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Show S ecialFeatur Friday, Oct. 28, 2011 Page 7 TUNE IN Some paranormal TV highlights: Sunday "The Walking Dead," AMC Monday "Death Valley," MTV Wednesday "Ghost Hunters," Syfy "Paranormal Witness," Syfy "American Horror Story," FX Thursday "The Vampire Diaries," CW "The Secret Circle," CW Friday "Ghost Adventures," Travel Channel "Supernatural," CW MTV 1 BY AARON SAGERS McClatchy-Tribune t is a lively time for the haunting dead, the undead, the walking dead and the deadly things in the water, forests and outer space. Especially in the midst of Halloween season, all the creeping, crawling, shambling and stalking amounts to a lot of bumps in the night. And many of them are coming from the television. There is a lot of paranormal activity on TV this fall, but instead of slipping away after Oct. 31, the entertainment of the unexplained is continuing year round. There are plenty of bogeyman for viewers to choose from. Ghosts, vampires, zombies, werewolves, witches, beasts and demons are currently haunting on reality TV and scripted fare every day of the week. WHAT'S THE FASCINATION? Of course, paranormal pop culture isn't new. The human race has always told tales about the things in our universe that had yet to be explained (paranormal) and that which existed beyond the rules of nature (supernatural). But why the fascination? The de facto response was the need to believe in something larger than ourselves. Lately the trend points to 2012 where the unreal is going to get real. Depending on the viewpoint, the end of the Mayan calendar will lead to humanity either getting scraped from the Earth or experiencing a spiritual re-awakening. Then there is the "same as it ever was" David Byrne argument: Mankind has always been curious about the unknown and told tales, found religions and created myth SPOOKY MOWS HAUNTING THE TUBE AMC Zombies roam the earth in AMC's "Walking Dead:' to explain it. But old fears persist about what's "out there." Of course, another way to look at it is that the paranormal is just a fun sandbox of imagination. TV ORIGINS On TV, "The Twilight Zone" explored the paranormal in the 1960s. "In Search Of ..." with Leonard Nimoy and "Unsolved Mysteries" did it in the '70s and '80s, as did "The X-Files" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in the 1990s and early 2000s. But instead of just a few scripted or reenactment programs on the air, the midpoint of the new millennium's first decade saw paranormal entertainment shift into high gear on television. In the fall of 2004, "Lost" premiered as a show laden with supernatural phenomena. Also in the latter half of 2004, the erstwhile Sci-Fi Channel (now Syfy) debuted "Ghost Hunters." By fall 2005, genre shows "Medium," "Ghost Whisperer," "Night Stalker," "Supernatural," and the documentary series "A Haunting" had debuted. The list would only continue to grow. The WB — emboldened by previous successes "Charmed," "Angel" and "Buffy" — picked up the supernatural slack with shows marketed to high school and college students. They then continued the trend as the reincarnated CW network. The CW programming expanded and toyed with literary tropes from the "dark fantasy" subgenre such as angels, fairies, witches, werewolves and vampires. Those paranormal shows would eventually include "The Vampire Diaries" and this fall's witch coven series "The Secret Circle" — both based on young adult fiction — as well as "True THE LASTING ALLURE OF THE SUPERNATURAL A ghost hunter on the normal appeal of the paranormal Kris Williams has appeared on Syfy's paranormal reality-TV series "Ghost Hunters" and is currently co-lead investigator on its globetrotting spinoff "Ghost Hunters International." She will appear on Syfy's "Ghost Hunters" live Halloween investigation at 7 p.m. ET, Oct. 31. Q: What started the recent paranormal TV craze? A: There always has been an interest in the paranormal because most people have had some sort of unexplained experience. Plus everyone loves a good ghost story — but before the paranormal reality TV craze, people would be more likely to label you as crazy if you seriously believed in it. I think the popularity of these shows has made it OK for all of us to talk about experiences Williams and our interest in the topic. cool now, when just a few years ago people would have looked at you like you needed a shrink. Plus, some audience members may be living in homes where they are experiencing the unexplainable firsthand and are trying to understand it. Then there are people like me who are unsure what to believe in on a spiritual and religious level. What happens to Q: Why do you think us when we die? Do paranormal reality TV we stick around? shows are so popular? Can we watch over A: Reality shows have our family? Do we sparked a new mainstream inter- just end? They use est in the paranormal. People no shows like this to try to longer have to hide their interest answer those quesor beliefs in the subject since tions. But at the end of there are now people they view the day, I think people as professionals in the field. just like to be scared. Having an experience to tell We all have a tendency these days — or even your own to be fascinated with paranormal team — seems to be the unknown. Vampires live among humans in HBO's "True Blood." Cops fight supernatural crime on MTV's horrorcomedy "Death Valley." Blood" on HBO, "Teen Wolf' on MTV and Syfy's upcoming succubus soap (imported from Canada), "Lost Girl." However, aside from a few exceptions — Syfy's werewolf-vampire-ghost roommate series "Being Human," which returns for season two in January — apparitions have been most successful on reality TV. overnight in the locales where they actively pursue the darker elements of the unexplained — namely nasty ghosts and demons. Not surprisingly, by merging the dark fantasy subgenres with paranormal reality TV, "Adventures" tends to appeal to the audience watching "Supernatural" on The CW. IN REALITY (TV) ENTER THE REENACTORS It was two Roto-Rooter plumbers by day, and paranormal investigators at night, who put a spotlight on ghosts on reality TV. While the reality TV British show "Most Haunted" preceded "Ghost Hunters" by two years, the Syfy program can be credited with launching the paranormal investigation docudrama where teams set out to explore, prove or debunk unexplained phenomena. After seven years on the air, more than 150 episodes, two spinoffs ("Ghost Hunters International" and the since-canceled "Ghost Hunters Academy"), five live Halloween-night specials and one canine investigator, the show has cemented itself in pop culture and encouraged other cable channels to air their own ghost hunting programs. Travel Channel's "Ghost Adventures" is a marked contrast. Co-created by team leader Zak Bagans and Nick Groff, it premiered in 2008. The fittingly named show is more adventurebased than "Hunters." Bagans and his two-man team are "locked" And now new reenactment programs are on the rise. "Paranormal Witness," Syfy, features new stories of encounters with the unexplained each week. Produced by documentary filmmaker Mark Lewis, "Witness" intercuts eyewitness interviews with reenactment featuring actors. The show premiered in September and already has highlighted harrowing and inspiring tales involving angels, demons, beasts, UFO and a ghost without a face. Then there is FX's new drama "American Horror Story," created by Ryan Murphy ("Glee," "Nip/Tuck"). Debuting Oct. 5 to a respectable 3 2 million viewers, the series is about a fractured family in a haunted house and is like Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" meets "Twin Peaks." Similar to the zombie survivor show "The Walking Dead" on AMC, "American Horror Story" meshes high production value and top tier talent with the horror genre on a weekly basis. If the shows are any indication, it would appear that paranormal TV is going to continue heading down \I a scary street. A teen comes to grips with becoming a werewolf in MTV's "Teen Wolf." MTV |