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Eerie, Indiana debuted on NBC on September 15, 1991, two weeks before my 11th birthday. Seven months and 19 episodes later (18 really. The 19th episode didn’t air until two years later on a different network) the show was gone. I remember watching the pilot episode when it aired, and the show has stuck with me since. I managed to love Eerie, Indiana even though I had no idea that its star Omri Katz was a sex symbol for legions of 12 year old girls in the 1990s thanks to Hocus Pocus. In fact, I didn’t even see Hocus Pocus until last Halloween, and this is when I found out about the Omri lust through a lot of thirsty Hocus Pocus tweets by women in their early 30s. Despite my Omri blind-spot I was a huge fan of the show. It was a show about myth and urban legend existing in our world. This subject matter became commonplace with a flood of teen supernatural shows (including Supernatural!) in the last 20 years and also went mainstream just a couple of years after Eerie’s cancellation with the debut of The X-Files. Myth and legend was one of my favorite things to learn about when I was a child, so this was right up my alley. It also has a bit of an Adventures of Pete and Pete feel to it, another show with two boys at the center of the weirdness.

Eerie, Indiana begins with “Foreverware,” one of the series’ most memorable episodes. This is a very tightly plotted pilot. The intro, which I quoted above, gives the viewer the premise of the show, and in the first scene Marshall introduces his family. Within the first two minutes of the show the viewer already knows what it’s about and has met all of the main characters except for one. Most pilots spend nearly all of the allotted episode time establishing this. Since this show used its time so economically it has the rest of the time to tell a story. The plot of “Foreverware” is simple: Marshall’s mom is pitched on a Tupperware like product by a woman dressed like Jackie Onassis, who has twin sons who are also dressed as if they stepped out of the past. When Mrs. Wilson and her sons leave the Foreverware party one of the twins slips Marshall a piece of paper upon which is written “Yearbook 1964.” Marshall and his sidekick Simon, the last primary character to be introduced, decide to check out the 1964 school yearbook, and in it they find a picture of the twins looking exactly as they do now, in 1991. They exclaim that this would mean that the twins are in their 30s, and this is the point where I mention that 1991 was 27 years from 1964 but it’s 29 years from current day, and I’m going to climb into my grave right now.

Marshall and Simon discover that the reason the twins still look like children and their mom looks like Jackie O is that after Mrs. Wilson’s husband, the creator of Foreverware, died in 1964 she started sealing them and her up in giant sized Tupperware containers at night, preserving them in that state. The issue of how they breathe in airtight containers isn’t covered, nor is the rest of the science behind this and honestly it’s better just to move on. Marshall sneaks in one night and breaks open the seal for the twins, who then do the same to their mother’s container. The next morning Marshall sees two adult men who look very much like the twins putting up a for sale sign outside the house, and their now elderly mother leans out the window and calls to them.

While re-watching “Foreverware” for the article I noticed that the episode has no B or C plot. This isn’t something that would have occurred to me as a child but it really stood out here. Marshall and Simon learning the secret of the Wilson twins and helping them is the entire plot, and any ancillary characters exist to push that plot forward. It works well given that this is a show for children, since it only requires them to focus on one story. When I mentioned this to my wife she responded that most children’s shows only have an A plot, and if this is the case I’m amazed that I never noticed before. The tight plotting no doubt benefits from Joe Dante directing this and four other episodes. Dante, who Greg Orme covered when he reviewed Gremlins, was a creative consultant on the show. Dante’s involvement most likely helped make Eerie, Indiana more than just a children’s show and contributes to the well crafted weirdness of the show.

If you like Foreverware stick with the series for Elvis later on.

Even though Eerie, Indiana came and went the show did develop a bit of a legacy later in the 1990s, when airings on Fox Kids drew enough interest to warrant a spinoff, Eerie, Indiana: The Other Dimension. At this time a book series was also launched and 17 titles were released. I have We Wish You An Eerie Christmas at home. I bought it on a whim last year and I’m pretty sure I haven’t actually read it.

