Brighton

Brighton is a town and the main setting of The Ghost and Molly McGee.

Background[]

In the 1800s, the town was known for its hero, Sally Tugbottom, who saved the town from a tornado and even tamed a wild bear. Unfortunately, her cowardly younger brother Ezekiel took all the credit and claimed himself as the town hero in her place.

At some point, Brighton resident Todd Mortenson lost his soul, Scratch, who was assigned to haunt the town. While The Ghost Council show a great disdain for Scratch, they are impressed by his ability to keep his town of Brighton in such a state of misery and his happiness numbers low.

Molly McGee, a young girl who is moving to Brighton with her family, another in a long line of locations that she has been moved to because of her dad's work. She is moving with her family along with her grandmother Nin via phone. Molly seems to find the positive in every situation, which is a good thing, because they just pulled up to a rather formidable looking home which we know belongs to Scratch.

Molly immediately heads up to the attic of her new home and claims it as her own when she comes across Scratch, who tries to scare her away. There is no response other than happiness and glee, and Molly considers him a new friend. Scratch finally erupts into a terrifying version of himself, changing the environment around him and curses her saying "Wherever you go and whatever you do Molly Mcgee, I'll be there haunting you!" All this does is now solidify to Molly that he is now a BEST friend. Wherever she goes and whatever she does? That's the job of a bestie!

Scratch tries leaving the house to get away from her for a bit when Molly yells out "Come back Scratch!" and he immediately gets locked, almost like a tractor beam, and pulled back to Molly. That's when he realizes something is wrong and seeks out the ghost council, who is occupied in the ghost world at the coolest nightclub, "Haughty Haunts." As the council is leaving, they find Scratch at the door begging for help for "his friend" who might have messed up a curse. The council immediately says that the curse sounds more like a curse on the ghost than the human, but another council member points out an important clause…" if you refuse to leave." Meaning he has to figure out some way to get her to leave, and since Molly is just a child, he should probably try and scare the parents away.

So he tries, and it seemingly works, until Molly hears the noise downstairs and interrupts the terror saying that this is her new best friend just playing around. Her mom and dad realize there is no real threat then, and instead try and get money back from the realtor for not disclosing the presence of a ghost. The family has fully accepted that Scratch will be with them in their home, and Grandma Nin even gives Molly advice that in their culture, they build homes within a home for ghosts, so Molly sets up a dollhouse for Scratch to live in, complete with open floor plan; however, this also causes Brighton's misery gauge in the ghost world to move toward the joy side, which the Council does not find good. The adventures of Scratch and Molly are all set up to begin.

Molly eventually found out that Ezekiel Tugbottom was a fraud and sets out to set the town straight, Ezekiel shows up and proves why everyone in the Ghost World calls him Tug the Tornado, and becomes a giant tornado set to destroy Molly and the town, but only ends up destroying his statue. Scratch, who gets sent to the ghost world in the middle of the storm actually finds Sally and brings her back to save the day yet again.

After the town learns that Sally Tugbottom was the real hero of Brighton, they have rededication of a new statue for Sally.

Trivia[]

In the first episode, the series keeps it vague where Brighton is, similarly to Springfield in The Simpsons. However in "Saving Christmas", it is shown that Brighton is somewhere on the border of Wisconsin and Illinois.
Brighton is somewhat inspired by creator Bill Motz's upbringing in the Quad Cities area on the border of Illinois and Iowa, which the region having faced an economic downturn in the late 1980s after a major factory closure.^[1] There is also a town in Illinois called Brighton that lives on the border between Macoupin County and Jersey County, Illinois.^[2]
According to the city flag in "Let's Play Turnipball!", Brighton was founded on February 29, 1872.