Tv Show Girl Dies by Piano Funny Ghost

♫ It's a dead man's party, who could ask for more? ♫ ^note From left to right: Alberta, Flower, Hetty, Thorfinn, Sam, Jay, Sasappis, Pete, Isaac, and Trevor.

"Huh. Haunting is hard."

— Pete

Adapted from the hit British series of the same name, Ghosts is an American supernatural-themed sitcom airing on CBS since 2021 and starring Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar as the main (living) leads.

It all starts when Samantha (McIver), a cheerful but overly ambitious freelance journalist, and her husband Jay (Ambudkar), a composed though cynical unemployed chef, discover that the former has gained an inheritance to the once-grand, 300-year-old Woodstone Estate in the countryside of upstate New York. Against their — well, mostly Jay's — better judgement, the couple decide to invest all their money to convert this major fixer-upper into a bed-and-breakfast establishment. There's just one small problem: the whole estate is haunted, or rather inhabited, by the spirits of its deceased residents.

The eponymous ghosts are a close-knit but eclectic group that includes Alberta (Danielle Pinnock), a saucy Prohibition-era blues singer; Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones), a pompous and very likely closeted Revolutionary War militia commander; Flower (Sheila Carrasco), a '60s hippie who's as spaced out as she is chatty; Thorfinn (Devan Chandler Long), a bloodthirsty Viking and the oldest of the resident spirits; Trevor (Asher Grodman), a sleazy Turn of the Millennium yuppie caught with his trousers down—literally; Hetty (Rebecca Wisocky), the uptight, original owner of the house back in the 19th-century; Sasappis (Roman Zaragoza), a level-headed Native American exasperated with the whole afterlife situation; Pete (Richie Moriarty), an upbeat '80s scout troop leader shot in the neck with an arrow; Crash, a beheaded '50s greaser who spends most of his time reuniting his head with his body; and a group of assorted, disheveled cholera victims residing in the mansion's basement.

When the ghosts learn of the couple's plans, they take it upon themselves to scare the newcomers away. But if the spirits are anxious about the commotion that a renovation and B&B will create in their home, that's nothing compared to their shock after discovering that Samantha, following a near-death experience, is the first living person who can see and hear them.

The Six Idiots, who created and starred in the original UK series, serve as executive producers for this version.

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Tropes found in the series:

• The '60s: The flashbacks in "Flower's Article" takes place in 1968.
• The '80s: The opening of "Pete's wife" is set in 1985.
  • The opening of 'Attic Girl' takes place in 1987.
• Accidental Murder: Isaac was observing a handsome Redcoat officer through the telescope of a sniper rifle when he sneezed and accidentally pressed the trigger. The shot killed the officer. In the present, the victim's ghost is not happy finding what really happened.
• Acting Unnatural: Sam often has to cover for herself when she is caught Suddenly Shouting with the ghosts whenever living guests are present at the house, such as when she hands over a bottle of wine to one of them and it shatters on the floor or pretending to speak to clients over speakerphone.
• Adaptation Deviation: This is necessary since the show is a Transatlantic Equivalent from the original British series.
  • Rather than the standard six-episode fare, it has a longer season and thus more episodes to make up the bulk due to being a US remake.
  • New ghosts, aside from Pete, had to be invented wholesale to adjust to American history and its eras while still filling in the roles of the originals. Also, the eras in which they died are closer to each other with a majority dying in the 20th century. ^note Alberta ('20s to '30s), Crash ('50s), Flower ('60s), Stephanie and Pete ('80s), with Trevor dying at the turn of the millennium
  • The couple's dynamic is inverted where the husband is more sensible yet cynical and the wife is incredibly optimistic and impulsive. This is best exemplified when Jay was initially apprehensive towards Samantha's ill-thought plan of converting the house into a B&B because of the costs and time they'll need to invest in.
  • Instead of being pushed out the window, Samantha trips over a fallen vase caused by Trevor and proceeded to tumble down two flights of stairs. This near-death experience is what triggers her ability to see and hear ghosts.
  • Where the UK series has avoided giving any explanation for the ghosts' continued presence on Earth or why some Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence, in the US version it is canon that ghosts can (at least sometimes) move on by dealing with their Unfinished Business, which happens to Sam's mom.
• Adaptational Expansion:
  • In the original British series, it was never really explained what jobs Allison and Mike had before they came into possession of the mansion. Here, Sam is a journalist and Jay is a chef.
  • In the first few episodes, Jay tries to interact with the ghosts even though he can't physically see them, something Mike seldom does in the first season.
  • Ghosts can also be banished to Hell, as seen with Elias in "The Vault". It's implied that if they refuse to change their ways, this is their fate.
• Affectionate Nickname: Thorfinn likes to call Jay "little man".
• The American Revolution: The flashbacks in "D&D" takes place in this era; the year 1777 to be exact. Isaac was a commander on the Colonists side.
• Annoying Arrows: Pete still has the arrow that killed him stuck through his neck. It hasn't dampened his upbeat attitude, though.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Upon hearing that Thorfinn put a curse on Sam and Jay, some of the ghosts react with skepticism, which irks Alberta because they're ghosts with supernatural abilities.

  Alberta: We're stuck in an endless purgatory...we saw a guy go down on us a couple weeks ago...and curse is where you draw the line?

• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Hetty's fears of who could get involved in her mansion include murderers, perverts, and Irishmen.
  • When Jay is possessed by Hetty in "The Possession" and the gang need to exorcise her so Jay can cook for a snobbish critic, they look up a video of how to perform an at-home exorcism. At the end of the video, the hostess asks her veiwers to check out her other two videos "DIY Vampire Killing" and " Rom Com Writing Made Easy"
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • When Samantha first arrives at Woodstone, she burns some sage to ward off spirits. The ghosts initially react in fear but then find the sensation very pleasant.
  • After Samantha falls down the stairs and taken to the hospital, Jay covers his head with his hands in sorrow when the doctor approaches and says, "It's a tough loss". We then hear the toilet flushing as Sam exits with a neck brace and find out that Jay and the doctor were talking about how the Knicks lost to the Nuggets with a ten point lead.
  • After the ghosts pester Samantha, she goes to a hospital where a male doctor confirms that it is possible to see ghosts after death. The doctor she was just talking to is a ghost himself and a living doctor arrives just before he leaves.
  • In "D&D", Isaac has a secret he has kept from Nigel, which is implied to be that he has a crush on him. Everyone urges him to go ahead and tell Nigel, but the secret turns out to be that Isaac was the one who killed Nigel by accident. Nigel does not take this revelation well.
• Bears Are Bad News: Flower was killed when a bear mauled her whilst tripping on hallucinogens at a music festival.
• Bile Fascination: In-Universe. In "Pete's Wife", Thorfinn and Sasappis get hooked on a ridiculous Reality TV show called It's Getting Hot in Here, wherein contestants are placed in a freezing room wearing concealing winter coats and the temperature is turned up until they take off their clothes. At first they just watch to make fun of it, but soon find themselves getting caught up in it, and Sasappis even gets upset when Thorfinn watches the show without him.
• Blackmail Backfire: Towards the end of "Dinner Party," Henry Farnsby agrees to fast-track the permit that is pending with the historical preservation board... so long as they give a "donation" of at least $20,000 to the board and make it out to him personally. Luckily, the ghosts overhear the Farnsbys divulging that they secretly violated their no-demo ordinance to make way for a new pickleball court when they admonished the young couple about doing the same. Sam is able to use this information to throw Henry Farnsby's attempt at soliciting a bribe back into his face.
• Bland-Name Product: The Chekhov Chill drink from "Trevor's Pants" is a thinly disguised Smirnoff Ice, but the name also lampshades that it functions as the episode's Chekhov's Gun.
• Blessed with Suck:
  • Since she was technically dead for three minutes after her staircase accident, Sam can now see and hear, as well as talk to, not only the ghosts that occupy the mansion but other ghosts who died in town as well. And this power isn't limited to the town, as we see Sam visit her mother's ghost at the restaurant she died eating shrimp at in Ohio, and interact with her and two other ghosts there.
  • Ghosts sometimes develop powers to affect the living to some varying degree or another. Some of these powers are useful or cool, others are quite disgusting.
    • When a Living walks through him, Isaac creates a noxious gas due to his dying of dysentery.
    • In a similar vein, Sam's mom, who died from a shrimp allergy, can project a foul shrimp breath onto people from her mouth.
• Catching Up on History: The older ghosts are mostly unaware of such modern inventions as cars, television, and the internet. Isaac, in particular, is shocked and incensed to learn that that "little twerp" Alexander Hamilton not only became famous, but also got his own musical.
• Catfishing: This trope is played with in the main plot of "Jay's Sister" when the titular character stays over for the weekend. Recovering from a terrible breakup, Bela ends up matching with Trevor on a dating app, who uses the kitchen iPad to set up a dating profile. When Jay and Sam try to dissuade her, she initially becomes suspicious of Trevor and finds that the photo her match used is from Trevor's obituary, and her suspicion immediately falls on the living couple after tracing the profile to the kitchen iPad.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The fact that when a person becomes a ghost their spectral form falls under Jacob Marley Apparel helps Isaac realize that Elias's expensive watch he has on his ghost-person must be on his body as well. That watch helps Sam and Jay recoup the lost money from the canceled wedding because of Elias's actions.
  • Lampshaded by the Chekhov Chill drink and the "chilling" hazing ritual it's used for (a Bland-Name Product of Smirnoff Ice and "icing") in flashbacks in "Trevor's Pants." Sam and Jay sell Elias's watch to one of Trevor's old work "bros" and in the process learn that said bros dumped his body rather than reveal that he died by mixing illegal drugs at a party. Sam gets Trevor's revenge by hiding a Chekhov Chill and a note from Trevor in the drawer where the drugs had been stashed for his friend to find. The man is forced to buy Sam and Jay's silence by offering double the watch's value and chugging the Chill.
• Closed Circle: All ghosts are trapped within a certain area around where they die. Each circle's exact area isn't said to be equal or if it could change over time.
  • The manor ghosts can move in the house and on the grounds but no further than the property line of the estate. "Possession" shows that any ghost that attempts to cross the property line is turned around by an invisible barrier that leads them back inside. This is how Hetty is freed from inside Jay's body; when she tries to drive to Paris, she is repelled by the barrier and knocked off Jay's body, while Jay narrowly avoids crashing into a tree.
