Vancouver-based Mainframe Studios (Barbie: A Touch of Magic, Octonauts: Above and Beyond, The Guava Juice Show) has teamed up with creators Josh Saltzman & Evan Thaler Hickey to develop and produce Ghost Town, an animated horror-comedy series for older kids, tweens — and anyone else who loves a little scary in their hilarity.
Ghost Town is about15-year-old Alberta Townsend, the daughter and right-hand of the world’s foremost ghost hunter, who does the unthinkable when she befriends a teenaged ghost and finds a way to help the haunted instead of exterminate them.
The project emerged in the early days of Saltzman and Thaler Hickey’s friendship: They went out for lunch while staffed on another show and all they could talk about was ghosts and making a show that’s equal parts funny and scary.
“It’s a perfect setup for a horror-comedy procedural, but with a twist. Instead of solving crimes, our heroes uncover the reason a ghost haunts in the first place so it can rest in peace,” notes Thaler Hickey. “It’s a love letter to all the things that haunt us.”
The friends and collaborators are both fascinated with phantoms. Saltzman was the resident ghost story teller at an overnight camp, whose stories former campers still say traumatized them. Thaler Hickey grew up spending his summers in a purported haunted house, and has been fascinated by ghosts ever since.
“Every ghost story is a mystery. What is the ghost’s unfinished business and why haven’t they crossed over?” says Saltzman. “Ghost Town will feature every ghost iteration we’ve ever seen or heard of: poltergeists, full-body apparitions and ectoplasmic phantasms, to name a few.”
Saltzman is a Canadian Comedy Award-winning Toronto/L.A.-based writer, director and producer. He was the head writer of Inspector Gadget (Netflix) and has written for Fangbone! (Disney XD), Pete the Cat (Prime Video) and the Peanuts holiday special, It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown (Apple TV+). Saltzman is also the author of the YA horror anthology Strange Yarns, available on Wattpad with over a half a million downloaded reads.
Thaler Hickey is a WGC Award-winning writer, creator and producer with over 100 episodes of television to his name. He has served as head writer on multiple series, with animation credits including Inspector Gadget (Netflix) and Go Away, Unicorn! (YTV/Disney Channel), consulting producer/writer on The Magic School Bus Rides Again (Netflix). He is also creator, EP and writer on live-action sitcom Goldie’s Oldies for Nickelodeon International.
Series development for Ghost Town was spearheaded by Mainframe’s SVP Content Gregory Little, who will executive produce along with Mainframe President & CCO Michael Hefferon and Saltzman & Thaler Hickey.
Mainframe is exploring a look for the series influenced by vintage horror comics and hand-drawn animation.
“Mainframe uses our original content to expand the studio into new creative directions,” says Little. “This is an older look for us that we all think is a perfect match tonally for what Josh and Evan want to achieve in the show.”
The project will be going out to potential partners from this month.
