Although Kim Tibbs was a new writer to the Clack, having discovered it a few months ago thanks to a friend at work, she was eager to prove her love for television and all things that go bump in the night. Submitted for the approval of The CliqueClack Society, I humbly call this flashback “The Tale of a Big Orange Couch & How I Spent My Saturday Nights when I was in Middle School.”
With unseasonably warm temperatures, the first day of spring this year arguably felt more like summer. And thinking of summer reminds me of a show I used to obsess over during my childhood. It was called Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and it featured a group of pre-teens who called themselves the Midnight Society because they gathered one night a week to spook each other with macabre campfire tales.
Gary (played by Canadian actor Ross Hull as the hot-in-an-ultra-nerdy-way leader of the Midnight Society, who is now apparently a meteorologist in London, Ontario, per IMDb) summed up the show’s premise in its first episode titled “The Tale of the Phantom Cab”:
“We’re called the Midnight Society. Separately, we’re very different. We like different things, we go to different schools, and we have different friends. But one thing draws us together: the dark. Each week, we gather ‘round this fire to share our fears and our strange, scary tales. It’s what got us together, and it’s what keeps bringing us back. This is a warning to all who join us: you’re going to leave the comfort of the light and step into the world of the supernatural.”
Originally broadcast from 1991-1996 and again from 1999-2000 on Nickelodeon in the United States and YTV in Canada, this show was always a favorite of mine because I’ve long been a fan of horror/suspense/mysteries. I spent every summer in my local library’s reading program, earning points for free ice-cream cones and movie tickets by hungrily devouring R.L. Stine’s Fear Street and Goosebumps series, eventually moving on to writers Agatha Christie, Stephen King and John Bellairs, among others.
I also used to write short horror stories when I was a child/teen. It was always my hope that someday I could write a story that would be good enough to be shared around the campfire. What kid of the early ‘90s didn’t want to be a member of the Midnight Society? Heck, I still want to be an honorary member. Anybody want to start one with me? If we couldn’t actually meet around a real campfire, perhaps we could have an online one to swap scary stories.
The first five seasons found me eagerly awaiting Nickelodeon’s SNICK programming every week to see what new piece of terror the Midnight Society would dish out. From a vampire-infused hospital to cameras that could steal your soul, they never disappointed. SNICK stood for Saturday night programming on Nickelodeon from 8-10 p.m., but it was so much more than just the night that followed ABC’s TGIF and even more than the big orange couch that was its symbol in the official SNICK promos.
SNICK represents a more innocent time to me. A magical suspended point in time when it was actually considered cool to stay at home on a Saturday night and watch TV together as a family. I fondly recall popping up a bag of Pop Secret’s “Pop Qwiz” popcorn and settling in for a night filled with classic shows that included over the years: Clarissa Explains It All, The Adventures of Pete & Pete, All That, Roundhouse, The Secret World of Alex Mack, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Kenan & Kel, and of course, Are You Afraid of the Dark?
For those of you not in-the-know, “Pop Qwiz” popcorn was multi-colored popcorn that came in mystery bags so you didn’t know which of the six colors you were going to get until the bag was popped and opened. With a rainbow of colors represented (neon yellow, green, blue, red, purple and orange), it was a huge deal that I got to pick and pop the popcorn myself and my grandparents always indulged me though my parents often did not. In hindsight, perhaps food coloring-soaked, buttery popcorn may not have been the healthiest snack option available, but it was certainly the most fun! I heard a rumor that colored popcorn was recently brought back and redubbed “Magic Colors” but it only comes in blue now and may only be sold at Target, though I can’t confirm that.
Are You Afraid of the Dark’s opening credits used to send chills up my 10-year-old spine. Featuring that creepy swing moving by itself and then cutting to the eerie empty attic scene with that psychotic clown doll, I knew I was in for a good tale every time I tuned in. But I think what astounds me most about the show today is the number of guest stars it had that I had either forgotten or didn’t realize at the time.
