ARRHHHHH! Sorry, just having a conniption after watching the 3 previews. There is no way I could watch this show! Psychics and orbs. I need a tranquilizer.

I was putting down some thoughts on the premise and cast of this show before delving into the idiocy of this whole production.  I was going to write a review but you guys beat me to it and are doing a bang up job. For now, let me post what I've written about the germination of this disaster:

Shows about the paranormal seem to be the latest fad to hit television in the last several years.  Not to be outdone, truTV (whose motto “Not Reality. Actuality” makes no sense to me) have decided to replace their previous effort, Haunting Evidence”, with something called Door to the Dead.  In doing so, they went from being mildly absurd to totally outrageous.

I can picture the “suits” at truTv mulling over the fact that they need a show about the paranormal to stay in contention with A & E, SciFi and the Travel Channel.  Someone had a light bulb moment and thought “Viewers really fall for that Paranormal State storyline.  Maybe we can give it a go.  And hey, why don’t we add a skeptic to the mix?  It’ll work.  Why not?  The public seems to be lapping this stuff up anyway!”

Or something along those lines.

So we have been graced with Door to the Dead, starring John Oliver, Chris Moon and Alison Smith.  Just as a recap:

John Oliver: another self-proclaimed medium and cold/hot reader who seems to be a combination of Ryan Buell and Chip Coffey. An apparent attempt to emulate PR’s famous duo rolled into one. The “I think, I feel, I sense” type of investigating is his main modus operandi.  Telling people who are suffering from some sort of emotional distress or having a problem going through the grieving process that their problems revolve around some sort of demon seems to be a favorite tack with this type of “entertainer”.

Chris Moon: where shall I start?  President of Haunted Times magazine, Moon is basically known for two things: traveling around the country under the banner of “Ghost Hunter University”, giving lectures in supposedly haunted places (at least you get dinner with this package), and promoting the infamous radio-like device that he alleges can “talk to the dead” and was Thomas Edison’s big secret.  Yeah, right.

Alison Smith: billed as a “Professional Skeptic”.  Someone please enlighten me, but the meaning of this alludes me.  Being a skeptic denotes a certain way of looking at purported claims.  It is not a profession, at least the last time I looked.  What is equally puzzling is the fact that Ms. Smith is/was one of the biggies of SAPS, whose premise (taken from their website) is as follows:

“The most important thing to remember about SAPS is that our goal is not to spread unbelief, but to offer alternate ways of thinking about paranormal events. This does not mean that your own paranormal experience didn't happen, or that you are deluded or ignorant or stupid. It merely means that there has never been concrete evidence of the paranormal, yet there are individuals who will represent their findings as absolute truth.”

OK, it appears Ms. Smith has jumped the SAPS ship and gone over to the dark side.  In the truTV forums, one poster stated that the original promo for her was “skeptic turned believer”, which is the only way to make sense about her sudden conversion.  On the SAPS website she has photos of herself and Grant showing a friendly repartee' between the two.  Early signs of trouble?

How interesting that SAPS has an excellent debunk of orbs in general and in this show Ms. Smith is getting excited over their appearance on the screens she is watching.  If she is a skeptic, then I'm Mrs. Claus.  Wonder if she is still on the panel of Randi's Million Dollar challenge? 

There wasn't a hint of skepticism to be seen.  The skeptic label, in this case, is a sad joke.

Good thoughts, Stephen.  It's perplexing, to say the least.

Just for good measure, I went over to the SAPS website and nothing over there indicates any kind of change in viewpoint.  It's still the debunking and skeptical place it always was.  I even re-read the sections on orbs, which of course they point out have natural origins or are camera flukes.  So it was really a shock to see Alison pointing out the orbs during the show.  In fact, I knew she would do this ahead of time as I watched the trailer on truTV.com.

Then I wandered over to the news section (I think that was it) and there were pics of her taken at DragonCon with Grant Wilson.  They looked like two long time friends, and she captioned the photos saying she still took him to task or something like that.  Now, I believe in being civil, but I can remember when there was a time that TAPS had been quite upset at SAPS.  Oh well, maybe it was nothing but water under the bridge.