  • Other ghosts are shown to be stuck in the local newspaper area, or to a diner.
  • a more extreme example happens to Hetty's husband, Elias. After having a vault built inside the mansion, the builder locks him in and absconds. Even after he dies, the vault happens to be constructed of material that even ghosts cannot phase through, so until the vault is reopened in the present-day, Elias spends his afterlife with just himself and his rotting corpse.
• Comically Small Demand:
  • When Sam finally demands a compromise from the ghosts to allow everyone to coexist in peace in the house, she asks what each of the ghosts want. The requests range from the removal of a portrait of a spouse (Hetty), to watching specific television programs, to just saying "hello."
  • The redcoat ghosts who live in the ramshackle shed on the property invade the main house and refuse to leave... unless Sam and Jay's contractor refit the door of the shed.
• Composite Character:
  • Whilst Trevor largely fills the role that Julian occupied in the British series, being the youngest and most morally ambiguous of the ghosts, his obsession with Sam is very similar to Thomas's obsession with Allison.
  • Thorfinn largely fills the role that Robin did, being the oldest of the ghosts and being the most puzzled with the outside world. However, his interest in Viking documentaries calls to mind the Captain's love for military documentaries.
  • Isaac shares qualities similar to the Captain (both being military men who are closeted gays), to Thomas (both become jealous upon learning that a contemporary whom they loathed is famous and well-remembered while they themselves have been relegated to obscurity—Lord Byron to Thomas and Alexander Hamilton to Isaac), to Mary (both emit a strong odor when a living passes through them), and to Julian (both are mainly known for their ignoble deaths—Julian in a salacious sex scandal and Isaac by dysentery).
• Condensation Clue: In "D&D" the ghosts realize they can have Trevor do this in the bathroom mirror to communicate with Jay while he is showering. Jay is not happy about this invasion of privacy.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In "Halloween" the cops who come to investigate the gazebo burning down are the same ones who caught Sam and Jay setting the canoe on fire in "Viking Funeral".
  • While trying to give commands to Sam and Jay's Alexa in "Attic Girl", Thorfinn asks if there will be another season of It's Getting Hot in Here.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: According to Sam's research, the Woodstones who built the house were 19th century versions of this trope. They accumulated their wealth through illicit means and they were full-on robber barons who slept on gold. Hetty concedes to the other ghosts that the latter did happen, but only once.
• Creepy Basement: The basement where the boiler is located is noted by Sam to be creepy, and that is even before she and the viewers learn that it is inhabited by the ghosts of cholera victims.
• Darkhorse Victory: The episode "Viking Funeral" has Alberta and Isaac run against each other for the title of "Ghost Representative". Isaac tries to win by enlisting the votes of the plague ghosts, only for them to vote for one of their own, leading to "Creepy Dirk" becoming the winner instead.
• Dead Guy Junior: Pete died when his daughter Laura was just a little girl. When she had a son, she named him Pete.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Part of the humour of the show comes from the ghost's different opinions on things which would not be accepted today.
  • For instance, Hetty believes that cocaine can still be used freely in a medicinal way (rather than its current usual use as a narcotic and occasional use as a legal anesthetic in operations on the eye and some dental surgery), and (until she is convinced otherwise) believes that women should not vote.
  • Even more recent ghosts of Trevor and Pete take things they did as livings in new cultural light. Where they once enjoyed Ghostbusters, now as ghosts themselves they see it as a horrible representation of some poor unfortunate people. As ghosts take the form of their living's final moments and that is unchanging, Alberta is horrified to consider what caused Slimer to look as he does.
• Demonic Possession: In "Possession", Jay gets shocked trying to fix a lamp fixture and falls on Hetty, who ends up inside Jay's body. Jay alternates between being himself and being controlled by Hetty, which causes confusion when a wedding planner comes to check out the house as a possible wedding venue. Isaac explains that he once unwittingly possessed a man under similar circumstances, and needed to be exorcised. The dilemma is solved once Hetty tries to escape on Jay's car and is pushed out of Jay's body by the barrier that holds the ghosts within the property.
• Diagonal Billing: Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar share top billing, with McIver's name lower and to the left and Ambudkar's name higher and to the right.
• Didn't Think This Through: In "Halloween" when Jay and Samantha learn it is Thorfinn who accidentally burned down the gazebo, though the ghosts blamed the local kids who egg the house, Jay and Samantha decide to punish the all of the ghosts by denying them TV, to the ghosts' initial despair. Samantha then realizes that this isn't exactly working out as without the TV to occupy them, the ghosts all focus on watching her and Jay while the two are relaxing on the couch.
• The Diva: Alberta, who is convinced that she was murdered rather than accept that she died of something so mundane as a simple heart attack. Justified, as it turns out she was right.
• Doom It Yourself: Jay tries to do some repairs but his skill is lacking. The basement ghosts comment on his inability to repair the hot water heater.

