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[froodle]

Scifi/supernatural TV show about two kids (brothers or friends) in a weird town.

There was this TV show about two brothers or friends, about 12-14. It had scifi and I think supernatural elements. The only episode I remember went like this:

A mom dad and 2 kids go to a chinese restaurant and get fortune cookies. All the fortunes are a little weird but come true in some way. The dad bumps into a homeless man with weird items in a shopping trolley.

The two young kids (protagonists) take this stuff and it's a bunch of electronics. They figure out that these are all components of a single machine/device and start putting it together. When they finish constructing it, it's just a helmet with a VCR (and maybe antenas) attached to it. There is also a cassette. One of the boys then puts it on and has his memories replaced by a scientist who claims to have removed all his memories and stored them on the cassette tape the boys put into the VCR.

Turns out the homeless man was the scientist, who removed his memories and put them on tape. The homeless man is kidnapped at some point and interrogated by bad guys trying to steal the scientist's secrets. The boys set out to return everyones memories and save the scientist.

The show was set in a town in the USA. I dont remember the name but the show claimed that it was the town with the most supernatural activity and general weirdness.

I watched this sometime between 2005-2009, I think. I'm confident the show actually came out in the 90s, just because of the VCR, but I'm not certain.

This is Eerie, Indiana.

The series revolves around Marshall Teller, a teenager whose family moves to the desolate town of Eerie, Indiana, population of 16,661. While moving into his new home, he meets Simon Holmes, one of the few normal people in Eerie. Together, they are faced with bizarre scenarios

The episode you're looking for is No Brain, No Pain (Season 1, Episode 15) from 1992.

Marshall and Simon witness a homeless man being attacked by a woman with a ray gun and decide to help him out. Although the man mumbles nonsense and seems fascinated by electronics, the boys suspect that there's more to him than that and perhaps he's not as crazy as everyone believes. But things get really weird when they turn on the strange contraption the man was making.

Everything you mentioned is there: The Chinese restaurant with fortunes that eventually come true, the helmet that transfers the kid's memories to a tape etc. You can see it here, and here's the intro: