Spoilers ahead for Season 5, Episode 6 of Ghosts, “Planes, Shanes, and Automobiles,” streaming now with a Paramount+ subscription.
Ghosts is continuing to take CBS by storm on the 2025 TV schedule, and after the show’s fifth Halloween episode, it’s time to celebrate Thanksgiving. Woodstone Manor celebrated the holiday in Thursday’s episode, and it drew inspiration from the 1987 road trip comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Now, Pete actor Richie Moriarty has explained how John Candy heavily influenced his performance.
Candy starred alongside Steve Martin in the John Hughes flick, which has become a Thanksgiving must-watch for many households over the years. Now that tradition has carried on to Ghosts. The CBS sitcom’s Thanksgiving episode, appropriately titled “Planes, Shanes, and Automobiles” saw Sam (Rose McIver) going on a book tour with Pete (Moriarty) by her side, but things kept going wrong, like in the film. Sam acts as Martin’s Neal Page, as she just wants to get home and is growing more frustrated with Pete, who is acting like Candy’s Del Griffith. Moriarty spoke to TV Insider about getting the chance to channel the late actor and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and he was as excited as ever:
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.’
Considering the cult following that the film has gotten over the years and how beloved it is, it’s not surprising that Moriarty was excited that Ghosts was taking inspiration from it in such a big way. What’s even better is that he was able to play Pete in a way similar to Del. He explained just how well that parallel worked for his character, too, saying:
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.
Moriarty took a lot of inspiration from Candy and the film, and he drew from Pete’s own personality as well. Not only did it help to draw from Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but Moriarty expressed how fun it was to act alongside scene partner McIver, and I can’t imagine the lovable duo of Neal and Del being played by anyone else on Ghosts:
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.
Even though it probably wasn’t easy leaning into Candy’s character in terms of making sure that he got the mannerisms down and the personality, it sounds like Moriarty was more than prepared to take on the challenge. And he had plenty of help. The episode was certainly as crazy and entertaining as the movie, even though the former was only a little over 20 minutes long.
With Thanksgiving coming up in less than a week, now would be the perfect time to watch Planes, Trains and Automobiles on Paramount+. And after that, the Ghosts episode is also available on the streaming platform.