Quicklinks
Top Links
trailers and videosfull cast and crewtriviaofficial sitesmemorable quotesOverview
main detailscombined detailsfull cast and crewcompany creditsepisode listepisodes castepisode ratings... by rating... by votesAwards & Reviews
user reviewsexternal reviewsawardsuser ratingsmessage boardPlot & Quotes
plot summaryplot keywordsmemorable quotesDid You Know?
triviagoofssoundtrack listingcrazy creditsalternate versionsmovie connectionsFAQOther Info
box office/businessrelease datesfilming locationstechnical specsliterature listingsNewsDeskPromotional
taglines trailers and videos posters photo galleryExternal Links
showtimesofficial sitesmiscellaneousphotographssound clipsvideo clipsReviews & Ratings for
"Ghostwriter" More at IMDbPro »
| Page 1 of 3: | [1] [2] [3] ![[Next]](http://i.media-imdb.com/f86.gif){kind=small} |
| Index | 22 reviews in total |
11 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
A mystery show for young adults that will never be matched.., 3 October 1999
Author:
Luis Montalvan (platinum3x@aol.com) from Paterson, NJ
"Ghostwriter" was a wonderful escape from reality and into the brain-teasing and fascinating lives of a team of young adults. The teenagers were chosen by a friendly spirit (Ghostwriter) who could only communicate through writing. The original team, (starting out with only two members and broadening into about seven to eight members) is chosen to explore the many mysteries, cheats, and other oddities in their home town Brooklyn, NY. The original "Ghostwriter" TV series was a show like no other and captured the attention of many viewers anywhere. There will never be another show like it, may its memory live on in the minds of its faithful viewers for eternity.
9 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
high quality show, 16 August 2000
Author:
Cindy from Los Angeles
Back when Ghostwriter was on PBS, I never missed an episode, and
was disappointed when it went off the air. Now when I catch it
on Nickelodeon and Noggin (and educational children's channel),
the show is just as good as I remember it. The best thing about
Ghostwriter was that it never insulted the intelligence of its
viewers, even though its targeted viewing audience was about 7
to 12 years old. Each mystery took four episodes to complete,
and the plot was always complex and interesting enough to
justify the continuations. It seemed like the writers never cut
corners just because this was a children's show. Another great
thing about the show was its setting in New York City. It was
obvious that the show wasn't shot on some fake urban soundstage
in Hollywood. The characters run around the city in an area
called Fort Greene, and the community is portrayed in a warm and
authentic way. A huge credit to the show was its great young
cast. Even though their acting skills weren't great, they each
managed to adhere a strong personality to the characters.
Special props go to Joey Shea, who was hilarious as Calvin
Ferguson, the smarmy kid who was the de facto arch nemesis of
the Ghostwriter team. Overall, the show was always entertaining
and funny.
11 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
One of the best of the 90's, 25 November 2005
Author:
bremami from United States
This show was my all time favorite growing up, I'd stay up at 6:00 in the morning just to watch the reruns. I don't remember most of the episodes, because i was so young at the time. But it was one of the best shows of the early and mid 90's. One of my favorite episodes was where the gang contacts a girl and her adoptive brother through Ghostwriter. I must confess, I miss the 90's. They had better shows and let's face it, it was fun being involved in the boy band craze(Backstreet Boys vs. N*SYNC). So anybody who doesn't like Ghostwriter, that's fine, but I really don't understand why you would hate it at all. I give it a 10/10. One of the best.
6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Ghostwriter: Reading, Writing, and Teamwork, 26 January 2007
Author:
erosegem from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
In a world awash with unimaginative children's programming,
inappropriate dialog, and overly disciplined rules, one show stood out
above the rest. "Ghostwriter" fans will always remember the team of six
kids who ran around Brooklyn cracking codes and solving mysteries. Some
people have teased the show for its early 90's look of colorful
outfits, trendy headgear, mild rap music, and brief introduction to the
internet. But the show didn't reek of ignorance like some programs of
today. The kids were hip in their time but the messages are timeless.
