Western Animation / Phantom Investigators

"Phantom investigators"
^note From left to right:Casey, Kira, Daemona, and Jericho.

Phantom Investigators! When the going gets eerier, we are superior!

Phantom Investigators was a show created by Stephen Holman and Josephine T. Huang with their studio, (W)Holesome Products, Inc. (already known for the KaBlam! short series, Life With Loopy), produced by Sony Pictures Television (then known as Columbia TriStar Television) for Kids' WB! in 2002. The show was known for mixing Stop Motion and traditional 2D hand drawn animation, as well as live action puppetry.

The show featured a team of four junior-high aged paranormal investigators who would solve supernatural mysteries around their hometown of San Francisco. The cast was comprised of the team leader, Daemona, a telekinetic, Jericho, a telepath, Kira, and a shapeshifter, Casey.

The show premiered on May 25, 2002 and became the highest rated show in its 11:30 AM timeslot on Saturday mornings. While it looked like Kids WB had a new hit on their hands, the network was pretty upset over the show eventually slipping in ratings with younger male viewers while it grew with female viewers (all despite the fact that the network picked up the show in order to gain more female viewers). Thus, the show was cancelled with only one season of thirteen episodes. The sudden cancellation caused Sony to stop funding production, preventing any other networks potentially picking it up. And due to WB's dissatisfaction with it not doing as well in the specific demographic that they wanted, only six episodes aired in the United States, with the show quietly being yanked off the schedule on June 29, 2002. The remaining seven episodes all premiered outside the US on Teletoon in Canada and various international feeds of Cartoon Network where available. It remains a very obscure series due to its very short run and lack of an official commercial release, but it has its own small following- especially among Life With Loopy fans that wanted to check out the studio's other work.

Has a character page in need of some work.

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Phantom Investigators! We'll list your tropes 'cause we're no dopes!:

• Abandoned Area: Omega Alpha Pi, the abandoned fraternity in "Omega Pizza Pi".
• Above Good and Evil: The station of Elementals, the highest in the supernatural hierarchy. However they can be called on to settle any personal grudges, such as the elemental of roadkill being called to devour a powerful possessed car responsible for many animal deaths.
• Aerith and Bob: Kira, Jericho, Casey...and Daemona.
• Ambiguously Absent Parent: Casey's mom, according to press releases and magazine articles about the show leading up to it's premiere. It's unknown if his parents are divorced or if she died prior to the series.
• Ambiguously Human: Joey from "The Fifth P.I.". He appears to be a regular human preteen (albeit one with the power to shrink objects), however it turns out he's a Shadow Cop from the NetherRealm. It's left unknown whether or not he's a regular kid with powers similar to the other Phantom Investigators (sans Daemona) who just happens to work for the NetherRealm on the side, or if he's a humanoid supernatural entity.
• Amusement Park of Doom: The Haunted Train Ride from "Haunted Dreams", when the ghosts of Jenny's family capture the gang as they investigate the ride.
• Animation Bump: In comparison to its predecessor, Life With Loopy, the animation is much more fluid as the show was produced on a larger budget.
• The Artifact:
  • Daemona's name. Originally, "Daemona Prune" was just her aliases while on the job as a Phantom Investigator, with her real name being Prunella Daemon. Eventually it was decided she would always go as Daemona Prune.
  • In "Haunted Dreams", Daemona states that her psychic amplifier came from her great-grandma. While this may be a Blooper at first glance as Daemona inherited her PI tools from her grandmother in the series, it was initially planned for her to inherit them from her great-grandmother early in production. Presumably, the line ended up unchanged in the script even after that aspect of the show was changed.
• Back for the Finale: Mustafa, the headless ghost from "Stall of Doom", turns up in the finale to help the PIs with a background check on Daemona's grandparents.
• Berserk Button:
  • Wrecking her outfits is this for Kira. She even threatened to quit the team due to her dry cleaning bills.
  • Jericho absolutely hates being talked down to or being treated like an idiot, as shown in "Stall Of Doom".
• Bittersweet Ending: The ending of "Haunted Dreams". Turns out Jenny was Dead All Along and is now reunited with her family after getting her memory back. She also looks like she wasn't any older than nine when she died and had just formed a sisterly bond with Kira.
