'Supernatural' returns, appropriately enough, at the witching hour

A baseball game will push the season premiere of "Supernatural" back to 11:30 p.m. today on WGN Channel 9, but that's not an entirely bad thing. The CW's ultra-creepy ghost-hunter series remains the scariest show on the major broadcast networks, a title it's held since its pilot episode debuted three years ago with women being pinned to the ceiling and bursting into flames. It wouldn't be inappropriate for it to be on the air every week at the witching hour, instead of its usual time of 8 p.m.

That said, it ought to attract a wider audience when it returns to its normal time slot this fall, because for courageous and discerning viewers it remains a top-flight series whenever it airs. And it deserves that wider audience, too, because this season it's making a bold leap that's difficult to address without winging into a spoiler.

When last we left "Supernatural," in the spring, things looked dire for the brothers Winchester. Jensen Ackles' Dean was about to pay the price for selling his soul to save his brother, Jared Padalecki's Sam, the year before. While locked in a perpetual battle with various forms of demons, the Winchesters have already found ways to save both themselves and their father from hell, but in something of a shocker there was no last-second stay of execution for Dean. He was gutted by hellhounds and dispatched to the great beyond.

So what gives when he suddenly wakes up in tonight's season premiere, "Lazarus Rising," in a pine box six feet under and digs his way out with nothing - no scars, physical or mental - to show for it except an eerie red handprint on his left shoulder?

Jim Beaver's Bobby, who's become more or less a surrogate father to the Winchesters, sure can't figure it out. "Dean," he says, "your chest was ribbons, your insides was slop, and you'd been dead four months." Indeed, at first he thinks he's being haunted by a demon Dean, and Sam thinks the same when they finally meet up with him in downstate Pontiac. (Unfortunately, they don't stay long in our fair state; they're soon off in their muscle car, freshly outfitted with an iPod jack.)

Yet here's the thing. The demons they encounter are just as mystified about how Dean escaped the devil, and Dean is quick to recognize that this gives him a certain amount of power.

"Whatever it was," he tells the demons, "they want me out, and they're a lot stronger than you."

Whatever it was also has a nasty habit of burning the eyes of whoever sees it, and whoever is embraced by it would probably be consumed in that overwhelming existence. Do you not now know what we're speaking of, Aware One?

I'll leave it right there, except to add that it's a bold and even risky move by the show's writing staff. Rainer Maria Rilke might have delved into this area, but he's an epic poet. Tony Kushner has handled this sort of material adroitly, but he's a Pulitzer-winning playwright. Other TV shows, like Holly Hunter's "Saving Grace," have struggled with this particular phenomenon. Still, give "Supernatural" credit for going where other shows fear to tread to open its fourth season.

Talk about demonic, there is no appropriate time to run "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," but that doesn't keep this crass, unfunny sitcom from returning for a fourth season at 9 p.m. today on FX. Like all too many "edgy" cable comedies, it relies on being outrageous when it can't be funny, which is almost all the time.

In tonight's season premiere, "Mac & Dennis: Manhunters," Rob McElhenney's Mac and Glenn Howerton's Dennis decide to hunt "The Most Dangerous Game" by pursuing David Hornsby's bedraggled Rickety Cricket. Meanwhile, having stolen food from Danny DeVito's Frank once too often, Charlie Day's Charlie and Kaitlin Olson's Dee are slipped a steak consisting of what Frank later claims to be human meat and become cannibals. Comedy does not ensue, not even when they refer to licking a "cat's fanny" in an attempt to get the taste of human flesh out of their mouths.

"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" is simply another cable comedy that uses "improvisation" as an excuse to be slapdash, and it doesn't get any better when DeVito goes into a way-over-the-top Rambo imitation. It deserves to be cast into sitcom hell, but unfortunately it appears to be a show that just won't die.

In the air

Remotely interesting: Nancy Kontney of Sunny Hill School in Carpentersville and Daniel Morvaji of Lake Zurich Middle School in North Hawthorne Woods are among those to be honored in the 23rd annual "Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Teaching" at 8 p.m. today on WTTW Channel 11.

The Bio Channel looks at the lives of the 18 women officers on the Naperville Police Department in the new reality series "Female Forces" set to debut Oct. 5.

End of the dial: Top 40 WKSC 103.5-FM has picked up Ryan Seacrest's syndicated show from 1 to 4 p.m. weekdays.

The National Association of Broadcasters presents its annual Marconi Radio Awards tonight in Austin, Texas. WTMX 101.9-FM is up for Adult Contemporary Station of the Year, and morning hosts Kathy Hart and Eric Ferguson are up for Major Market Personality of the Year.

Viva Channel 2! Mai Martinez and Roseanne Tellez play host to WBBM Channel 2's coverage of the 26th Street Mexican Independence Day Parade at 11 a.m. Saturday under the program heading "Viva Mexico! From Little Village."

Knight errant: Christopher Knight, better known as Peter on "The Brady Bunch" - yes, the original series - gets a second shot at fame as the host of the new syndicated weekday game show "Trivial Pursuit" when it debuts at 3 p.m. Monday on WPWR Channel 50. ... WCIU Channel 26 picks up back-to-back weekday syndicated reruns of "Tyler Perry's House of Payne" at 7 p.m. Monday.

Viewing party on: ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" returns for a new season at 7 p.m. Monday on WLS Channel 7 with Cloris Leachman, Susan Lucci and Misty May-Treanor among the competitors. The Cityscape Bar on the 15th floor of the Holiday Inn Mart Plaza at 350 W. Mart Center Drive in Chicago holds a weekly viewing party. ... The Stretch Run at 544 N. LaSalle St. in Chicago holds a viewing party for the return of NBC's "Heroes" when it airs at 8 p.m. Monday on WMAQ Channel 5.

Waste watcher: The original "Walking Tall" with Joe Don Baker was a vigilante lawman movie so gleefully stupid you wouldn't think they'd need to remake it. But remake it they did with The Rock, aka Dwayne Johnson, and it came out even stupider. At 7 p.m. Saturday on TBS.