Are You Afraid of the Dark

Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society.

I call this story... Telecast. Episode 4. It's

time for the Telecast. Brought to you by... The

Geekcast Radio Network. Optimus Solo Hi, what's

up? Not much, and since this is your first show

with the network, why don't you take a minute

and tell everyone a little bit about yourself

so they know who they're listening to before

we get started. All right, sure thing. Well,

my name is Tara, a .k .a. Rising Star, and I

am a broadcasting and film student from Toronto,

Ontario, in my second year, and I am a huge lover

of all things pop culture and retro, new, anything.

I just love it all. That's excellent. So you

found a good place to be, since so are most of

us. Yes, I'm pretty happy with where I am right

now in college, and I'm actually hoping to be

a reporter one day and do stuff like this. So

then when you get big, you'll remember the little

people. Yes, I will remember the little people.

So today, Tara and I are going to be talking

about... Thank you. That's right, folks. We are

talking about our fourth Nickelodeon classic

in a row. We already did Salute Your Shorts.

The Adventures of Pete and Pete and Clarissa

explains it all, so now it's time for Are You

Afraid of the Dark? And before we get too far

into our discussion, just a little background

information on Are You Afraid of the Dark. Depending

on if you were living in Canada or the United

States, it debuted around 1991. and it lasted

until 1996 for a total of seven seasons and 91

episodes with a short -lived revival at the end

of the decade in the 1999 to 2000 year period.

And, of course, like we said before, it was on

Nickelodeon, and its episodes were about 30 minutes

long. Are You Afraid of the Dark revolves around

a group of teenagers who refer to themselves

as the Midnight Society, and every week at a

secret location in the woods, one member would

tell a scary story to the rest of the group,

and then it would cut into the story with all

different actors, etc., and then occasionally

it would cut back to the Midnight Society, sometimes

during the episode. And if it didn't at the middle

of the episode, it would at the end to kind of

like sum things up. So what do you remember from,

I mean, I know you're a little bit younger than

most of my other fellow co -hosts, but you said

you have an older brother that kind of exposed

you to these shows. So what do you remember about

Are You Afraid of the Dark? Oh my gosh, I remember

so much about this. I basically, Are You Afraid

of the Dark was my childhood. I remember it being...

scary i remember it being wacky i remember it

being just just out of the ordinary and just

really interesting and it just captured my attention

and just the funny thing is with With regards

to my older brother, he would take me into his

room and we would watch Are You Afraid of the

Dark? late at night, probably around between

10 and 11 o 'clock. That's when it was airing

on YTV, a station here in Toronto. And we'd watch

it, and then I would not be able to sleep. And

my mom would be... would just go to my brother

and be like, you really need to stop showing

your little sister these shows. She cannot sleep,

and we are up all night just trying to calm me

down and telling me that the things I saw on

TV were not going to come out and scare me in

the middle of the night. A good example of that

is the clown from one of the episodes. Oh, goodness.

That one really got to me, and after that, I

would never watch anything with clowns in it

again. Yeah, my sister also has a fear of clowns,

and I don't know if she got it from this show

or if this show just heightened it. This show

probably would heighten it. It was just, that's

how, you know, back then, I mean, the effects

were pretty well done. And it almost touched

on every different fear you could possibly have

over the course of the 90 -plus episodes. So

it didn't matter if you were afraid of some type

of animal or if you were afraid of heights or

if you were afraid of the boogeyman or clowns

or whatever. They were going to hit on it at

some point. If you weren't afraid of it before

you watched the show, chances are after you watched

it, you'd be afraid of it. Yeah, definitely.

And I never could understand, and I did the same

thing, but it's why kids, or sometimes I guess

even young adults, watch scary stuff right before

bed, knowing that it might affect their sleep

habits. But I did the exact same thing. I remember

once, it wasn't already free of the dark, but

I remember watching a, and I'm not a scary movie

person. I'm not someone that goes all crazy for

the Nightmare on Elm Street and the slasher -type

movies and all that kind of stuff. One time I

was home alone. I don't remember why or what

was going on, but I was home alone, and I decided

to watch one of them. I don't remember what movie

it was, but I just remember the rest of the night

waiting for my parents to get home, and, like,

I think I was actually carrying around a baseball

bat at some point. Like, I was so scared that

someone was going to try to, like, break in.

Oh, my God. I can relate to that because I would

just. go into my brother's room after the fact

and I'd be like, Paul, I'm so scared. And he

would just be like, Tara, go to sleep. It's just

TV. But I was young. I couldn't, you know, distinguish

between TV and reality. Well, yeah. And that

makes total sense. I remember about this show,

though, that it seemed... More real than most

scary stuff I was exposed to at that age. That

is true. It did. It definitely did because I

think just the way it was done because, you know,

you had the opening and you had the kids at the

fire pit talking and then all of a sudden it

cut to, you know, real. Like it's showing the

actual story taking place. So as a viewer, I

guess you could kind of, you kind of were just

transported to where the story was taking place.

