Ghostwriter

- Season 1

(1992)

Jamal Jenkins' family is preparing for his older sister Danitra to go to college. That night Jamal sees strange things happening in the park, then receives a strange message on his computer from a mysterious being who asks, "Where are the children? Are they all right?" The next morning he revisits the park and finds a strange coded message, then finds a warning in his locker. His attempts to find out what's going on lead him to Lenni Frazier, a girl who lives with her musician father in an apartment above the bodega owned by the parents of Alex Fernandez and his ...

Jamal and Lenni find out their new friend can't see or hear, but can communicate through words, so they type to him on the computer. He doesn't know who he is or where he came from, but knows he used to be a man. They name him Ghostwriter, and try to crack the coded message Jamal found at the park, along with a button that says THABTO. Lenni has recommended Alex, who's an expert on mysteries and codes, so he goes to him. Gaby believes the stolen backpacks are being left in the junkyard, with only the lunch money missing from them. Alex and Jamal go with her.

Alex becomes a member of the Ghostwriter team. Jamal suspects THABTO is connected to the gang of people stealing backpacks, who wear green two-headed masks. The team asks Ghostwriter to find more THABTO buttons, and the search leads them to the Party Animal store where an order was placed for four buttons. Ghostwriter leads them to a locker at school that's connected to one of the THABTO members, but they don't know who. Gaby reveals she also got a coded message in her backpack, and the team now tries to crack two codes and decide to call on Ghostwriter for help.

Ghostwriter makes contact with Gaby, and she'd made a fourth member of the team. Alex finally catches somebody using the school locker Ghostwriter led them to, and follows the kid to the arcade where he joins three others who are playing a game called Double Defenders, about two-headed aliens. Alex finally figures out how to crack the coded message Jamal found, and they discover the THABTOs are meeting in the corner of the navy yard the night before the Double Defenders tournament for "the final secret ceremony". Alex decides to infiltrate the THABTOs to find out what...

Alex gives the wrong name during the THABTO ceremony and is found out; he and his friends are chased through the navy yard by the three remaining members. They manage to escape and regroup to figure out the THABTOs' plan. Going over the tape recording of the THABTOs' ceremony, they decipher the group's chant to figure out their plan for the Double Defenders tournament.

Jamal is playing a computer game inside Mr. Brinker's video store, when a man comes in and gives Mr. Brinker a piece of paper that enrages him. Tina comes in to buy a blank videotape, but insists the one Brinker hands her isn't new, he yells at her and runs her out, then yells at Jamal, complaining about kids running off his customers and only buying cheap things. Jamal goes home and writes a complaint letter against Mr. Brinker. He goes back to the store at 7 P.M. and drops it in the slot in the door, then firecrackers go off behind him, and he rips his sleeve in the...

Mr. Brinker accuses Jamal of starting the fire in his store. Jamal denies being there the night before, even though the police have a surveillance camera that show somebody at the drop slot at the time before the fire. Ghostwriter starts asking Jamal about the F.B.I. and copyright infringement, so he and Alex head to the library to find out what Mr. Brinker was so upset about the other day. Gaby and Tina work on a video to try and figure out who set the fire, tracking down the cab driver who took the man to Mr. Brinker's and find out he left for Washington D.C. the ...

Lenni is furious with Jamal for lying to her about being at the store the night of the fire. Jamal confides in Craig that he's being accused of starting the fire even though he didn't do it. Ghostwriter makes contact with Tina, and the team comes together to explain Ghostwriter to her, and she becomes a member of the team. Ghostwriter warns the kids that 'videos are key' to the fire mystery after finding out the 'blank' tape Brinker sold Tina had a movie on it. Alex suspects the man who came to Brinker's store is an FBI agent. Craig comes to Jamal's defense when Lt. ...

Gaby and Tina track down the delivery driver Jamal saw at Brinker's store the night of the fire, and find out he supplies blank videotapes. Craig has Jamal and Alex help him sneak in to Brinker's store to check the back room where the fire broke out, to find the evidence they need once and for all to solve who set the fire.