Given that a spinoff series and book series exists some readers may not see Eerie, Indiana as a forgotten show, but I think it qualifies because it isn’t discussed unless somebody mentions it. “Oh yeah, I remember _____” is the very definition of forgotten. Whether you’re just remembering it now, have never heard of it, or still carry a torch for Omri Katz I recommend checking out the series, all of which is available on Amazon Prime. The spinoff is also on there but I haven’t seen it.
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Powermarathoned the series this weekend.

I had seen bits and pieces of it here and there, a scattered episode or two, but was finally able to get my hands on a brand new box set for only $35 this weekend at a local used place. The shrinkwrap was still on the individual DVD sleeves!

Sound really was nicely remastered - I wish the image had been given the same kind of care though. At least on my computer, the image looked a bit grainy and the color quality and intensity seemed to vary slightly from one episode to the next.

I was really surprised and pleased to see Tim Hunter, a director I associate with Twin Peaks, directed several episodes. I was also pleased to see Officer Andy from Peaks playing an equally interesting cop role in Eerie!

Conceptually, I noticed that in the final four episodes or so, it seems to me like the satire became much more biting, and I'm kind of wondering if the series might have continued further along that line if it had had a chance to grow properly. I'm also amused that long before Supernatural started toying with meta episodes and in-series reality breaking, Eerie did it - way advanced for a 90's "kid show", you know?

I don't hate Dash-X, but I'm not sure if Marsden's trying to do a terrible Christian Slater impersonation, or what; I wish he'd just played the character without the silly sotto voce attempt.

Probably my favorite ep just based on the first full run through is still the Loyal Order of Corn.

Of course, the show's influence on my current favorite series, Gravity Falls, is absolutely undeniable, and I've been recommending both series to fans of the other. Now that it's showing up on Amazon again, I'm thrilled that I can start introducing people to this series. I see it as the conceptual link between Twin Peaks and Gravity Falls.
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Television has always been a medium that broke the walls of reality. From its earliest days, television shows "came into your living room." So it's not surprising that television has always dabbled in metafiction, fourth-wall-breaking and transrealism. Here are the six types of "meta" storytelling on television.

First, let's define our terms. We're defining "metafiction" as any story that comments on itself or on the act of telling a story. And "transrealism," as invented by Rudy Rucker, is anything that uses actual people and events in a fantastical way and crosses over from the real to the unreal. (I may be using it slightly more broadly than Rucker.)

Basically, anything that crosses the streams between reality and fiction, or comments on the fiction itself. Because there's something inherently science fictional about breaking out of the box.

With that out of the way, here's a brief and totally incomplete history of "meta" on television:


TV show within the actual show

This is a common trope in science fiction and fantasy — suddenly we pull back and see the fakeness of the TV show. Or the characters on the show visit the "set" of the TV show they didn't know they were on.

Supernatural has dabbled in meta a lot, including having a series of Supernatural books within the TV show that chronicle Sam and Dean's adventures, spawning a whole fan culture around the hunters. But also, in the episode "The French Mistake," Sam and Dean cross over to a version of "our" world, where they're actors and this is a TV show:

Something similar happens on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. And in Eerie, Indiana, one of the characters receives a TV script for the show in the mail and then finds himself on the set where everybody thinks he's an actor. (Thanks, neon_suntan!)
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I'll admit up front that I have not watched a lot of SUPERNATURAL. And by "not a lot" I mean I've seen perhaps two episodes.It's not a taste or preference thing, I just haven't added it to my overwhelming list of things to watch. But when I learned they were doing a team-up with Scooby-Doo and the gang, I made watching this special episode, "Scoobynatural," a priority.

Sam and Dean (JARED PADALECKI and JENSEN ACKLES, not the musical duo) Winchester are fighting a giant stuffed dinosaur when the episode opens, setting the tone for the silliness that is to follow. In payment for saving his life, the grateful toy store owner gives Dean the widescreen television off his wall, which Dean uses open up "The Deancave." But it turns out the television is also a cursed object, like the toy dinosaur, and almost instantly the brothers are sucked into the screen and animated.