• The Cameo: Joey, Ray, Yasmine, Kelly Anne, and several of the unnamed background students appear in Dudley & Nestor Do Nothing. A woman who looks very similar to an adult Daemona shows up in the background as a scientist at the space center, but with a different hairstyle colored a different shade of red.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Attempted. "Secrets Exposed!" brought the show in a darker, more dramatic direction than the rest of the first (and only) season. Whether or not this would keep up had the show been renewed is unknown.
• City of Adventure: San Francisco in this series, with all the paranormal activity going on.
• Clark Kenting: Daemona hides her identity by wearing a mask and wearing her hair in a different style (and early in production, would've gone by a different name. In the show, she never gives her name to her clients). Fortunately, most of her clients never met her before (and while a few of them are her classmates, it's established that she's still pretty new in town so they simply might just not know her very well).
• Class Trip: The gang and their class take one to the Museum of Natural Science in "From Egypt, With Love", which kicks off the plot.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: The Aesop of "The Fifth PI", with the twist that Daemona never goes through with her plans to look at last year's answers after realizing that would make her not much different than the Netherworld Hanging Judge the crew faced off against.
• Conflict Ball: The entire gang end up holding it in "Stall Of Doom", spending most of the episode arguing with each other. Making up and apologizing was even key to the resolution.
• Covered in Gunge: Kira gets covered in purple slushie after the gang fight the junk food demon in "Haunted Dreams". And getting it on her new outfit almost made her quit the team.
• Crazy Enough to Work: In "Were Dog", giving Lycaos new haircuts so he'll lift the curse.
• Cut Short: While not ending on a major cliffhanger, the last episode of the first and only season implied more was to come had the show not been cancelled. Made even worse in the US as Kids' WB pulled the show after six episodes had aired due to their dissatisfaction of not having enough male viewers.
• Darker and Edgier: "The Fifth P.I." was the first episode to bring the show in a darker direction that it had in episodes prior to it, which were standard Monster of the Week episodes. The plot featured another kid with powers, Joey, who turned out to be a Shadow Cop from the NetherRealm in order to put the gang on trial there. Most of the episode has the gang facing off against NetherRealm warriors in a match to go free, but narrowly avoiding getting killed while at it. The later episodes are much darker and edgier compared to early episodes, and the show itself is much darker compared to Loopy, even down to the color palette used.
  • The final episode, "Secrets Exposed!", brings the show in a much darker and serious direction in comparison to the lighthearted tone it carried for most of the episodes, and is overall the darkest episode of the series. Many fans wonder if the show was going to continue down this route had it been renewed for another season.
• Dead All Along: One episode saw the team try to help an amnesiac girl named Jenny, who was plagued by supernatural dreams. It turned out she was a ghost who was placed back in the human world in an accident, and the dreams were her family trying to explain.
• Dead Person Conversation: At the very end of the final episode, Daemona is able to talk to her deceased grandmother via the NetherRealm phone.
• Death of a Child: Jenny, due to being Dead All Along. She didn't look any older than nine.
• Demonic Possession: The first episode, "Demon Driver", features a possessed car that in turn, possesses its driver when they're behind the wheel.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Kira plays part of the theme song at one point during Brad's party in "Birthday Presence".
• Disguised in Drag: Casey disguises as a mermaid at one point in "Skating The Plank".
• Driven to Suicide: The fraternity ghosts in "Omega Pizza Pi"- part of their initiation to get into Omega Alpha Pi included having to eat a ton of cheese pizzas despite both of them being lactose intolerant. It's heavily implied that this is what killed them.
• Eaten Alive: The titular demon of "Demon Driver" ultimately suffers this fate when the PIs call on the elemental spirit of roadkill, which, since he Drives Like Crazy, he made a lot of.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • In "Demon Driver", the gang don't attempt to hide their powers from their clients, such as Casey shapeshifting in front of Nate. Episodes after that have them keep their powers secret from everyone.
  • The NetherRealm is referred to as the "Nether World" in that episode only (this may have been changed as "Nether World" is another term for hell).
• Enhance Button: The PIs can match a fingerprint to a present day picture of Professor Navarro to blown up photo from Daemona's grandparents' yearbook.
