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TV critics might not have seen it coming but James Van Praagh always knew Ghost Whisperer would be a hit.
"I remember I had a feeling, a sense that it was going to do very, very well," says the cherubic TV medium who inspired the show.
"He actually predicted that," adds producer Ian Sander, nodding fiercely. "He absolutely did."
Even after a few minutes on the show's Los Angeles set, it's obvious that the team take the show - and Van Praagh's psychic abilities - very seriously.
And why not? The series is back for a second season, this time taking over the old Men In Trees slot on Monday nights after a successful run on Fridays last year.
Ghost Whisperer isn't alone on the paranormal airwaves, of course, what with Patricia Arquette having interrupted sleep and strained family relations on TV3. But while the Emmy-winning Medium is a chilling supernatural crime drama, Ghost Whisperer is an old-fashioned ghostly fantasy that is more likely to appeal to teens - and young men keen to see Jennifer Love Hewitt in a nightie.
Last season we met Love Hewitt's newly married Melinda, a young woman who can talk to the dead, some of them friendly, others more likely to throw her down mountains, run her over or cut her hair off in the garbage disposal.
But like the trooper she is, Melinda is back to help poor lost souls "cross over into the light". The show is yet to deal with reincarnation, but that's likely after her best friend and confidante Andrea was killed last season.
"I think her guard is up this season," says Love Hewitt. "She's a little more serious. She's always waiting for the battle of the souls, for [bad ghost] Wide Brim to step out of the shadows and say, 'I'm going to take this one and you're not'."
Melinda gets a new friend this season in the form of The Practice alumnus Camryn Manheim. She plays a widowed mother oblivious to Melinda's "gift"; she just thinks she's a bit of a weirdo who likes to talk to herself.
It's not easy to reconcile Manheim, an intelligent actress whose father is a mathematician and a proud, card-carrying member of the American Atheist Society, with this TV confection that relies heavily on the power of makeup. She says she's a "sceptic of the highest order".
Despite a session with Van Praagh 10 years ago, and several palm readings and psychic sessions, no one ever predicted she would end up on The Practice for eight years.
"I played a lot of things that I don't personally believe or that I'm not anything like," she says. "Y'know, I would love to have another session with James if I'm going to have him make me a believer. But I'm going to need to be forced."
With a child to think about, the job offered stability, even if initially she was weary of committing to another series long-term.
"It also goes hand in hand with my philosophy in life. I ask myself at the end of every day, do I have any regrets? I generally only regret the things I didn't do. And I think this show follows that. Finish the business and say what's on your mind."
Comedian Jay Mohr also joins the cast as the character most Ghost Whisperer virgins will probably identify with: the sceptic. Professor Rick Payne is a fast-talking adversary against "the occult", whose expert academic opinion concludes that Melinda is a fruitloop.
"I get to be super-cynical, which I am in real life," says Mohr, who says he is neither a sceptic nor a believer but a "sceliever". "And I get to poke holes in the belief system of the paranormal. It's fun. When I first got the part I thought, 'Wow, why do they want me to speak so fast? And then you realise it's funnier that way."
Eventually he becomes seduced by Melinda's world but in reality, that's not going to happen.
"I'm afraid to have a message from James and he's like, 'Your grandmother is doing well but she says she knows what you're doing when you take those long showers. I don't need some creepy eavesdropping ghost floating around when I've got the Pro-V conditioner and I'm trying to make stomach pancakes."
"Camryn and Jay add such an energy to the show," says Love Hewitt "and being able to work with Camryn, obviously she's such a special actress. It's so fun for me to get to learn from her every day and watch her do what she does best. Jay is like the Tasmanian devil. It's just a whirlwind every single time. I have to sleep beyond sleep the days that I know I'm going to go see him the next morning."
Ghost Whisperer will also be a little spookier this season, as the writers delve into the mythology behind the show. Wide Brim will continue to plague Melinda as the spirit world strengthens.
That window to the spirit world began with Van Praagh, the chirpy, bow tie-wearing medium whose psychic abilities inspired the show - even if the producers decided Love Hewitt might be a tad more appealing on screen and cast her as the ghost whisperer instead.
Van Praagh is aware that a lot of people think the whole idea of a medium is codswallop.
"But whether you believe it or not, it's great entertainment." He suspects the show's popularity has as much to do with its messages of forgiveness, of resolving issues with dead loved ones.
When he first met husband-and-wife producer-writer team Sander and Kim Moses, they were sceptics. But they were drawn to his charisma and invited him to do a "session" for a group of TV execs.
"James looked at me and started telling a story about my mother," says Sander. "My mother died in 1973. And he said, 'Your sister's not feeling so good. Your mother wants you to go buy her a pair of shoes for her."'
He did as he was told and gave her the shoes. His sister started crying. She explained that whenever she and her mother would have an argument, she would buy her a pair of shoes.
Van Praagh also told an exec he was going to have a baby within two weeks, despite his wife not being pregnant. He was right - they'd adopted a child from China.
He also arranged for Love Hewitt to do some method acting before they started shooting.
"I did ghost busting where we actually went into people's homes and cleared ghosts from them," she says with the nonchalance of someone who has just swept away a few cobwebs.
Working on the show brings a fair share of paranormal experiences too. One episode featured a man who committed suicide and Van Praagh got talking to the actress working opposite him on set. "And she said, 'It's amazing I have this part because my boyfriend committed suicide many years ago and I was never able to resolve it and get over the grief. I think this part was sent my way from him to deal with that.'
That happened on two occasions, that weird parallel stuff."
Sander: "People want to believe in heroes because some of our mortal heroes are the ones that we have here that are you know, skin and bones, and perhaps not living up to what they would like. So I think having a show like this sends a positive message about love, about connections."
What: Ghost Whisperer
When & where: TV2, Monday, 9.30pm