While the Ghostwriter team worked on solving mysteries, they also
learned about environmentalism, drug abuse, violence, war remembrance,
and family feuds.
So who IS Ghostwriter? We don't know. In the pilot episode, a ghost
suddenly pops out of a book in the basement of Jamal Jenkins. He's
depicted as a bubble that floats around the screen before diving into
books or a computer. Ghostwriter cannot hear or talk. It takes Jamal
and his friend Lenni Frazer a few tries until they realize he can only
communicate through words. Ghostwriter doesn't remember who he is or
where he came from but he does want to "protect the children". The
enigma surrounding Ghostwriter never went away but the idea of a
word-searching ghost caught on. Because Ghostwriter can move from afar,
he's able to transmit clues and tips back to the team and their
notebooks. He can surf the internet and even time travel.
Ghostwriter may not be able to speak or hear but he can "feel" what's
going on at times. In "Get the Message" the team got into a terrible
fight and all of the hatred and rage almost erased Ghostwriter forever.
But when they need his help, he gladly gives them advice with personal
problems. In "Am I Blue", Gaby regrets stealing and lying to buy a
costume. She spells out words to Ghostwriter on a Scrabble board
describing her problems. In a touching scene, he assists her in writing
out an apology letter to her parents.
The acting on the kids' behalf seemed weak at times but let's not
forget--this was a children's program. Sometimes over exaggeration is
necessary to let the audience know what's going on. As I recently
re-watched "Who Burned Mr. Brinker's Store", I felt that the episode
was moving rather slowly. But at the age of 10, I was part of the
target audience and relieved that they explained the clues carefully
even repeated necessary information so I'd catch on. And the kids ARE
enjoyable to watch in action: creative, outgoing, different, and
enthusiastic. New York is the perfect setting for ethnic diversity and
watching them run around the city as their personal territory feels
more natural than Hollywood.
Jamal is the unofficial leader of the team. Levelheaded and easygoing,
he prefers talking things over instead of fighting. Jamal enjoys
science and karate. Lenni Frazer is an aspiring song writer who lives
with her father above the Fernandez bodega. The Fernandez siblings are
Alex and Gaby. They can get on each other's nerves but they care a lot
about each other. Gaby enjoys talking and being in the spotlight while
Alex is a detective wannabee, often carrying around a mystery novel.
The four of them founded the team in the pilot mystery, "Ghost Story."
The team branched out to more members after Vietnamese-American Tina
was able to read the words that Ghostwriter manipulated. Afterwards,
the kids established a ceremony to initiate their new members. Tina is
an aspiring filmmaker. With her video camera always at hand, the team
has managed to catch some interesting footage for their mysteries. She
also shares a romantic relationship with Alex. Rob is a quiet eccentric
boy (my personal favorite) often writing down poems and stories. He
seems to shine better in one-on-one episodes where he can confide in
people.
A favorite scene of mine is from "Building Bridges" after a gang member
calls Rob a "White Boy". He talks to Jamal and mentions it's the first
time he's been called names, "like he was cursing me or something."
Jamal understands though he makes a more lighthearted comment on snide
stereotypical remarks."I wouldn't want to be called 'Black Boy' even
though I am black. Actually, I'm brown," he realizes. "And you..you're
pink! That's it! A Pink Guy."
If the Ghostwriter team resembles Sherlock Holmes then Calvin Ferguson
is their personal Dr. Moriarty. A boastful straight A student, Calvin
is jealous of the team's success and has attempted many times to unlock
their secrets. He's managed to realize they've got a supernatural
friend (Ghostwriter never reveals himself to Calvin, of course) but the
team has successfully stopped Calvin from knowing about Ghostwriter.
One of the hardest challenges for "Ghostwriter" was addressing
difficult topics such as violence and drugs in a realistic environment.
How do you do that on a PBS kid-oriented show? The brilliance of
"Ghostwriter" was to do it through the creative stories and compelling
characters. And to do it through writing. As the show progressed, the
kids started to hit puberty and peer pressure. In "What's Up with
Alex", Alex starts to shirk his responsibilities at home and is tempted
to try marijuana because his "cool" friend Kevin uses it. The whole
Ghostwriter team is concerned but thanks to their honesty with Alex, he
turns down Kevin's offer and helps the team crack a crime ring.