  Basement Ghost: God I know we're dead but he's trying to kill us.

• Double Take: Sasappis gives one in "Halloween." He digs himself deeper while trying to insist that he did have sex and was married to a woman and sex occurred forty-three times between them, when Thorfinn affirms his story because he, Thor, was watching said sexual intercourse. Sasappis thanks him before going, "Wait, what?"
• Dragged Off to Hell: In "The Vault" it is revealed if a ghost is vile enough and unrepentant to ever changing, then it is quite possible for a red portal to open beneath them and take them, presumably, to Hell. Prior to this episode, no ghost at the Manor had witnessed it or known it could happen.
• Dramatic Gasp:
  • Isaac in "Flower's Article" when Flower confesses that she stole the money from her commune's bank robbery. He notes that he's the only one gasping.

    Isaac: Oh, no one else is gasping? Well, I guess if you don't gasp at that, you're simply not a gasper.

  • The gag is repeated in "Trevor's Pants" when Sasappis reveals that Trevor's "bros" hid his body instead of calling for help. Isaac gasps twice in a row to try and get the others to join in.

    Isaac: Oh, come on, that was gasp worthy! There's something wrong with you people.

• Dying Declaration of Love: In "Viking Funeral" when it appears Thorfinn is about to be "sucked off" Flower runs up to him and confesses her love for him. After it is revealed to be a police car's searchlight, Flower says it was the heat of the moment and they agree to return to being friends.
• Electromagnetic Ghosts: Thorfinn was struck by lightning, so he can make the lights flicker.
• Everyone Has Standards: Thorfin, Hetty, and Trevor have all had their moral shortcomings, but Elias is too much for them.

  Thorfinn: This guy's evil, and I used to pillage for a living.

