Ghost Hunters

In the fall of 1889, the philosopher William James, prominent Harvard professor and brother of the distinguished novelist Henry James, invited an unusual guest to his family's vacation home in New Hampshire. The guest was Leonora Piper, the 29-year-old wife of a Boston shopkeeper, slightly chubby and walking with a limp from a sledding accident -- but who, from her childhood, seemed to have inexplicable psychic gifts. James and a small group of researchers began studying and testing Piper's ability to establish communication with the spirit world.

Ghost Hunters 9 p.m., Syfy "Dark Shadows," the show behind so many current vampire shows and movies, lives on! Tonight, the hunters go to Seaview Terrace in Newport, R.I., where the 1960s TV series was filmed. Maybe they'll hear voices emanating from parallel time? And coming next year: Tim Burton's adaptation of "Dark Shadows," with Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Julia Hoffman, Michelle Pfeiffer as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, and Jackie Earle Haley as Willie Loomis.

The New Adventures of Old Christine 8 p.m., Channel 4 The recent “Seinfeld’’ reunion episodes on “Curb Your Enthusiasm’’ serve as a good reminder that the most successful “Seinfeld’’ alum is Julia Louis-Dreyfus (above), who manages to make her not-so-new character both Elaine-ish at times and thoroughly unique. Tonight, Christine tries to sponge off her son’s popularity. Johnny Mercer: The Dream’s on Me 8 p.m., TCM Clint Eastwood executive produced - and appears in - this look at singer-songwriter Mercer (above)

HOLLYWOOD - Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson are two blue-collar buddies who work as plumbers for Roto-Rooter in Warwick, R.I. But if there's something strange in your neighborhood, they're the people to call to investigate whether that house, museum, prison, ship, lighthouse, hotel, or castle is haunted. They have become the most unlikely TV stars. Over the last three years, they have brought their paranormal search to television as the stars of Sci Fi's popular reality series "Ghost Hunters," which kicked off its new season a week ago with a visit to two haunted areas in Seattle.

HOLLYWOOD - Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson are two blue-collar buddies who work as plumbers for Roto-Rooter in Warwick, R.I. But if there's something strange in your neighborhood, they're the people to call to investigate whether that house, museum, prison, ship, lighthouse, hotel, or castle is haunted. They have become the most unlikely TV stars. Over the last three years, they have brought their paranormal search to television as the stars of Sci Fi's popular reality series "Ghost Hunters," which kicked off its new season a week ago with a visit to two haunted areas in Seattle.

PAWTUCKET, R.I. - Much blood was shed in the American Revolution against Britain. The American Industrial Revolution, said to have begun here at Slater Mill on the banks of the mighty Blackstone River in 1793, also drew a good bit of blood. The belts, wheels, and cogs, unfettered by federal regulations in the late 18th century, would sometimes lop off fingers, break arms and legs, and occasionally fatally crush a child who had been sent into whirring machinery to clean or fix things.

SALEM -- Any ghosts hanging around St. Peter Street the other day must have been laughing like drunken sailors, assuming that the spiritual world has a navy, that ghosts are patriotic enough to enlist, and that they're not above enjoying an occasional pop. In any case, at 35 St. Peter St. -- the site, by the way, where women were jailed to await their fate at witch trials in the 17th century -- if ghosts happened to drift into the Spellbound Museum,...

Don’t say you weren’t warned. New England can be a pretty scary place at the end of October with ghoulies, ghosties, long-leggedy beasties, and things that go bump in the night. Add a few celluloid nightmares, mix well with hayrides, long shadows, and a big dose of animatronics, and you have deliciously frightful scream scenes designed to scare you out of your skin. Here are 13 ways to get a charge out of Halloween. Holiday central Salem owns Halloween like the North Pole owns Christmas, although it’s best not to think too hard about the rather tenuous link between the 1692 witch trials...

In the fall of 1889, the philosopher William James, prominent Harvard professor and brother of the distinguished novelist Henry James, invited an unusual guest to his family's vacation home in New Hampshire. The guest was Leonora Piper, the 29-year-old wife of a Boston shopkeeper, slightly chubby and walking with a limp from a sledding accident -- but who, from her childhood, seemed to have inexplicable psychic gifts. James and a small group of researchers began studying and testing Piper's ability to establish communication with the spirit world.