eerieindiana | Jun. 12th, 2018

Jun. 12th, 2018

So after

deifire respectively made me remember fanmixes and Five Things fic in the space of a single day, I decided it would be fun to have a Fandom Tropes challenge once a month, to remind us of all the stuff that used to be super common in fandom that maybe we don't see as much as we'd like to these days.

Your prompt for this month is: Speech Deprived

froodle

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X-Files get most of the ink — and deservedly so — when it comes to any discussion of ‘90s science-fiction/fantasy television. But honestly, the geek tribe was well-served throughout the decade. Star Trek: The Next Generation hit its creative stride, produced a pair of spin-offs, and found a viable space-opera competitor in J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5 (which, notably, was pitched by its creator as “a novel for television” years before critics started talking about The Sopranos that way). Syndicated television also offered Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys., while superhero fans could watch terrific animated adaptations of Batman and Superman. Add in the likes of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Young Indiana Jones, Eerie, Indiana, The Powerpuff Girls, Pinky and the Brain, Liquid Television, and Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, and there was a Comic-Con’s worth of nerdy coolness on the air nearly every day."

froodle

For the majority of the American populous, December is the most nostalgic time of year. Presents, fresh glistening snow, kissing on New Years Eve. Que c’est beau!

As for myself and my spookier brethren, our most cherished and memory laden time of year is, hands down, the month of October.

31 days of scary movies, dressing up, eating a copious amount of candy and celebrating all that’s uncanny, weird, and, sometimes scary. We get 1/12 of the year and, by golly, we’re going to live it up. It’s also the only time where you can actually expect to see the entirety of the Halloween franchise in order on television. It’s the little things in life.

But, really, there’s something exciting about the colors changing and celebrating the darker part of the year.

I had the privilege of growing up in the early 1990s. Sorry to every human older than me, as I know this tends to make people feel uncomfortable. I’m not totally sure why, I just know to apologize in advance. Regardless, I grew up in a time when houses were still saleable, car phones were a thing, and no one was hotter than Kelly Kapowski.

Not only were the 90s an overall enjoyable time, comparatively to the last 14 years, they also had some pretty rad TV shows for the youngins. You didn’t have to watch the wimpy, fluffy drivel that’s shoveled onto televisions everywhere now. There were options. Oh, yes. And some of those options were freaky and frightening with just a twist of humor.

And surprise! I now am an adult woman who loves horror and humor. I want to celebrate this October by showcasing 90s kids show.

Some are frightening, some are funny.

And the best ones are both.

Eerie, Indiana

Although there are only 19 episodes in the entire series, they reran the hell out of this kitschy, funny show. Eerie, Indiana is centered around Marshall Teller (Omri Katz), a new kid who seems to be the only one aware of how odd Eerie is. Omri Katz, best known for playing Max Dennison in Hocus Pocus, could do no wrong in the 90s. I honestly don’t know one girl who didn’t think he was dreamy back then. Marshall befriends a sweet kid, Simon Holmes (Justin Shenkarow), who may be the last remaining normal kid left in town. Together, they debunk, harass, and investigate all things oogy and unusual.

Joe Dante directed a handful of episodes, so it’s no wonder this show hit the nail on the head in a great way. In Eerie, Indiana’s short life, Marshall and Simon come face to face with odd disappearances, brainwashing, ray guns, and, of course, Elvis, to name a few. My favorite episode is “Reality Takes a Holiday” where it gets all kinds of meta real quick. All of the actors, Marshall’s family included, are aware it’s a television show and Omri’s character really believes he’s Marshall. Super clever and pretty adventurous, too.