• Extremely Short Intro Sequence: The opening is only several seconds long, a contrast to the rather longer British version.
• Fake Relationship: In "Sam's Mom", Pete ends up saying that he has a girlfriend from the Cholera Pit, even though he actually doesn't have a girlfriend at all. He thus gets one of the Basement Ghosts (a woman named Nancy) and has her pose as his girlfriend to keep up the ruse.
• Fantastic Racism: The ghosts take offense to terms like "ghosted" because they think it puts ghost-kind in a bad light. They also find movies like Ghostbusters horrifying because they don't like being presented as being evil beings that wish humanity harm.
• "Fawlty Towers" Plot: Sam has to continuously lie to other living people that she cannot see ghosts. Obviously, the lies get more extravagant and the plot gets more convoluted, when it could be solved by Sam just owning up about her power. Justified by the fact that admitting to seeing ghost is something that would get her written off as crazy at best
• Funny Background Event: When Samantha and Jay call the police after their gazebo burns down in "Halloween", as the officers ask if they have seen anything unusual, Crash the headless greaser walks by in the background.
• Gasshole: Isaac died of dysentery, so he can manifest himself as a strong odor. This will happen when a living walks through him.
• Go into the Light:
  • Played straight in the series opener when Sophie Woodstone immediately ascends to little fanfare and when Sam's mom makes peace with her daughter.
  • Subverted with Thorfinn. After Thorfinn's funeral, a bright light goes over him and he assumes he is about to get "sucked off" into the afterlife. The light then turns out to be from a police car parked right beside the funeral.
• A Good, Old-Fashioned Paint Watching: The ghosts are doing this at the start of "Viking Funeral". They decide that watching Sam and Jay would be more interesting to watch. Once Jay and Samantha finish their discussion, the ghosts return to paint watching.
• Halloween Episode: "Halloween" takes place over, yes, Halloween, which the ghosts do not enjoy (since they see it as mocking their existence and they can't do the fun stuff that the living do on the holiday). The main plot is about everyone dealing with some troublesome children who try to mess up the mansion on that day.
• Heh Heh, You Said "X": The ghosts discuss the concept of moving on to the afterlife as being "sucked off." Trevor is the only ghost who seems to understand the dirty meaning of the phrase and snickers every time it is spoken. He urges Sam not to explain the joke to the others since their ignorance is one of his few pleasures as a ghost.
• Hippie Name: The resident hippie ghost is named "Flower".
• Historical In-Joke:
  • After Issac demonstrates his invention to his troops, he instructs them not to shoot at the enemy until you see the green of his eyes, before correcting to their. It's a play on Colonel Prescott's alleged order, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes," at the Battle of Bunker Hill.
  • Isaac states that Benjamin Franklin frequently electrocuted himself to get attention. It's probably a reference to his famous kite flying experiment during a thunderstorm.
• History with Celebrity:
  • As they discuss the vault, Trevor mentions the time Geraldo Rivera opened Al Capone's vault; Alberta mentions that Capone was "clingy."
  • Alexander Hamilton is frequently mentioned due to Issac's hatred of him. He states that Hamilton pretended that he didn't know him at a party and then got his name wrong several times over the years.
• I See Dead People:
  • After her accident, Samantha is able to see and hear the ghosts. At first Jay convinces her that she's just hallucinating them due to a concussion, but then she goes to the doctor and he tells her that people who go through a Near-Death Experience are often able to see ghosts. Samantha only believes him when he turns out to be a ghost.
  • "Alberta's Fan" demonstrates that young children can occasionally see ghosts as well, although they eventually lose that ability when they grow older. Hetty realizes that she used to fall asleep to Thorfinn's lullabies when she was growing up in the mansion as a young girl.
• I Wished You Were Dead: Hetty tells her husband "You can go to Hell!"—right before he does, which leads Hetty to think that might be her power. She immediately tries it on Trevor—but fortunately it turns out not to be. Though it does make the other ghosts more wary around her for a while.
• Imaginary Friend: Some children can see and interact with ghosts and develop friendships with them. However, this ability fades as the children grow up.
• Incredibly Lame Fun: Pete actually enjoys watching the paint dry. He also tries to count how many Star Trek characters he knows.
• Innocent Innuendo:
  • In "Viking Funeral," Hetty mentions that having the funeral might allow Thorfinn to complete his Earthly visit, she mentions that he might get "sucked off." Sam, who tries to correct her to "moving on," gets stopped by Trevor, who tell her, "please don't, it's one of the only pleasures I still have."
  • Becomes a Running Gag in "The Vault", when Elias's plummet into Hell rouses an immediate cry of "He just went down on us!" from Alberta. This new expression is adopted by the others, to Trevor's further amusement.
• Intangibility: Just like in the original British series, ghosts can pass through most solid objects (except that they can stand up, sit down, or lie on the floor or the furniture, and they cannot pass through whatever the secret vault is made of). However, passing through living people and creatures is very uncomfortable and painful for them. They're also not intangible to each other, being capable of physical altercations or even having sex with one another. The exception (so far) is the metal that Elias had made into the vault. Once discovered, the ghosts can't phase into it, and Elias was trapped within, with his rotting corpse. The confusing mechanics of this does get lampshaded.