• Evil Former Friend: Willard to Navarro and the rest of the original Phantom Investigators.
• Exactly What I Aimed At: In "Skating the Plank", Kira dives at a pirate who's grabbed Casey but he remains standing; as he proceeds to gloat, he realizes his leg is missing and Kira smugly waves said leg, her actual target.
• Exact Words: In "Stall Of Doom", Daemona asks Mustafa if he has any books about "alternative dimensions, demon holes, and that sort of thing". He then gives her a book entitled...Alternative Dimensions, Demon Holes & That Sort Of Thing.
• Expospeak Gag: Often with Casey.
  Casey: Can we hurry this up? Unexpected temporal spacial displacement gives me agita.
  Jericho: Huh?
  Casey: I'm gonna blow chunks.
• Face Death with Dignity: The gang in "Thank Wad", thinking they weren't going to survive their mission against the trash elemental. Daemona tells the gang that it was nice working with them as she and the gang do one (seemingly) last Team Hand-Stack.
• Failed Attempt at Drama: Daemona attempts to give a Pre Ass Kicking One Liner to Pinky the Pirate and his crew in "Skating the Plank"...only for her to slip on a dead fish and fall.
• The Fashionista: Kira
  Kira: Some things are worth fighting for- fashion happens to be one of them!
• Feud Episode: "Stall of Doom". For bonus points, making up and apologizing proves key to the resolution.
• Floorboard Failure: Happens in both "Omega Pizza Pi" to the gang inside the abandoned fraternity and "Haunted Dreams" when they're investigating the Phantom Train Ride.
• Forced Transformation: Wad used to be an elemental named Tad but was demoted to gum wad sprite as punishment for ding-dong ditching the Earth Elemental.
• Foreshadowing:
  • At the end of "Omega Pizza Pi", Daemona suggests that one day, the gang should investigate Professor Navarro as he seems to know exactly what gadgets will help them in a situation before it even happens. They eventually do in the final episode.
  • In the first episode when Daemona downplays her importance to the team, being the only one without powers, Professor Navarro tells her to never underestimate her importance as the brains of the team. In the final episode, it's revealed that in the original Phantom Investigators team, he was The Team Normal just like her.
  • Another moment from early in "Demon Driver": Navarro warns Daemona and the gang that since they have a lot of power, they need to use it responsibly. As we end up seeing in "Secrets Exposed!", he was most likely afraid of anyone in the gang deciding to use their powers for evil like Willard did.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: Daemona (The Optimist), Kira (The Cynic), Jericho (The Apathetic), and Casey (The Realist).
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Daemona (choleric), Jericho (sanguine), Kira (melancholic), and Casey (phlegmatic).
• Free-Range Children: The gang are all twelve and go out around town and on missions without any parental supervision, who are unaware that their children are Phantom Investigators.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: In "Stall Of Doom", a Bugsteak poster from Life With Loopy can be briefly seen in Kira's locker.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: In "Omega Pizza Pi", the gang have to go back to investigate the abandoned fraternity at the same time Daemona has her second audition with the debate team (which she only wants to join for the sole sake of a field trip to France), after agreeing to do the team's chores in exchange for a second chance at getting in after Wad screwed up her first attempt. She leaves the gang to go on the mission while she goes to her tryout, until she realizes the debate team had been using her the whole time. She immediately leaves to go help her friends.
• The Friends Who Never Hang: Out of every member of the gang, Kira and Casey have the least interactions between each other.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: The Phantom Investigators- two girls and two boys.
• Generation Xerox: "Secrets Exposed!" shows that Daemona's grandmother not only resembled her at her age in the show, but was also the part of the original Phantom Investigators in the fifties.
• The Ghost: Jasper Rusack, Daemona's (possibly former) crush mentioned in "The Fifth P.I." as Wad reads her diary. He never appears in the series and is never mentioned by Daemona herself; he could be a student from her old school before she moved to San Francisco.
• Ghostly Goals: A common motivation for lingering spirits the gang find themselves investigating and trying to fulfill.
• Ghost Pirate: The gang had to deal with one in "Skating The Plank".
