The Ghosts-Gilded Age Connection

The cast of CBS' Ghosts

I love it when there is a connection between two of my favorite TV shows, or two of my favorite anything--comic books, movies, Broadway musicals or plays, whatever. Tonight I found one. A few weeks ago, I started watched CBS' Ghosts and got hooked. It looked rather silly when it first appeared on the air three years ago, but then I discovered there were several intriguing storylines including Isaac and Nigel, a pair of gay Revolutionary War era spirits who discover each other in the afterlife, and Hetty, the mistress of Woodstone Manor during the late 1880s. 

The show is pretty funny although there are some weird inconsistencies. The ghosts can't consume or taste food, but they can smell it. They need sleep and can have sex with each other. Why would they need sleep or sex if they have no corporal bodies?

The real Mamie Fish; and Ashlie Atkinson
as the Gilded Age version

Anyway, Hetty (played to a drily sarcastic turn by Rebecca Wisocky) is the connection to the HBO Gilded Age series since she was alive then. While watching all of the old episodes from Seasons 1 through 3 on Paramount Plus, I discovered an even stronger link. In a Season Two segment, the second part of the Christmas special I believe, Trevor, the pantless finance bro, mentions to Hetty (with whom he is having a clandestine ghostly affair) she threw a party to compete with a soiree held by Mamie Fish for her daughter. Mrs. Fish is a real person, but this means in the fictional universe, Hetty Woodstone and Mamie Fish (played by Ashlie Atkinson whom we love in the role) knew each other. So wouldn't it be cool if Rebecca guest-starred on Season Three of Gilded Age as her living Ghosts persona? But that would probably be too much.

B'way actors Phylicia Rashad, Jordan Donica,
Brian Stokes Mitchell and Victoria Clark
will join the cast for Season 3 of
The Gilded Age.
Credit: LUIS BARRIOS;
COREY VANDERPLOEG;
PARADIGM; SOPHIE ELGORT

In other Gilded Age news, more casting of Broadway actors has been announced for Season Three. These include Tony winners Phylicia Rashad (Raisin in the Sun, Skeleton Crew), Brian Stokes Mitchell (Kiss Me Kate), and Victoria Clark (The Light in the Piazza, Kimberly Akimbo) and Tony nominee Jordan Donica (Camelot). Rashad and Mitchell will play prominent members of New York's African-American community and Donica will be their son, a doctor. Clark is an old money New Yorker who supports a son and will face a difficult situation. Perhaps the son will show an interest in Marion who remains unattached after rejecting a proposal of marriage last season. Season Three just started filming in Troy, NY.

Let's start a write-in campaign to get
the live version of Hetty (Rebecca Wisocky)
on HBO's The Gilded Age.
Credit: CBS