  Sam: Why does that happen?
  Trevor: We don't know, Sam. Why do we go through the walls but not fall through the floor? It's not like we got a manual.
  Pete: Ugh, would love a death manual.

• The Internet Is for Porn: When Pete asks what the internet is, Trevor responds that it's "an invention used to look up stock prices and porn."
• It Runs in the Family: Despite being several generations removed, Sheryl inherited much of Hetty's judgmental streak, and her cousin David inherited Elias's immorality and penchant for drugs and debauchery.
• Ivy League for Everyone: Isaac attended Dartmouth College and Trevor attended The University of Pennsylvania.
• Jacob Marley Apparel: The ghosts all wear the clothes that they died in, or in Trevor's case lack thereof. This extends to any injuries they had at the time of death, such as Pete's arrow in his neck and the bear claw marks on Flower's back shoulder. It also appears to extend to the latter's drug-induced impairment.
• Locked in a Freezer: Hetty's husband commissioned a secret vault to be built in the mansion, ostensibly to hide more of his wealth. But when it was completed, the builder conned him and locked him in the vault. Elias eventually died in there, but even his ghost couldn't escape the vault until it is reopened in the present-day.
• Loony Fan: In "Alberta's Fan", a jazz historian visits Woodstone to do some research on Alberta. He seems normal at first, but then he smells Alberta's clothes multiple times and shows everyone the toenail clipping he bought online. Then he reveals the Alberta tattoo he has on his back.
• Magic Feather: In "Ghostwritter", Sasappis tells Sam how he was assigned to be his tribe's storyteller for the spring ritual, but was too nervous. His father gave him an eagle feather to give him courage. Unfortunately, he died before he could fulfill his duties. He then gives the feather to Sam so it can help her make the website for the bed-and-breakfast. However, since it's a ghost feather, it just rematerializes back on his hair; he assures Sam that it's still symbolically hers.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!":
  • In "Pete's Wife", said wife is invited to the mansion, having remarried Pete's old best friend and announces she has a secret that she wants to finally get off her chest. Sam, Jay, and all the ghosts except Pete pick up on the implication and ask her to keep it to herself to spare his feelings.
  • In "Alberta's Fan", said fan is found on the floor suffering from a severe case of food poisoning, and everyone freaks out at the prospect of him dying and possibly coming back as another ghost they would all be stuck with for eternity.
• Mattress Tag Gag: When Pete talks about how much of a bad boy he is, he says he once tore the tag off a mattress.
• Mythology Gag: Thorfinn died from being struck by lightning, which fans have long speculated is what happened to Robin in the original series.
• New-Age Retro Hippie: Flower is a 1960s style hippie, complete with her having used hallucinogens.
• No Honor Among Thieves: Members of Flower's commune robbed a bank intending to use the money for a good cause. However, they could not agree what to use the money for and after many fruitless discussions, Flower's boyfriend talked her into taking the money and leaving the commune. After Flower's death he used the money to start a coffee business that did use the money for many good deeds.
• "No. Just... No" Reaction: Prior to accepting there are ghosts in the house, Jay passes by his laptop with Trevor trying to type on the keyboard. When a letter is typed over and over again, Jay starts shaking his head and walking away.
• Not Himself: Jay in "Possession" is possessed by Hetty, causing him to act strangely just as a wedding planner comes to inspect the house and try Jay's menu for the reception.
• Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Sometimes children can see ghosts. Adults tend to dismiss this as the child having an imaginary friend.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: In "Dinner Party," Sam and Jay have to contend with obnoxious neighbors (the Farnsbys) who pop by to say hello. After the two commit a social faux pas, the Farnsbys give an unsubtle hint that they will delay a permit from the local historic preservation board (which Henry Farnsby just happens to the head of) to turn the house into a B&B hotel by enforcing an obscure ordinance that they themselves passed. The main plot of the episode centers on Sam and Jay organizing the titular dinner party in order to woo the Farnsbys into fast-tracking their permit. It seems to go well... until the Farnsbys try to blackmail Sam and Jay into paying them $20,000 in exchange for passing their permit. Sam and Jay turn this right back at the Farnsbys after the ghosts inform Sam that the neighbors illegally tore down the mansion's carriage house to build a pickle ball court, turning the ordinances against Farnsbys.
• Only Sane Man:
  • Sasappis is the only ghost who doesn't have any extreme personality quirks.
  • Flower was this in her commune, during the rare moments when she wasn't high.
• Otherworldly Communication Failure: Played for Laughs.
  • In the episode "D&D" the ghosts are upset that Sam lied to Jay about them not enjoying their game of Dungeons & Dragons. Trevor, the only ghost that can move objects and therefore somewhat interact with humans, writes "she lied" in the steam in the mirror while Jay is in the shower. But, when Jay sees it, he just says "About what?" much to Trevor's frustration.
  • In the stinger of the episode "D&D" Sasappis has Trevor write to Jay, "Make Pizza." Given the strain it is to write so much, Trevor notes he isn't going to try and write "pepperoni" on the mirror as well. And Jay is stating this is not cool and really creepy now.
• Pants-Free: Trevor died naked from the waist down. His shirt covers his genitals most of the time... unless he raises his arms, to the horror of the others.
• Poltergeist: Trevor is the only one of the ghosts who can move objects, although it takes all his concentration just to barely nudge them.
• Pooled Funds: When a vault is discovered under Woodstone, Jay talks about diving into gold coins like Scrooge McDuck.