Eerie, Indiana first ran on NBC, and then on Disney when it syndicated. Guest appearances on the show include, but aren’t limited to, Danielle Harris, Tobey Maguire, and Matt Frewer. If you haven’t watched it in a while, take a trip down memory lane and revisit Eerie, Indiana.

froodle

"Sweet Tobey Maguire's ghost!" is my new favourite saying.

froodle

Unless they're sneaking peeks at American Horror Story (heaven forbid, seriously), kids today don't even know how creepy TV can be. Growing up in the '90s, we were constantly scaring the sh*t out of ourselves on Saturday mornings with shows like Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Goosebumps. It's a wonder we ever got a wink of sleep with all the terrifying stories about haunted masks getting stuck to our faces and stuff. While those two shows are undoubtedly the crown jewels of the creepy kids' shows, there are several more that you may have forgotten about. Allow me to take you on a journey — one you will most certainly regret while tucking yourself in tonight.

NBC's Eerie, Indiana terrorized children who just wanted some good, clean fun on Saturday mornings. It starred Omri Katz, who later went on to play Max in Hocus Pocus, as a teenager who moves to a nearly abandoned town in Indiana. While on the surface Eerie (population 16,661) is a normal town, he soon discovers a variety of weird things happening within city limits.

froodle

The nineties cultural vacuum had barely kicked off when Eerie, Indiana adopted the corn-fed TV formula of the day and injected it with a healthy dose of DARQUE. What resulted was something along the lines of Blossom meets Twilight Zone.

This television artifact was first aired in 1991, and quickly won its place in cult history, despite it’s brief life on the air. For an example of what you’re in for look no further than the first episode, featuring man-size Tupperware put to unnatural use.

froodle

Growing up, television was always a major past time, as it is for any teenager or kid, and growing up in the 90s had us watching many strange and addictive shows that perhaps transformed us into the style savvy/mystery obsessed people we are today. We know that the nineties are all the rage these days, so we thought it would be fun to look back at the shows that really made an impression on us.

So here’s six of them that we highly recommend, and with some help, we hope we can revive the ones that have been in a coma for a while, because each and every one of them stand out in their own right, and many of them excel exceptionally in the 90s style department, which we know everyone is a big fan of these days.

So let’s get your inspiration on, shall we?! These are hand-picked journeys to other worlds, that most of time seem very close to home, which only makes them that much better.

Let’s take a look at what we’ve got:

EERIE INDIANA

This has to be the piece de resistance of the entire list; a show that remained only as a half memory in our minds before finding a jackpot of episodes online. This show was all the rage when it first came on TV. It had a weird day spot, just after school, but from the very first episode it was hard not to be entranced by the show.

Starring a young Omri Katz (of “Hocus Pocus” fame), the show featured a string of bizarre and weird circumstances happening in the small town of Eerie Indiana, and with the help of his best friend (played by Justin Shenkarow, “Picket Fences”) they attempt to take on the mysteries and document them in a huge collection of artifacts that prove Eerie’s strange happenings.

Omri is such a young star, and for once in a show, his 90s styling is right on point (with light washed jeans, sweat shirts, graphic Ts, that long Kurt Kobain hair, and an oversized military coat – how can a kid look better?)! Don’t know what happened to the show. It must have just fizzled out, which is a shame because it was actually really fun, really weird, and really well put together. Other than some stretches of the imagination here and there, this was a show that instilled that want and need for something out of this world even in this most mundane of places.

One of the best shows there is, waiting to be brought back to life!

froodle

Eerie, Indiana (1991-1992)

Director Joe Dante had already made Gremlins and The Howling when he took on Eerie, Indiana, a live action kid’s show about Marshall Teller, a teen who moves from New Jersey to the appropriately named Eerie, Indiana. Eerie is a small town with the ominous population of 16,661 and a problem with ghosts, mysterious deaths, and other supernatural weirdness. The show’s genius was to have the very ordinariness of a small town serve as the backdrop for all the bizarro stuff like kids who sleep in plastic containers and ghosts in the library. From glasses that turned people into zombies to battling the menacing ghost of an old bank robber, the series was inventive and well written — and most of all, scary AF. It lasted only one season, but has haunted our dreams ever since.