Ghost Hunters

[Senator]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

I think you're referring to the Sorrel-Weed House. It was on the show in 2005 or 2006 if I remember correctly. They actually have a tour now that highlights the hot spots that were involved with the actual episode.

wife and I went.

100% boring, and I tried buying into it for fun.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Okay, the season finale tonight and either that lighthouse is haunted as can be or it was the fakiest fake ever. Not much in between on that one afaic.

The girls had some pretty good reactions when they were in that lighthouse. If it was being faked, they certainly weren't in on it. In hindsight, a static camera at the door to make sure no one had come in would have helped a lot.

Ghost Hunters International starts their new season on January 7th.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Lots of new show news.....

New episodes of 'Ghost Hunters International' start tonight on the Sci-Fi channel. New episodes of Ghost Hunters will follow in March 2009.

New season of 'Paranormal State' premieres January 19th at 10:00 PM EST.

A&E Television - Paranormal State Episode Guide

New 'Paranormal Cops' series to premiere later this year on A&E..........

A&E reality show has cops chasing ghosts--The Live Feed

New Ghost Hunters series in production, titled 'Ghost Hunters: New Generation'. Series will target the college crowd that is the viewing base of the Ghost Hunters franchise.

Sci Fi to gather more 'Ghost Hunters'--The Live Feed

[ArlingtonColt]

Anyone watch the first episode of GHI? I was curious on what everyone thought of the "evidence" (which was pretty good I thought.) and the new ghost hunter. It seems to me the only reason she got the job was because she is pretty good looking.. I wish they would get more people who can speak the different languages from countries they investigate....

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by ArlingtonColt

Anyone watch the first episode of GHI? I was curious on what everyone thought of the "evidence" (which was pretty good I thought.) and the new ghost hunter. It seems to me the only reason she got the job was because she is pretty good looking.. I wish they would get more people who can speak the different languages from countries they investigate....

First, the location was AWESOME. Just seeing it made you want to go there to see it.

I was a bit iffy on the big evidence involving the child apparition. The figure seemed to move with the light. I think it may have been a trick of the eyes involving the flashlight, but obviously impossible to know for sure. EMF work in the cell was pretty good. Wasn't too impressed with the 'voice' on the recording.

FYI.....I always visit this blog for all the 'Ghost Hunters' episode reviews. He does a good job of breaking down the episodes.........

John’s Paranormal Blog

[ArlingtonColt]

Yeah I was very sketchy on the little boy figure.. it looked like light reflecting off of the glass to me... but they were so excited about it I figured I was just not able to see it as good as they were (as its video being recorded from a computer screen the quality suffers) Thanks for the blog, I'm gonna check it out!

[dolfin]

I'm still having trouble getting into GHI because of my dislike for Robb. I'm not really sure why, but he just bothers me.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Forgot to mention it sooner, but new season of Ghost Hunters starts tonight (3/11). Grant and Jason are back for a few months!

[JediKooter]

Nice. Been catching some of the reruns this past weekend.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Thanks for bumping, I wouldn't have remembered otherwise. Family viewing time now though.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Damned good flashlight sequence with Grant at The Cuban Club Theater in Tampa.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Damned good flashlight sequence with Grant at The Cuban Club Theater in Tampa.

Dang it, I missed it. Sounds like they are having some 'success' with the flashlights.

I think last week they were at an old plantation or something like that and they had one of those flashlights sitting on the floor turned off, they then felt the room get cold and the flashlight turned on. When one of them went to go near it, the flashlight turned back off.

Highly entertaining show.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Damned good flashlight sequence with Grant at The Cuban Club Theater in Tampa.

Trying to figure that whole flashlight thing out. It was interesting that they used a flashlight that you spin to turn on rather than a switch. The switch flashlight can be a bit iffy at times in regards to evidence, but it's a whole new deal to have something spin the light. That's awfully hard to fake.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

That's awfully hard to fake.

Of course that's the rub with all of the shows in this genre, without being there yourself there's no way to know for sure what was done in production or was set up.

