Ghost Hunters living up to the spirit of pop-culture's best

About halfway through a rerun last week of the SCI FI Channel’s “Ghost Hunters," paranormal investigator Grant Wilson began the oft-repeated sentence, “E.V.P. stands for electronic voice phenomenon …”

As Wilson read off the definition on camera, myself and a few friends watching the show from my living room finished the line with him, following the cadence and rhythm as closely as we might if a red ball had been bouncing across words on the screen.

That’s when it struck me that I was witnessing something pretty rare, like the pink albino dolphin or a coherent Britney Spears. Wilson and partner Jason Hawes - along with their team, The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) featuring Kris Williams, Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango - have become more than just stars on a popular show that draws about 2.8 million viewers a week. It doesn’t matter if you believe in ghosts or not because the stars of the four-year-old are pop-culture prodigies.

Since the 2004 premiere, “Ghost Hunters” has re-invented the reality-TV genre by focusing on a topic outside of most of our realities. It’s not about contests on an island, weird foods, big families, small families, lousy roomies, bachelor’s harems and hot tubs, racing, singing, dancing, or working for, and being eliminated by, a perpetually angry boss. But it is about a group of friends that started a hobby with the intent to help people as well as get answers about the afterlife.