Are You Afraid of the Dark? (TV series)

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Are You Afraid of the Dark?
The Are You Afraid of the Dark? title card
Genre	Children's Series Horror
Developer(s)	Cinar Productions
Starring	Jacob Tierney Raine Pare-Coull Ross Hull Jodie Resther Jason Alisharan Rachel Blanchard Nathaniel Moreau Daniel DeSanto Joanna Garcia Codie Lucas Wilbee Kareem Blackwell Elisha Cuthbert David Deveau Vanessa Lengies
Country of origin	Canada  United States
Language(s)	English
No. of episodes	91 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	22 mins/episode
Broadcast
Original channel	YTV/Nickelodeon Nickelodeon ITV1/Nickelodeon Nickelodeon
Original run	January 16, 1992 – June 11, 2000
Links
IMDb profile

Are You Afraid of the Dark? is a horror/drama-themed television series for children. The original series was a joint production of the Canadian companies YTV, Cinar, and the American company Nickelodeon. Although the episode "The Tale of the Twisted Claw" first debuted as a pilot for the show on Halloween, 1991, Are You Afraid of the Dark? ran between January 16, 1992 and February 3, 1996 on Nickelodeon's SNICK. A revived series with new directors, new writers, and a new cast was produced by Nickelodeon from 1999 to 2000 and also played on SNICK. It also aired on the channel Supermax. The show was aired from 1997 to 2003 in Latin America by Nickelodeon Latin America. The show was also aired from 1996 to 2005 in Australia on the Australian Nickelodeon Channel. The show was also broadcast on the CITV block on ITV1.

Contents 1 Background 2 Cast Members 2.1 First Series (1992 – 1996) 2.2 Second Series (1999 – 2000) 3 Memorable characters 4 Episodes 5 Trivia 6 External links

[edit] Background

Both series revolved around a group of adolescent children who referred to themselves as the "Midnight Society". Once a week, at a secret site in the woods at night, one member would tell a scary story to the group. The actual story, rather than the telling, was displayed to the television viewer. The story was shown between the group's arrival at the site and its departure. Each storyteller would begin his story by stating "Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this story..." at which point he or she would toss birch bark powder into the campfire to heighten the flames and produce an eerie white smoke. The storyteller would continue the story by announcing its title.

The themes usually revolved around paranormal phenomena, such as ghosts, magic, haunted houses, magical curses, aliens, witches and the like coming into contact with normal teenagers.

Sources of these tales varied; many were adaptations of public domain fairytales, short stories or urban legends. For example, "The Tale of the Twisted Claw" is considered to be an adaptation of W.W. Jacobs' short story "The Monkey's Paw". Some of the episodes' story lines are close to those of books written for the Goosebumps book series by R.L. Stine, intentionally or not, which was popular at roughly the same time as this show (The Tale of the Curious Camera is an almost exact replica of the Goosebumps book Say Cheese And Die, though both were likely inspired by 'A Most Unusual Camera', an episode of the original Twilight Zone series). In French, the series is called Fais Moi Peur and in Spanish "¿Le Temes A La Oscuridad?"

The show was filmed primarily in Montreal, Quebec.

The first and second seasons are available on DVD in Canada, with season 3 coming out on April 24, 2007. They are also available in the UK.

[edit] Cast Members

[edit] First Series (1992 – 1996)

Actor/Actress	Role	Years
Jacob Tierney	Eric	1992
Raine Pare-Coull	Betty Ann	1992 – 1996
Ross Hull	Gary	1992 – 1996
Jodie Resther	Kiki	1992 – 1996
Jason Alisharan	Frank	1992 – 1995
Rachel Blanchard	Kristen	1992 – 1993
Nathaniel Moreau	David	1994 – 1996
Daniel DeSanto	Tucker	1994 – 1996
Joanna Garcia	Sam	1994 – 1996
Codie Lucas Wilbee	Stig	1995 – 1996

[edit] Second Series (1999 – 2000)

Actor/Actress	Role	Years
Kareem Blackwell	Quinn	1999 – 2000
Elisha Cuthbert	Megan	1999 – 2000
Daniel DeSanto	Tucker	1999 – 2000
David Deveau	Andy	1999 – 2000
Vanessa Lengies	Vange	1999 – 2000

[edit] Memorable characters

The most memorable recurring character was Sardo (Richard Dumont), owner of "Sardo's Magic Mansion" (a magic shop). He would often attempt to sell a character a "prized" item, rarely succeeding. He often has items in his shop that are really magical, yet does not know until it's revealed in the story. One of the most memorable recurring jokes in the series occurred when someone would address him as "Mr. Sardo". He would then get irritated and exclaim: "No 'mister'; accent on the 'doh'!" Although he rarely got what he wanted, he would often end up helping the characters, intentionally or not. He was used in Gary's stories.

Another such is Dr. Vink (Aron Tager). He was a physically imposing man who would often appear as a mad scientist, sorcerer, and the like. He would also get his name mispronounced. When this happened, he would respond "Vink. With a va-va-va." Often, the protagonist would call him a "nutbag" behind his back, assuming he could not hear him, only to have him reply later, "... and I am not a nutbag." He was used by Frank, although both characters appear in the double episode "The Tale of Cutter's Treasure", which was told by both Frank and Gary.

Aron Tager also played the carnival worker who stands in front of the Funhouse and invites people to go inside in "The Tale of the Laughing in the Dark".

