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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/New-Ghost-Hunters-Graphic_5169.png]]
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3''Ghost Hunters'' is a documentary show that airs on Creator/{{Syfy}}. It follows the investigations of The Atlantic Paranormal Society [[FunWithAcronyms (TAPS)]] as they help people with paranormal problems, and learn the truth behind reports of hauntings. The show debuted in October, 2004, with its final episode on Syfy airing October 26, 2016. The team has constantly changed personnel throughout the show's run, with co-founder Jason Hawes and investigators Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango as the three most constant members.
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5The show has two spin-offs: ''Ghost Hunters International'' (2008-) with Robb Demarest, Brandy Green, Joe Chin, Barry Fitzgerald, Ashley Godwin, Kris Williams, and Paul Bradford; as well as ''Ghost Hunters Academy'' (2009-) with Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango. Joe and Barry have also appeared on ''Ghost Hunters'' to assist the team.
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7Former members include Grant Wilson[[note]]TAPS' other co-founder[[/note]], Andy Andrews, Brian Harnois, Donna La Croix, Kris Williams, Adam Berry, and Amy Bruni. Dustin Pari left the show for a few seasons but came back for its final season in 2016.
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9The show's new channel appears to be A&E.
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11----
12!!This series provides examples of:
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14%%* BerserkButton: For Jason...Brian.
15** Now inverted. Since an incident a while back involving Brian's disappearance, when he was known to be suicidal, Jason does not take kindly to criticism of Brian.
16%%* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: The Winchester Mystery House
17%%* BunnyEarsLawyer: Steve
18%%* ButtMonkey: Brian, Tango
19* CatchPhrase:
20** Brian's infamous "Dude, run!" {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Brian himself.
21--->'''Steve:''' [''about Brian wearing a "Dude, run!" hat''] How can you take something so negative and celebrate it? \
22'''Brian:''' Do you have a catch phrase?
23** "When in doubt, get the hell out."
24** "When in doubt, throw it out." - in relation to debatable evidence.
25** "Hi. We're TAPS. We're here to help." in the early seasons.
26** "On to the next", said by Jason (usually to Steve) at the end of every episode, starting the season or two prior to Grant's departure.
27* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Steve.
28* ClusterFBomb: In the early seasons, Brian got bleeped a lot, and Jason fairly frequently as well, especially when he was having to deal with Brian. Nowadays, it's not nearly so prevalent.
29* ConfessionCam: Used throughout the show, but much more heavily in the first few seasons than after Grant's departure.
30* {{Crossover}}: A live Halloween special with ''Series/DestinationTruth'' in which they were investigating a haunted castle in Ireland, said to have a banshee. The episode went all night, but was condensed into a hour for reruns. They would meet up with the ''Destination Truth'' team a few other times, and even [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/HauntedCollector Haunted Collector]]
31* DeliberatelyMonochrome: Scenes shot in the dark, due to the use of the night vision camera.
32* DoNotTauntCthulhu: Inverted. Paranormal investigators often try to "provoke" entities to manifest themselves.
33** Dave in particular seems to often end up egging on the entities to show themselves.
34** In the episode ''Domani's and The County Jail'', TAPS were warned about touching what was supposed to be a cursed mirror. So what does Grant do? He gives the mirror an affectionate kiss.
35* EvolvingCredits: The animation of the vans in season 8's opening credits changed to only show Jason, whereas in the previous seasons both Jason and Grant were there.
36* FunWithAcronyms: '''T'''he '''A'''tlantic '''P'''aranormal '''S'''ociety
37* GhostlyChill: "Cold spots" which are seen as signs of activity.
38* HahvahdYahdInMyCah: Being from Rhode Island, many team members have noticeable Northeastern accents.
39* HauntedHouse: Par for the course, although actual houses were focused on much more heavily in the earlier seasons.
40* HearingVoices: Electronic Voice Phenomenon, sounds and bits of voices picked up by the equipment but not heard by the investigators.
41** In the live Stanley Hotel episode, Jason and Grant heard the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZJRvfCWpYQ&feature=related voice of a child in the basement]].
42* HellGate: Almost became literal when the Ghost Hunters International crew investigated the Hell's Gate Air Tram in British Columbia.
43* HeterosexualLifePartners: Jason and Grant, who have families outside of work but are very close friends.
44* IntercontinuityCrossover: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3QFbPuqPyc television commercial]] for ''Film/HellboyIITheGoldenArmy''.
45* LetsSplitUpGang: The team usually splits into groups of two for investigations. While the teams do change up, there are several default pairings, such as Grant and Jay, Steve and Tango, KJ and Britt, and Adam and Amy.
46* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: A key part of the investigations, in both the on-site evidence gathering and the evidence analysis, is "debunking" - finding logical explanations for what's being claimed as paranormal. In one case Jason and Grant used their experience as plumbers to determine that the "blood" running down the wall was actually a leaking cleaner from a bathroom. That being said, as the show's gone on, it's become very rare to see an investigation that comes up dry, whereas in the early seasons when investigations of homes were commonly featured, the ratio of hits to misses was about even.
47* MrFanservice: Reportedly, [[MeaningfulName Tango]].
48* {{Narrator}}: As part of the shift in the show's format in the 8th season, Jason has stepped into this role, giving a lot of the details of the case that were discussed during the journey to the location(s) in previous seasons.