• Gone Horribly Right: Meta example. Kids WB picked up the show in order to gain more female viewers, happy that the leader of the team was a girl. It kept scoring number-one in its time slot each week, but soon the amount of female viewers were higher than the male viewers (which made up most of Kids WB's demographic). The show was quickly and quietly removed from the schedule as Kids WB was afraid of losing their status of being the highest rated network with young boys.
• Grounded Forever: Daemona's dad threatens to ground her "until high school" if she interrupts she and her parents' "quality family time" in "Ghosts On Film".
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Daemona and Kira are the closest members of the gang.
• Identical Grandson: Daemona's grandmother has been shown to look almost exactly like Daemona back when she was in junior high, just with a different hairstyle.
• Idiosyncratic Wipes: The "PI" logo is used for scene transitions.
• I Know Mortal Kombat: Daemona's driving skills come from video games.
• Inherently Funny Words: "Sphinx" is this to Jericho.
• In Medias Res: The first episode, "Demon Driver", already have the gang and their powers established. As the show only lasted a season, an origins episode was never made.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Both Daemona and Casey. Daemona's the loyal, heroic leader of the team, while Casey is very sweet and innocent.
• Insane Troll Logic: In "Ghosts on Film", Daemona's father decides that corn must be her favorite pizza topping because she eats it all the time. Daemona is both annoyed and extremely confused, pointing out corn as a pizza topping DOESN'T exist.
• Insistent Terminology: Casey is not "in love" with Terri; he just has a "very deep like" for her.
• Invisible Parents: Aside from Daemona's parents, none of the gang's parents are shown on screen, only getting a mention now and again. Press releases did state what the kids' parents are like (Kira's mom is a lawyer and her dad is a policeman, Jericho has hippie parents, and Casey's dad is a teacher and it's confirmed his mom's out of the picture).
• It Has Been an Honor: Daemona to the gang when it looks like they won't survive their mission against the garbage elemental in "Thank Wad"- "Nice working with you, guys."
• Jerk Jock: Brad from "Birthday Presence". He refuses to cancel his birthday party in spite of the haunting for his reputation. When given a chance to solve the problem by returning the artifact the conflict began over he selfishly keeps it and mocks the witch doctor currently supernaturally aggressing him.
• The Jersey Devil: Daemona has a poster of it in her room.
• Just Here for Godzilla: In-universe. Daemona only wanted to join the debate team in "Omega Pizza Pi" because they get to go on a field trip to France. Otherwise, she hates debate.
• Hero Stole My Bike: After the first encounter with Willard in "Secrets Exposed!", Navarro takes the gang's Ghoul-Mobile to follow him.
• Instant Wristwatch: Justified with Daemona's PI wrist communicator- apparently it's hidden under her hoodie sleeve and it's only shown more prominently when she's going to use it in a scene.
• Kid-Appeal Character: Wad, of the "clown" variety. Jericho also counts, being the most laid back and fun-loving member of the gang.
• Kids Are Cruel: With the exceptions of the gang themselves and Terri, most students at Lugosi Junior High have been shown to be jerks. Notably Brad, Yasmine, Darnell, and the entire debate team.
• Kitschy Local Commercial: The Phantom Investigators have one as seen in "Ghosts On Film", consisting of Daemona saying the slogan while Jericho and Casey pose in monster masks on a cheap set.
• Knight of Cerebus: Willard from "Secrets Exposed!". As soon as he appears and is shown to have a connection to Professor Navarro, the episode takes a much darker turn than the rest of the series.
• Large Ham: Almost every antagonist in the series tended to be one. Daemona sometimes had her moments as well.
• Least Common Pizza Topping: In "Ghosts on Film", Daemona references this trope by telling her dad that corn isn't a pizza topping, "not even in California".
• Leitmotif: Lugosi Junior High, Navarro Repairs, and Daemona's house all had brief themes for their establishing shots.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Casey's attitude about all of his more embarrassing transformations, such as the Disguised in Drag moment mentioned above and turning into toilet paper to slip under a locked door.
