Welcome to another edition of Millennial Misremembers, where I reminisce about content from my childhood, only to ruin it for all of us by rewatching and recapping it. This time, I’ll be misremembering Ghostwriter.
The OG Ghostwriter premiered on October 4, 1992, on PBS with “Ghost Story, Episode 1.” I’ve always thought of it as Sesame Street for tweens, and lo and behold, it’s a co-production between BBC and the Children’s Television Workshop, the people behind Sesame Street. The show was incredibly popular but was canceled when the BBC pulled funding in 1995. BOO!
What I (mis)remember
So, I compare Ghostwriter to Sesame Street because not only is it about teaching words and learning and whatnot, but it also focused on Real Life. For one thing, it was incredibly diverse. I can visualize and remember five of the characters’ personalities, life situations and ethnicities, though I can’t for the life of me remember their names.
For brevity’s sake, I won’t get into all of it, but here are some highlights. Ghostwriter taught me the word “bodega.” I’m like 90 percent sure there was a foster care storyline. I think it was the first time I saw a Jewish character on TV. And, it was probably the first time I saw an interracial couple on TV in which both parties were people of color.
Speaking of kissing, I remember my mom almost made me stop watching this show because two of the characters kissed. She started interrogating me about what the characters on the show were doing with each other. (FYI, she was worried about sexual content, not interracial relationships.)
My mom was pretty strict about TV. Growing up, we weren’t allowed to watch The Simpsons because she didn’t like how Bart talked to his parents. She banned Ren & Stimpy after an episode that used the word “crappy.” Though we did watch a lot of Law & Order together, so 🤷♂️. In any case, in the end, she did not ban Ghostwriter.
Enough pondering about my mother’s idiosyncrasies — on with the show!
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Let’s rewatch!
The episode opens with a PBS ad starring the Ghostwriter crew urging kids to read. The show is brought to us in part by Nike.
Oh. My. Holy Samuel L. Jackson! What a treat! Our favorite airborne snake hunter plays Jamal’s (Sheldon Turnipseed) father, Reggie. The two of them are rooting around in their basement for a great-great grandpa’s trunk so Jamal’s sister can take it to uni.
Dislodging the trunk lets something else loose — Ghostwriter! Ghostwriter, my friends, is peak 90s screen graphics. Ghostwriter then sneaks itself into the writing on Jamal’s shirt. dun dun DUN!
That theme song will be stuck in my head for the next five years.
So Jamal’s walking home in the dark, and he sees a bunch of masked kids on the playground, being super creepy. It’s hella weird, y’all. He arrives home with his groceries. His mom, Doris (Elizabeth Van Dyke), and sister, Danitra (Samaria Graham) are engaged in an argument over a bracelet.
Here’s the important thing: Danitra is leaving Jamal a computer, which she warns him not to break. He mocks her.
Then, his grandma (Marcella Lowery) walks in to thank him for getting her groceries so she can finish his sister’s going-away-to-college-cake. Someone is jealous that he’s not getting any cake.
Jamal goes upstairs to play with his new computer. Oh, I love these elderly computers! Jamal types, introducing himself to the computer.
Meanwhile, Ghostwriter escapes Jamal’s shirt and heads over to his corkboard.
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Finally, Jamal sees the letters on his board flashing. He hops out of his seat and backs away from the computer. Of course, then Ghostwriter hops into the computer and types:
WHAT CHILDREN, Ghostwriter? Jamal wonders the same thing. Then, he asks Danitra to come into his room and check out the computer. Maybe he’s using it wrong? Of course, she can’t see anything on the screen.
So, Jamal does what you’re never supposed to do and unplugs the computer. He thinks he’s won.
Next, we meet siblings Gaby (Mayteana Morales) and Alex (David López) on their way to school. They’re fighting as siblings do, and when Gaby stops to tie her shoelaces, Alex doesn’t wait for her. Of course, this is when one of those masked people Jamal saw in the park steals her bag.
Speaking of parks, Jamal walks by the same park from the night previous and has a flashback. Also, Ghostwriter is in his bag. Just then, Lenni (Blaze Berdahl) bumps into him and they quibble over who will pick up the dropped things. In the kerfuffle, Ghostwriter moves to Lenni’s bag.
Jamal and Lenni only kinda know each other, and they meet officially now. It’s sweet. Lenni is a musician. She goes to work on a song.
Jamal walks over to the sculptures in the accursed park, where he finds a message written in code and a button pin:
It’s kinda cool that every character reads everything they see aloud, which means that kids that don’t yet know how to read could still follow this show.