So it felt more real to you. Yeah, and they kind

of blurred the line between reality and supernatural

or fantasy or whatever pretty well. And the thing

that I liked about it back then, and I remember

this clearly, that at that age or at that stage

of my life in the early 90s, most of the scary

stuff I had been exposed to that was aimed towards

a child audience was done so in a very cheesy

manner to make sure it wasn't scary. But this

was not like this. I mean, this is something

that your parents would let you watch because

it's on Nickelodeon and it's aimed towards kids,

but it wasn't trying to be, I mean, the acting

was cheesy at times, but it was not trying to

be this, like, dumb it down so the kids don't

get scared. This was actually a scary show. It

was, yes, because you had a good example in one

of the episodes with the Tale of the Dream Girl.

You had two characters who were dead. yeah and

you don't find that out until the end of the

episode and you know so kids were experiencing

reality they were experiencing death they were

experiencing supernatural and and it was in a

way it was good because it was it was it was

um you know kids were getting exposure to this

Yeah, and it dealt with all kinds of different

stuff. It wasn't all, like, you know, some of

the stories were supernatural. Some of them were

more ghost stories. Some of them, you know, I

mean, they kind of did all different genres of

whatever you want to call it, horror genres or,

you know, scary movie genres. They touched every

little part. Compared to, like, today where we

have to censor everything because God forbid

a kid learns about, you know, death or sees blood.

You know, we don't see that. It's like that doesn't

exist in the real world. because it's only in

TV, you know? Yeah. That's the mindset. Yeah,

I always kind of thought that, you know, as a

kid that Nickelodeon was pulling one over on

parents out there, because, you know, parents

just assume it's Nickelodeon, it's fine. So me

and my sister, you know, we'd pop some popcorn

or whatever, and we'd go in the basement or wherever,

you know, the parents weren't, and we'd watch

SNCC, you know, Clarissa explains it all, et

cetera, but Are You Afraid of the Dark was usually

the later. Obviously, that makes sense. And,

you know, we'd be like, how are we getting away

with watching this stuff? Because I don't know

about, you know, everyone else out there, but

my parents were pretty strict growing up. And,

you know, I wasn't exposed to, I would never

have been allowed to watch some of the more adult

-themed, like, horror movies out there. So I

was almost feeling like, wow, I can actually

watch this stuff, and they think it's, you know,

just a kid's show. Yeah, I agree with that. That's

the thinking that we had here in Canada, too,

in my family. At first, my mom would be like,

okay, it's on YTV, it's on Nickelodeon, it's

a kid's show. It's okay if... if my daughter

is watching that or my son is watching that.

And, and then when she, you know, when she actually

watched it and she saw it, she's like, Oh, when

she was taking care of you at two o 'clock in

the morning, she was just like, Hey, no, you're

not watching that ever again. And it's funny

because even like later on now, like I was still

afraid of some aspects of that show. And then

I go back and watch it because, you know, being,

being a film student, I learned all the behind

the scenes things. And I go back now, and I'm

like, okay, those are some really, really bad,

cheesy effects. How the heck did that scare me?

Yeah. You know what? Well, I'm telling you, I

watched back quite a few episodes, and the clown

still scares me. Yeah, the clown was, I'll give

it that. The clown is really well done. I mean,

for some reason, in shows like Are You Afraid

of the Dark, and I'm not sure if you're familiar

with a show called Reboot, they like to throw

clowns in there. And the clown is always grotesque

and just, it doesn't look like a normal clown.

It seems wrong that, like, all the circuses or

the carnivals or whatever, like, well, they all

have this misconception that kids like clowns.

I don't think I've ever met a kid that likes

clowns. No. I'll just say no. Clowns are just

creepy. But I think we're going to get into a

little bit of the who's who for Are You Afraid

of the Dark now. This is a little different than

the past shows we've covered because there really

aren't main characters that are involved in the

actual show on a consistent basis. We have the

Midnight Society, which is the group of kids

that tell the story to each other, but they're

basically only seen at the beginning and at the

end. And then the whole main part of the show

is done by guest stars. which most of them don't

have recurring appearances. There's a few that

do, but usually it's a guest star every single

episode that's involved in the actual story.

So we're just going to touch a little bit on

some of the Midnight Society people, and then

we'll talk a little bit about the guest stars

because there are some interesting guest star

appearances in this. As far as the Midnight Society

goes, each member basically has a distinct personality,

and they usually have some type of trend in their

storytelling. Not necessarily... 100 % of their

stories are all related to the same things, but

I think one character, for example, always has

the Dr. Vink stories. One character might tell

all about supernatural stuff. So each member

of the Midnight Society kind of has their own

personal trends with their stories. Couple Midnight

Society members are Gary, who was on the entire

first run of the show. He was the founder. He

tells 10 stories, as does Kiki. Kiki is the tomboyish

African -American girl who looks a lot like Telly

from Salute Your Shorts. And then there's Betty

Ann, who tells 12 stories. So those are your

main three storytellers. There's also Frank.

Tucker, Sam, Kristen, David, and Stig, who all

tell two stories or more. Out of the Midnight

Society members, did you have a favorite person

as far as the way they were introduced or the

way they told stories or anything like that?

I had a couple favorites, but I have to say the

one that I remember the most is probably Gary.

I think just because he had that kind of nerd

thing going on. Yeah, he definitely looked the

nerd of the group. He usually had – he had glasses,

right? He had glasses and he had brown hair and

he – and just, you know, the way he held himself,

you would think, you know, he's a nerd. Yeah.

And then they brought in his younger brother

a few years later. That's the one I said, Tucker.

Yeah. So it was kind of interesting to see the

– kind of the interaction between those two.