I've always loved that trope! Whether it was the THE BANANA SPLITS IN HOCUS-POCUS PARK or KIDD VIDEO, the plot where the real becomes cartoon is just a fun one, and the SUPERNATURAL team does it proud.

It doesn't take long for Dean to realize they're not just in a cartoon, but they're in one of his favorites -- SCOOBY-DOO. After befriending Fred (FRANK WELKER), Daphne (GREY GRIFFIN), Shaggy (MATTHEW LILLARD), Velma (KATE MICUCCI) and Scooby (also Welker), Dean convinces Sam that the only way to figure out what's going on is to act out the roles dealt to them. Following the Mystery Machine (following because Dean loses a drag race to Fred), they end up at a haunted mansion where Scooby and others are set to inherit money -- if they can spend the whole night in the house. Dean recognizes the episode as "A Night of Fright is No Delight," and knows how the plot is supposed to play out.

However, the plot doesn't run according to script, and the first person to disappear is instead murdered, leaving an actual (okay, drawn) bloody body behind. Shortly after, Castiel (MISHA COLLINS) joins the cast and explains how he got sucked into the television after seeing the brothers on the screen in their cartoon scene. And then it's time for an investigation, the only way an investigation can be done when you're in a haunted house and someone has been killed -- split up and search for clues!

While searching, Sam tries to convince Velma that ghosts and the supernatural are real, but Velma keeps finding reasonable explanations, even when they run into a supernatural event themselves. Suddenly the entire gang is being chased through the house by a ghost, and...

...(thank you God)...

...we get the classic song and hallway door chase routine! I could just cry, I'm so happy.

But then the chase ends with Fred charging the ghost, like he usually does -- only to get thrown against a wall. The girls are levitated. And Shaggy is thrown out a window, with Scooby jumping after him. The two are saved by Castiel, but not in time to avoid Shaggy getting injured in the fall, which utterly stuns all of Mystery Inc, because Shaggy has jumped out of a biplane in a museum before, and was just fine..

So the Winchesters sit the gang down and tell them the truth about ghosts and monsters. And the results are hilarious, as the members of Mystery, Inc. each go through their own personal nervous breakdowns. Fred feels he's wasted his life chasing crooked real estate developers, while Daphne begins to fear for her immortal soul since there really is an afterlife. But after Sam and Dean help them cope, they're ready to take down the ghost together, as Fred builds the trap.

Of course, as Dean well knows, Fred's traps never work, so he has a Plan B.

By now you have to know that the brothers and Castiel find a way out of the cartoon and solve the real mystery. But the way they put things right with the gang, and the mystery in the physical world that gets resolved, are just too perfect for this episode, and really put a smile on this old Scooby-Doo fan.

Even if you've never watched SUPERNATURAL before, you owe it to your inner child to watch "Scoobynatural." It's such a perfect tribute to the cartoon series, and quite likely may hook you on watching SUPERNATURAL as well! It's the greatest thing to happen to television in decades!
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Supernatural's Scooby Doo crossover episode will be a lot "more adult" than your average episode of the kids' cartoon. Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) are set to get animated for an episode of the show's thirteenth season, in which they will be joined by everyone's favorite crime solving dog, but don't expect the episode to stray too far from the Supernatural canon.

"We have ideas floating around sometimes for years before we use them, and that's the benefit of being on a long-running show," co-showrunner Andrew Dabb said to Entertainment Weekly of the fully animated episode. Dabb said that things started to fall into place when he got a call from his friend Jeremy Adams at Warner Bros. Animation. 

"He was like, 'why haven't they done a crossover with Scooby Doo?'" Dabb said. "It's going to be an episode of Supernatural with Scooby Doo in it. It's not going to be an episode of Scooby Doo with the guys in it. It's more adult than your average episode of Scooby Doo." Added co-showrunner Robert Singer, "Scooby is the marquee this year. The script really works. It's just going to be great." 

