TV season back to old haunts

Mostly ghostly is the theme of "Supernatural," the WB's new horror show, which reflects next season's TV trend toward things creepy and creaky.

Mostly ghostly is the theme of "Supernatural," the WB's new horror show, which reflects next season's TV trend toward things creepy and creaky.

Over at CBS, Jennifer Love Hewitt will play a woman pestered by spirits who need errands run in the corporeal world. "Night Stalker," a 1970s cult favorite, materializes anew at ABC with Stuart Townsend as the newspaper reporter trailing apparitions.

Why is this such a good year for ghost writers?

"The planets aligned," offers producer Eric Kripke, who shopped the idea of "Supernatural" to networks for eight years before the WB picked it up this year.

His show has a major Boo! factor as two brothers, played by Jared Padalecki ("Gilmore Girls") and Jensen Ackles ("Smallville") prowl America in a '67 Chevy Impala, dispatching a bevy of spooks. Nasty spooks. Malevolent, icky things that you don't want rattling in your cellar.

At its core, "Supernatural" is based on spiritual folklore and the episodes reference the universe of the unexplained. There's the poltergeist that's a local legend in Amherst, Mass.; a demonic "windigo" from Native American folklore; the so-called "Devil's Gate" in Clifton, N.J.

"I have a mandate to the writers that the show must be extremely Google-worthy," says Kripke, meaning that viewers can follow their own ghost trail to see what the characters are talking about.

"We think that's actually a little something extra for people who are fans of the show and want to dig a little deeper," he told TV critics gathered in Los Angeles for network previews.

TV has been haunted for decades, from "Topper" to "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" to "X-Files." This year's infestation of specters and wraiths is the most intense in memory. If they succeed, it is perhaps a sign that in an increasingly dangerous world, we secretly delight in being drawn to the shadows to test our fears.

Source: Charlotte Observer