Yeah, that was definitely interesting between

Tucker and Gary when – Tucker was introduced

just, like, with the story that he told. I can't

remember exactly which story it was, but it was

pretty interesting. And, I mean, and then going

from the guys to the girls, I mean, the girl

that I remember the most was probably Sam just

because of her stories. She was the – I don't

remember a lot about Sam. She was shy. What color

hair did she have? I'm pretty sure she had, like,

brown hair. Okay. I remember Kiki, and I remember

– Kiki I remember because Kiki was just – she

was hilarious. I loved her. Right, and I think

the other one I remember was possibly either,

I don't remember if it was Kristen or Betty Ann.

I think it was Kristen, the blonde girl, just

because she always seemed like she would not

be in a group that was telling ghost stories

to each other. Exactly, yeah. She always got

a place. She seemed like a cheerleader. Yeah,

and I was like, what are you doing here? You

should be scared of all of this stuff. And she

wasn't. It's like, okay, I guess this group has

everybody. We got a nerd and now we got a cheerleader.

Yeah, and they also had the tough guy. I don't

know if he was necessarily supposed to be a jock

per se, but he was kind of the muscle of the

group. I can't remember which character that

was because they don't use their names a whole

lot. Was that Frank? I think it might have been

Frank. But they had a younger person. They had

the older people in the group. A different personality

to try to reach just about out to everybody that

could have been viewing this. And they also had

the token funny guy. Yeah. You think that was

Frankie? Is that his name? Yeah. Frank was, yeah,

I think Frank was the funny guy. But they each

had a different kind of personality. They each

had something that you could relate to, or you

could at least find one person in the group that

you could relate to. Was there any that kind

of you didn't like or kind of drove you nuts?

At times, I think Eric kind of drove me nuts.

Yeah. He was really obnoxious and... Like, sometimes

when one person, I remember, I think when Sam

was telling one of her famous stories, which

was the tale of the unfinished painting, he's

like, okay, wake me up when the story's over.

And you'd be like, okay. Maybe the reason you

found him annoying was the same reason why they

cut him out of the show after the first two years.

Oh, I was so happy when they cut him out of the

show. He only got to tell two stories before

his character was cut completely. It was a good

thing, because he was just annoying. And I'm

like, I want to hear the story. Be quiet. Outside

of the Midnight Society, there was two main characters

that had recurring roles, meaning they would

show up in multiple stories. One was Richard

DeMott, who I know because he did a lot of voice

acting in the 80s. And he was the owner, or he

was Sardo, owner of Sardo's Magic. Yeah, owner

of Sardo's Magic Mansion. So he would show up

in a multitude of episodes. And the other one

was Dr. Vink. played by Aaron Tager, I think

is how you say it. And he would appear in a bunch

of episodes as Dr. Vink, and one of them I'll

talk about in a little bit. But those two show

up, they're kind of a theme, as well as the clown,

who I'm forgetting his name, Zeebo, I think was

his name. Yeah, I'm pretty sure Zeebo was his

name. So those three would show up in multiple

stories, but then they also had quite a few guest

stars that showed up just in one particular episode,

and I did not realize when I was planning for

the record of this episode how many famous people

were involved in this show. I was convinced.

Yeah, I was convinced that this was one of those

shows where nobody really made anything after

this that was involved in the show, and there

was no really famous cameos. I thought it was

all just these little stories of people that

kind of had their one shot at acting, and that

was it. But that was not the case. No, this actually

was probably a launching point for them. Yeah,

a launching point for some of them. I think they

did a combination. were the first appearance

for some of these actors, and then they took

some of the other ones that were just coming

up or just making their break and trying to use

that to try to kind of promote their show a little

bit. I've got to mention the first one, and I'm

going to give you each season and which one of

these famous people are there, just in case you're

interested in seeing them so you can kind of

know which season you should go after. The main

most famous guest star in season two is none

other than Melissa Joan Hart, also known as Clarissa

from Clarissa Explains It All. And she was in

the episode Tale of the Frozen Ghost. I did watch

this episode, and it was somewhat creepy. I don't

know if you got a chance to see this episode,

but this is, I think, about a year, maybe a year

and a half after Clarissa started. So this is

one of those, I think that's one. It's kind of

hard to tell since Canada had different air dates

then. But according to U .S. dates, this is a

little bit after Clarissa started. So they're

kind of using one of their own Nickelodeon stars

to be on this. And they do this with someone

else that I'll get to in a little bit. But it

was definitely interesting to see Melissa Joan

Hart in this type of setting. Um, the season

three people, there was a lot of people in season

three. So if you're going after a DVD set and

you only have money for like one season, season

three might be the one you go after. Um, Nev

Campbell appears in season three from, she was

also doing a party of five at the time in the

tale of the dangerous soup. Tatiana Ali from

Fresh Prince is in The Tale of the Quicksilver.