The show took a slight downhill turn when Rob left the team and was
replaced by Hector. Nevertheless, over two seasons of successful
stories plus "Ghostwriter" books and poster made it a smashing success.
When this comes out officially on DVD, I'm reserving my copy of
"Ghostwriter", getting a notebook, and writing down the clues because
the team will be one the case!!
5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Great Family Show, 20 July 2002
Author:
Kitty Pryde from North Carolina, United States
My siblings and I fell in love with the show as did our parents. We ate dinner in front of the television once a week to watch it. In a world were television is full of violence and gore this is important for kids to see wholesome television. I still rent the videos show it to the kids I baby sit.
5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Excellent Show, 23 January 2004
Author:
Anthony from USA
This was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid. After recently seeing it on 'Noggin/The-N' i was able to appreciate it a bit more. The mysteries were original, and had good morals to them. Each 'mystery' consisted of 4 episodes. The episodes consisted of the mystery, and another side story about one of the characters. I thought it helped bring along the characters and storyline. One of my favorites was 'Max Mouse'. The ending was kind of a twist that you could predict, but it still ended very well. The Series was very good, but near the end of its run, you could start to feel its aging (especially when they started replacing actors with new ones). Overall, I love this show. It was a great show that I highly reccomend...if you can find it on TV again since it was taken of 'Noggin/The-N'
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
I Loved this Show...., 17 January 2010
Author:
praveen77 from India
I just finished watching another episode of Ghostwriter. For the
uninitiated, Ghostwriter was a popular kids show during the 90's which
involved a gang of kids in NY and their invisible ghost friend, who
they couldn't see, but who could make words out of letters. With the
help of this ghost buddy, they went around NYC solving various
mysteries. The episodes were always in 4 or 5 part mysteries, and I
used to love them. I remember in Saudi, as a kid, i would want to wear
pens around my neck just like they used to. Got a couple of my friends
to do the same too.
Anyways, the funny thing was, i just realized how much i still like the
show, 10-15 years after i first saw it. Now when i revisit it, i
realize the show was not only entertaining, but also dealt with a lot
of issues which a lot of adults would do good to take note of. It
celebrates the power of togetherness and friendship, as well as showing
glorious examples of steadfast loyalty to the ones you love, passion
and determination, as well as an aversion to violence in any form. I
remember the show was probably one of the first ones i saw where the
kids who made up the gang where all of different ethnicities. There was
Jamal, the African American, Tina the Chinese American, Alex and Gaby,
the Hispanics as well as Lenni, the true blue American. Yet, without
ever getting preachy, it managed to make us care for these kids and put
across the point that with tolerance, understanding and friendship, the
differences don't really matter. Another thing i liked about it was the
importance given to writing. It genuinely encouraged kids to take up
writing more.
The poignant thing is though, all the kids who played a part of this
have now all gone to the 'Where are they now' list. I looked up their
limited profiles available on IMDb, and it looks like hardly any of
them went onto any more acting assignments. Though they all seemed to
have graduated from university. That was surprising for me, considering
they all seemed to have the natural flair for the screen. Especially
the unmentioned leader Sheldon Turnipseed (Jamal) and Blaze Berdahl
(Lenni), who seemed to have it in them to carry it off on the big
screen.
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
A Classic Young Adults Show- WAY Ahead of It's Time, 23 July 2008
Author:
D_Burke from United States
"Ghostwriter" was a show that was very original, very cool to watch,
and began and ended well ahead of its time. It's a great piece of '90's
nostalgia, not to mention a terrifically entertaining show. It was
admittedly not well acted at times, and at other times had very
unrealistic scenarios (excluding the appearance of a ghost that takes
words and writes with them), but the show had so many strengths to make
up for those weaknesses.
First of all, the cast of kids they had was amazing. Casting Sheldon
Turnipseed as Jamal Jenkins was perhaps the best thing the producers of
the series had ever done. Judging from this early piece of acting, it
is absolutely surprising that Turnipseed has ended up on the "Where Are
They Now?" list and has since appeared to drop off the face of the
planet. He was a great leading character, not to mention an outstanding
positive black role model. If Turnipseed ever decided to crawl out from
the rock he has been hiding under for the last thirteen years or so and
try acting again, he could reach the same A-list status as Denzel
Washington or Jamie Foxx.
Blaze Berdahl was also very good as Lenni Frazier, even though her hip
hop songs probably can't stand the test of time. She was just a very
fun and outgoing character, and someone I would have loved to have been
friends with in grade school or junior high and beyond.
Also, Berdahl's character was the token white character (save Rob, the
short-lived but equally appealing character played by Todd Alexander)
in a show that dared to be more diverse than many shows before or even
since. In any other show made for the tween audience even today,
there's usually one white girl, her white friend with different color
hair, and her other black friend who has the same hair style and acts
exactly the same. If the show were predominantly black, the scenario
would be exactly the same.
But having a show with this diverse a cast, other shows would be
accused of being too preachy. At no point in my watching this show as a
youth, or even catching snippets as an adult, did I feel that a message
about the human race was constantly being shoved in my face. Rather, I
thought the show reflected some great insight as to the many faces of
middle class NYC youth. Furthermore, the characters were developed so
well that they felt less like bland stereotypes and more like actual
human beings that you could possibly visit in New York. It actually
made me want to live in New York as a youth, too.
Although it was a PBS show designed for kids, I'm not exactly sure even
today what the show was trying to teach. This fact could be a testament
to the show's ability to make entertaining stories without being known
strictly as an educational show. If I were to make a guess, I would say
that the show's intent was probably to teach about the importance of
reading and writing. Looking back, the show actually made me want to
write a lot more, and I remember wishing my penmanship was as neat as
the show's characters' was. The show was also perhaps the first to
frequent the use of computers, and to even talk about the World Wide
Web. Of course, this was in the days where modems were bought
separately from computers, and dial-up was the only way to connect.
Still, there weren't even a lot of mainstream shows at the time who
made major plot points about the new Information Superhighway, and that
eventually became very powerful stuff.
I remember "Ghostwriter" ended abruptly, still with a legion of
followers. It's a shame that the show's demise was based solely on lack
of funding (as far as I know), because it remains one of the most
original television shows ever aired. This show has been off the air
for over a decade, and has seldom been aired in syndication. It
hopefully will get the DVD release it properly deserves, and maybe
we'll even find out whatever happened to Sheldon Turnipseed.
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Very, very good show!, 13 October 2001
Author:
(trainer_lr5432100@yahoo.com) from New Jersey
I love this show. It has mysteries along in Brooklyn, New York. But I haven't seen this one episode of Ghostwriter, "What's up with Alex?" This show, in the year 2001, is shown on the network "Noggin". I hope it goes on another network soon so I can see the episode I listed above. The members of the team are: Jamal Jenkins, Lenni Frasier, Alex Fernandez, Gaby Fernandez, Tina Nguyen, Rob Baker, Hector Carrero, and Casey Austin. The team list is shown in the order they saw Ghostwriter.
4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
"Hector" on Real World Philadelphia, 12 September 2004
Author:
tlboberick from Denver, CO
I loved watching Ghostwriter when I was little. It was a mystery show
for kids where this ghost would help solve mysteries by reading clues,
and would appear to the kids only as words/text. The idea was great,
but I've come to realize the acting wasn't very good.
On another note, I was just watching the premier episode of Real World
Philadelphia, and noticed that William "Willie" Hernandez is on it. He
is now around 23, and is a personal shopper. He said that his passion,
though, is not in shopping, but in the arts. When he was a kid he
played Hector on "Ghostwriter." Turned out to be a pretty good looking
guy!
| Page 1 of 3: | [1] [2] [3] |
Related Links
| Plot summary | Ratings | Awards |
| External reviews | Main details | Your user reviews |
| Your vote history |
Copyright © 1990-2012
IMDb.com, Inc.
Terms and Privacy Policy under which this service is provided to you.
An 
company.