The thing that sold me on this latest one though was Grant's reaction to it. He looks like a kid in a candy store, simply amazed by what he was seeing. And I've seen him cut promos & do scripted stuff, he's not nearly that good an actor. If it was rigged somehow then it was done completely without his knowledge, and I'm inclined to believe that this one was completely legit.

Heck, the only time I've had serious concerns about their stuff was the last Halloween special which seemed to have too many production staff running around in the background (and you could sort of tell they were starting to get annoyed by that situation themselves).

As Charlie Daniels said, there's some things in this world you just can't explain.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Of course that's the rub with all of the shows in this genre, without being there yourself there's no way to know for sure what was done in production or was set up.

The thing that sold me on this latest one though was Grant's reaction to it. He looks like a kid in a candy store, simply amazed by what he was seeing. And I've seen him cut promos & do scripted stuff, he's not nearly that good an actor. If it was rigged somehow then it was done completely without his knowledge, and I'm inclined to believe that this one was completely legit.

Heck, the only time I've had serious concerns about their stuff was the last Halloween special which seemed to have too many production staff running around in the background (and you could sort of tell they were starting to get annoyed by that situation themselves).

As Charlie Daniels said, there's some things in this world you just can't explain.

Here's a review of the last episode. He actually talks about the Halloween episode and how it appears that the team has adjusted some things to move away from that episode.....

John’s Paranormal Blog » Blog Archive » Ghost Hunters 5.4: “Club Dead”

[JonInMiddleGA]

At the Georgia Aquarium tonight baby, Titanic exhibit followed by a plantation (in Savannah I think).
Must see TV in our house.

edit to add: Turned out the plantation investigation was in Covington, place we used to drive by regularly called Gaither Plantation. Pretty frequently investigated by several local/area groups over the past few years, usually similar results to what TAPS got on tonight's show. Nothing earthshaking, but consistent minor evidence (footsteps, touches, perfume smell, etc). One point in its favor is that it's one of only 3 out of 17 sites one group noted as being haunted, the rest they flatly said they found nothing of note. (Gotta watch those groups that seem to hit about .800).

[JonInMiddleGA]

And next into the fray will be Cartoon Network, with promos running for a new show called The Othersiders, looks like high school aged friends who basically do the same GH stuff (had a K2 meter in the clip, shot with green tinted night vision).

Real, fake, in between, who knows? But I thought it was mildly notable since the GH franchise is due to roll out a college student version later this year.

[Schmidty]

It's getting stupid, and I've watched the show(s) faithfully from 2004. I am obviously positive that the fake a ton of things (especially after reading their forums), but I think there are some things that can't be explained.

Anyway, the rush to make more of these show does nothing to help the validity of the "findings" that they create. It's a shame it's become so commercial in a way.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

It's a shame it's become so commercial in a way.

But it's also understandable considering the ratings ascent for GH, especially this year. Has to be hard for other networks/production companies to resist the temptation to try to get the rub from the niche leader.

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

But it's also understandable considering the ratings ascent for GH, especially this year. Has to be hard for other networks/production companies to resist the temptation to try to get the rub from the niche leader.

I agree. It's just sad that the quality is bound to spiral and the genre is going to get a bad name.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

I agree. It's just sad that the quality is bound to spiral and the genre is going to get a bad name.

I don't think that more is necessarily bad. While I don't hold quite the skepticism that some do regarding GH, any attention to the field is a great thing in that it can inspire more people to study this phenomenon. Sure, there's going to be some idiots. But there are also people who will more towards making big findings in the field, many of whom will have been inspired to do so by a personal experience or a show like GH.

I also don't think that the skepticism is a bad thing in this field. Any moves to dismiss bad evidence only pushes those involved to look for more substantive evidence.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

FYI....if you need a paranormal fix for the summer. Ghost Adventures starts up its 2nd season on the Travel Channel tonight.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Another quick schedule update. Ghost Hunters International begins a new season on July 8th.

