Why Sam From Ghosts Looks So Familiar

Part of the fun of watching the CBS show "Ghosts" is the colorful ensemble, though the show revolves around a couple named Sam and Jay. When Sam's distant relative passes away and leaves her Woodstone manor to inherit, they think they've struck gold. The chance to move out of their tiny New York City apartment is too good to turn down, and Sam comes up with the great idea of remodeling the estate as a bed and breakfast. Though Jay is initially reluctant, he backs Sam and her dream after she suffers a near-fatal accident.

The accident leaves Sam with the ability to communicate with the ghosts of the people who have died on the manor's grounds over its long history, going as far back as the age of the Vikings. Jay, however, can't see or hear any of these ghosts. After Sam convinces her husband that she's not crazy, the couple and the ghosts decide to live together in harmony — or, at least, they try to.

Sam is portrayed by actor Rose McIver, and "Ghosts" isn't her first role by a long shot. This is where you have probably seen her before.

Many people who grew up in the 1990s still have a soft spot for "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers." The superhero show was a pop culture phenomenon, but what not everyone knows is that "Power Rangers" didn't end when the '90s did. In 2009, "Power Rangers RPM" — the seventeenth season of "Power Rangers" — began airing. Like previous seasons, the show was produced in New Zealand, and the cast was largely made up of local actors. Auckland native Rose McIver won the role of Summer Landsdown, who undergoes a makeover of the soul before becoming the Yellow Ranger.

Unlike the amiable Sam, Summer is not easy to like when we first meet her. She's heiress to a fortune and isn't shy about letting people know it. Her attitude is most likely due to her absent parents: The closest thing she has to a parental figure is her butler, Andrews, but she's not very nice to him, either. Andrews puts up with her because he believes there's a good person in there somewhere, and he turns out to be right.

Unfortunately, Andrews doesn't live to see Summer kicking butt as the Yellow Ranger. The loyal butler dies from his wounds after Venjix (voiced by Andrew Laing) attacks Summer's birthday party. Summer vows to make up for his' sacrifice when she's recruited to become a Power Ranger.

With all the superheroics involved, the role was a physical one. "When people shoot these big Marvel movies and things, it's people covered in dots and in green suits or in black suits or whatever," McIver told Collider. "This was literally somebody chucks on giant rubber head and fights in the New Zealand sun and humidity on a beach down the street from where I grew up."

If Sam from "Ghosts" looks pixie-like to you, there's probably a reason for that. A few years after Rose McIver's time as the Yellow Ranger came to an end, she joined the cast of ABC's "Once Upon a Time" as Tinker Bell, the fairy from the "Peter Pan" stories. "Once Upon a Time" ran for seven seasons between 2011 and 2018, and McIver was present from the third season onward. The main characters first encounter her when they journey to Neverland to retrieve Henry Mills (Jared S. Gilmore), who has been kidnapped by Peter Pan (Robbie Kay), an antagonist in this telling.

While many people remember Tinker Bell as the jealous companion of Peter Pan thanks to Disney's animated version, "Once Upon a Time" presents her anew. This Tink is a disgraced fairy. She disobeys the Blue Fairy (Keegan Connor Tracy) by attempting to help Regina Mills (Lana Parrilla) and pays the price. Regina fails to go through with Tinker Bell's plan that will help her find her one true love, which results in the Blue Fairy banishing Tinker Bell and cutting off her wings.

In the later timeline, when Regina, Emma (Jennifer Morrison), Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin), Prince Charming (Josh Dallas), Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle), and Hook (Colin O'Donoghue) are in Neverland looking for Henry, they are followed by Tinker Bell, who is seeking her revenge. In the end, she agrees to help them save Henry, proving that she's a good fairy after all. "When her empathy is able to come through, she knows she absolutely has to help them for the greater good," McIver told The Hollywood Reporter.

"Ghosts" isn't the first TV show that Rose McIver has fronted. From 2015 to 2019, McIver starred as Olivia "Liv" Moore in "iZombie," a medical resident who attends the wrong boat party. Liv is forced to make some devastating choices after zombies attack the boat and she gets bitten. Knowing that she can't have the life she wants, she breaks it off with her partner, cuts family ties, and tries to start over. She gets a job at a morgue where she can eat the brains of the bodies, satisfying her urge without having to kill anybody.

Liv soon discovers that she has a superpower: When she eats the brains of the deceased, she temporarily gains the memories and personalities of the dead person. With this ability, Liv can assist her boss Doctor Ravi (Rahul Kohli) and Detective Clive (Malcolm Goodwin) in solving murders. Liv gets her happy ending when she decides to reunite with and marry her former partner, with the pair adopting zombified children together. Aww.

McIver has had her fair share of interesting roles, each more entertaining than the last. Audiences can enjoy her as Sam in "Ghosts," but, in between episodes, why not indulge in some of her early work? Other notable credits in the Showtime series "Masters of Sex" and the Netflix romcom "A Christmas Prince," in which she stars as an American journalist who ends up in a whirlwind romance with a European prince.