• Loophole Abuse: In "Omega Pizza Pi", the gang had to deal with two ghosts haunting an old fraternity house. In life, the ghosts were desperate to join the fraternity, but had to complete an unpleasant task in order to join. A demon powered by humiliation agreed to complete the task for them so long as they agreed to serve the fraternity. But only after they died, did they realize he meant forever. They were stuck as servants to the demon, humiliating themselves for eternity for the demon to feed on them both, until the gang pointed out the loophole in the deal. The fraternity had long since closed down, and they were the only remaining members. If they both chose to quit the fraternity the contract would be invalid as there would be no fraternity left. The ghosts immediately quit the fraternity, freeing both their spirits and leaving the demon to wither without a source of food.
• Lost in Character: "Ghosts on Film" came about due to the titular ghost's unfinished business involving finishing the film in question and being unable to escape his role; once the Investigators enable him to say the last line of the script, he returns to normal, thanking the Investigators before moving on to the afterlife.
• Luminescent Blush: Casey in "The Fifth P.I." after Jericho points out that after the two of them came out from hiding in a clothes hamper, he still had underwear on his head.
• Magic Music: The witch doctor in "Birthday Presence" uses drumbeats to remotely cast his magic from Africa to San Francisco. Because he's using music the PIs can effectively jam his signal by playing louder techno music with drumbeats.
• Make Them Rot: The Monster of the Week in "Thank Wad" Is the trash elemental, who's manipulating garbage sprites into cultivating a mold that rots whatever it touches into trash.
• Mass Hypnosis: In "Ghosts On Film", Morgg hypnotizes the town through the TV after escaping from his film.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": The gang have this reaction in "The Year Of The Snake" after Wad tells them that while the morphing sprite inside Jericho's V-Buddy was harmless on it's own, leaving to join other morphing sprites would cause a huge disaster.
• Mayfly–December Friendship: Professor Navarro is revealed to be immortal in the final episode, being a vampire, while the Phantom Investigators are twelve. Meaning he'll eventually outlive the gang.
• Medium Awareness: In "Stall Of Doom", Mustafa (portrayed by a live-action actor) refers to Casey (a stop-motion puppet) as a "flathead".
• Medium Blending: While most of the show was stop-motion animated, the ghosts were portrayed by live-action actors and the other supernatural creatures as puppets.
• Messy Hair: Daemona when dressed casually.
• Missing Mom: Casey's mom is out of the picture. Her whereabouts are never brought up, either.
• Monochrome Past: The flashback to the original Phantom Investigators from the fifties is shot in black-and-white.
• Monster of the Week: In every episode.
• Mood Whiplash: The show began as a campy, fun, and lighthearted little show about some kids who fought ghosts, with some Darker and Edgier moments here and there. It got much more dark and intense in the final episode.
• Mundane Utility: All of the empowered PIs to a certain degree but Jericho takes the cake as he claims he developed his powers because he was too lazy to do his chores.
• New Transfer Student: Daemona had just recently moved to San Francisco and began attending Lugosi Junior High sometime before the beginning of the series.
• No Hugging, No Kissing: Usually between the gang, some small Ship Tease moments with Daemona and Casey aside. Most crushes the gang have had were on minor or one-shot characters (Daemona also wrote in her diary about having a crush on a boy named Jasper Rusack in "The Fifth PI"; however he never appears in the series. It's possible he was from her old school) that never go beyond one episode.
• Noodle Incident: Daemona's experiments, one of which blew up the bathtub she was working in and another of which involved a lemon battery and ultimately blacked out the town.
• Non-Powered Costumed Hero: Daemona wore a mask and uniform while on the job, while the rest of the team dressed casually.
• Older Than They Look: Professor Navarro appears to be in his twenties, but only because he hasn't aged since becoming a vampire years prior while always wearing the totem of spirit control to stay human.
• Only One Name: While Daemona and Kira were given last names in the show (Prune and Williams, respectively), neither Jericho nor Casey received one.
• Our Vampires Are Different: One can become one through a Deal with the Devil and they're monstrous winged hulks between human and demon. They can sire new ones through bites but the condition can be suppressed by a totem of spirit control rendering the victim human but still unaging.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: They transform on the night of the full moon (which the show puts on more than one night) and can infect dogs. Hair remains turned if cut off and animates under moonlight. Vulnerable to silver, they're not considered a part of the supernatural hierarchy, regarded as supernaturally afflicted humans. Their Monster Progenitor however is a three-headed wolf who was a Demon of Human Origin.
