SyFy Announces Crypto-Possible Series
Posted by: Loren Coleman on March 20th, 2010
Syfy announced it has ordered Paranormal Investigators, a new reality series that will follow a team of specialists as they attempt to uncover supernatural and paranormal occurrences caught on camera.
You all may have seen the pilot of the series with Jeff Meldrum and Bill Munns examining the Patterson-Gimlin footage on National Geographic.
Now the greenlighted series (six episodes) is currently slated to premiere Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 10PM ET/PT.
According to a press release from Syfy, the new hour-long series Paranormal Investigators (working title) was announced on Thursday by Mark Stern, Executive Vice President of Original Programming, Syfy and Co-Head of Content for Universal Cable Productions. Paranormal Investigators will separate fact from fiction by scouring the web and traveling the world in an attempt to uncover the truth behind some of the most compelling, unexplained supernatural and paranormal occurrences caught on camera.
The series is executive produced by John Brenkus and Mickey Stern for BASE Productions, and is a co-production with Sci Fi Channel Europe LLC. The six episodes of Paranormal Investigators will begin production during spring 2010 and premiere summer 2010.
“Paranormal Investigators is a strong and natural fit for our growing Syfy reality slate and will be in great company alongside our successful Ghost Hunters franchise,” said Stern. “Our new partnership with BASE Productions is an exciting way to continue to grow our development mission of imagination based entertainment.”
The six-person team, led by former FBI Special Agent Ben Hansen, consists of Larry Caughlan, Jael de Pardo, Chi-Lan Lieu, Bill Murphy and Austin Porter. In each episode, the team will first analyze and debate potential cases by reviewing intriguing and unusual scenes and images captured on video and posted online by “eyewitnesses” from all over the world. The wide-ranging phenomena being investigated will include cryptozoology and creature sightings, as well as other unexplained topics.
After agreeing on which video warrants further investigation, the team will embark on a full investigation in order to try and explain the unexplainable, and dispel hoaxes from fact. They will try to recreate images, carry out scientific experiments, and search for clues and evidence using the latest technology and investigative techniques; in order to answer the question, “Is this real?”
“Paranormal Investigators (working title) will take viewers inside the creepy and mysterious world of paranormal behavior,” said Brenkus. “In each episode, investigators armed with the latest in high-tech equipment set out to uncover the truth behind compelling images, to dispel or prove their accuracy.”
BASE Productions
BASE Productions, Inc. is a ten-time Emmy Award and sixteen-time IDEA Award-winning production company breaking new ground for cutting-edge reality, docusoap, documentary and unscripted infotainment programming. BASE has extensive resources and expertise in the use of advanced motion-capture and CGI technology, bringing a signature cinematic look and feel to all of its productions. BASE Productions is based in Los Angeles and Washington DC. The company was founded by John Brenkus and Mickey Stern. For more information, please visit www.BASEproductions.com
Syfy is a media destination for imagination-based entertainment. With year round acclaimed original series, events, blockbuster movies, classic science fiction and fantasy programming, a dynamic Web site, and a portfolio of adjacent business (Syfy Ventures), Syfy is a passport to limitless possibilities. Originally launched in 1992 as SCI FI Channel, and currently in 95 million homes, Syfy is a network of NBC Universal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies. Syfy. The network’s tagline is “Imagine greater.”
[It is noteworthy of mentioning that Josh Gates’ Destination Truth and Ghost Hunters is on SyFy, so it remains to be see if there is any overlap with these programs.]
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
As a personality, SyFy would be hard pressed to replace Josh Gates. He’s arguably the face of the network now. Even if his show sometimes veers wildly off course (This year’s season premiere with the leprechaun hunt being a prime example) it had its best season last year. At least Ryder didn’t scream and run back to camp as usual.
Ghost Hunters seems to be here to stay. Even though content and contact seems a bit shaky, those guys keep churning out the investigations and we keep watching.
The pilot episode of Paranormal Investigators was easily the best paranormal program I saw last year. Let’s hope they keep their standards high, add Loren Coleman to their cast of recurring characters, and stick to evidence while leaving the wild speculations to the wanna-be shows.
Sounds like another great show, that I will be checking out. There is nothing good on Tuesday nights, so I hope they put it on then. Any night but Mondays and certainly not Wednesdays. There are so many good shows on those nights, that I have to watch some and tape some.
As for “Destination Truth”, I could care less about Ryder. Where is Jael? I need to see her gorgeous face. Last week, he got the girls in bikinis and Jael wasn’t there. That was a cruel thing to do, to the male viewers.
Don’t worry Cryptidcrazy, this being the “internets” and all I sure there are pictures of girls in bikinis somewhere out there on the world wide web to your liking.
And as far as the leprechaun hunt went on” Destination Truth” was I the only person to think that the steaming substance that two of he team mates found was fresh animal scat. I didn’t see the end of the show so I don’t know if they analyzed it or not and what it turned out to be. My guess would be partially digested Lucky Charms, they’re magically delicious.
Oh great, just what the crypto community needs, another weekly cheeseburger like Ghost Hunters. That is NOT the way to get good coverage of cryptids out to the general public. To those of you members here who don’t understand my scepticism, watch an episode of Ghost Hunters and mentally substitute “Bigfoot” for “ghost”. I don’t want a Bigfoot “hunter to freak out and flee with a creature in spotting distance, I want Patterson Film II!!