal can't have any. Cunt.
Retreating to his bedroom, Jamal seeks solace in the computer his sister has left him by randomly typing words into an empty blue screen.
"Hello computer. My name is Jamal," he types as if he's Scotty visiting from the 23rd century. Then he adds, "Ready for one dynamite dude?"
"Fuck me," the computer thinks to itself, lamenting its sudden life change from residing in the room of a fairly attractive 18-year-old girl to suddenly becoming the best friend of a gawky 12-year-old nerd with signs on his wall that say stuff like, "Don't fool with the cool."
Incidentally, the "Don't fool with the cool" sign becomes possessed by Ghost Writer and starts flashing, thus scaring the shit out of Jamal. Where are your kung fu moves now, Jamal?
Creepily, Ghost Writer jumps into the computer, possesses it, and types:
"HELP! HELP! HELP! HELP! Where are the children? Are they all right?"
Weird.
Jamal dutifully reads this out loud and here we have one of the classic hallmarks of the show -- stuff being slowly typed or written out in giant, easy to read letters, and then other characters reading what has been typed or written slowly, loudly and clearly. This is the part that's supposed to teach you to read and write. Or, improve your literacy, anyway. The poor bastards on the show have to go super slow just in case anyone who is really learning is watching, but 99% of the audience can read, write and comprehend faster than any character on the show, causing the show's characters to appear very. . . dull and slow-witted. But, that's part of the charm! The Ghost Writer team is so cute with their innocence and naivete, always three steps behind the audience, treating each minor revelation as if it was the most amazing thing they've ever witnessed.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
For now, Jamal just yells at the computer, wrestles it, and then whines for his sister who writes him off as insane. Finally he unplugs the computer. Genius.
"This has got to be one of her tricks!" Jamal says to himself, clenching his fist like Robin in the 1960s Batman series. He says it with such spite, you begin to wonder what kind of tricks Denitra has played on Jamal in the past. Sleeping hand in warm water, maybe? Saran wrap on toilet seat? You get the impression if Denitra had balls, she'd tea bag Jamal.
Cut to: a couple kids walking to school. It's Gaby and Alex Fernandez, brother and sister! In case you're wondering, they're eventually going to become the Hispanic members of the Ghost Writer team! Black: check. Hispanic: check. What's next?
Gaby's whining about the weather and spouting dumb facts about St. Petersburg, Florida and Alex is shooting hoops with trash. Gaby has to tie her shoe, so big brother Alex promptly ditches her.
On the streets of Brooklyn.
What's the worst that could happen?
Kidnapping?
Rape?
Murder?
Suddenly a dude in one of those creepy masks from before runs by and snatches Gaby's backpack!
"Fuck," she says.
Just kidding. She says, "Shoot."
Meanwhile, Jamal is also on his way to school and he stops by the modern art installation in the park where he saw all the creepy dudes with masks and flashlights dancing around the night before. We're treated to a flashback to remind us of the earlier scene even though it only happened like two minutes before. I guess the producers figure if you're 11 or 12 and you still can't read or write, you need simple plot elements spelled out for you also. Stupid.
Jamal is interrupted from his flashback by a white chick dressed as Blossom Russo who rudely runs right into him, backpacks flying everywhere. Jamal's Jamaican themed black-green-yellow-and red striped back hits the pavement right next to the white chick's army surplus bag covered in puff paint peace signs and words like "Imagine."
Who is this long-haired Blossom rip-off with more fringe on her jacket than Roger Daltrey circa 1969?
It's Lenni Frazier!
Turns out Jamal and Lenni have seen each other around school, as they stammer to each other awkwardly. Seems like the writers might be trying to hint at a future romance between these two but if I remember correctly it never develops, thank Christ. I'd hate to imagine Jamal or Lenni getting freaky with anyone, but hooking up with each other? Excuse me while I violently dry heave.
While the two would be love birds share pleasantries, Ghost Writer suddenly pops out of Jamal's bag and sneaks into Lenni's. Lenni loudly announces she's going to go "work on a new song" and Jamal goes to investigate the scene of the weirdos with masks -- he does so by caressing the modern art installation and two things spring to mind:
1.) Why is Jamal even investigating? Sure the dudes in masks were weird, but it's not like Jamal actually saw them doing anything illegal or untoward. They were just fucking around with flashlights in a public place with masks on. They weren't mugging anyone (like Gaby).
2.) How is he going to find anything by simply caressing the art installation?
Well, turns out Jamal stumbles across a button that says "THABTO" on it and a piece of paper with a neatly written code on it. Everyone in the GHOST WRITER universe has really neat handwriting so the illiterate kids at home can follow along. Instead of immediately realizing it's gibberish, Jamal amuses us by attempting to sound out the words.
Back on the park bench, fringe drenched Lenni works out her latest socially conscious rap. Here, we get a glimpse into what I like to call:
LENNI'S SONG WRITING PROCESS
Thanks to her huge, neat hand writing, we get a clear view of the evolution of this sweet rhyme. It goes like this:
"People always say. . ."
But then she crosses out say.
That's not good enough. Not street enough! What's another word for say?
"People always TALKIN'. . ."
Yeah, that's more like it.
"People always talkin' 'bout
how th. . ."
She crosses out "th" and writes "the". . .
"how the world needs
to change.