49* NoFourthWall: This has been in place since the very beginning, but in season 8 the investigators start talking directly to the camera(s) a lot more than in previous seasons.
50* NoodleIncident: Jason and Grant never give specifics about their personal paranormal encounters that occurred before the formation of TAPS.
51* NotUsingTheZWord: They almost never say "ghost," instead saying "haunting" or "activity."
52* {{Oireland}}: Not only does Barry have a pronounced Irish accent, ''Ghost Hunters'' had two episodes in Ireland and ''International'' had four episodes.
53* OnceForYesTwiceForNo:
54** Inverted somewhat in the "Manson Murders" episode where ghosts are asked to make the K-2 meter spike twice for "yes" and once for "no".
55** Played straight whenever they use the "loosely-capped flashlight" trick.
56* OurGhostsAreDifferent: According to [=TAPS=], hauntings are either residual[[note]]essentially an energy imprint that constantly repeats itself[[/note]] or intelligent.[[note]]the typical ghost - it can interact with people and move around[[/note]]
57* PapaWolf: The guys take cases that involve children being terrified ''very'' seriously, as evidenced by the fact that they came back early to the New England winter ''from Hawaii'' when they heard about a case involving a young girl being terrified in her own home.
58* ParanormalInvestigation: The whole point of the show.
59* PrecisionFStrike: These tend to happen when the investigators get spooked by something.
60** At one point Grant self-censors his own Precision F-Strike by saying "what the ''fetch''?"
61** Once they were interrogating a ghost with a recorder, asking questions, the ghost's response was "Fuck off" though when the team immediately discusses it, and talking about it later, the word is never repeated.
62* ProductPlacement: Indirectly. Jason and Grant work for Roto-Rooter as their day jobs; thus many shows open with them doing work when they get a call about a new case, and they often refer to themselves as "plumbers ''for Roto-Rooter''". In addition, the opening credits for most of the seasons show them standing by a Roto Rooter van in their work clothes, which changes to them standing by a TAPS van in TAPS gear. Starting with the 2011 season, this is now a moving Roto-Rooter van that turns into a TAPS van.
63* PutOnABus: Anyone the team doesn't like. The bus usually ends up at ''Ghost Hunters International''.
64* RevolvingDoorCasting: Ties into the previous trope. A lot of team members have come and gone, either to move on to other paranormal groups (or even starting their own), move to ''Ghost Hunters International'' (which is what's happened to some people who were causing friction in the main team), or quit entirely.
65* RoswellThatEndsWell: During the investigation of Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Steve and Tango came across the book ''[[http://www.amazon.com/Roswell-Report-Fiction-Mexico-Desert/dp/016048023X The Roswell Report: Fact Vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert]]'' in one of the offices. The next day, they contemplated investigating the base's Hangar 18 in secret.
66* ShoutOut:
67** In one episode, Steve and Tango talk about "[[Film/{{Ghostbusters 1984}} crossing the streams]]".
68** Even the ghosts themselves seem to give shout outs. In the "Lullaby Lane" episode, an EVP recording reveals a mysterious voice saying "There is no Jean here" which sounds kinda [[http://www.entertonement.com/clips/xsjckwzhcn--Ghostbusters-There-is-no-Dana-only-Zuul-Ghostbusters like]]...
69** In the "Hartford Conservatory" episode, Jason tries to scare Grant with an ax saying "[[Film/TheShining Heeeeere's Jason!]]". In the same episode, they sing "[[WesternAnimation/OneFroggyEvening The Michigan Rag]]".
70* SpinOff:
71** ''Ghost Hunters International'', which is notable for both the locales investigated and for being the team that a lot of former GH members end up on, for whatever reason.
72** ''Ghost Hunters Academy'', where Steve and Tango hold a competition to choose new members of the TAPS team.
73* ThoseTwoGuys: Jay and Grant, Steve and Tango, Kris and Amy.
74* WhamEpisode: The 2/15/12 episode, where [[spoiler:Grant announced he's leaving the team]].
75* WhoWouldWantToWatchUs: After the success of ''Ghost Hunters'', Jason and Grant got to host their first radio show ''TAPS Para-radio''. In the first episode, they poke fun at themselves:
76-->'''Jason:''' ...an episode appeared in Sci-Fi Channel's ''Ghost Hunters'' where the team did an investigation of Valentown. Yeah. Pretty cool, huh? \
77'''Grant:''' Have you seen that show? \
78'''Jason:''' Uh, yeah. I have. I heard some big bald jerk guy...\
79'''Grant:''' I don't know. I haven't watched it. I've heard it's not very good.
80* WolverinePublicity: Constantly showing up on other Syfy shows, such as ''Series/DestinationTruth'', which, even if their appearance lasts two minutes (helping analyzing footage or recordings) it's still hyped as a "Special Guest Appearance!"
81* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes:
82** Steve has phobias for just about everything...''except ghosts''. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Steve himself in the ''St. Augustine Lighthouse'' episode:
83--->'''Steve:''' I'm afraid of a lot of things. I don't like spiders. I don't like heights. I don't like flying. It seems to be that the one thing I'm not afraid of is ghosts.
84** Brian, on more than one occasion, mentioned his fear of dolls.
85** Amy Bruni is claustrophobic and is terrified of elevators. In the 2/15/2012 episode, she and Adam get stuck in an elevator during an investigation and she nearly has a panic attack.
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