There is an ongoing election for President at kids' school and Alex (David Lopez) is one of the candidates and with the help of his friends, Jamal (Sheldon Turnipseed) and Lenni (Blaze Berdahl), he's trying to write the perfect speech in order to beat his adversaries. But someone is decided to sink Alex's candidature by spreading intimate secrets about his personal life, so the team starts doing what they do best: Investigate.

Alex (David López) accuses Rob (Todd Alexander) of being the one responsible for the defamatory flyers because of the text fragment he and Jamal (Sheldon Turnipseed) found, but Rob evades and leaves both kids alone. Tina (Tram-Anh Tran) suggests they make a video footage trying to show that Alex is nothing like how he was pictured in the flyers, and then they start working in a storyboard. Ghostwriter shows to Alex and Gaby (Mayteana Morales) fragments of an unsent letter from one of the other competitors, showing friendship towards Alex and thus, making her not ...

Jamal (Sheldon Turnipseed) rallies the team to let them know Rob (Todd Alexander) has seen Ghostwriter's writings and when asked why, he pushes the kids to know Rob better. Tina (Tram-Anh Tran) and Alex (David López) work on the video footage for his campaign while Gaby (Mayteana Morales) joins Jamal's karate class. Ghostwrites contacts Rob again, suggesting him to speak with Jamal, which ends up resolving the situation caused by the text fragment found once it becomes clear that it was just part of a story Rob was writing. When Ghostwriter shows another defamatory ...

Alex (David López) overheard a secret meeting of one of the competitors and rallies the team to try to put an end in the situation. Ghostwriter finds out more about the last defamatory message and this gives Alex an idea of where it could've come from, confirming that is indeed one of his pen pals the source of his intimate secrets. The team then comes up with a plan to discover who's the contact in Alex's school and Calvin's (Joey Shea) name arises as a cousin of Alex's friend but, when confronted, he just laughs being very sure nothing will happen to him, even if ...

Lenni persuades the team to enter a scavenger hunt-style contest in order to win the chance to be drawn into an issue of Hoodman. Their efforts are hindered by an embittered comic book artist named Manny Gites, who will stop at nothing to win the contest disguised as his own character, Stoop Dude. Meanwhile, Rob continues to be distant from the team, but makes friends with an eccentric homeless poet.

Lenni (Blaze Berdahl) tells the other kids about the threatening message she got and they decide to investigate who's behind it. Rob's (Todd Alexander) father does not approve his interests in writing poems but his friendship with the homeless eccentric poet "Double T" (David Patrick Kelly) gets stronger to the point he decide to experience his life on the streets for a day. Despite the troubling message, the competition goes on, and the kids have a new picture with new clues to decipher. And when they do, they meet Stoop Dude character face to face and end up getting...

Rob (Todd Alexander) decides to show up at Lenni's (Blaze Berdahl) house and be part of the team, helping her with the contest. They quickly unfold the clues and head to the location on the map unaware that Manny Gites (Mike Jefferson) got there first and knocked out the real agent of the contest to keep giving false leads to any other competitor. Although suspicious of the "agent's" behavior, they take the panel back to her apartment but soon they notice something is fishy about it. Missing patterns and conceptual gaps in the artwork made them believe the panel was a...

Shocked after being recognized, Manny Gites (Mike Jefferson) runs away from Lenni (Blaze Berdahl), leaving all his stuff on the ground, including a package with a carnival mask made of something that resembled a formal letter. The next day the whole team assembles at Lenni's apartment and together they fill the gaps in the cropped letter and discover that Manny might be cheating in the contest because his own comic character, "Stoopdude", was rejected by the company organizing the contest. Jamal (Sheldon Turnipseed), Alex (David López) and Tina (Tram-Anh Tran) decide ...

Jamal (Sheldon Turnipseed) and Rob (Todd Alexander) are walking on the street when they find the cart, box and books of the eccentric poet friend of Rob's, "Double T" (David Patrick Kelly), scattered on the ground with him gone. Rob rallies the team asking for help to find his friend and, together, reading T's poems, they start unfolding part of his past, trying to figure where he could've been. With help of Ghostwriter to decipher some metaphors used in the poems, the kids figure "Double T" was once a soldier in Vietnam and the owner of the Grocery Store of which "T"...