[JonInMiddleGA]

New season started tonight, pretty okay (if misleading promo'ed) first segment, kind of meh second shorter segment.

Next week it's the house where John Wilkes Booth died.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

New season started tonight, pretty okay (if misleading promo'ed) first segment, kind of meh second shorter segment.

Next week it's the house where John Wilkes Booth died.

It was a good show overall. My preference at this point has moved to GHI just because they seem to do a much better job with the technical research at this point. Jason and Grant have started to move away from the technical stuff and debunking more than I'd like.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Not sure why Meatloaf was chosen for stunt casting this week's episode.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Ooh, an actually interesting Destination Truth following GH tonight.
They go to Pripyat, the city inside the Chernobyl hot zone. I've seen footage from there for a previous special, the one about what happens to cities when there are no humans left on earth & I think I've seen a couple of others but there's not all that much footage of such an unusual place that I've seen.

One of the few European destinations that I'd actually like to visit actually.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Very good episode last night at Fort Henry. It'll be very interesting to see the feedback on the door incidents.

I'm also interested to see how the upcoming 'Ghost Hunters Academy' works. Might make for some good entertainment.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Some interesting comments from Donna Lacroix about her time with TAPS on the show..........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH8FP...eos=nsvyefShiz

[JonInMiddleGA]

Ghosthunters Academy tonight goes to Eastern State (home of the infamous "Dude, RUN !!!" clip) & one of the hopefuls gets cut.

So far I think the show, frankly, sucks pretty hard. Both pros strike me as pretty disinterested in the show & the concept, the amateurs all strike me as very much just that: amateurs.

But if you can't get any evidence at this place, you're in the wrong damn business.

[EagleFan]

Never really watched this show but have got into it lately when my wife had on a marathon of it a few weeks ago. Anyone else still watch this?

Saw the season premier for GHI the other night (actually that day was the first time I saw GHI). I like the local group better than the international one.

Not sure what I think about their findings. They do seem to try to disprove things first and that gains some credibility in my eyes. It also looks like some places have tried to use them to gain publicity (though maybe it backfired for some, like the bar in California that had fake shit setup and they found that).

I am actually thinking about going to one of their meet an greets in Philly in April. It's a meet and greet, a dinner and then 5 hours of investigation at an old prison. Sounds like it could be a fun night.... Plus Kris Williams is going to be there and I think she is hot...

[dolfin]

I still watch, but I don't like Rob on GHI. Just something about him bothers me, so I don't watch the int'l version as often. I still like Ghost Hunters better than all of the other paranormal shows that have popped up on various channels.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I've never been able to get into the international team much either but I'm going to try to give it another shot with this season. Among the online peanut gallery forums the GHI team seems to be regarded as the better scientifically of the two over the past year or so but I just haven't gotten to that point with them myself.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I've never been able to get into the international team much either but I'm going to try to give it another shot with this season. Among the online peanut gallery forums the GHI team seems to be regarded as the better scientifically of the two over the past year or so but I just haven't gotten to that point with them myself.

I'd agree with that assessment. They have the right amount of debunking IMO, something that doesn't exist quite as much on Ghost Hunters anymore.

[Atocep]

Ghost Hunters has nearly become unwatchable for me. I don't think I made it through an entire episode this last season without turning it off.

We're definitely not seeing as much effort to debunk things, some of the reasons they use to debunk things just seem odd, they're way too reliant on the K2 meter, and I don't buy the arguments that they're labeling pretty much every place they visit as haunted now simply because they're getting better places to visit.

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Ghost Hunters has nearly become unwatchable for me. I don't think I made it through an entire episode this last season without turning it off.

We're definitely not seeing as much effort to debunk things, some of the reasons they use to debunk things just seem odd, they're way too reliant on the K2 meter, and I don't buy the arguments that they're labeling pretty much every place they visit as haunted now simply because they're getting better places to visit.