• Previously on…: Used early on to recap the previous events.
• RPG Episode: In "D&D", Samantha and the other ghosts gets roped into a game of Dungeons & Dragons by Jay. Samantha doesn't enjoy it however and lies about the ghosts not enjoying it to get out of playing it, much to the ghosts' displeasure. It eventually becomes important in solving an argument between Isaac and fellow Revolutionary War ghost Nigel.
• Running Gag: Sam talking to one or more of the ghosts and realizing that another living person is in the room and overheard her, forcing her to awkwardly revise her statement after the fact.
• Scout-Out: Pete was a member of a group called the Pinecone Troopers.
• Secret-Keeper: Because of how ridiculous it sounds, Sam and Jay are reluctant let anyone else know about Sam's ability to see and interact with ghosts. Bela, Jay's sister, becomes the first other Living apart from the couple to learn of their existence and Sam's ability to interact with them.
• Sense Freak: When Hetty is stuck inside Jay's body, she quickly indulges in food and becomes infatuated with Cheetos.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Although Jay can't see him, he and Trevor have this dynamic. Trevor often points out Jay's more sensitive traits and how disappointing he is to his '90s Alpha male sensibilities.
  • Trevor and Pete couldn't be more different. Pete is the sensitive family man who believes 'the friend zone' is just a way to make friends, and Trevor is a manly horndog.
• Sexy Whatever Outfit: When Trevor talks about Halloween, he mentions a woman dressed up as a sexy version of Bobby Boucher from The Waterboy.
• Shout-Out:
  • Sam calls Hetty "Downton Abbey" and Trevor "Wolf of Wall Street" when she is listening to their demands.
  • Pete's Newhart fandom (and Sam's ignorance of the show) becomes a plot point in "Dinner Party".
• Staircase Tumble: Sam gained the ability to see the other ghosts by tripping over a vase moved by Trevor and tumbling down the stairs.
• Stalker with a Crush: "Alberta's Fan" has a historian visit Sam and Jay in hopes of learning more about Alberta and solving her 'murder'. Alberta is thrilled at first until it becomes clear that he's less a historian and more creepy loser with an obsessive crush, to the extent of having a huge tattoo of her face on his back and keeping one of her toenails in hopes of some day cloning her so they could be together.
• Stalker Without a Crush: Because the ghosts pass the time by observing the livings, they routinely observe Jay and Sam if they are eating or having a disagreement for the entertainment. They also inform Sam of Jay eating all of her Oreos, including one that fell on the floor.
• Stealing from Thieves: Flower and her fellow hippies robbed a bank, but they were too disorganized to put the money to any kind of use, so Flower and her boyfriend stole it from them.
• Stranded Invader: Thorfinn was a Proud Warrior Race Guy who is always talking about how much he enjoyed massacring people (especially the Danish). He was part of a Viking expedition to North America, when his friends left without him, leaving him to wander the Hudson Valley alone until he was struck by lightning.
• Superpower Lottery: Several of the ghosts have unique supernatural abilities, seemingly related to their personalities or their manner of death. Whether these powers are useful (Trevor's poltergeist finger), disgusting (Isaac's stench), or potentially disastrous ( Elias's horniness-induction) varies widely.
• Throat-Slitting Gesture: Sam calls on one of the kids who prank the house every Halloween, and his mother takes him to apologize. But as soon as the mother's back is turned, the kid does the slashing gesture to indicate that payback is coming.
• Too Dumb to Live: How a lot of the ghosts ended up dead.
  • Isaac didn't think it was important to frequently wash his hands to prevent dysentery.
  • Elias commissioned a secret vault, then slept with the wife of the man who built it.
  • Implied with Crash.
  • Flower got so high, she tried to hug a bear.
  • Pete gave dangerous weapons to children, then stood in front of them.
  • Trevor mixed a bunch of unlabeled drugs.
  • Stephanie stayed to make out in the car with her prom date even after hearing a radio bulletin about an escaped chainsaw killer in the area.
• Too Much Information: Jay develops an interest in whether or not ghosts can have sex. Sasappis is eager to share, but Sam runs out of the room before he can reveal too much, to Jay's disappointment.
• Unexpected Inheritance: Sam inherits the house from her great-aunt Sophie, whom she has only met once before, because she is the closest next-of-kin. Sophie's own son predeceased her.
• Unknown Rival: Isaac was insanely jealous of Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton never remembered meeting him.
• Unusual Euphemism: The ghosts refer to being whisked away to heaven as getting "sucked off" while someone sent to the other place is said to have "gone/went down on" the group. Sam finds this awkward, while Trevor begs her not to correct anyone because snickering at the other ghosts' ignorance of the double meanings is one of the few things bringing him joy in the afterlife.
• Van Helsing Hate Crime: Invoked in the episode "Halloween" after Trevor, Pete and Alberta watch Ghostbusters on TV and become uncomfortable with how the ghosts in the movie are treated.
• The Viking Age: The two flashbacks in "Viking Funeral" are set in this era.
• Viking Funeral: This is what Thorfinn wanted to have done with his bones in "Viking Funeral" after they are dug up. This is complicated however, when Sam and Jay find out that they are worth a fortune. They eventually decide to give him one after finding out that it could lead to him being "sucked off".
• Wake Up Fighting: In "Thorapy", Thorfinn has a recurring nightmare, and every time he wakes from it he swings his axe. Fortunately, since the others are already ghosts, he does no harm (though Travis mentions that it does hurt).
• Wham Line:
  • In the pilot episode, when Sam and Jay return to the house with contractors in tow for the first time after the former's accident, Trevor is stunned when he realizes that Sam can see him and is able to address him directly:

    Sam: You're dressed kinda nice for a construction worker.

  • Sam goes to see a doctor about her hallucinations who muses that her blow to the head allows her to see ghosts.

    Middle-aged Doctor: It is quite rare but I've seen it before. The last time was around... 85 years ago.
    Samantha: Wait, h-how old are you?
    Doctor: Well, I was about 50 when I died...

• What the Hell, Hero?: The ghosts call Samantha out when she argues what she and Jay matter more because they are alive. The ghosts are furious and remind Samantha of the torment they all suffer; unable to touch, to be heard or seen (prior to Samantha), and sitting in on the dinner parties gives them a short time they can feel like they are human once more.
• Whodunnit to Me?: Alberta is convinced she was murdered and asks Samantha to solve her murder, even though the other ghosts say she just had a heart attack. In "Alberta's Fan", we learn she was right; her moonshine was poisoned.
• Wimp Fight: Ghosts cannot really affect each other much. When Isaac and Pete try to engage in a brawl with the Redcoat ghosts, the two sides end up just flailing at each other and doing no damage. Even Flower, who's a pacifist, would like to see more violence in the fight.
• Worthless Treasure Twist: Trevor thinks he can help Sam by letting her get access to his top three stocks: Circuit City, Enron and Blockbuster Video.
• You Have to Believe Me!: After Bela finds out that the messages from "Trevor" have been coming from Jay's iPad, she says she can never forgive Jay and Sam. To save their relationship, Sam admits to her that she can see ghosts. After Bela refuses to believe her, Sam has Thor flicker the light, Trevor move a vase, Alberta sing so she can hear, and Isaac walk through her. She finally believes when she holds fingers behind her back and the ghosts tell Sam how many there are.

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/GhostsUS

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