Rob (Todd Alexander) really wants to find "Double T." (David Patrick Kelly), even more now that he knows he has a daughter, but his shyness pushes him away from the help offered by the other kids. Rob asks his father (Dan Ziskie) for help with the military records of "Double T." but it didn't help much because Thomas cut off relations with the veterans administration for quite some time already, so he and Lisa (Kristy Graves) try a different approach, with a letter to Mr. Hush (John Griesemer), the timid and easily frightened resident of the shelter. Ghostwriter reads...

While the team goes to New York's South Ferry, Rob (Todd Alexander) and Lisa (Kristy Graves) work on another letter to Mr. Hush (John Griesemer) to better describe him the whole situation, since the first one was ignored, kneaded and thrown away. The new letter works and Mr. Hush at least speaks with them and tells about an unused tunnel in the subway in which hi and "Double T." (David Patrick Kelly) used to sleep and, despite all possible dangers, Rob and Lisa go there to try to find him but, as soon as they reach the small chamber mentioned, the entrance collapses, ...

Ghostwriter tells the rest of the team, who were trying to understand "Double T.'s" (David Patrick Kelly) poem, that Rob (Todd Alexander) needs help, but with so little information they think finding "Double T." would be a better way to help him. They ask if Ghostwriter can read anything else near him and an avalanche of words start flying around the apartment. Putting together all clues they have and with the help of a phone book they find the most probable place "Double T." could be: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Later, Jamal's (Sheldon Turnipseed) dad (Dean Irby) ...

Jamal's (Sheldon Turnipseed) asks Ghostwriter to send a message to Rob (Todd Alexander) and Lisa (Kristy Graves) that help is coming but because Ghostwriter can only write with letter already in the place, so Jamal starts working in shorter message to be sent. The other kids bring "Double T." (David Patrick Kelly) to Jamal's house so he could help finding Rob and Lisa along with Jamal's father (Dean Irby). While they study a map of underground tunnels Ghostwriter brings another (partial) message the kids come up to be from an old baseball stadium. Jamal's dad ...

Tina (Tram-Anh Tran) is accompanying her mom who's picking up a clothing job when, for her surprise, the client is Lana Barnes (Patricia Barry), an actress of old movies she is very fan of. Tina asks for an autograph and end up receiving a proposal to become the personal assistant of the actress. Grandma Jenkins (Marcella Lowery) is in the hospital and, as expected, her grandson Jamal (Sheldon Turnipseed) and granddaughter Danitra (Samaria Graham) are making more fuzz than needed about it. In the next day Tina starts by answering letters from fans. Everything goes ...

Tina (Tram-Anh Tran) tries to contact Lana (Patricia Barry) by phone without success so they all go search for her. They end up finding her locked up in the garage but even then she doesn't believe in Tina saying someone is being evil-wished to her, probably the same person who sent the messages before. Regardless, Tina rallies the team to Lana's place to investigate and they ask the Ghostwriter to help them find all Lana's enemies. Filtering the names brought from movies' characters and real life persons, they come up with a list of former husbands of her. Another ...

Jamal (Sheldon Turnipseed) is more light-hearted about Grandma Cece's (Marcella Lowery) health state and joins back the team and quickly finds out where the dead flower came from. While Jamal goes there with Gaby (Mayteana Morales), Lenni (Blaze Berdahl) and Rob (Todd Alexander), as suggested by Lana (Patricia Berry) go to the hotel where her award ceremony will take place in order to get the list of all the guests. The flower "shop" belonged to a weird hippie woman who scared the kids a bit, but at least she provided a copy of the receipt for the flower delivery. ...

Lana (Patricia Berry) receives a telegram with another threatening message but, once again, she didn't seem too much concerned about it. Tina (Tram-Anh Tran) explains to the team why Stone Harrison (Sam Stoneburner) is angry with Lana. Jamal (Sheldon Turnipseed) says he'll follow the clue on the store of wigs, Gaby (Mayteana Morales) raises Lana's daughter as a suspect and Rob (Todd Alexander) reinforces the suspicion with some substantial evidences. Lana arrives at the ceremony hall and goes straight to her dressing room, ignoring everyone, including her daughter, ...