They don't even try to hide the fact that they fake everything at this point. I used to love the show, but at this point, it's just a cash cow for SciFi (fuck "SyFy"), and they'll do anything to keep it going. That's why there's no debunking and they find something on every investigation. Why do you think it's always Jason and Grant who "discover" things or have "encounters"? They rely on bogus crap like the K2 meter now, which is easily faked.

I don't know why it pisses me off so much, but my intelligence is insulted by the show when I watch it anymore.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

They don't even try to hide the fact that they fake everything at this point. I used to love the show, but at this point, it's just a cash cow for SciFi (fuck "SyFy"), and they'll do anything to keep it going. That's why there's no debunking and they find something on every investigation. Why do you think it's always Jason and Grant who "discover" things or have "encounters"? They rely on bogus crap like the K2 meter now, which is easily faked.

I don't know why it pisses me off so much, but my intelligence is insulted by the show when I watch it anymore.

Maybe I haven't seen a lot of the past season's episodes (I've only seen episodes during a marathon of it and I could tell those episodes were spread out from the seasons based on the teams and equipment changes) but I haven't noticed much of that with what I have seen so far.

I would buy into the idea that they get better locations now as that would be the normal process for a show like this. Early seasons they would probably take most of what they could find and that leaves them open to places or people that just want to get on television and claim to be haunted. The more popular it gets the more they will start to get their pick of the litter (so to speak) for where they want to investigate.

I would hope that they're not just faking stuff now as that would completely kill it for me. Not hat I have an opinion on way or the other about the existance of "ghosts" but I like stories of the unexplained. If the explanation becomes "faked for TV" that pretty much ruins that.

[JonInMiddleGA]

FWIW, here's a link to a discussion about GH that's a little more interesting than the typical "it's fake ... is not ... is too ... is not" ones I usually find on the internet.

http://www.skepticalviewer.com/2009/...-oakland-hall/

Once you get a few posts into it, "TonyaW" shows up in the thread & manages to have a pretty reasonable discussion with the skeptics. She's the director of the location that was visited in the episode being discussed and talks pretty candidly (pro & somewhat con) about some of the things that the crew did or didn't do.

I imagine there are more thorough discussions that both praise & rip GH online somewhere but I kind of liked the insights of this one because it seemed very real, impromptu, and I didn't get any real sense of an agenda on anyone's part. It's kind of fun eavesdropping on what looked to be a real conversation with someone who had been involved with one of their locations.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

They don't even try to hide the fact that they fake everything at this point.

Are we watching the same show?

That's why there's no debunking and they find something on every investigation.

Apparently not.

Why do you think it's always Jason and Grant who "discover" things or have "encounters"?

Umm ... it isn't. They don't seem to strike out as often as some of the others but by no means are they the only members of the team that have experiences.

They rely on bogus crap like the K2 meter now, which is easily faked.

Given the state of technology today, there isn't much that couldn't be pretty "easily faked". Yeah, the K2 has some plenty simple flaws and could both be faked and/or give a ton of false readings but at the same time that doesn't mean it can't produce legitimate results.

I don't know why it pisses me off so much, but my intelligence is insulted by the show when I watch it anymore.

Then don't watch? I mean, why voluntarily subject yourself to something that would piss you off? It's why I don't watch a lot of C-SPAN y'know?

Assuming you aren't going into the subject with your mind already completely made up, I think it really boils down to a simple matter of trust: if you believe that TAPS would be involved with a complete fraud, then the show probably isn't going to work for you even on it's more ostensibly compelling cases. If you believe they work within reasonable guidelines & that the sometimes really stretched bits of "evidence" (and they definitely do happen) are a combination of aggressive editing by the production company, sometimes faulty interpretations of what's seen/heard, the reality that we see only a few minutes of highlights out of hours of investigation, etc. then I think there's still value there. {shrug} I think it just kind of comes back to what you believe they would or wouldn't do.