Danny Cooksey from Salute Your Shorts is in Tale

of the Guardian's Curse. And Eddie K. Thomas,

who you might not recognize by that name, but

you will recognize him as Finch from American

Pie. His very first acting role was on Are You

Afraid of the Dark in the episode Tale of the

Curious Camera. So there's a few people from

Season 3 you can catch a glimpse at. Will Friedle

from Boy Meets World was on a Season 4 episode,

Tale of the Longo Locket. Tia and Tamara Mowry

from Sister, Sister were in Season 5 episode,

Tale of the Chameleons. Ryan Gosling's first

role, and he also appeared in an episode with

Gilbert Gottfried in a Season 5 episode called

Tale of Station 109 .1. And then I have to mention

this because I'm a Star Wars fanatic. In season

six, Hayden Christensen was in the episode called

The Tale of Bigfoot Ridge. Did you see any of

the episodes with any of these people in them?

Yes, with Melissa Joan Hart I did, and I was

so pumped when I recognized her because I'm a

huge Sabrina fan. So when I saw that, I'm like,

oh, my God, it's Melissa Joan Hart. I was surprised

because I don't remember ever noticing these

people when I watched this as a kid. And I watched

Party of Five. I watched Clarissa. I watched,

you know, Fresh Prince and Salute Your Shorts.

But I don't remember seeing these people and

being like, oh, there's so -and -so. But watching

them back now when you see them, it's like, oh.

How did I miss that? Yeah, exactly. I mean, Neve

Campbell looks exactly, obviously, like she does

in Party of Five. The only one that looks – I

didn't get to see the Ryan Gosling one or the

Finch from American Pie to see what they looked

like in their first roles. Hayden Christensen

looks a little bit younger than I'm used to,

obviously. But it was just kind of cool to see

these people. In this type of environment where

it's basically just them and maybe one or two

other main actors in the show and dealing with

all these kind of horror -themed stories. But

like I said, I'm just shocked that this many

people were in this. I'm just as shocked as you

are because now that I'm hearing all this and

I'm realizing this, it's like, wow. And I can

honestly tell you that most of these are available

for you to watch. We'll get into that a little

bit later. But I did watch the episode with Melissa

Joan Hart. I watched the episode with Nev Campbell,

Danny Cooksey, and I watched the episode with

Hayden Christensen. So if you're interested in

watching those, we'll give you information later

on where you can find that out. But definitely

a star -studded group of guest stars that actually

outshine the Midnight Society by far. I will

have to agree with you on that. Do you have any

other thoughts on any of either the guest stars,

the Midnight Society people, or any of the characters

involved in the show? I'll just say this. They

were interesting. Just everybody who was on that

show was interesting. And I just have to mention

this. Sardo, like, honestly, one of my all -time

favorite characters from the show. Just have

to throw that out there. And, you know, because

in the show, like, whenever they go into his

magic store, you're like, don't buy that, don't

buy that. I am upset that I didn't I somehow

missed I watched quite a few episodes this last

week getting ready for this and I somehow didn't

catch any of the episodes with Sardo on them

so I'm going to have to go back and watch another

episode to remember what he looked like I saw

quite a few with Mr. Vink or Dr. Vink or whatever

he's Dr. Vink and I you know I purposely went

out to try to find most of these guest stars

but I miss Sardo I do remember the name Sardo

he's a really I'll kind of describe him as fast

as I can he's a really interesting He's an interesting

-looking character. He's a big guy. He's got

slicked -back, scraggly black hair. He's got

an interesting face, and he's got a really funny

-sounding voice. And his character is just really

humorous and sarcastic and the salesman. He puts

on that kind of attitude, and he's just like

that. Yeah, I remember the name, and I remember,

you know, like, as soon as I heard Sardo, I'm

like, ooh, I remember that for some reason. But,

yeah, I'm definitely going to have to go back

and watch an episode with him in it. Okay, I

think that does it, then, for the who's who and

the characters, so I think it is time for...

The good. The bad. The ugly. All right, what

kind of notes did you jot down as far as the

overall show for the good, the bad, and the ugly

of Are You Afraid of the Dark? Well, basically,

for the good, I have amazing, amazing theme song

and amazing intro, because if the intro didn't

scare the crap out of you, then the show would.

And also for the good, I had interesting stories,

some memorable characters like Sardo, and then

for the bad, I had cheesy acting, clowns. Cons

are bad. Cons are really bad. And what else did

I have for the bad? And probably that. I can't

really say there was anything that I would classify

as ugly. Because nothing in that show, like,

of course you had, like, ugly -looking, like,

scary characters. But you didn't have anything

that would, you know, be a major turn -off. Right.

I agree with you on that. I actually had some

of the same stuff, so I'm just going to go over

it real quick with the ones that I had, because

obviously if we both have them, that means they're

100 % true. I love the intro. I don't know if

it's necessarily the song so much as it is the

music and the visuals that they give you during

it. I mean, it is just an absolute creepy intro.

Oh, it's creepy. The intro sometimes is almost

the scariest part of the show. I'll admit, I

would skip the intro when I watched it sometimes.

Yeah, I mean, it shows you, like, it's like this,

like, creepy, like, gnome, like, clown -type

character that they show, and they, ah, it's

just... Well, you're in someone's attic. Yeah,

you're in someone's attic, and it's, like, really

kind of slow motion, and the music is very creepy,

and it definitely sets the tone for the show.

Another, like, you had the actual story writing.

It was absolutely great writing in these shows,

which is unlike most of the other shows that

we're talking about as far as kids' shows during

this period. I mean, usually the writing isn't

necessarily something they focused on. Most kids'

shows that you had were more concerned about

humor or, you know, simple writing that everybody

would understand. But the writing in here was

actually somewhat complex, at least for certain

episodes. I mean, you had your cheesy episodes

sometimes. I think the writing on this is one

of the best Nickelodeon writing that we see in

the late 80s, early 90s. Not only did they use

great, creepy music at the beginning and the

intro, but they do a good job throughout the

entire show of using music to help set the mood.

