BBC's Ghosts, the inspiration for the American CBS comedy of the same name, was originally going to have a lot more happy haunts. At least, that's what the creators claim.

Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Matthew Baynton, and Laurence Rickard were all at MCM Comic Con in London last month discussing their macabre sitcom, and at one point, the topic of the show's origins came up. Apparently, there's an unaired semi-pilot, a "teaser" according to Howe-Douglas, and it featured a lot more ghosts than what fans are used to.

"Initially," says Howe-Douglas, "when we came up with the idea we thought we'd have the whole house populated with lots of different ghosts. [...] Simon [Farnaby] and I played this peasant couple who were in a murder suicide; she had him killed, or killed him, rather, and then accidentally died herself."

"But then as we got further along," she continues, "[...] we felt that we weren't doing we weren't going to learn enough about the characters [...] which is why we all ended up playing one character. Well, except for Larry of course."

That's right, Ghosts fans, if you've ever wondered why only Laurence Rickard plays two of the ghosts (caveman Rogh and the head of Sir Humphrey Bone), it's actually because of a holdover from the original plans for the series, where every member of the cast would play multiples. According to Rickard:

"People often say to me, 'How come you play two?' Like I went and got my agent to say, 'He'll do it, but only if he can play two. But I'm like everyone was playing three originally! And then everyone else went, 'That sounds like a lot of work I won't bother."

"I guess I wasn't there that morning," he joked.

BBC's Ghosts is currently streaming on Paramount+.

Ghosts has become a phenomenon in the UK, America, and around the world. With CBS's third season of Ghosts underway, get to know your favorite apparitions with a guide to how the ghosts of Ghosts died, where to watch both Ghosts shows, a guide to the casts of Ghosts, why BBC's Ghosts ended, and learn about the other Ghosts the original show planned but never used. We even have some thoughts on why the American Ghosts has its own worthy charms.

Ad you can watch full convention panels with both the cast of BBC's Ghosts and CBS' Ghosts exclusively here on Popverse.