The Ghost and Molly McGee

The Ghost and Molly McGee is an American animated supernatural musical comedy television series created by Bill Motz and Bob Roth that aired on Disney Channel from October 1, 2021, to January 13, 2024. The series features the voices of Ashly Burch, Dana Snyder, Jordan Klepper, Sumalee Montano, Michaela Dietz, and Lara Jill Miller.
A sneak peek of the show's theme song was first shown on May 1, 2021, during the network's "Halfway to Halloween" event. On August 31, 2021, more than a month before it premiered, the series was renewed for a second and final season, which premiered on April 1, 2023.
In the Human Realm, 13-year-old Irish-Thai American optimist Molly McGee arrives in her new hometown of Brighton, only to discover that her new house is already occupied by a grumpy ghost named Scratch, who curses Molly in an attempt to scare her away, but this backfires, forever binding him to her. While initially antagonistic toward her, Scratch slowly opens up to Molly, and their friendship strengthens while going on wacky adventures and misadventures together and helping each other through the good and bad in their lives (and afterlives).
In the second and final season, Scratch becomes the new Chairman of the Ghost Council, and a ghost-hunting family called the Chens moves in across from the McGees, who plan to keep the existence of ghosts a secret from the Chens while trying to maintain their friendship.
The Chen family are a Chinese-American family of ghost hunters introduced in Season 2.
Shortly after the series premiere, The Ghost and Molly McGee joined the Chibi Tiny Tales series.
Part of the Broken Karaoke series that was started by Big City Greens.
As part of a promotional campaign, Disney Channel began airing the Disney Theme Song Takeover wherein supporting characters from different shows performed the theme song to the series they were in.
The animated series was first conceived by co-creators Bill Motz and Bob Roth in 2007. The two of them had worked at Disney for years, with their first ever script being an episode of Darkwing Duck. At the time, the series was known as The Curse of Piper McGee and initially focused on the titular girl's family moving to Transylvania where she was cursed by a vampiric ghoul simply named the Count. This version of the show was initially first pitched to Nickelodeon who passed on it. After fourteen years, the duo had completed work on Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures when Disney signed them an overall deal. They re-pitched the series, with the new title of The Curse of Molly McGee, where it got a positive response this time.
On July 23, 2019, Disney Channel greenlit the series, which was to be produced by Disney Television Animation, and executive-produced by Motz, Roth, and Steve Loter. On September 24, 2020, Ashly Burch and Dana Snyder joined the series in its lead roles. The same day, the series was retitled The Ghost and Molly McGee.
The crew used several songs as inspiration from the series. Motz released a playlist featuring those songs throughout 2020 and part of 2021.
On January 14, 2024, one day after the final episode aired, Motz revealed that despite getting an order for ten season three scripts, Disney chose to end the show due to low ratings on Disney+. Motz and Roth were granted an additional episode to give the show a proper send-off. Sixteen days later, eighteen scripts and outlines for the cancelled season three were posted online in their entirety to the Internet Archive.
The series' theme song was written by Allie Felder, Mike Kramer, Bill Motz and Bob Roth, and was performed by Ashly Burch and Dana Snyder. Songs for the series are written by Rob Cantor, with each episode featuring a musical sequence of approximately 1 minute. The show's score is done by Michael Kramer. An extended play album of some of the songs from the series was released on October 1, 2021.
The Ghost and Molly McGee premiered on Disney Channel on October 1, 2021. The first five episodes of the series were added to Disney+ on October 6, resulting in episodes 3 to 5 being released prior to their televised premieres. The first episode was uploaded to YouTube on October 2, 2021. The second and final season premiered on April 1, 2023, with the first five episodes of the season being released on Disney+ the following day.
Kate Robertson of Stuff described the main characters as a pair forming an "unlikely friendship" who help each other evolve, describing Molly as "an optimist [...] who just wants to make the world a better place" and Scratch as a "pessimist who hopes for the worst", and stated that the series is "funny, charming and an all-round joy to watch". Ashley Moulton of Common Sense Media rated the series 4 out of 5 stars and depicted it as a "funny ghost-girl buddy story...[with] mild ghoulish scares". She also stated that younger kids will be spooked when ghosts transform, but older kids will not, stated that ghosts are "a bit rough around the edges" and there is some cartoon violence. However, she stated that human characters act in a more positive manner, stated that the show's protagonist, Molly, is a "great role model", compared the series to Monsters, Inc. but called it a "charming, sweetly spooky animated series".