Supernatural selection

Prime-time horror hit takes root in Lawrence

Jared Padalecki, left, and Jensen Ackles star as brothers Sam and Dean Winchester.

Imagine if “The X-Files” took place on a Route 66-type road trip across the Midwest … only instead of agents from the FBI, the two leads were bickering brothers from Lawrence.

Such is the premise of the new WB series “Supernatural.”

“We want to really reflect more of a classic American vibe in the show than, for example, the Pacific Northwest of ‘The X-Files,'” says Peter Johnson, a producer of “Supernatural.”

“Nothing seemed more appropriate than setting the birthplace and the home of our boys deep in the heart of America.”

The connection to the Sunflower State has been only cursory for the most part, with a Kansas license plate (puzzlingly adorned with Sedgwick County tags) on the guys’ Chevy Impala serving as the lone clue.

But in this week’s installment, titled “The Journey Home,” the characters make a return to Lawrence for the first time since the pilot episode’s opening flashback. Brothers Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) embark on the quest to thwart a vengeful spirit plaguing the new family that has moved into their boyhood home.

“Every one of the stories has some basis in a real-life urban legend or local ghost story,” Johnson says. “I forget the specific one, but there’s a real tale that stems out of Lawrence.”

Is it the city’s proximity to Stull, the neighboring town with a reputation for occultism?

“Part of the mythology of the show – bigger and more important than individual (‘Supernatural’ episodes) like ‘Hook Man’ or ‘Bloody Mary’ – is the kind of notion of the portals to hell and the mythology of demons,” he replies. “There is a specific origin story there, and we will be coming back to Lawrence again.”

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Sundays

Where: Sunflower Broadband Channel 3

Scary competition

After the success of “Lost,” networks began cranking out a glut of programs this year with paranormal plots. “Supernatural” immediately found itself in competition with “Invasion,” “Surface,” “Threshold” and “Night Stalker.”

“All those shows are telling one big overall story,” Johnson explains. “An event happens, and there’s something supernatural going on that involves aliens or something in the water. We look at our show in the old-fashioned mode of self-enclosed ‘X-Files’ or ‘Twilight Zone’ stories instead of a big serialized tale.”

He also stresses that “Supernatural,” created by Ohio native Eric Kripke, has more of a domestic theme than its counterparts.

“It’s a story about brothers and family, fundamentally,” he says. “Something happened to their mother early on in their lives. The father raised them to be in pursuit of the thing that killed their mom. It’s a big, wild, dysfunctional family show at the center of what is week in and week out a little horror movie.”

So far this season, the Winchester duo has battled a cannibalistic beast known as a Wendigo in the woods of Colorado, a hook-handed serial killer in a small Iowa college town and a malevolent water wraith in the lakes of Wisconsin.

Not surprisingly, none of the shows have been shot in the Midwest … or the United States for that matter. As with the recent feature film “Capote,” Canada served as a stand-in for all scenes supposedly set in Kansas.

Episodic woes

Johnson worked at the Fox network for 13 years as head of its drama development department. During his tenure he cultivated shows like “24” and “Prison Break.”

Now he runs the television production arm of Wonderland, a company founded by McG, the director of the “Charlie’s Angels” movies. “Supernatural” is the first series of Johnson’s to ever hit the air.

He admits the overlapping nature of episodic television is particularly challenging.

“You’re never just working on the one,” he says. “You’re working on a script for three or four episodes from now, shooting one episode, prepping the next and storyboarding another one beyond that. The element of simultaneous production is a balancing act; it’s spinning plates at all times. But it’s also fun.”

Jared Padalecki, right, battles the vengeful ghost of a doctor (Norman Armour) in an upcoming episode of Supernatural called Asylum.

Johnson, who is based in L.A., says “Supernatural” is doing quite well in the ratings.

“We’re holding a large percent of the ‘Gilmore Girls’ audience every week,” he says. “One of the goals of the WB network this year was to start gradually broadening their audience from a young female teen base. While we want to take advantage of that strong teen component that the network delivers, our show is creatively a little more male, and a little older by virtue that the characters are twentysomethings.”

So far, critics have been equally impressed. Entertainment Weekly cited “Supernatural” as one of the top five new series of 2005.

“In assessing all of these ‘Surface,’ ‘Invasion,’ ‘Threshold’ shows, the critical response to ‘Supernatural’ is picking up on the difference,” he says. “It’s more consistently scary than the others, and the critics see that.”

For once, it’s nice to see Kansans helping to frighten the rest of the nation without the mention of “intelligent design.”