You know, whether it be different parts with

the Midnight Society or going into the show or

different themes that they use during the show.

And this is something that's common with most

scary movies. Most horror movies or scary movies

are very good at using the music to help scare

you. And, you know, I think that was something

that was well done in this show as well. I also

love the ideas of having the kids introduce the

stories and being telling stories to each other.

I mean, I don't know how many kids would actually

have a group. like this where they actually tell

stories with each other. If you tried. If you

probably tried during that time. But it was kind

of cool seeing the interaction between those

members and having them kind of introduce it.

And I think it was their way of kind of protecting

themselves against any censors that would complain

about. kids not being able to tell that it was

a story and that it wasn't real type thing. I

think this is their way of breaking that wall

and saying, okay, that was the story we told,

now we're back to real life and us around the

campfire. And it was kind of a way to hopefully

maybe stop some of the nightmares, even though

it wasn't successful in all cases, because sometimes

the stories were scary enough on their own. But

I think it was at least an attempt to kind of

bring you back to reality a little bit. As far

as the bad, I agree with you. The worst thing

about this show, which is not really something

I'm faulting the show for, but the acting is

typical for kid shows in this time period. The

acting is really cheesy. I mean, besides a few

of those guest stars that we mentioned, some

of them do have good performances, which is obviously

why they became stars and why we're remembering

their names and stuff. But some of the other

actors are just horrible. They're just brutal.

Yeah, it was like, I don't know what the criteria

was for making it onto the show, but I think

at some points there wasn't much as far as the

audition. Yeah. One thing we haven't talked about

that I do want to bring up that I absolutely

love about the show is how they begin it and

how they end it, which is the same line with

someone saying, submitted for the approval of

the Midnight Society, I call this story, and

he would throw the magic dust on the fire, or

she would, and it would kind of flame up, and

then they'd put the title on. I love that, and

I love that at the end that they would declare

this meeting of the Midnight Society closed and

throw water on the fire. I don't know why I like

those, but it seems like every show that I watch,

I like something like that that's repeated over

and over that you can kind of count on. It probably

made it seem more real. Yeah. I just always wanted

to be there so I could throw the stuff on fire.

It's like, why can't I do that? That's why you

go camping. Just do it. I know. I'm going to

have to tell a ghost story and do it. But I think

that's it. Yeah, I don't really have anything

ugly about this show. And there's really not

that much bad about this show. I was coming into

this record on memories alone and good memories.

All I could remember about this show was this

is a really good show. I really loved it when

I was a kid. But I haven't seen it in, I don't

know, over a decade. I have not seen an episode

of this show whatsoever since it stopped airing.

I don't think I ever saw this even in repeats.

I saw these live on SNCC. I think it was Saturday

nights that they showed it or whatever nights

that they showed it. And I saw these live. I

don't think I ever saw them in reruns or ever

after that. So I was worried when I was going

to come into watching the show again that it

was going to kind of ruin my memories of it.

But I can honestly say every episode I sat down

and watched, I was into it, and it seemed like

they aged fine. I mean, obviously the style of

clothing and the cheesy acting and whatnot is

a little dated. It seems like it holds up somewhat.

I mean, it did not ruin my memories at all. Same

here. So for good, bad, and ugly, it's mainly

good here. So I think it's time for... Things

that make you go, hmm. All right, here are some

of the things that you might not know about Are

You Afraid of the Dark? Number one thing, just

to continue our string since I've said it for

every other episode, Just like all the other

Nickelodeon TV shows, this was nominated or won

over a dozen awards, including being nominated

two times for a Young Artist Award for Best Performers

in a Children's Program and Best Performance

by a Young Ensemble. I was not aware when I was

a kid that all of these Nickelodeon shows apparently

won these awards, but Salute Your Shorts won

awards, Adventures of Pete and Pete won awards,

Clarissa won awards, and I did not know Are You

Afraid of the Dark had won any awards. But they

did. So I thought that was interesting. Number

two thing you might not know about Are You Afraid

of the Dark is the substance in the bag that

makes the campfire smoke up during the title

of each story is supposedly regular table sugar.

I've never tried throwing sugar in a fire, but

I might do that. I'm blown away by that. I thought

it was sand. Yeah, I always thought it was sand

or something, too, or some weird substance. I

always wondered what it was when I was a kid,

but now that I know, I'm going to definitely

start a fire and throw some sugar in it, and

then I'm going to be disappointed when it doesn't

do what it did in the show. Number three thing

that you might not know about Are You Afraid

of the Dark, and this one I think is the most

interesting one. You have actually mentioned

this episode already. The Tale of the Dream Girl

from Season 3 was the inspiration for The Sixth

Sense, and this is coming straight from M. Night

Shyamalan. Wow. So, I believe you said something

about the characters going through the whole

episode and being dead? Yeah, well, basically,

there's a brother and a sister, and the sister,

you know, and the brother work in this bowling

alley, and the brother is thinking, like, everyone's

ignoring him, and he keeps seeing this beautiful

girl, and he finds out she's dead. And then he

realizes at the end that he himself is a ghost.