For me one of the better arguments in the favor of their credibility comes from (IIRC) a live Halloween episode back in '08 or '07. There was an incident with a disembodied voice (and a bouncing ball IIRC) where the production crew was pretty clearly trying some poorly conceived & easily spotted fakery to liven things up. The subsequent live reaction from Jason & Grant made it pretty obvious to me that they weren't in on the ruse & were pissed about it, struggling to avoid saying something pretty blunt outright.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

FWIW, here's a link to a discussion about GH that's a little more interesting than the typical "it's fake ... is not ... is too ... is not" ones I usually find on the internet.

http://www.skepticalviewer.com/2009/...-oakland-hall/

Once you get a few posts into it, "TonyaW" shows up in the thread & manages to have a pretty reasonable discussion with the skeptics. She's the director of the location that was visited in the episode being discussed and talks pretty candidly (pro & somewhat con) about some of the things that the crew did or didn't do.

I imagine there are more thorough discussions that both praise & rip GH online somewhere but I kind of liked the insights of this one because it seemed very real, impromptu, and I didn't get any real sense of an agenda on anyone's part. It's kind of fun eavesdropping on what looked to be a real conversation with someone who had been involved with one of their locations.

Thanks for the link, scanned it and it looks like an interesting read... but that white on black background is killing my eyes.

[JonInMiddleGA]

REMINDER: Ghost Hunters season premiere is about 10 minutes away with a special 100th episode celebration live from Alcatrazz.

[JonInMiddleGA]

My bad, correction needed: the hunt isn't live, the wrap around 100th show celebration segments are live with Josh Gates hosting & pretty much the whole crew on hand at Rockefeller Center.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Heh, Gates congratulates the guys on reaching the 100 episode milestone in this day & age of television, adds something to the effect of "even more remarkable on a network owned by NBC"

[EagleFan]

Not bad so far. Always seems to be an entertaining watch. Kris still looking cute as hell.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Not bad so far. Always seems to be an entertaining watch. Kris still looking cute as hell.

I noticed Steve's body language when they walked out on stage, he seemed somewhere between uncomfortable & downright scared. As the show goes on it seems pretty clear to me that he really isn't comfortable in that kind of public setting, notable I guess only because I never really picked up on that from all the episodes.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I noticed Steve's body language when they walked out on stage, he seemed somewhere between uncomfortable & downright scared. As the show goes on it seems pretty clear to me that he really isn't comfortable in that kind of public setting, notable I guess only because I never really picked up on that from all the episodes.

He definitely seemed like he was out of his element. Even when he was answering the question about people coming up to him outside of the show he seems unfomfortable with that.

He seems like just a regular guy who does something that he likes and isn't actually doing it for the fame.

[EagleFan]

dola: It's only a small sample size but now after talking about this I have noticed that he hasn't looked directly at the camera when he has been speaking (even in the clips where he is explaining to the camera what he was talking about, he wouldn't be looking at the camera when talking to Tango so not counting that).

[EagleFan]

double dola: DVR's really cause a bad habit for me. I tend to tape programs and watch them later so every time I am watching something live anymore I reach for the remote to fast forward the comercials.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

dola: It's only a small sample size but now after talking about this I have noticed that he hasn't looked directly at the camera when he has been speaking (even in the clips where he is explaining to the camera what he was talking about, he wouldn't be looking at the camera when talking to Tango so not counting that).

At the end of his last bit, when Gates took it back and Steve thought the camera was off him did you see him wipe his hand over his face & blow out the big puff of breath? He looks like he's really fighting against something akin to a panic attack.

Yeah, I'm probably over analyzing it but I'm to the point of feeling sorry for the guy.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

At the end of his last bit, when Gates took it back and Steve thought the camera was off him did you see him wipe his hand over his face & blow out the big puff of breath? He looks like he's really fighting against something akin to a panic attack.

Yeah, I'm probably over analyzing it but I'm to the point of feeling sorry for the guy.

Watch his right hand the next time he gets asked a question (more over analyzing here as well), he tenses it into a fist (you could see just how tight he was balling his fist up too). His body language seems that he does not want to be sitting in front of a crowd of people and is fighting a panic attack.