Syfy's 'Ghost Hunter' Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson : Syfy publicity still

After dealing with demons, ghosts and poltergeists, you wouldn’t think the stars of Syfy’s “Ghost Hunters” would be bested by group of Colorado kids. Still, while investigating the case of a little boy haunted by dead celebrities, Jason Hawes wet his pants – and Grant Wilson, Hawes’ co-star of the supernatural reality-TV show, experienced much, much worse incontinence issues – before running out of the house screaming, all the way back to their homes in Rhode Island.

Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, meet Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of Comedy Central’s “South Park.” In the Oct. 7 episode, the two co-founders of The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) – the paranormal investigative group around which the Syfy show is based – were spoofed.
Far from being offended or incensed, Hawes and Wilson say they loved being made fun of alongside Michael Jackson and Billy Mays by a show notorious for taking the pulse of a zeitgeist before giving it a shot of adrenaline. Although the ghost hunters weren’t involved with the making of the episode and didn’t lend voices to their animated counterparts, they helped promote it through their very active Twitter feeds and TAPS fans responded by pushing “#ghosthunters” to a popular “trending topic” of the day.

For two guys with day jobs as Roto-Rooter plumbers who spent more than 20 years of free time in the company of scared homeowners with spectral squatters, this not-insignificant spoof by “South Park” is another indication that Hawes and Wilson, and the show that premiered in 2004 (on the erstwhile SCI FI Channel), have transcended the paranormal entertainment niche, become lasting pop-culture mainstays – and are the busiest men in the ghost business.

The show, which received 3.1 million total viewers for the fifth season's Oct. 22 episode, is touted by Syfy as the top paranormal investigative series on TV due to the fact that it more than doubled the audience totals for last week's new episodes of the competing paranormal series “Ghost Lab” on Discovery and “Extreme Paranormal” on A&E. Numbers aside, the success of the “Ghost Hunters” franchise also includes: two series spin-offs, “Ghost Hunters International” and the new “Ghost Hunters Academy,” premiering Nov. 11; the flagship show’s one-hundredth episode, which is filming in November; live speaking engagements and ticketed investigations that draw upwards of two hundred fans; upcoming appearances on Oct. 30 installments of “The Today Show” and “Larry King Live;” a second book, “Seeking Spirits: The Lost Cases of The Atlantic Paranormal Society,” the follow-up to the 2007 “New York Times” bestselling “Ghost Hunting: True Stories of Unexplained Phenomena from The Atlantic Paranormal Society.”
As far as how they manage to fit so much into a production schedule of 27 episodes a year, Hawes just jokes, “It’s a balancing act … but isn’t there like 28 hours in every day?”

“We never thought we’d make it this far,” he adds, speaking over the phone from his home in Rhode Island.

“We’re living the paranormal investigator’s dream,” agrees Wilson, also speaking from his Rhode Island home. “We’re investigating these great places and you don’t necessarily have to foot the bill all the time.”

 Seeking Spirits TAPS

These comments set the tone for much of the interview. Like brothers from another mother, Hawes and Wilson typically agree with, harass, and finish one another’s sentences and both maintain a gee-whiz awareness of the long strange trip it’s been from plumbing to ghost hunting on a major cable network. But there is still plumbing to be done.

“We still plumb. It’s just when production goes on hiatus, we go back to our normal lives,” say Hawes.

Those normal lives include wives and a combined ghost-hunting brood of eight kids. And the duo both says those families is what all the work is for.

“That’s what happens when they’re requesting 27 episodes a year, it’s nonstop. It looks like we’re at a place for six hours, we’re there numerous days.”

While neither is complaining, the grueling schedule takes a toll on how and when they can be with their kids. That’s the background to the decision to not take part in a live Halloween night investigation this year. Instead of six hours of watching the TAPS team investigate, beginning at 7 p.m. on Oct. 31, EST, Syfy is airing a five-episode “interactive best-of” - as Wilson describes it - with members of “Academy,” hosted by Josh Gates of “Destination Truth” and supplemented by pre-recorded segments of Hawes and Wilson.

“We’ve been asking for four years to be able to stay home with our families,” says Hawes. “Finally we’re going to be able to. So I’m super-psyched about this.”

Adds Wilson, “I’m so tired of telling my son, when he asks, ‘What are you going to be for Halloween, Dad?’ and I say, ‘Gone.’ Not cool.”

Wilson, the interaction with clergy is not. Not featured prominently on the show, but mentioned often in the book, is the fact that TAPS works with churches and religions to assist people. Wilson also says that sometimes helping to rid a home of an entity can be directly related to a client’s belief system.

Says Wilson,“We work with a lot of clergy. We work with many different religions and many different churches. We have a whole abundance of cases that fall under a confidentiality agreement.”

Hawes adds that, on the show as opposed to in a book, names and faces are harder to change.

“We’ve done cases of so-called possession since our show has been on, but we’ve never wanted to put that on television for the mere fact that we want to protect that person … the minute we’d do that, everyone online is either going to embrace them and understand them or destroy them.

Within the book, however, Hawes says he and Wilson worked with Friedman to tell compelling stories that all took place prior to the show’s premiere. They also wanted to pass along practical investigative tips while being true to themselves and TAPS.

“We sat outside in my camper, went over a lot of old case files – the ones that were prior to the show – and decided which ones would be best suited for the book. We went over the entire cases with Mike as he wrote them. So we were right there.”

“We helped shape it. It’s really a collective process,” says Wilson.

“Mike’s got the talent and we’ve got the stories.”

“Yeah, because Grant and I can’t write for crap,” jokes Hawes.

 Jay and Grant in night vision

Still, there might be more writing in their future. Hawes and Wilson have been speaking with Jane Stine, wife of “Goosebumps” author R.L. Stine, about working together on a series of children’s books.

Additionally, they were pitched the idea of a Saturday morning TAPS cartoon. The idea never came to fruition, but Hawes and Wilson say they’d “love to do something like that.”

In the meantime, Hawes and Wilson say they’re happy for the moments when hang out with their family and friends, watch “Dexter” on Showtime and play with iPhone apps. And like two brothers who can be so similar, yet completely different, Hawes digs “Sons of Anarchy” on FX and relaxes to Ozzy Osbourne, Otep and Black Label Society whereas Wilson is more of a Iron & Wine, Jack Johnson and classical music guy who watches the Japanese manga “Death Note.”

They both agree on the point that while the “South Park” spoof was cool, being lampooned on fellow Rhode Islander Seth MacFarlane’s “Family Guy” would be more appropriate.

It looks like MacFarlane has time, though, because Hawes and Wilson will be continuing their ghost hunting on Syfy for the moment.

But they add that they do see an end in sight where they can tend to The Spalding Inn, the joint venture in New Hampshire.

“Jay and I talk about that all the time,” says Wilson. “Sitting in the rocking chairs on the front porch of the Spalding … look at the views and then once in a while, go do an appearance or something.” He adds that “the plumbing days are there for a reason. I’m sure the show is not going to last forever, so we’ll go back to that and be happy to go back to that.”

Hawes agrees and says, “I don’t think I ever want to retire. The thing is, I enjoy getting out of the house, working, doing stuff like that. There’s so much to do… I could be 70 and still working.”

“But I’d like to try it for a week or two.”

Follow Paranormal Pop Culture expert Aaron Sagers daily on Twitter under “AaronSagers” and on his site, www.paranormalpopculture.com. He can be contacted at aaron@paranormalpopculture.com