The Drink Tank Issue 71 Y’All!!! Of. There were other documnetary shows about the paranormal, but none with the effect and scope of In Search Of. They actually went to the trouble of getting real psychics and doing real investigations into the unusual. While not every episode dealt with ghosts and ghouls, some of the better eps were about Amelia Earhart, Simon Wiesenthal tracking Josef Mengele & the Crystal Skull. The ghost episodes were wonderful, the ones I remember best. There are only about a half-dozen ghost episodes, but the Ghost Photos and the Haunted House stake-out are in my top ten (along with Sasquatch, Jesse James, Jack the Ripper and UFOs). It’s easy to see In Search Of’s effects, as it led to a major rush of shows like That’s Incredible and the second Ripley’s Believe it or Not. These shows weren’t all about ghosts and the like, but they did use them fairly often. The producers of That’s Incredible took a cue from two shows: In Search Of and Real over US Minor Cable, and it’s already The Power of Paranormal TV People. I remember a lot of these shows started with ABC Family in October by as they were my faves as a kid. As an and Travel Channel on Friday Nights. Christopher J. Garcia adult, when they replayed them, the It’s not the first time, as things that I’d illustrations by Charlie Irons Vincent Van Gogh episode was actually call Paranormal TV have been on the very touching. air since the 1970s, though specials As I understand it, Paranormal The 1980s saw a bunch of about ghosts and other strange things TV has basically taken over Living small specials, but documentary have popped up since the first days of TV out the way of most Everlasting shows weren’t popular again until network TV. Club members, which means the UK. the 1990s. There were things like Probably the first example that This is being talked about in US TV Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World, many folks would think of is In Search circles as the next thing that will take Haunted Hotels of The USA, James Randi: Psychic Investigator and a reaction. I didn’t see the show until fascination with Chillingham. ghost hunting show or two that weren’t well after I was in college. In fact, they In late 2000, MTV did a really American that we saw on stations showed it along with playing parts of inventive show called Fear. In many like Discovery around the Halloween Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds in the ways, it was a game show where a season, but nothing regular really. Psychology of Media class I took. It was group of college-aged kids had to The Amazing Randi was a bummer great stuff, really well-produced and spend the night in a haunted location as he was all about debunking stuff. actually scary. doing all sorts of challenges. They Sylvia Browne, a friend of my Dad’s That started a wave of new often used real haunted locations (and from back in those days, used to pop shows in the UK. The best show that places featured in ghostly movies, up on all sorts of shows, including started being produced in the genre like Danvers Mental Hospital) to Donahue. Though you could find it if around this time was Sightings. There make people think they were really you looked, it was really a Paranormal was already Unsolved Mysteries, which facing ghosts. It was a good show for TV wasteland. only showed Paranormal things once entertainment, but it had nothing to do Then there was Ghostwatch in a while, but it wasn’t until after the with paranormal research. I did love it, in 1992. Talk about the BIG Ghostwatch incident that really sent though. announcement of what was to come. things on towards actual definable This led to the Most Haunted Basically, Ghostwatch was what Paranormal TV. Sightings was hosted era, where Derek Acourah and Yvette Blair Witch would be seven years later. by Tim White and it was all about the Fieldling lead teams into real haunted The idea was so simple, a group did an Paranormal. Ghost, ESP, Loch Ness, houses, with its follow-ons like I’m investigation of a haunted house and Bigfoot, you name it, it was there. Famous and I’m Frightened and all found a ghost named Pipes. They then Sightings also had a great website those other ones. In the UK, it’s all did a seance and it ended up with the which is now gone but it was really a about LivingTV, in the US, it’s the ghost running wild and even invading wonderful place to go to for Paranormal Travel Channel that does all the the BBC studio. They used real BBC info. shows, especially things like Haunted personalities to get it With the rise of Reality TV, there Southern Cities and Haunted Hotels of over as a legit thing, were a few shows that come to mind. the US. It’s also the US home of Most and I’m proud to say The first, and in my mind the one that Haunted. The US TV’s mainstream that it was a giant influenced the style of all the ones has gone away from Reality TV, success. It was so that followed, is Scariest Places On though they have held strong on cable good that a couple of Earth. It was a special on ABC Family stations like VH-1 (which is the perfect that featured footage from a British kids were diagnosed place for a US version of I’m Famous TV show where a family from the US with Post-Traumatic and Frightened!) but Paranormal TV had to spend the night in Chillingham Stress Disorder after is pretty much only on The Travel Castle. That was sweet and it having watched it. Channel. established the face-first camera angles That’s good TV. I’m betting that will change in That thing got used by many of the other shows in the sub-genre, especially Most Haunted. the next year or so. The Most Haunted lots of play in the ratings have tended to increase over US media for the It was a good show and it started my the years, which is a feat for any show. Catalina: though my first boyfriend, Lucian, lived The last time we all went was in Or That a few houses over the summer we lived 1993 or so. We sold the place about a Place We on the island for the entire vacation. month after Dad passed, but we went Used to Go He was a sweet boy who lived in Two back, all of us, to stay in Avalon and by Harbors along with his father who was have a wonderful time. I spent a lot of Judith a USC prof at the research station they the trip in Two Harbors, mostly around Morel had on the island. the Banning House and the Civil War I There was a lot to do on the barracks. Dad used to love the Civil spent a lot of island, even if it was in the middle War, so when I went over there and time in and of nowhere. Dad’s favorite thing was found a spot where Dad took a picture around LA. to hike into the deeper portion of the holding both SaBean and me, I broke I grew up island and spot the Island Foxes or down and cried hard. The next day in Chicago, Bison. One year, we went out to see when I went back, they were shooting hung out the bison every day for a week. I even something for TV, so I didn’t get that at The touched one when Dad and I hunkered experience again. Vineyard down and they came up to us after I’ve been back a few times and used almost an hour. Dangerous game true, myself, never for very long, but I really to spend at but it was amazing. do miss the days when we’d go. The least one SaBean liked to chase the boar. house, tiny as it was, felt almost as month a We’d go inland and she’d find one and much like home as the house on the year in LA. run at it, usually brandishing a stick Lake Michigan or Grandpa’s place. Typically, at in a threatening manner. Dad was Maybe after Chris hits it big he’ll buy a least one of those weeks was spent on furious with her when she actually place there and we can all party. Catalina Island. beat one on an afternoon My Dad, Real Estate genius that hike. SaBean said it he was, bought a place on Catalina was because they were in the 1950s. When we were kids, we an invasive species and took a water taxi over, but by the time they needed to be driven Dad started getting sick, we flew on off the island. Dad had helicopter. There are advantages to a permit to hunt them having money. The place was a bit of a in the 1980s and he walk from the landing at Two Harbors. trapped a few and made Most folks on the island live in Avalon, sausage out of them. I and Dad used to spend a lot of time loved that stuff, and if over there and would bring us along, I’m ever at a place that but the place was in Two Harbors.