See? And so, basically, a lot like The Sixth

Sense. I see dead people. That is amazing because

everybody, you know, when Sixth Sense came out,

everyone was like completely shocked at that

show. And, you know, there's been multiple things

that have tried to kind of. not necessarily copy

it completely, but have tried to take that same

idea and go with it. Well, whoever thought that

that actually started back in Are You Afraid

of the Dark? Yeah, when I did research for this

recording and I found that out, I was quite surprised.

And I'm like, wow, who would have thought that

M. Night Shyamalan would get his inspiration

from Are You Afraid of the Dark? I know, Nickelodeon,

you did something good. And I don't have this

down or anything, but I also, when I was... doing

some research for the show, found out that one

of the episodes also inspired a weird owl to

create a song about it. I'm not a big weird owl

fan, but it's something I think the song called

Phony Calls or something about prank calls or

something supposedly was inspired by an episode

of Are You Afraid of the Dark? So it kind of

just goes back to the writing on the show in

that people did do some pretty good writing that

other people used or noticed or were inspired

by or whatever. So very cool stuff. All right.

I think we're going to try to give you a little

bit of information on where some of these Midnight

Society members are now. Obviously, the guest

stars that we mentioned, like Nev Campbell and

Melissa Joan Hart, you know where they're at.

They're still very much in the acting world.

But the Midnight Society members, not so much

for most of them. Ross Hull, who is Gary, he's

actually up by you. He's a weather anchor in

Ontario. So I found that kind of interesting

that he's completely out of the acting realm.

Kiki, who is played by Jodi Rester, is actually

also in Canada because most of this cast is from

Canada. She's living in Quebec. She's done a

little bit of everything. She's done some voice

work, most notably Francine Alice Frensky on

the PBS Arthur cartoon series. She's put out

two different R &B albums, so she's involved

in some musical stuff, and she's currently also

trying to put together a reality series with

her boyfriend, so she seems to have her hand

in a lot of different things. Daniel DeSanto

Tucker, the younger brother, he's gone on to

do a lot of voice work. For anybody that did

watch the show Brace Face, he was Brock Layton.

He also appeared in the movie Mean Girls as the

character Jason. So he's done some stuff in the

acting world still. Sam, Joanna Garcia, she was

Cheyenne from the sitcom Reba, and she was Brie

Buckley on The Gossip Girl. And she had a new

show this year, but I haven't seen it, on ABC

called Better With You. Have you seen any episodes

of that? No, unfortunately I haven't. Of what?

Better With You? Yeah, Better With You. I'd never

even heard of that, but apparently that was a

new show this year. I don't know if it got...

Never heard of it. Maybe it got axed right away.

We'll see. She was also in Not Another Teen Movie

and American Pie 2, and kind of a full circle

thing here, she was a guest star on Clarissa

Explains It All one time. So Clarissa was a guest

on here, and she was a guest on her show. Rachel

Blanchard, the blonde that we were talking about,

kind of the cheerleader, Kristen, she was Cher

Horowitz on the... television series Clueless.

And she was in an episode of, I have to bring

this up because I love this show, the HBO show

Flight of the Conchords. I don't know how many

of our listeners will have actually watched that

show, but it's a very funny show. And she played

Jermaine's girlfriend Sally on two different

episodes. So I did not know that, but I definitely

am going to have to re -watch those episodes.

So those are really the only main ones. Most

of the other cast members of the Midnight Society,

this was... one of their last roles on TV. A

lot of them, this was kind of their 15 minutes

of fame. And then they went on to do other things.

Um, not that there's anything wrong with that,

but these are the main ones that I could at least

find a little bit of information on. Most of

them are probably up by you somewhere. So you

could probably go stop by and say hello or, or

watch a watch Gary on the weather. It'd be like,

Hey Gary, are you afraid of the dark? You're

on YouTube. Did you know that? I'm sure he's

never heard that question posed to him. Probably

not. I bet you for some of these people, if it

was kind of like you said, they're 50 minutes

of frame, they're probably like, I'd rather forget

that I was ever a part of that show. You usually

get one of two things. You usually have the people

that absolutely don't want to hear about it and

want to distance themselves from the show as

much as possible, or you have the ones that just

embrace it completely and are all about it. So

it's always interesting to see how they react

because it seems like the one guy that I listened

to an interview from Salute Your Shorts, Donkey

Lips, seems like he's all about it. He has no

problem singing the Salute Your Shorts theme

song in bars with people and doing all kinds

of stuff. But you have other people that are

like, you know, that was my past. Please don't.

Stamp is that forever. Yeah, I'm just going to

go crawl under a rocket. I'm a real person. All

right, I think it's time for a quick intermission.