Meanwhile, Lenni’s working on her rap, which is about people refusing to take personal accountability for the changes that need to happen in the world. Then, Ghostwriter leaps out of her bag and eats her song.
He rearranges the letters, wondering where Jamal is.
So, Lenni gets a stick and pokes her notebook. This time, Ghostwriter switches tactics and aims for flattery, writing that Lenni fights for what’s right.
Oh, look at that! The kids attend Zora Neale Hurston Middle School, which isn’t real but is very cool. At his locker, Jamal finds a creepy note:
Lenni rushes up to him and wonders how he did his letter-changy magic trick. He doesn’t know what she’s talking about, but he does know that this is the second time she’s sneaked up on him in one day.
She did not write the notes and suggests that maybe Jamal should just throw them away. Jamal says no way; this is just weird enough to be interesting.
Then! Ghostwriter appears to both of them. It tells them, “Careful after dark, my children.” Solid advice. They’re the only people who see it. Jamal invites her to his place after school.
At the bodega! Gaby and Alex tell their parents Mrs. Fernández (Cordelia González) and Eduardo (Shawn Elliot) about her backpack. Gaby’s trying to be tough, but her mom is grateful she didn’t go after the kid thief.
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Then, Eduardo wants to know where Alex was during all of this. And woah this is cool. Not only does he speak to him in Spanish, but he uses vos instead of tú, a widespread regional way to say “you” that isn’t taught in US Spanish classes.
Also, the show doesn’t use subtitles to translate the Spanish! But, non-Spanish-speaking viewers will catch the drift from the context. I. Love. This. Eduardo, in anger, says “It all costs!” It’s such a direct from Spanish translation, but so relatable. Growing up, I knew the more Turkish my dad’s English got, the more trouble I was in.
Next, Alex is covering the cash register when Lenni comes in. She notices he’s reading another detective novel. Even though he’s already figured out whodunnit, he’s gonna finish it. Just to prove he’s right.
Ahh, Lenni lives above the bodega. Her dad Max (Richard Cox) is in a band, which is practicing very loudly. She asks if she can go over to Jamal’s for a bit. He agrees, but she has to be home in an hour for dad’s special spaghetti.
At Jamal’s, their parents are getting ready to drive Danitra off to UPenn. She is there on scholarship and they’re so proud of her. Grandma is maybe too proud because she’s packed enough food to feed the entire dorm.
Jamal won’t even look at Danitra as she leaves, but she forces a hug on him, which he does return. I’m curious what that relationship is about.
Lenni arrives and Jamal introduces her to grandma. Then, the two kids go upstairs to play on the computer. They wait for Ghostwriter to hop back into it.
It doesn’t show up, but in the meantime, they try to figure out the note. Lenni says it looks like a foreign language, like Greek or Russian. Clearly, you haven’t seen either of those languages, dear.
Lenni suggests holding the note up to the mirror, which doesn’t help. Then, Jamal finally deduces that the note is written not in a foreign language, but in a secret code. A+ detective skills there, bud. Lenni says Alex Fernández can help them solve it because he’s so into mysteries.
Downstairs, Grandma Jenkins gets ready to go to the store. Guess who’s on her shopping list? LOL. Ghostwriter comes out of hiding to ask a very important question:
The kids shout questions at it, then Ghostwriter asks them why they don’t answer it. They do that Karen thing where they speak louder, hoping Ghostwriter will suddenly understand. Nope.
The episode ends there before they realize they need to write back to it.
Does it live up to the nostalgia?
Abso-friggin-lutely. This is probably my favorite thing I’ve re-consumed for this column. And I remembered it pretty well for once! The kids felt real, the mystery felt fun and there wasn’t anything particularly problematic considering the show is thirty years old.
It’s still hard to find shows so effortlessly inclusive in a real way, especially without the diversity being drawn attention to. Kids — and everyone else — just want to see their lives, right? We can understand from the context that Lenni’s dad is a single parent, we get that the Fernándezes are immigrants from Latin America and we understand the racial disparity in higher education through the Jenkinses’ excitement.
Ghostwriter doesn’t present these as the Jewish experience, the Latino experience or the Black experience, but rather Lenni’s, Alex’s and Jamal’s stories. That is really important. There was a reboot of this show in 2019. I’ll check that out to see how it stacks up against this one.
Truly, PBS is a gem, especially for children’s programming. Which PBS show should I misremember next?
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