Origins of Paranormal Television: Watch The Very First Reality Ghost Hunting Show From 1977
Ghosts have always made good television. Back when I was a kid you were lucky enough if you got a spooky ghost special around Halloween, but today there are entire networks dedicated entirely to paranormal content. Many of the longest-running and most popular paranormal shows, Most Haunted, Ghost Hunters, and Ghost Adventures, for instance, have been sleuthing for spooks since the early 2000s, but the world’s first ghost hunting reality show actually popped up decades earlier in the summer of 1977, establishing the format that nearly ever single paranormal television show would follow for half a century.
Most paranormal television follows a format that we’ve become all too familiar with, even if we don’t immediately realize it. Remove the unique spin (urban legends, serial killer ghosts, human bait, etc. – every series has one) and you’ll see a format that goes something like this: history, eyewitness interviews, recreations, paranormal investigation, and client reveal. 95% of paranormal television sticks to this tried and tested formula, and for good reason: it works.
This simple format got me to thinking about the origins of ghostly reality television, and the further back I started to dig, from this weekend’s premiere of Ghosts of Shepherdstown to 2002’s Most Haunted, each and every series followed the formula. Even my 2004 series The Girly Ghosthunters fit the mold. The question is, who exactly pioneered the process that every paranormal show would stick to? With no end to my digging in sight, I sought out help from the human encyclopedia of the weird, John E.L. Tenney.
Not only is Tenney a renowned lecturer and veteran investigator of anomalous phenomena, he’s been involved in paranormal television for decades. In addition to guest starring on loads of shows like Paranormal Lockdown, he most recently starred in Destination America’s Ghost Stalkers (which also stayed true to “the format”), but perhaps the coolest of all his TV accolades, Tenney was a researcher and writer for one of the all-time paranormal classics, Unsolved Mysteries.
“It all started with Hans Holzer,” Tenney told me as he sent me a YouTube link. “Here, watch this. You won’t even believe how similar it is to what’s on the air today.”
Full story at site!
Ghosts have always made good television. Back when I was a kid you were lucky enough if you got a spooky ghost special around Halloween, but today there are entire networks dedicated entirely to paranormal content. Many of the longest-running and most popular paranormal shows, Most Haunted, Ghost Hunters, and Ghost Adventures, for instance, have been sleuthing for spooks since the early 2000s, but the world’s first ghost hunting reality show actually popped up decades earlier in the summer of 1977, establishing the format that nearly ever single paranormal television show would follow for half a century.
Most paranormal television follows a format that we’ve become all too familiar with, even if we don’t immediately realize it. Remove the unique spin (urban legends, serial killer ghosts, human bait, etc. – every series has one) and you’ll see a format that goes something like this: history, eyewitness interviews, recreations, paranormal investigation, and client reveal. 95% of paranormal television sticks to this tried and tested formula, and for good reason: it works.
This simple format got me to thinking about the origins of ghostly reality television, and the further back I started to dig, from this weekend’s premiere of Ghosts of Shepherdstown to 2002’s Most Haunted, each and every series followed the formula. Even my 2004 series The Girly Ghosthunters fit the mold. The question is, who exactly pioneered the process that every paranormal show would stick to? With no end to my digging in sight, I sought out help from the human encyclopedia of the weird, John E.L. Tenney.
Not only is Tenney a renowned lecturer and veteran investigator of anomalous phenomena, he’s been involved in paranormal television for decades. In addition to guest starring on loads of shows like Paranormal Lockdown, he most recently starred in Destination America’s Ghost Stalkers (which also stayed true to “the format”), but perhaps the coolest of all his TV accolades, Tenney was a researcher and writer for one of the all-time paranormal classics, Unsolved Mysteries.
“It all started with Hans Holzer,” Tenney told me as he sent me a YouTube link. “Here, watch this. You won’t even believe how similar it is to what’s on the air today.”
Full story at site!