This was obviously John Oliver's tour de force, complete with all the usual medium trappings.  So I could see Alison doing what he asked her to do since he was in charge. 

What was laughable/tragic is her association with Chris Moon and that ludicrous machine.  As a skeptic, I would have found it hard to go along with that dog and pony show without saying SOMETHING.  These are the sort of people that skeptics find themselves debating and many times criticizing when some of these snake oil salesmen seem to be doing more harm then good, all in the name of money. Yet there was no dissenting point of view forthcoming from the "professional skeptic" (I still laugh at the term).

I hate to bring up Most Haunted, but at least their skeptic, Ciaran O'Keefe has degrees in psychology and parapsychology and does some serious research outside of that show.  He goes along as all the so-called investigating occurs, only occasionally taking part.  At the end, he gives his summation, which often shoots down any paranormal origins for what was experienced.  Of course, this show is not taken seriously anyway, but at least their skeptic is given an opportunity at the end to present his summation to the viewers.  This is what I thought was going to happen here.  No dice.

I was surprised to read about the "skeptic turned believer" tag that was originally Alison's description, but, as I stated above, it was changed to "professional skeptic".  So far from what I've seen-and you may be right about the editing bit-I don't know if Randi would have been impressed with her TV appearance.

This show is so indicative of the continuing downward spiral of any shows dealing with the paranormal.  The heavy reliance on all the trappings of medievalism, religiousity, wacky equipment which LOOKS scientific coupled with a family experiencing some kind of emotional trauma again assures that the people who are scientific researchers will continue to be laughed out of the scientific community. 

I've got a number of observations but feel I've already monopolised this thread.  Let me just say that this is a blatant ripoff of PS (or PR, their newer name), to the point where it might behoove the latter to sue.  But actually I could care less, since my opinion of PS is about as low as it is of this show, if this episode is any indication.

Geez, I've got a few skulls in my house.  Maybe they have gotten inside MY head and are telling me what to do.  Now, if they know the winning lottery numbers, I hope they can transmit them to me ASAP.

I decided to really check into the oft made claim that Edison was working on a mysterious telephone to the dead.  Chris Moon is not the only one touting this belief around; it has had all the trappings of an urban legend that has been bouncing around for quite some time.

In fact, that is exactly what it is.  Here it is, straight from the Edison National Historic Site:

Did Edison make a machine that could talk to the dead?

This seems to be another tall tale that Edison pulled on a reporter. In 1920 Edison told the reporter, B.F. Forbes, that he was working on a machine that could make contact with the spirits of the dead. Newspapers all over the world picked up this story. After a few years, Edison admitted that he had made the whole thing up. Today at Edison National Historic Site, we take care of over five million pages of documents. None of them mention such an experiment.

By the way, the reporter had a son named Malcolm Forbes. He published Forbes Magazine and became rich and famous himself.  

http://www.nps.gov/archive/edis/edifun/edifun_4andup/faqs_fables.htm#talk

So there it is: a tall tale that grows ever taller in the telling.  And that about sums up this episode for me.

P.S. Stephen, it would be fantastic if you can get Alison on the podcast, but I have a feeling that there will be that ever ubiquitous contract that doesn't allow anyone connected with a production to spill any beans.  It's worth a try.

Just a heads up–Alison has not logged into her MySpace page since 2/11.  Seems like she has disappeared off the radar.  Curiouser and curiouser.

bullerspoke-About the "cutting room floor" part.  Editing has been blamed for a lot of omissions in any number of shows, and I'm sure there is some validity to it. 

But in this case, Alison was advertised as a skeptic.  To not show even one or two minutes of her speaking like a skeptic made the description of the show very dubious indeed.  I wonder if the promo used the term skeptic just to draw in viewers, who were then expecting to hear some logical, possible explanations for what occurred. In this case there was zilch.

It could be that she said some things which were quite critical of the events and the producers felt it might start some of the audience doubting the concept of this show, and others like it.  Given enough skepticism, that cash cow may then start running out of cash.

But I don't think so.  I don't think anything Alison said or done was cut out.  I call this show False Advertising, among other names that I'm too much of a lady to use here.