There have been a couple of true breakout broadcast comedy hits this television season, and one of them is Ghosts on CBS.
The series, starring Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar, follows Samantha and Jay, “a cheerful freelance journalist and up-and-coming chef from the city, respectively, who throw both caution and money to the wind when they decide to convert a huge rundown country estate they inherited into a bed & breakfast—only to find it’s inhabited by the many spirits of deceased residents who now call it home.”
The ghosts include “a saucy Prohibition-era lounge singer (Danielle Pinnock); a pompous 1700’s Militiaman (Brandon Scott Jones); a ‘60s hippie fond of hallucinogens (Sheila Carrasco); an overly upbeat ‘80s scout troop leader (Richie Moriarty); a cod-obsessed Viking explorer from 1009 (Devon Chandler Long); a slick ‘90s finance bro (Asher Grodman); a sarcastic and witty Native from the 1500s (Román Zaragoza); and a society woman and wife of an 1800’s robber baron who is Samantha’s ancestor (Rebecca Wisocky), to name a few. If the spirits were anxious about the commotion a renovation and B&B will create in their home, it’s nothing compared to when they realize Samantha is the first live person who can see and hear them.”
In a recent conversation with Shadow and Act, Ambudkar, says that the show hasn’t really changed the way he thinks about the afterlife or the supernatural, but pretty much confirms what he’s already believed.
“I think the show kind of just slid into what I was already about anyways,’ he said. “I think in my family and in my personal leanings, [I’ve] always been toward the belief that there’s sort of like a spiritual side and there’s an elsewhere. I don’t know that it’s occupied by these types of ghosts. But like my wife and I always call out to our ancestors and people that we’ve lost. We just assume there are folks watching at all times. Hopefully, they stay out of the places where they’re not supposed to be when we’re trying to have our private time. Our angels are way more respectful than the ghosts on the show. Let’s just put it that way.”
Jay is a character that’s very super understanding of his wife’s newfound abilities and doesn’t even question a lot of the situation that they’ve found themselves in. And honestly, it’s something that the actor says he would probably do as well.
“So every ghost has their POV and the thing that makes them special,” explained Ambudkar. “And Sam has her thing that makes her special, and I think Jay’s superpower as it were, is unconditional love. The guy differs from almost every other human being on the planet in that Jay just loves his wife, unconditionally. No matter what she’s going through, he’s going to believe her. He has questions, but she comes first. So it’s been fun to find comedic ways to play that love. My wife…I know she doesn’t BS. Like, she doesn’t lie. If she came to me right now and was like, ‘Yo, I just saw like an old ghost dude. In the laundry room,’ I’d be like, ‘Oh, boy, here we go.’ I think I’d believe her. I’d be like, ‘All right. Well, you know, I got a lot of questions.’ But I think I would probably freak out. I don’t know, man…I don’t know. But Jay’s figured it out [laughs] That’s all that matters.”
Check out the full interview above in which Ambudkar talks about choosing to do a broadcast comedy, the rest of Ghosts season 1 and much more.
Ghosts airs Thursdays on CBS, with the next new episode premiering April 17 at 9 p.m.