• Posthumous Character: Mary Prune, Daemona's grandmother. She passed away three years prior to the events of the series, and after Daemona and her parents inherited her house, Daemona also found out her occult books were left to her in her will, and finding her ghost detector and other gadgets was what led to her forming the Phantom Investigators in the first place. In the final episode, it's revealed that in the 1950s, she was also part of the Phantom Investigators, and that she can contact Daemona from the NetherRealm.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Spoofed in "Skating The Plank", as ass-kicking doesn't quite follow Daemona's one-liner...
  Daemona: Okay, mateys. Tonight, you guys sleep with the fishes.
  *Daemona ends up slipping on a dead fish*
  Daemona: WHOA! *falls* STUPID FISH!
• Psycho Poodle: After becoming a were-dog, Melanie's poodle, Wiki, becomes one in "Were-Dog".
• Reincarnation Romance: Kira turns out to be the reincarnated love of an Egyptian pharaoh. After performing last rites on his mummy, being transported to ancient Egypt and resolving his attempt to force Kira to come with him, it's implied that the New Transfer Student that looks and sounds like him is his reincarnation.
• Restraining Bolt: A twice mentioned artifact is the Totem of Spirit Control, essential for controlling any summoned demons or suppressing demonic influences.
• The Reveal: Three major ones in "Secrets Exposed!":
  • Professor Navarro is a vampire and as a result of unaging, is Older Than He Looks.
  • Daemona's grandparents were members of the original Phantom Investigators in the 1950s along with Professor Navarro. Her grandma was a telepath while her grandpa had teleportation powers. A fourth member, Willard, made a deal with the NetherRealm to become a vampire and turned against the gang.
  • Daemona's grandma can contact her from the NetherRealm.
• Rewatch Bonus: Some elements revealed in "Secrets Exposed!" received some foreshadowing in earlier episodes.
• Running Gag: Daemona coming up with a different rhyming slogan for the Phantom Investigators each time they get a phone call. Often with disapproving looks from the rest of the gang.
• Satellite Love Interest: Terri Chang from "Were-Dog" was this to Casey; in all other episodes she appears in, she's a background character without any dialogue. She appeared in the next episode "The Year Of The Snake" without Casey acknowledging her as she walked by him, possibly hinting that his crush on her ended up not going anywhere.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: the original '50s Phantom Investigators were able to send Willard into a portal to the farthest reaches of the NetherRealm via Mary's telepathic powers linking up with the rest of the gang. The team in the present day do it to him again at the end of the episode.
• Secret Diary: A brief scene in "The Fifth PI" has Wad reading Daemona's diary while the gang are gone.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock:
  • In the episode featuring a dog groomer whose ancestor had been turned into a werewolf because he had given the original werewolf a bad haircut, the groomer bites Casey when Casey is in the form of a dog, forcing him to stay in that form until they manage to cure the groomer. This is further emphasized as Casey tries to go human but the morph fizzles out.
  • Happens again in the finale, with the added wrinkle that Casey is shifted into a different form against his will by a demon before the mode lock. And this time Casey can't even attempt a new morph.
• Shared Universe: Possibly with Life With Loopy, as a Freeze-Frame Bonus in "Stall Of Doom" confirms that Bugsteak, a rock band in-universe from Loopy, also exists in the show.
• Ship Tease: Occasionally happens between Daemona and Casey, especially in "Birthday Presence". Most of the time the show tends to be No Hugging, No Kissing with the main four, however the two of them tend to have a few ship tease moments here and there. Since the show ended after one season, it's unknown whether this would go anywhere or not.
• Sigil Spam: The Phantom Investigators' logo appears on pretty much all of the gang's gadgets, and is also used as a scene transition.
• Signature Sound Effect: Each PI has their own unique sound effect for when they use their powers.
• Special Effects Evolution: Live-action characters could appear in the same shots as the stop-motion characters via compositing; prior production Life With Loopy, produced six years earlier, was unable to do so.
• Spiritual Successor: Can be seen as "Ghostbusters in middle school", namely The Real Ghostbusters, and by that extension, Extreme Ghostbusters. To top it all off, both Ghostbusters and Phantom Investigators are produced by Sony.
