‘Ghosts’ Star Richie Moriarty on Channeling John Candy for ‘Planes, Trains & Automobiles’-Inspired Thanksgiving Episode

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Ghosts Season 5 Episode 6, “Planes, Shanes, and Automobiles.”]

Ghosts pays homage to a Thanksgiving classic with its latest episode, “Planes, Shanes, and Automobiles,” which saw Sam (Rose McIver) embark on a book tour trip with traveling ghost Pete (Richie Moriarty) by her side.

In the Planes, Trains & Automobiles reflection, Sam leans into Steve Martin‘s role as Neal, while the ever-affable Pete took on the angle of John Candy‘s Del amid travel hiccups. Meanwhile, back at Woodstone, Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) wasn’t tending to the rest of the spirits as they wished he would, so they called in spirit-seeing Kyle (Ben Feldman) to babysit, as they all awaited Sam’s return for Thanksgiving.

The catch? Pete gets on Sam’s nerves rather quickly with his little quirks, but when they find themselves with a broken-down car in the middle of nowhere, it’s Pete’s past connections and legacy that help them score helicopter access to get home in time for the holidays.

Below, Moriarty opens up about the episode inspired by the classic ’80s film and teases what else is in store as Season 5 unfolds, storyline-wise, along with his budding romance with Alberta (Danielle Pinnock).

CBS

This episode title is an homage to Planes, Trains & Automobiles, which is also from Pete’s ’80s era. What was your initial reaction to learning about where the story would take you? 

Richie Moriarty: I loved reading the script. Akilah Green wrote the script, and Heather Jack directed the episode, who has become one of our favorite directors to have on set with us at Ghosts. And, you know, I adore John Candy, I love Steve Martin, I love this movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, so it was so fun to just see the title of the episode first, and be like, “Oh, OK, there’s gonna be some references in here,” and then to find out that I’m essentially the John Candy in the storyline. I was like, “Oh, this is gonna be so fun.”

I rewatched the movie, and man, does it hold up. It’s so good, and John Candy is one of those actors who was so good at playing lovably annoying, and I think there’s a lot of that in Pete. You know, Pete can be cloying at times, and he can be, you know, he can drive some of the other ghosts in the house crazy. So I was like, “OK, I gotta call deep on the John Candy within this character and make him as lovably annoying as possible,” and the other thing that’s so nice to find out when you see a script like this is that it’s really nice to get these like one-on-one scenes with somebody, and Rose McIver is the best, and it was so much fun.

Pete is lucky due to the fact that he’s able to leave Woodstone. How has it been spreading Pete’s wings in that way, and was there really a helicopter on set for this episode?!

Bertrand Calmeau / CBS

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It was such a cool day, and a lot of the things I was most excited about did not make the final cut. There was this really cool shot that we filmed of us exiting the helicopter and then walking toward the mansion as it took off in the background. And so yeah, there was a real helicopter, we were only in it when the blades were off, so we didn’t actually fly in it. But yeah, it’s one of those things where our crew is just incredible. They don’t get these scripts with a ton of lead time. So it’s always fun to see stuff that comes together. But yeah, the helicopter was super fun. It was legitimately there, and it landed and took off a number of times for different shots, much of which you don’t see in the final episode, unfortunately.

The only reason that Sam is able to get the helicopter ride home is because of a guy whose dad was friends with Pete. What does it mean for Pete to have his name recognised so many years later?

Yeah, the thing that I always think of is that I forget where this originates, but there’s this saying that the, the first time you die is when your like physical body fails and you die, and the last time you die is when your name is uttered for the last time, and I think for like for Pete especially to hear that his name is still being mentioned, his name, his legacy has gone on to to some degree, and to have Sam there to keep it alive too is huge. We all want to feel like we’re making a lasting impact and that people remember us and remember us fondly, so anytime there’s an episode like this where somebody who is still alive is referencing one of us, I think it’s really powerful and it means that our legacy lives on to some degree and, and that we haven’t died fully, you know, that we’re still very much in the minds of the people around us.

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Pete’s storylines are always fairly emotional and serious. Are you holding out hope for a sillier plot in the future?

I feel like our writers do such a good job of tugging on heartstrings with major Pete episodes, and I love playing that aspect of it, obviously, but there’s an episode coming up… It’s between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and last season, or maybe two seasons ago, we had this storyline that popped up from the writers in the table draft of a fight club that the basement ghosts operate. For whatever reason, that storyline went away, and I think we even filmed a fight club scene. It either didn’t make the cut for time or whatever, but we were all so bummed. They bring it back this year, and there’s an upcoming episode that, to your question, is super silly. It’s ridiculous. I love physical comedy, I’m always excited to see new challenges and new storylines that come up that push what I’ve done on screen so far.

Pete and Alberta are finally pursuing romance this season. What can you tease about their relationship moving forward? 

From what the audience has seen so far, the relationship is still very much in its infancy. They’re still in the newlywed phase, and they’re also trying to find time alone in a very busy house, so that’s been fun to play, but there’s an upcoming episode right after that Fight Club one that I was talking about. I think it’s right before the Christmas episodes, where Alberta reveals a pretty major secret from her past, and it’s a big Alberta episode. Every relationship hits a point where you open up to each other about something where you’re more honest than you typically would be, and I think that really deepens things for Alberta and Pete in a new way.

Ghosts, Season 5, Thursdays, 8:30/7:30c, CBS

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