27 Wednesday Hearts Afire (CBS, 8-9 p.m.) The first season of Linda Bloodworth-Thomason's political sitcom went just about as smoothly as her friend Bill Clinton's first 100 days, so the show enters its second season with only three cast members returning (John Ritter, Markie Post, and Billy Bob Thornton) and a new setting-a small-town newspaper instead of a senator's office in D.C.
Melrose Place (Fox, 9-10 p.m.) Various stages of the relationship cycle are depicted: Alison (Courtney Thorne-Smith) fixes up Steve (Parker Stevenson) with Jo (Daphne Zuniga); Jake (Grant Show) and Amanda (Heather Locklear) spend their first night of passion together; Michael (Thomas Calabro) tries to break up with Sydney (Laura Leighton).
The American Experience: Amelia earhart (PBS, check local listings) Kathy Bates narrates the historical documentary series' sixth-season opener, a profile of the famed female flyer who vanished mysteriously over the Pacific in 1937.
28 Thursday The Simpsons (Fox, 8-8:30 p.m.) The series' fourth annual ''Treehouse of Horror'' Halloween epi-sode includes a trilogy of creepy cartoons: ''The Devil and Homer Simpson'' (in which Homer sells his soul to Satan for a doughnut), ''Terror at 41/2 Feet'' (Bart is haunted by a monster only he can see), and ''Bart Simpson's Dracula.'' (Fox will rerun all four of The Simpsons' Halloween shows on Oct. 31 from 8 to 10 p.m.)
Movie: The Cover Girl Murders (USA, 9-11 p.m.) Ex-superhero Lee Majors (The Six Million Dollar Man) and ex-supermodels Jennifer O'Neill and Beverly Johnson star in this swimsuit-issue variation on Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians.
Bakersfield P.D. (Fox, 9:30-10 p.m.) Picket Fences (CBS, 10-11 p.m.) Two critically acclaimed series about small-town cops get special Thursday airings. Fox's charming new comedy Bakersfield (which has been languishing on Tuesdays against CBS' Rescue 911) airs an episode reuniting series star Giancarlo Esposito with his Do the Right Thing costar Bill Nunn (guest- starring as his ex-partner). CBS' Emmy-winning Fences concerns a priest (Roy Dotrice) struggling with the Catholic Church's anti-birth control stance. (Another new Fences episode airs in the show's regular time slot, Friday, Oct. 29 at 10 p.m.)
29 Friday Diagnosis Murder: starring Dick Van Dyke (CBS, 8-9 p.m.) Van Dyke reprises his Jake and the Fatman role as sleuthing sawbones Dr. Mark Sloan in this new mystery series costarring Scott Baio (as Van Dyke's medical-intern sidekick) and Barry Van Dyke (Dick's real-life son, playing his Diagnosis son, a police officer).
30 Saturday Movie: Double, Double, Toil and Trouble (ABC, 8-10 p.m.) Full House's twin kiddies, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, made their TV-movie debut last Thanksgiving with To Grandmother's House We Go, and now they're back for a Halloween outing costarring The Beverly Hillbillies' Cloris Leachman as the girls' twin aunts-one's nice, the other is a witch.