Sure, there were the inevitable Nickelodeon cross-overs (Clarissa Explains It All’s Melissa Joan Hart in Season 2’s “The Tale of the Frozen Ghost” and Salute Your Shorts’ Danny Cooksey in Season 3’s “The Tale of the Guardian’s Curse”), but some you might find surprising include:
• Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait (Season 2, “The Tale of the Final Wish”)
• Gilbert Gottfried and a young Ryan Gosling (Season 5, “The Tale of Station 109.1″)
• 1960s Batman’s Frank Gorshin (Season 3, “The Tale of the Carved Stone”)
• Boy Meets World’s Will Friedle (Season 4, “The Tale of the Long-Ago Locket”)
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s Tatyana Ali (Season 3, “The Tale of Quicksilver”)
• Scream’s Neve Campbell (Season 3, “The Tale of the Dangerous Soup”)
• Star Wars’ Hayden Christensen (Season 6, “The Tale of the Bigfoot Ridge”)
• Sister, Sister stars Tia & Tamera Mowry (Season 5, “The Tale of the Chameleons”)
• American Pie’s Eddie Kaye Thomas (Season 3, “The Tale of the Curious Camera”)
By the time Nickelodeon decided to bring back Are You Afraid of the Dark? in 1999 after a four-year hiatus with a special three-part movie event titled “The Tale of the Silver Sight,” most of the magic was already gone. By that time, I was a senior in high school and it just wasn’t cool to watch anymore. After just two more seasons, Nickelodeon must’ve concurred, for it decided to permanently put out the campfire.
It may have been a watered-down version of The Twilight Zone or Tales from the Crypt made more suitable for children, but it represents a window in which Saturday night programming was the biggest of my concerns. While many of the episodes may not hold up well through the test of time, I am happy I found a bootlegged DVD set a few years ago featuring all seven seasons for the nostalgic factor alone. I believe all of the seasons have now been officially released on DVD (though I think it may have been for the Canadian market and they can be kind of pricey/hard to find except online). You can also find full episodes of some of the more classic episodes on YouTube. I’m also told that TEENick features a segment known as “The ’90s Are All That!” in which they re-show episodes of several of the SNICK programs.
And, if you’re wondering whatever happened to the big orange couch made famous on SNICK, it was apparently given away (stuffed with $25,000 and 6,000 cookies) during a contest in 1999 celebrating Nickelodeon’s 20th anniversary. Somehow, that seems like a rip-off to me. It should be in a museum somewhere, proudly side-by-side with the green slime-filled nose from Family Double Dare’s obstacle course, a piece of the Aggro Crag from Guts and a tiny sliver of my childlike heart.
I leave you with my Top 5 favorite episodes (though it was difficult to narrow down):
1. “The Tale of The Prom Queen”
I love the imagery of the ‘50s prom queen finally reunited with her boyfriend and the shot of them driving off through the cemetery gates while the haunting melody of “In the Still of the Night” floats through the air.
2. “The Tale of Laughing in the Dark”
“It’s the most fun in the park when you’re laughing in the dark. Pick the right door and you’ll go free. Pick the wrong door … and there he’ll be.” This episode is probably what started my fear of evil clowns and funhouses. I also love the episode’s opener: “The park was called Playland, and it was the best. You could laugh and scream and get scared to death on rides and stuff up on junk food and ditch your parents – all on the same night.”
3. “The Tale of The Super Specs”
“The story I’ve got is about three kinds of people: people who believe in magic, people who don’t, and people who should.” The specter images in black the girl sees whenever she puts on the pair of “Super Specs” really disturbed me as a child. This episode also introduced us to the recurring series character Sardo. “That’s Sar-do, accent on the do.”
4. “The Tale of The Midnight Madness”
When recurring character Dr. Vink offers to save a local movie theater in danger of closing by showing a very special version of the vampire classic Nosferatu, the movie-goers get more than they bargained for when the monster comes to life.
5. “The Tale of The Ghastly Grinner”
When a boy microwaves his comic book to get it dry after it was soaked, he inadvertently brings its despicable Joker-esque villain known as the Ghastly Grinner to the real world. All cheese factors aside, I’m sure this was many a kid’s fantasy of seeing a comic character brought to life, plus it was entertaining to see his adult victims reduced to giggling, zombie-like idiots.
Clacked by Kim Tibbs
on Mar 22, 2012 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