While working in the new community garden set up a cleaned-out landfill with Lenni, Rob, and Sally Lewis, Gaby suffers a headache and faints for no reason the doctor can see. She seems better after having Grandma Jenkins' soup, but then collapses and is hospitalized. Rob tells her dad many are getting sick with similar symptoms, but they haven't spent time together so it's probably not a virus. The next day, the garden bunnies are found dead. Except Jamal, who's stuck house-cleaning, the Ghostwriter Team does a survey to find out what's causing the illness, and ...

Sally evacuates the garden when it's found the barrels contain a toxic cleaning chemical called technocloroethelyne, or "perc", someone illegally dumped rather than dispose of properly. Ghostwriter manages to reveal a bit more writing on another barrel first. After many failed phone calls, the team contact the Environmental Protection Department, but they won't be able to remove the barrels for several months since they need to make sure no other site is worse first. The alternative is to catch the dumper since that person must by law remove them, but they need to ...

After getting an anonymous call from someone asking them to meet to hear who handled the barrels, Lenni and Rob go to find it's Momo. He plans to secretly check his boss' files to see. The team find the garden fence is broken and some people are desperate enough for its old free-food produce to enter despite their new warning signs. Momo can't get to the records, but Ghostwriter finds three companies before the words the team gives him narrows it down to Miller's Hauling Company. Lenni finds her dad is starting to date Sally, and resists. Tina and Alex go to Miller's ...

With French Garment Cleaners' boss' invoice's stolen, Miller doesn't have to worry about them being read as evidence before he can shred them. Momo says his boss won't talk to kids even for an investigation, so presses them to bring an adult, but they still need proof to convince anyone to back them. Alex and Tina return to the hauling company to record the documents being shredded. Ghostwriter confirms they're the invoices, but in trying to get the camera close enough to view the documents, they're discovered. They escape and even share a kiss, but the papers are ...

Violence is growing on the streets of the kids' neighborhood and everyone is concerned about it, but at same they time everyone try to ensure all kids are safe. Regardless, all students are enthusiastic with the talent show the Hurston Middle School is going to have. Lenni (Blaze Berdahl) is coordinating everything along with Alex (David López), her friend Kiambu (Damon Harris) and Walter (Eugene Byrd), but the envy of not being the director grows on Walter to the point he quits the group and cause trouble with everybody on his way, even with people he doesn't even ...

Everyone is worried and outraged with the vandalism that happened in the school. Just as Rob (Todd Alexander) recognized the "Thunderheads" 'symbol, Walter (Eugene Byrd) did too and quickly spoke out loud, being immediately reprimanded since anyone could've made it. Principal Kelly (Ellen Foley) tells Lenni (Blaze Berdahl) and the rest of the talent show committee there's a possibility of suspend it because of these attacks. The Ghostwriter team embraces the cause as another case to solve. The team starts by listing the suspects they have: The "Thunderheads", as ...

The students discover their auditorium has also been vandalized. Rob find's Victor's signature gold chain on the ground and thinks someone has planted it there to frame him. While typing in his room, Jamal pours out his frustrations to Ghostwriter who suggests that Jamal writes an apology letter to Jasmine. He delivers it in person and she accepts his apology as well as an invitation to go to the Star Jam with him. The team goes over their evidence and they add a new suspect: Tony Boyd, the second best runner on the track team. He's jealous of Victor's recent success,...

The Thunderheads are furious that Rob found their hangout and start beating him up. Suddenly Victor runs in and yells at them to leave Rob alone. Miguel asks Victor to prove his loyalty to the Thunderheads while Rob begs him to come back to school. Victor reluctantly turns down Miguel's offer. He reminds Miguel that he saved him once in a gang fight so Miguel owes him a favor. He tells the Thunderheads to let Rob go but Victor's no longer accepted into their gang ever again. As they leave the hangout, Victor fumes at Rob for his stupidity but he's glad to see his ...