But please don't touch that dial because we will

be right back after these messages. Stay in your

seat if you dare. There's more are you afraid

of the dark after this. This is Megatron, leader

of the protocol. And I'm commanding you to listen

to the beast on this podcast. This podcast is

released bi -weekly by the folks over at geekcastradio

.com and I want you to listen to it because it's

the world's first beast wars and beast machines

review podcast. If you don't listen to it, I

will set my vehicles to remove your sparks and

destroy you. So... Are you watching Are You Afraid

of the Dark in the dark? Well, what are you afraid

of? What's so terrifying about Tales of the Unknown,

the Unseen, and the Undead? After all, there

is nothing in the dark that isn't there in the

light. Or is there? Tune in for another tale

of Are You Afraid of the Dark tomorrow at 7 .30,

6 .30 Central on Nickelodeon. Because the real

terror never begins until night falls. Watch

out. It's coming back. We now return to Are You

Afraid of the Dark? Thanks for staying with us,

everyone. And you may be wondering, now that

we've talked about the show for a little while

now, how you can watch some episodes of Are You

Afraid of the Dark? Now, unlike all of the other

episodes or the shows we've covered so far on

the telecast, you're in luck this time because

every single season of Are You Afraid of the

Dark is available on DVD. Direct Source has released

all seven seasons on DVD in Region 1. The first

five seasons were released in Canada only, while

six and seven are available in Canada and the

U .S., but if they were released in Canada or

U .S., I'm sure there's ways that you can get

a hold of them. Each season is about 13 episodes

long, and the price range on these sets are usually

somewhere around either $19 .99. I saw one or

two of them listed for $29 .99. Not quite sure

why some are more than others, but around $20

or $30 you can get a hold of at least one season,

and if you're a diehard fan, you can get all

seven seasons. So that's something that we haven't

been able to tell you before. Also, it is available

on YouTube. I mean, not all 91 episodes I don't

think are available on YouTube. Actually, most

of them are. Most of them are. I didn't count

to see if all 91 of them are, but so far every

episode title I've typed into YouTube I've got

a hit on. Yeah, same here. Most of the ones that

are the more memorable ones, they're on YouTube,

but I think I've found probably around 40 or

50 that are on YouTube. Yeah, so if you're someone

that just wants to watch a few episodes, you

don't necessarily want to spend the money and

buy, the DVD, you're maybe not a diehard fan

and you don't need it in your collection. If

you're someone that just wants to watch a few

episodes to remember what it's like, or maybe

you never saw it before and you want to see what

the heck we're talking about, YouTube is fine.

The quality isn't necessarily crystal clear on

these, but it's not horrible. It's kind of a

mediocre quality, I would say. Yeah, I'd have

to agree with you on that. They're not the best.

They look like they're kind of grainy. Yeah,

so far the best one we've seen is The Adventures

of Pete and Pete had crystal clear YouTube feeds.

Salute Your Shorts was real bad YouTube feeds.

This one's somewhere in between, kind of like

Clarissa was on the last episode. Now, you may

want to, you know, even if you just want to watch

a few episodes, you can go back in the recording

and you can listen to which episodes some of

those guest stars appear on because, seriously,

all you have to do is find the episode name,

type it in, and you're going to get a hit. They're

all in. Done in three parts. At least all the

ones I found were in three parts. And each part

was about nine or ten minutes long, some of them

a little bit shorter. Did you see any that were

done all in one shot? The only thing I've seen

that was all done in one shot would probably

be torrenting it. Okay. Not on YouTube, because,

like, they're all broken up into, like, three

parts. Yeah, all the YouTube ones I found were

in three parts. And it was kind of weird with

the ones I was searching. Maybe you found someone

that has all of them, but I... Each user I found

only had, like, maybe three or four of the episodes

or maybe eight or nine of the episodes. I didn't

find, like, that, like, are you afraid of the

dark guru that has, like, all... Yeah, because...

Chances are if they had all 91 episodes... Someone

would find them. Yeah, somebody would go in,

flag it, and be like, copyright, and take it

down. Yeah. I couldn't find any information on

the bonus features on the DVD. I'm guessing there's

not a lot of bonus features on any of the DVDs.

But I think it is cool that it's at least available

in seasons 1 through 7. I'm guessing you'd have

to go through Amazon or... eBay or something.

Or probably Best Buy would have it or stuff like

that. I don't know if they'd have all seven,

but it's definitely worth a shot. With some of

them being released only in Canada, some in the

U .S., I don't know if that's going to complicate

the availability as far as people finding them

on DVD, but they're out there, so at least you

have that opportunity. It's not like some shows

where you just don't have that option. Because

they just never got the distribution for it.

Right. So definitely cool that it's out there.

As far as... So imitating our IGN crew here,

what would you rank this show? And just for those,

I'll give this one more time. I keep saying I'm

not going to do this, but just for those that

this is the first time maybe they're listening,

a ranking of one basically means that you hate

the show. You hated it then, you hate it now,

which I don't know why you'd be on the show hosting

it if you did, but every once in a while we get

somebody on just so they can rant. Number two

would be that you loved it back then, but it

doesn't really hold up and you couldn't really

sit through entire episodes anymore. Three would

be something that, you know, if it was available

to watch on TV, you'd tune in every once in a

while, or you would go to YouTube and watch this

if you had the chance. And a rating of four means

that you really want to add this to your DVD

collection, and it's something that's that good

as far as your opinion. So what do you give Are

You Afraid of the Dark? I'd have to give it a

four. Definitely a four. Excellent. You don't

have any of these DVDs, do you? No, I don't.

I've just been watching them all on YouTube.

