Travel Channel airs my favorite show of the bunch, “Ghost Adventures.”

As a Travel Channel show, “Ghost Adventures” goes to the some of best locations — places that are downright creepy whether or not they’re haunted. But apart from that, “Ghost Adventures” has the most entertaining cast of ghost busters.

Zak Bagans is the team’s leader. With his spiked hair and tight, Ed Hardy-like T-shirts, he is a stereotypical alpha male. His main investigative technique is to yell at any ghosts who may be present and dare them to attack him.

If any ghosts have ever taken Zak up on that offer, I missed that episode, unfortunately. Next is Nick Groff, Zak’s second in command. Nick tries to copy Zak’s alpha-male routine, but he’s nowhere near as good at it. He’ll always be just a wingman. And then there’s Aaron Goodwin, the team’s equipment technician. Alas, poor Aaron. He’s the one the ghosts supposedly always pick on, to the point that Zak and Nick often use him as bait to lure ill-tempered spirits into showing themselves.

Again, if this trick has ever worked, I’ve not seen convincing proof of it. I’m not a scientist, but I’m amazed at what counts for evidence during these so-called investigations. Motes of dust filmed on night vision are “spectral orbs,” and low-frequency ambient noises caught on tape are voices from beyond.

I don’t blame the average person for not knowing that our brains are wired to detect patterns, sometimes even where no pattern exists. That’s cutting-edge neuroscience. But you’d think expert paranormal investigators would be familiar with the concept. Then they’d be more skeptical about what they see and hear. Or maybe critical thinking is a special skill.

Source: DecaturDaily.com

The episode of Maury on which Zak and Nick appeared re-aired last week. I was able to tape it this time around. Screencaps from the show are now up in the gallery. I hope to have a video clip up sometime soon.

GALLERY LINK:
- Appearances: Maury

Ghost Adventures host Zak Bagans is a man unafraid of new experiences. In fact, give him a dark, discreet crawlspace, and next thing you know he’s on his hands and knees, demanding someone grab his ankles.

Source: E!Online

Syfy’s veteran Ghost Hunters franchise is headed up by the nonplussed New England Roto Rooter men-turned-investigators Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson; Discovery Channel’s Ghost Lab has the brash, beefy, and brainy Klinge brothers from San Antonio; and Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures has the lively Three Amigos from Vegas, Zak Bagans, Nick Groff, and Aaron Goodwin.

Each series has its own character and strengths, but Ghost Adventures, which airs Friday nights at 9 on the Travel Channel, is our current top dog on the strength of its often wildly entertaining blend of creepy settings, high production values, serious investigative techniques, impressive background research, and the showbiz bravado of the testosterone trio’s patented “lock downs” — overnight confinement in some of the nation’s most haunted settings.

Ghost Adventures launched its third season in fine style on Halloween ‘09 with a seven-hour live investigation from the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia. Tonight’s episode is centered on a visit to Clovis Wolf Manor, a former sanitarium and convalescent home in Clovis, California.

I recently talked by phone with the show’s founder and figurehead, Zak Bagans, 32.

Hi Zak, my family and I have become paranormal investigation show fanatics and it’s based on you. We love the show – you’re the right combination of serious investigative approach and showman.

Awesome, thank you.

I apologize because I’m sure you’ve gone over it many times, but I’m very interested how all of this came together for you in the first place. I know you’re from Michigan and went to school for documentary filmmaking.

Yes, I was interested in what could be done with the documentary aspects of film, but I never knew I’d be doing it on ghosts! It’s still a shocker to me that I’m doing this but I think it was meant to happen in some weird way. Six years ago I had an experience with a ghost that changed my mind and I couldn’t ignore it, and that served as the catalyst for what I do now.
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