A ghost of a chance
New sitcom starring Craig Robinson plumbs paranormal for laughs
It doesn’t take much to get Craig Robinson to show off his mellifluous voice onscreen.
As a warehouse foreman on The Office, he taught Steve Carrell’s character to sing the blues. In Hot Tub Time Machine, he perked up a club with a cover of Let’s Get it Started by The Black Eyed Peas. And as an inner city music teacher on TV’s Mr. Robinson, he rocked out with Earth, Wind & Fire.
But on the supernatural comedy Ghosted, in which he plays an unlikely paranormal investigator opposite Adam Scott, his aim is considerably less noble.
“In the pilot, I’m singing just to shut Adam up,” says Robinson, who co-starred with Scott in Hot Tub Time Machine 2 and fronts the funk band Craig Robinson & The Nasty Delicious.
“(Singing more than that) hasn’t really been discussed, but if we go long enough I’ll probably end up doing something. But I don’t want to speak for the writers.”
Ghosted debuts Sunday on Fox and City, and centres on Robinson’s skeptical character Leroy, a mall cop who’s recruited by a secret government agency to look into the supernatural incidents in Los Angeles.
He’s teamed up with Scott’s character Max, a disgraced professor who believes in the paranormal. Amber Stevens West, Ally Walker and Adeel Akhtar also star. It’s like The X-Files, with Robinson’s afro instead of David Duchovny’s moody pout.
In fact, the lead character’s impressive follicular situation was written into the show from the start.
“The description of my character was like ‘badass black dude with a badass afro,’ ” Robinson says. “And I was like, ‘I’m listening ... ’ But the script also made me laugh, so I met with (creator) Tom Gormican in New York over barbecue — I’ve since started living this vegan lifestyle, no big deal — and we got to chit-chatting.”
Both Robinson and Scott signed on to be executive producers, and the result was a decidedly offbeat TV comedy that has been one of the most anticipated shows of the 2017-18 TV season.
Robinson and Scott are known for their roles on The Office and Parks and Recreation, respectively, and executive producer Jonathan Krisel he has writing and directing credits on Portlandia, Kroll Show and Baskets (which he created).
Ghosted joins other supernaturally inclined fare trying to find an audience on TV: The Good Place just kicked off its second season on Global and NBC; People of Earth is also in season 2 on TBS and Comedy; and Kevin (Probably) Saves the World debuts Tuesday on ABC and CTV.
“We are very careful to get it right with the paranormal, to make the scary moments scary and to make the paranormal appear real,” Robinson says. “Comedy is king, but we had to sacrifice some jokes in the pilot because we wanted to make sure the gravitas of the situation was respected.”
Away from the boys-and-ghouls TV show, Robinson is more likely to think the truth is out there than his onscreen character — or his co-star.
“In reality, Adam is the skeptic and I’m the believer. I don’t think there’s any way we’re alone on this planet, and stuff like that,” he says, naming Star Wars, Star Trek and Futurama among his favourite scifi franchises.
“I think with Ghosted being a buddy comedy, we have kind of an ’80s throwback feel to it. And then mix in the paranormal and throw some heart in there, and you’ll get some belly laughs out of it too. It’s a nice little mixture to make people say, ‘OK, OK, I’ll give you another week. Let’s see what’s happening.’ ”