No, but I fluctuated. this last week. I've, I've

been going back and forth. I have yet to give

out a four so far on the telecast, um, because

we haven't covered a show yet that I am dying

to add to my collection. This one, I'm teeter

-tottering between a three and a four. I was

going to say, I was going to ask is to be like,

can I give like a half, but I didn't know what

to say. Yeah. I mean, it seems like the, if I

was giving it a three, it would be the strongest

three of the show so far. I mean, I would give

this a better rating than any episode we've covered

so far. And if I found it for the right price

on DVD, I probably would buy it. I'm not going

to go searching for it, and it's not something

that I'm going to go on the Internet and find

and pay whatever it's on there for. But if I

was wandering through a Best Buy or some store

like that and I saw it and it was the right price,

I would probably pick this up. So it gets the

best rating I've given so far. I'm not necessarily

going to say I give it a 4, though. So we'll

leave that for another show to get the first

four rating for me. But definitely two strong

ratings from us on Are You Afraid of the Dark.

Any last words? All right, like he said, any

last words? Do you have any last words on Are

You Afraid of the Dark, anything we missed, or

just your closing thoughts on it? With regards

to the show, if you've never watched it, watch

it. And if you did watch it and you haven't watched

it recently, again, watch it. Because honestly,

it's a classic. And it was just an awesome show.

And maybe it didn't get all the credit that it

deserved back then in terms of becoming a huge

hit, having a movie or whatnot. But it's good

to go back and relive that. Yeah, and I agree

with you. I don't care if you've never watched

this show or if it's been 15 or however many

long it's been since it's been on the air, years

since it was on, you need to give this show a

chance. You need to watch it. First of all, it's

unique. There was no other show really like this.

I mean, there was Tales of the Crypt and Goosebumps

and stuff at different time periods, but this

was kind of a unique show. It wasn't your typical

late 80s, early 90s, Saved by the Bell type.

This is something that's very unique. The writing

on it is fantastic, and that's one reason why

you're going to be able to watch it currently

and not be completely turned off by it, because

the writing is actually good. And it's worth

it just to see some of these other people in

their earlier roles, some of these guest stars.

Even if that's the only reason you watch it,

I have an inkling that once you watch one episode,

you might watch another one. Just because it's

that type of show that, you know, I'm usually

not a big fan of shows that are standalone episodes

because I like continuity and I like there to

be an overarching story that goes through a number

of episodes. These are all standalone stories,

one shots, and I love them. And I am not someone

that likes scary stuff. I'm not someone that

likes horror movies or anything like that. But

this is as awesome as I remembered it. And that's

the only way I can put it. So go find it on YouTube

and watch it. Watch it. The moral of the story

is watch this, but if you happen to accidentally

click on the clown episode, we apologize for

any nightmares that you may have. It's not our

fault. It is not our fault. Don't go cry to your

parents. Yeah, and don't keep them up. If you

have nightmares... Deal with them yourself. That's

so mean. All right. I would like to take a chance

to thank our rising star here, Tara, for joining

me today. And thank everyone else for tuning

in and listening to our fourth episode here on

the telecast. Do you have any Facebook or Twitter

or YouTube information you want to give out in

case people are interested in more things that

you have to say or want to follow you or anything

like that? Yeah, sure. If anybody would like

to follow me on Twitter, my Twitter is... Tara

Blair, it's T -A -R -A -H -B -L -E -I -E -R,

just one name. And I'm also on YouTube under

my screen name, which is RisingStar9109, and

got some cool videos on there, and I'm always

on Twitter. And you can probably find me on Facebook

through there. So, yeah, just if anyone's interested.

But that's how you can get a hold of me. And

don't be afraid. If you liked listening to Tara

and I's discussion on this episode, she will

be back for other episodes. So you will hear

from her again. If you want to leave us feedback

on the show, there are three main ways to do

this. First, you can visit the website www .geekcastradio

.com, where you can comment on all of our different

podcasts, not just the telecast, but all the

other podcasts as well. Second, you can rate

our show and leave us feedback in iTunes. We're

still waiting for that first reviewer to leave

us feedback on iTunes, so please do that. If

you want your comments to be a part of a future

show, please call the voicemail line 502 -526

-5821. Remember to tell us the show you are leaving

the message for and give us some type of name

that we can call you so we don't just say that

person that called the voicemail line. And you

can look under the Season 1 schedule and you

can give us voicemails for any episodes. It doesn't

have to be the next one coming up. If you want

to keep up to date with all things Geekcast related,

the best way to do that is to become a fan of

us on Facebook by going to facebook .com slash

geekcastradionetwork. While you are there, do

me a favor and also become a fan of BehindTheVoiceActors

.com, the best voice acting website on the Internet.

Also, don't forget about the theme song contest

and our Listener's Choice episode voting. There

are detailed posts for both of these items over

at GeekcastRadio .com under the Telecast tab

at the top of the page. So please go there right

now and submit your vote for the Listener's Choice

and read the details on the theme song contest

so you can submit an entry for that. There will

be a prize that you can win. I'm just not telling

you what that is yet. So that does it for now.

We hope we succeeded in entertaining you, informing

you, and most importantly, unleashing the geek

in you on this episode of The Telecast. And we

hope that you will tune in for our next episode

when we round up this first round of Nickelodeon

Classics by saying, Hey, dude. For now, I am

your host, Optimus Solo, with... Rising Star

Tara. And we will see you in ten days for another

episode of The Telecast. But for now, I declare

this meeting of the Midnight Society closed.

this. Play this meeting of the Midnight Society

closed. And make sure to go straight home, guys.