BY AARON SAGERS Ghosts are real. Not only in October, when the American mainstream entertains the notion of things going bump in the night. Nor are ghosts only real within the context of horror movies, books, comics, video games or the latest Insidious flick.
No, for many Americans, belief in the dead kicking around in spectral form is a way of life.
According to Variety, History channel has greenlit a reboot of the Leonard Nimoy-hosted paranormal show In Search Of -- this time to be hosted, and executive produced by Zachary Quinto.
Airing from 1977-82, the series (initially hosted by The Twilight Zone's Rod Serling) focused on a wide range of unexplained phenomena, including bigfoot, time travel, aliens, and more. It was also an early precursor to the popular ghost hunter reality-TV genre. The show made a sizable pop-culture impact, even leading it to be referenced, twice, on The Simpsons.
As you may logically recall, Quinto played Nimoy's character Spock in the 2009 J.J. Abrams-directed Star Trek reboot. But far from simply portraying the classic character, the two became close friends (and even starred in that great 2013 Audi commercial together).
In the announcement of the series, which does not yet have a premiere date, Quinto had this to say:
“I am so excited to be reimagining In Search Of and exploring new questions and phenomena with all of the advancements in science and technology from which we have benefitted in the past forty years since the original series first aired ... In the spirit of my late dear friend Leonard Nimoy, we intend to honor and perpetuate his endless curiosity about the world – and universe – in which we live. Our director Eddie Schmidt and our partners at Propagate, Universal Television Alternative Studio and FremantleMedia International have ignited the process with enthusiasm and intelligence, and History is the perfect home for this unique and compelling series.”
We'll keep an eye on the development of the series, but in the meantime, check out Mr. Nimoy in the Season 8 The Simpsons/X-Files ep, "The Springfield Files."
I don't want to grow up, I'm a Toys "R" Us ... ghost?
Back in the days of big hair and bad fashion - that's right, the '80s - there was a documentary-style human interest show on called That's Incredible which was a hybrid of Real People and Leonard Nimoy's In Search Of ... Hosted by John Davidson, Fran Tarkenton and Cathy Lee Crosby (right), and produced by Alan Landsburg - who also created In Search Of ... - the show would explore fantastic feats of humans and paranormal phenomena.
In a way that sums up most of the decade, the show was cheesy and topped with awesome sauce.
Anyhow, in one of the show's more memorable episodes - which Paranormal Pop Culture has pinned down to probably airing in Sept. 1981, episode #44 and in the show's third season using the Encyclopedia of Television Series, Pilots and Specials: 1974-1984 by Vincent Terrace - there was a segment featuring psychic Sylvia Browne at a supposedly haunted Toys "R" Us store in Sunnyvale, Calif.