Various other characters are used in multiple stories.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Are You Afraid of the Dark? episodes

[edit] Trivia

• The opening of this series with the house, rain, the boat, the oscillations, the doll, the etc., was not the original opening. The original opening only lasted until the second episode. It featured a blue sky with clouds and a wood door that opened to reveal the black screen and the words Are You Afraid Of The Dark?. - For the third episode, the opening had changed.This was the one that is with the boat, the oscillations, the doll, etc., but there was no music. There were sound effects and a heart beating. Also in the end of that one, the hand with the match came from the side instead of the bottom.
• Canada has released the first and second seasons on DVD, as well as a special DVD that contains the first 6 episodes of the sixth season. The third season is going to be released shortly.
• The three-parter "The Tale of the Silver Sight" was first shown as a special movie, and then was used as the seventh's season premiere. In later reruns it was shown as separate episodes. It was revealed in the end, that it was told as a made-up story by Gary and Tucker's grandfather, Jim, back in the 60's. And it later occurred to the real midnight society. Ironically he said in the end that it wouldn't happen to them "not even in a million years".
• In "The Tale Of The Room For Rent," the movie from the episode "The Tale Of The Midnight Madness" can be seen playing on the television in the background.
• Actor Christian Tessier appears in both The Tale of Laughing In The Dark and The Tale of the Curious Camera as different characters.
• Dr. Vink appears in several episodes told by Frank while Sardo appears in some of Gary's stories. In the episode "The Tale of the Dark Dragon", David tells a story featuring Sardo in Gary's honor, as it was Gary's birthday. "The Tale of Cutter's Treasure" features both characters since the tale is told by both Gary and Frank. In the 6th and 7th season Tucker uses Sardo in some of his stories.
• The Tale of the Whispering Walls makes reference to the Zeebo funhouse from The Tale of Laughing in the Dark, while in The Tale of the Crimson Clown and The Tale of the Train Magic Zeebo has his own video game. A reference is made again in The Tale of The Mystical Mirror when the main character claims she's going to "look like Zeebo the clown." In The Tale of The Lonely Ghost one of the girls calls the protagonist a "Zeeb" as an insult. In the Tale Of The Night Shift one of the characters signs his name as Zeebo.
• All the tales that have relation with Zeebo, the clown were said by Betty Ann.
• In "The Tale Of The Manaha" they show some boys unpacking and one boy unpacks the Ghastly Grinner comic book which was featured in "The Tale Of The Ghastly Grinner".
• Sci-fi veteran David Winning directed ten episodes including "The Tale of the Shiny Red Bicycle" and "The Tale of the Dream Girl".
• David Deveau, who stars in "The Tale Of The Manaha", later went on to join the new Midnight Society as Andy.
• In "The Tale Of C7" the young girl can be seen reading "The Ghastly Grinner," the title of an earlier episode.
• In "The Tale Of Midnight Madness," when the vampire first comes out of the screen, Dr. Vink can clearly be seen on the screen behind the vampire.
• The song at the end of "The Tale Of The Prom Queen", is "In The Still Of the Night" by the Five Satins.
• There was a board game made based on the show.
• The show makes numerous references to crew members. One of those was the grave of Ron Oil that appeared in "The Tale of Old Man Corcoran", and "The Tale of The Dream Girl" which is a reference to the director Ron Oliver.
• Dr. Vink has a barbershop and a restaurant called "The Wild Boar". The restaurant appeared in "The Tale of The Dangerous Soup" and the barbershop appeared in "The Tale of Cutter's Treasure".
• "The Tale of the Mystical Mirror", "The Tale of the Vacant Lot" and "The Tale of Many Faces" all have villianesses who are really old or ugly and are so obssesed with their looks that they try to hide it.
• "The Tale of the Hunted" was voted Worst Episode at TV.com.
• "The Tale of the Dream Girl", directed by David Winning, was cited by M. Night Shyamalan as the inspiration for the mega hit film The Sixth Sense.
• In "The Tale of the Walking Shadow," while Ross is whistling in the theater, he is actually whistling the tune that usually appears after the fire is put out.
• In "The Tale of the Frozen Ghost," star Melissa Joan Hart warns the child she is babysitting that the people they are meeting are "Only relatives, not wicked old witches." Coincidentally, Hart plays a witch later in her career in ABC-TV's (and later the WB's) "Sabrina the Teenage Witch."
• In "The Tale of the Dream Machine", when the boy finishes typing the first story he was narrating on the typewriter, the ending doesn't have anything to do with the story. Instead, the words being typed are the last words to the second story he types and narrates on the typewriter.
• The epitaph that the boy reads on the grave stone in the cemetery in "The Tale of Old Man Corcoran" is the same as an epitaph that is read in "The Tale of the Prom Queen". ("Remember friends as you pass by/As you are now so once was I".) The only difference is the addition of a third line in "The Tale of Old Man Corcoran" ("Remember in life that you must die").
• The series Masters of Horror follows the same premise of this show and could be seen as a spiritual, although more horrifying and violent, successor to Are You Afraid of the Dark?.
• In The Tale Of The Phantom Cab, Denny's hat periodically disappears from his head, returning scenes later.

[edit] External links

• Are You Afraid of the Dark? (first series) at the Internet Movie Database
• Are You Afraid of the Dark? (second series) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Complete Are You Afraid of the Dark? Archive (www.thedarkarchive.com)
• You Can Join The New Midnight Society at http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/midnightsociety
• Are You Afraid Of The Dark on DVD Petition
• David Winning (director) official web site
• Are You Afraid of the Dark? series one fanlisting

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