What if the gang from “Ghostbusters” opened their own grad school? The new documentary series “Paranormal State” (9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., A&E) follows the case files of the Paranormal Research Society (PRS), a dedicated group of Penn State University college students as they explore accounts of unwelcome intrusions from the other side.

In the first installment, student Ryan Buel gets a call from an anxious mother. Her 8-year-old son can’t sleep and seems disturbed. And worse, he’s being harassed by a neighbor named Timmy. To make matters weirder, Timmy’s dead – a victim of a self-inflicted shotgun blast that took place in the woods behind his house years before the boy’s family moved in.

Buel and his team set about interviewing the boy and measuring spectral activity in the house with all kinds of high-tech equipment. The team and the documentary work in a deadly earnest style. The boy surprises them with the clarity of his “visions” and with the fact that he can easily pick Timmy out of a crowded wedding photograph.

The team determines that the kid is a full-fledged sensitive who has attracted a host of spirits, some more powerful and malevolent than others. Apparently, Timmy’s hanging with a dangerous crowd. Like any “specialists,” Buel and his team speak in their own jargon. Did you know that ghosts are more likely to appear at 3 a.m.? Think about that the next time you’re watching infomercials late at night.

In the end, we don’t learn much about the dark spirits or what drove Timmy to his desperate end, but the mere presence of the PRS team seems to make the boy feel better. He likes the fact that somebody understands his predicament.

Buel tells his young charge that he, too, was haunted at a young age and that whenever the bad things came after him, he tossed holy water in their direction. It’s about this time that we learn that for all of his education and 21st-century equipment, Buel is really living in the Middle Ages.

¢ I’m looking forward to the Christmas-special episode of “Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations” (9 p.m., Travel). The opinionated gourmand will prepare a memorable meal for friends and family while welcoming the band The Queens of the Stone Age, decked out in sweaters fit for Bing Crosby and Perry Como.

Along the way, Bourdain will visit and champion local farmers and slaughterhouses, most notably a farm where foie gras is produced. While some activists have tried to ban the delicacy, Bourdain describes it as “one of the most delicious things on Earth” and defends it as part of a rich culinary heritage dating back thousands of years. For Bourdain and others, the “war” on foie gras is an assault on civilization.

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ A candidate needs help on “House” (7 p.m., Fox).

¢ Julius opts for a Kwanzaa on the cheap on “Everybody Hates Chris” (7 p.m., CW).

¢ Canines animate the holiday cartoon “I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown” (7 p.m., ABC).

¢ Raja suspects that his family has substituted shopping for religion on “Aliens in America” (7:30 p.m., CW).

¢ Corruption reigns on “K-Ville” (8 p.m., Fox).

¢ The murder of a handicapped man may have been a cover-up on “Saving Grace” (9 p.m., TNT).

¢ “History Rocks” (9 p.m., History) recalls the music and pop culture of the 1960s.

¢ A documentary crews takes a six-part look at an Alabama prison on “Lockup – Holman: Extended Stay” (9 p.m., MSNBC).

Cult choice

A freshman fears the Greek system in the 2007 shocker “The Haunting of Sorority Row” (8:50 p.m., Lifetime Movie Network).