This isn't the first time that Supernatural has pursued a weird and meta episode. Many fans will remember the season six episode in which Sam and Dean were brought into the world where they're actors on a TV show called Supernatural; the show has also done musical episodes, episodes parodying different genres, and episodes dealing with incredibly dark themes in a very funny way. While it's not unusual for the series to pull off strange antics, an animated episode has, until now, been out of reach for the long-running show. 

Dabb says that the show's stars recorded their parts in March of this year, with the episode likely to air in March of next year.
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Personally I thought it was a fantastic show that had some great horror elements to it. I wish they'd bring it back!

EmmettRotts: I absolutely loved the show, kind of like The Twilight Zone for kids, minus the reoccurring characters. Sad they took it off of Netflix. Oh, and Supernatural totally copied the last episode in "The French Mistake".

horva1kr: Loved this show when I was younger. A few years ago it was available on one of the streaming services...I can’t remember which one but I definitely remember watching it again!

MizardOfOz: yeah it was on Netflix! I loved watching the series through again. The Werewolf episode was awesome.

dssonic: Good show - they did a second season (with different actors) much later called "Eerie Indiana - the Other Dimension". If you are looking for something modern in this same style, watch "Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street" on Amazon Prime - it is fantastic.

Ebuloz: I loved Eerie Indiana, maybe the show was a little ahead of its time.

johnnydakota: I remember the one with the ATM that gave Simon free money. And the tupperware family. I rewatched the show a while back but those are the only ones that come to mind. Good stuff.

Lardawgg: Tupperware family always gets me.

hellfish11I'll SWALLOW YOUR SOOOOUL!!!: It was one of those shows like Picket Fences that showed up after Twin Peaks hit. Twin Peaks really changed the landscape of TV more than people give it credit for.

ranranbolly: Great show. Pretty dark for a kids series (the dog episode ending? Wow.) It holds up pretty well, too, which you can’t really say for a lot of shows.
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I just finished up the Fanfic Masterlist using the author tags on the comm, and I was like, "wait, there was totally a multipart Eerie/SPN crossover somewhere..."

So, enjoy:

Author: Dancinbutterfly


Supernaturally Eerie, part 1 by [livejournal.com profile] dancinbutterfly. Crossover with Supernatural

Supernaturally Eerie, part 2 by [livejournal.com profile] dancinbutterfly.

Supernaturally Eerie, part 3 by [livejournal.com profile] dancinbutterfly.

Supernaturally Eerie, part 4 by [livejournal.com profile] dancinbutterfly.

Supernaturally Eerie, part 5 by [livejournal.com profile] dancinbutterfly.
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I've never actually seen So Weird myself but I know it's been mentioned here at least once as a good choice for Eerie fans. Since the writer specifically mentions Eerie (and Gravity Falls, and Supernatural), I thought this might be a good share with the comm: 13 Shows Every So Weird Fan Needs To Watch
[identity profile] eviinsanemonkey.livejournal.com
Title: Where the Rules Don't Apply
Fandoms: Supernatural/Eerie, Indiana
Rating: Teen
Characters: Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Marshall Teller, Simon Holmes, Dash X, John Winchester, Mr. Radford
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Adventure
Spoilers: None for SPN. Vague through Hole in the Head Gang for Eerie.
Summary: It was just another hunt, another city, but this city is different and Dean and Sam aren't quite prepared for just how different. This is Dean Winchester's account of the days he and his family spent in Eerie, Indiana.
Masterpost: Here

Day Two

Previous Parts:
Notes & Day One|
[identity profile] eviinsanemonkey.livejournal.com
Title: Where the Rules Don't Apply
Fandoms: Supernatural/Eerie, Indiana
Rating: Teen
Characters: Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Marshall Teller, Simon Holmes, Dash X, John Winchester, Mr. Radford
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Adventure
Spoilers: None for SPN. Vague through Hole in the Head Gang for Eerie.
Summary: It was just another hunt, another city, but this city is different and Dean and Sam aren't quite prepared for just how different. This is Dean Winchester's account of the days he and his family spent in Eerie, Indiana.

Master Post

Notes & Day One

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