But not when it's th. . ."
She crosses out "th" again and writes "their." Seems like this chick has some issues with "th" words.
"But not when it's their life
they've got to rearrange.
So, knock wood for the kids
in the hood
who'll take up the slack
leadin' the pack
on the right track."
Right track. Needs something more. Oh yeah, an exclamation point. Yeah, that's it!
But suddenly Ghost Writer flies out of Lenni's bag, rearranging the words in her notebook to read, "Where are you dynamite dude Jamal?"
Awkward. That was between Jamal and you, Ghost Writer. "Dynamite dude" is not to be shared with just any white chick who busts a rhyme. Incidentally, if you haven't caught on yet, Lenni is going to be the white member of the Ghost Writer team. Black, Hispanic, White. What else? There was an Asian chick in the opening credits but I haven't seen her yet. Hmm.
Anyway, Lenni's horrified, jumpes off the bench and pokes her notebook with a large stick. Ghost Writer attempts to suck up to her by writing out, "Lenni fights for what is right," but judging by the disgusted look on Lenni's face his ploys are not working. Then again, Lenni has a disgusted look on her face most of the time, so maybe that's just the way she was born.
Cut to Zora Neal Hurston Middle School! Jamal finds a note in his locker. A love note. From a secret admirer!
No, just kidding. Jamal doesn't get love notes. He gets hate notes. And this one says:
"Near the park
after dark
you were there
so beware!"
THABTO
Lenni better watch her back. Looks like there's a new MC in town. A new MC with huge, impeccably neat hand writing.
Lenni runs up to Jamal and accuses him of somehow rigging the Ghost Writer shit that went down in her notebook. Jamal points out that SHE is the one who has been incessantly sneaking up on HIM all day, then goes on to accuse her of sneaking the threatening note into his locker, which seems fair to me since it's the same dumb handwriting and the same dumb rhyme scheme.
Still, Lenni claims innocence and Jamal fills her in on the weird shit he saw going on in the park. Then, Ghost Writer shows up and blows both of their minds simultaneously by writing the following creepy message on the bulletin board in the hall:
"Careful after dark, my children!"
Then, in an effort to out-creep GHOST WRITER, Jamal says to Lenni:
"Can you come over to my house after school? I think I've got something really weird to show you."
Look, Jamal, I don't doubt your private area is "really weird" but you don't have to go showing it to Lenni. She has her own really weird area to worry about. Better to suffer silently and alone in shame the way God intended.
Later, at the corner store, or Bodega (see? I'm learning!) Gaby and Alex tell their shop-keeper parents about the backpack theft. They slip fluently between English and Spanish like the regulars at the Crossroads Cafe. According to Gaby, this is just one in a series of backpack thefts.
Turns out Lenni and her dad live right above the Bodega in a giant loft apartment that's laid out kind of like Seinfeld's. But, in Lenni's world, the sitcom that springs most readily to mind is the afore-mentioned BLOSSOM. Not only is Lenni herself a clear Blossom rip off, but her dad looks a lot like Blossom's dad, and happens to be a struggling musician, just like Blossom's dad.
You can tell how cool Lenni and her dad are by the way they throw groceries at each other in a relay -- Dad to Lenni, then Lenni into fridge. Bam. What a fun family!
Back at the poor-man's Huxtable residence, AKA the Jenkin's household, Sam Jackson and wife are taking Denitra off to college. There's so much extraneous talk about Denitra going off to school it's almost like they're trying to set up a spin-off. You know, Jamal stays behind solving mysteries, meanwhile Denitra goes and finds herself at college where she meets all kinds of colorful characters. Denitra will find that college is kind of a. . . I don't know, DIFFERENT WORLD, I guess, from where she comes from.
In a stunning lack of judgment, Grandma Jenkins not only allows Jamal and Lenni to go up to Jamal's room WITH THE DOOR CLOSED, but then she goes shopping, leaving them alone! Does Grandma Jenkins want a grandkid THAT badly?
Jamal attempts to get his computer to type to Lenni, the way it typed to him the night before, but nothing doing. So they try to figure out the code Jamal found in the mean time. Genius Leni says it looks like a foreign language, than suggests looking at it in a mirror. Good job Lenni. Now it's backwards.
In a rare moment of critical thinking, Jamal realizes the note might be a secret code. Lenni, in an attempt to escape Jamal's room, suggests they show the secret code to the much cuter Alex Fernandez, who is merely blocks away in the Bodega and LOVES mysteries.
Meanwhile, Ghost Writer has been reading Grandma Jenkins' grocery list and is baffled. He types on the computer screen:
"What in the world are corn flakes?"
This blows Lenni and Jamal's minds and they begin shouting questions at the computer like, "Who are you?"
Jamal throws in the slightly redundant, "Don't you know what corn flakes are?" but then makes up for it with some lateral thinking, demanding, "Is your name THABTO?"
Ghost Writer creepily writes, "Why are you not answering me?" and then repeats, "ANSWER ME!" a bunch of times.
"What do we do now?" Lenni asks, the first time of many times she'll be asking that in this series.
"I don't know," Jamal admits, the first time of many times he'll be admitting that in this series.
THE END
So, how long you think it's going to take these retards to realize they need to TYPE to Ghost Writer?
Ghost Writer. What a trip.
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