• Stock Audio Clip: The audio of the gang laughing at the end of "Thank Wad" was the same used at the end of the opening titles.
• Stylistic Suck: In-universe example with the Phantom Investigators' commercial. Not only is it already a Kitschy Local Commercial and already cheaply made, but it's been put together by twelve-year-olds.
• Taught by Television: Daemona learned how to drive the Ghoul-Mobile through video games.
• Team Hand-Stack: The gang do one in "Thank Wad", thinking that they weren't going to survive their mission.
• The Team Normal: Daemona is the only member of the team without powers.
• Team Title
• 10-Minute Retirement: Kira tries at this in "Haunted Train Ride". It doesn't take.
• Thinking Up Portals: A telepath can psychically link at least three people so they can will a portal to the Netherworld into existence.
• Title Montage: The opening titles use clips from "Demon Driver", "Skating The Plank", "Omega Pizza Pi", "Birthday Presence", and "Haunted Dreams", as well as a few clips unique to the title sequence (such as the beginning and ending).
• Title, Please!: The episode titles are never shown on-screen.
• Toilet Horror: The second-floor girls' bathroom at Lugosi Junior High, where one of the toilets contains a portal to the NetherRealm.
• Totally Radical: The kids tended to speak like this at times, though it was downplayed compared to other examples.
• Toyless Toyline Character: While Daemona, Jericho, Wad, and Jinxie were included in the Carl's Jr. set of toys (which were the only merchandise produced for the series), Kira, Casey, and Professor Navarro were left out.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: Mary, Daemona's grandma, looked almost exactly like Daemona when she was around her age but with a different hairstyle.
• Vocal Evolution:
  • Around the second half of the series, Casey's voice became higher pitched and a bit squeakier.
  • Navarro's voice was a little higher in "Demon Driver" and his accent wasn't as prominent. It became more prominent and his voice got a bit lower as the show went on.
• Wham Episode: "Secrets Exposed!". Also the Series Finale, though at the time it was in production it was just intended to be just a season finale before Kids' WB canned the show.
• Wham Line:
  • The final line in the final episode: "Grandma? Is that you?"
  • And before that in the same episode, when Professor Navarro tells the gang his backstory:
  Casey: Excuse me, but if I've read my hierarchy correctly...
  Jericho: ...if you've been bitten by a...
  Daemona: Aren't you...
  Navarro: Yes. I am...a vampire.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Professor Navarro, being a vampire, is able to stay human by wearing a Totem of Spirit Control, which also renders him immortal and unable to age past his twenties. Unfortunately, this also means he had to watch his friends pass before him.
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Happens with Jericho in "The Year Of The Snake" when he's under the control of his V-Buddy.
• Worldbuilding: Surprisingly, the show actually had a specific hierarchy of ghosts and monsters to follow, instead of just making it up as each episode went. At one point, the fact that a monster didn't seem to fit into any category was a plot point.
• World of Snark: Almost all the main characters can be incredibly snarky, Kira especially.
• Writers Cannot Do Math: At the beginning of "Secrets Exposed!", Daemona was confused about how Professor Navarro knew both of her grandparents, stating that her grandfather died "years before Navarro was even born". It's shown that he died in 1981 and Professor Navarro looked to be in his early-to-mid-twenties and hinted to be already out of college in "Omega Pizza Pi". Assuming the show takes place in its debut year of 2002, he would've been born around the late seventies and possibly 1980 at the latest. ( However, this was before The Reveal later in the episode that he's a vampire and had stopped aging decades ago).
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Professor Navarro tells this to Daemona in "Demon Driver" after she downplays her importance to the team, being the only member without powers.
  • Daemona gives Casey a talk like this in "Birthday Presence" after he laments how he wishes he had Brad's life, as he was rich and popular. Daemona then points out that Brad's "friends" are just classmates dying to be part of the "in-crowd", and while Brad is a stuck-up jerk, Casey has the better life as he's smart, kindhearted, and already doing something important with his life.
• You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!: While not said exactly, Navarro explains that even though Willard was a member of the original Phantom Investigators, he didn't want to use his powers to help people like the rest of the gang, and ended up forming a deal with the NetherRealm and became a vampire instead.

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