One of many new series trying to make a splash at this year’s Con is Yahoo!’s Ghost Ghirls. Created by co-stars Amanda Lund and Maria Blasucci with director Jeremy Konner (Drunk History), the web series follows two best friends who try their hands at paranormal investigation. Too bad Heidi (Lund) and Angelica (Blasucci) have pretty much no idea what they’re doing.
Inspired by reality television series like Ghost Hunters, the first season of the comedy will consist of 12 episodes (all dropped at once) and feature a bunch of great cameos (including Dave Grohl, Val Kilmer, Jake Johnson, Molly Shannon, and Jason Schwartzman), thanks in large part to Jack Black being on board as producer. Black was also in attendance for the panel, as were Lund, Blasucci and Konner as well as VP and Head of Video at Yahoo!, Erin McPherson.
Oh, and a special guest showed up to help kick things off in appropriately spooky fashion. The panel started with the titular ‘Ghirls’ coming on stage and talking about how excited they were to be at SDCC for the first time. While the pair discussed how surprised they were to discover that some superhero fans actually look like superheroes themselves (if either wanted a date, I’m sure they could have had their pick of the litter) suddenly the lights began to flicker and a spectral presence took over the audiovisual equipment.
And by spectral presence, I mean Jason Ritter in ghoulish make-up doing the bit backstage. The ‘scare’ is the perfect reason to bring out Jack Black, who ran on stage with a Comic Con backback on, complete with cape, and offered his services to send the sphincter demon back to hell. He asked the girls to pass him his axe (guitar) but they’re pretty sure that Ritter’s a ghost, not a demon. After a brief conversation with the spirit, it turns out he really wanted to be haunting the Game of Thrones panel anyway and leaves amicably. What a nice ghost. End scene.
With the bit over, it was time to get down to business and show a full episode of Ghost Ghirls for the crowd. The screening went great, a very funny installment that demonstrated why Black was so eager to get involved with the project. Lund and Blasucci have great chemistry and carry the silly ghost procedural spoof with ease, playing stupid for big laughs. It opened with the Ghost Ghirls being called in to assist a couple of over-the-top cops with a recent string of murders involving johns.
You know, customers of prostitution not actual Johns. Stamos is okay. In order to get to the bottom of the case, the pair go undercover in the haunted local brothel as a couple of pros. Will they be able to find out who or what is doing the paranormal killings? Who cares, watching them try was so much fun and got a lot of big laughs from the crowd. In terms of cameos, the episode featured Natasha Leggero, Jay Hernandez and Ricky Mabe (to name a few).
After the screening, Damian Holbrook came out to moderate the panel which began with an audience member yelling ‘you’re my dad’ at Jack Black. A good start. The panelists then discussed how the project came about - making a pilot on the cheap instead of just relying on the script to sell - as well as how they all met - the girls were roommates and Konner was Black’s assistant, the four coming together thanks to a chance encounter in a park followed by a MySpace message. Yep. The truth can be stranger than fiction.
Soon Jason Ritter was invited to join them on stage and, still in is zombie-looking makeup, provided the quote of the panel by dropping an ‘I love turtles.’ Other guest stars were featured in the closing sizzle reel, including a glimpse at Black, Grohl and Kilmer playing the ghosts of a 70s rock band turning out tasty jams. Most of the preview was taken from the ep we saw (a little anti-climactic) but it still looks like a great addition for platform’s comedic programming and should fit right in with Burning Love. I seriously suggest checking Ghost Ghirls out when all the installments drop on Yahoo!
