A GhostWriter on campus

Every Friday after school, starting in 1992, thousands of kids across America turned on PBS in their living rooms and dens to watch the hit show GhostWriter. Taking place in Brooklyn, N.Y., the show featured a group of middle-school detectives solving mysteries with the aid of a floating blue ball that couldn't hear or see, but could both write and read. One of the show's main characters, Tina Nguyen, was played by a resident of Philadelphia named Tram-Ahn Tran. Tram-Ahn's little sister, both on the show and off, currently attends Boston College after spending close to four years growing up on the set of GhostWriter. Tien Tran, A&S '09, was the youngest member of the GhostWriter cast, starring in the show from age 4 through 6. She recently told all about her experiences growing up as an actress on a popular children's television series.

The beginning of Tien's career coincided with her sister's. "I started when I was around four. My older sister used to do talent shows and one of the judges happened to be an agent that picked her up. I just kind of got dragged along and ended up doing all sorts of modeling jobs and auditions," she said. One such audition landed the duo roles as sisters on GhostWriter. Tien spoke of the time commitment involved with such a job and the effect it had on the day-to-day life of a normal kid.

"We spent our summers in Brooklyn but our house was in Philadelphia. My sister was in Brooklyn pretty much year-round and I ended up spending just as much time on the set, sometimes just hanging around. I would hang out in the wardrobe room and sit in with the writers. It was actually really cool. I spent a lot of time on the set when I was only in first or second grade and missing school wasn't a huge problem, but my sister and the rest of the cast all needed tutors to keep up," she said.

Being the youngest member of the cast was never a problem for Tien. She emphasized that the rest of the cast was always nice to her. "Because I was the youngest member of the cast, everybody treated me like their little sister. They would bring me treats and presents all the time."

Tien continued on to describe how she was the entertainment for the cast and crew during breaks. "I used to make up songs and rhymes about the different people in the crew and they'd always try and get me to make new ones up. I would sing and dance for them and they all thought it was pretty funny".

Tien, being as young as she was, remembers finding certain things about the show a little funnier than everyone else. For instance, the actual character GhostWriter, was portrayed on the show by a blue circle that floated around. The circle was added into the different shots after they had been filmed. "When I was on the set I remember laughing when they had to talk to or watch GhostWriter, because he wasn't really there. I was like 'What are they doing? That looks so funny!'"

Tien also said that being so young prevented her from fully understanding the enormity of the project with which she was involved. "Even though I was kind of jaded from modeling and other things, I was still totally stoked to see myself on TV. I used to go home and see all my little friends and ask them if they saw me. It was pretty exciting," she said.

In retrospect, Tien said that now she sees this experience in a different light: "I think I was a little too young to appreciate just how big it really was. It's weird to think we were on national television. We would travel around the country on publicity tours and I remember specifically stopping at the Mall of America [in Minnesota] a bunch of times. People would wait in these huge lines just to get my sister and the rest of the cast's autographs. Looking back on it, it was pretty insane."

A few years after the show ended, a new GhostWriter show came out on CBS with different characters. Tien said she wasn't thrilled about it.

"What a bad show. When it came out I remember thinking 'What are they doing? Why would they want to remake something that was already so good?'"

The rest of the country agreed, and the show flopped, barely making it to the end of the first season.

But the old GhostWriter series lives on with the Tran family. Referring to the pens the kid detectives on the show used to tie around their necks, Tien said, "I haven't put one on in a while, but we still have some at home. If you walk down into my basement we have all the old GhostWriter paraphernalia. There are posters on the walls, the pens we used to hang around our necks and we have every single episode taped. I was actually looking at an old tape recently to see if I could find something for my sister's wedding."

After the show ended, Tien's acting career tapered off. "When we moved to Erie, Pa., things kind of slowed down because there were less opportunities. I haven't done much acting since, but the experience [with GhostWriter] definitely helped when I auditioned for Shovelhead."

Tien said that working with Hello … Shovelhead!, an on-campus sketch-comedy group, has reawakened some old feelings about acting. "I'm a biology and pre-med major, so it would be quite a leap, but Shovelhead has definitely got me back into performing. I really enjoy sketch comedy and sketch writing and I'd like to see how far that could take me ... but my parents don't know anything about that yet."

She also loves being at BC.

"My sister went to BU and I asked her to bring me out here. I loved the campus feel, the city, and the sense of community. It's a great atmosphere," she said.

Has GhostWriter fame followed her through the grades and into college? She said her sister bears the brunt of that.

"My sister still gets random fan mail today. Every once in a while, someone would pick her out on the street asking 'Aren't you Tina?' I don't really get picked out. People here found out because it started as a sort of joke. I was just sitting around with my friends and somehow GhostWriter came up and I told them 'I was on that show!' They didn't believe me at first, but pretty soon it started circulating."