Library of Congress to host cast of CBS sitcom ‘Ghosts,’ including Rockville native with prop arrow in his neck
Fans of the hilariously haunting sitcom “Ghosts” can tune in this Thursday at 8:30 p.m. on CBS, following New York couple Samantha and Jay, who inherit a country mansion inhabited by ghosts who died on the grounds.
Next Tuesday, the cast visits the Library of Congress in D.C. for a special event where the library will present each cast member with artifacts from their respective eras. It includes Alberta (Danielle Pinnock), Pete (Richie Moriarty) Trevor (Asher Grodman), Hetty (Rebecca Wisocky) and Sass (Román Zaragoza).
“I’m a 1980s ghost, so I’m really hoping they have a DeLorean just waiting for me in the Library of Congress,” Moriarty told WTOP. “We don’t know the items yet, they haven’t told us, so we’re all very excited to discover what they’ve unearthed from our different areas. It’s going to be really cool to see.”
“I can’t wait,” Pinnock told WTOP. “I’m really thinking they will probably have moonshine for Alberta because of the 1920s Prohibition era, but we’ll see.”
After the presentation of various artifacts, there will be a special advanced screening of episode seven of season three called “Polterguest” in the library’s Coolidge Auditorium.
“We’re going to screen an upcoming episode, we’re going to have a Q&A after that. We’re so excited, it’s going to be very fun for the people that come to be able to see an episode before it airs,” Moriarty said.
“I haven’t seen it yet, but there’s a few different things happening in that,” Pinnock said. “Alberta has a love interest coming, played by Lamorne Morris from ‘New Girl,’ which was just announced, and I cannot wait to see it because there’s a ton of shenanigans that we get involved with in that episode. … He was amazing, truly. Working alongside him, I was breaking character every moment. He was cracking us up. He’s incredible.”
“Lamorne was one of those people that just came in and right away you knew he was going to nail every moment of this episode,” Moriarty said. “It’s so fun to have a veteran like him on, who is just immediately perfect in the role and knows exactly what he’s doing. … He plays a baseball player from the Negro League and his outfit, his jersey from that era, is incredible. Our costumers are amazing on the show and what they created for him is so cool.”
Before that episode, be sure to watch episode six of season three, “Hello, Brother,” on Thursday night.
“Trevor, Asher Grodman’s character, has his brother visiting the mansion, so we get to see his grown-up brother, who is Jon Glaser, who’s one of the funniest people in the world,” Moriarty said. “It’s a great episode tonight.”
The storyline also picks up after Pete’s philandering widow, Carol, died and joined the cast of ghosts in the mansion. Alberta even pretended she was Pete’s boyfriend, but by the end of the episode she appeared to be catching some feelings for the usually dorky Pete as he removed the arrow from his neck with a suave head tilt.
“Pete finally has his sexy moment!” Moriarty said. “That scene was so funny because the way it was shot was perfect. … They cut to Alberta a couple different times and, Danielle, what you are doing with your eyes and your face is so perfect and so funny! … You got so many laughs just from your reaction like: ‘What? Who is this?!'”
“I’m telling you, Pete is fine, honey, it’s the swoop bangs, I’m telling you, when the hand went through that swoop, Alberta was in love,” Pinnock said. “Richie is a master class watching him in that episode, even just filming it, I was laughing so much. It really is just a testament to his range as an actor and I’m just really excited for you all to see the rest of the season. … I think that this is the best show on broadcast TV.”
The Library of Congress event will mark a homecoming for Moriarty, who attended Wootton High School in Rockville, Maryland, with Utkarsh Ambudkar, who plays Jay to Rose McIver’s Samantha.
“We went to high school together, he was a freshman when I was a senior, and we didn’t even know this until we were cast on ‘Ghosts,'” Moriarty said. “We’re excited to come back to the D.C. area and Brandon Scott Jones (who plays Isaac) is from Baltimore and his family is still there, so there are a bunch of Maryland people in our cast. So often we are in New York or L.A. to promote the show, so it’s really nice to be coming to D.C. this time.”
Pinnock is not from D.C.; she grew up in New Jersey and attended Temple University in Philadelphia with Emmy winner Quinta Brunson (“Abbott Elementary”) and Oscar winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph (“The Holdovers”).
“It was a beautiful time to be at that school,” Pinnock said. “I’m a proud Jersey gal, my family is Jamaican and, I’m telling you, they are going to be taking a church bus and coming to the Library of Congress. My uncles are coming, my aunties are coming, my cousins, they got their tickets the first day. … I cannot wait to see my family because I live in Los Angeles now and everyone (else) is on the East Coast, so I can’t wait to give them big hugs.”
Listen to our full conversation on the podcast below: