During the 90's, the cable television station Nickelodeon hosted a 2-hour Saturday evening program block of half-hour shows known as "Snick" (Saturday Night Nickelodeon). Airing from 8 PM to 10 PM, Snick featured shows geared to a (slightly) older audience in the preteen demographic by airing programs featuring more mature themes then the daytime programs. From season to season most shows risked being moved/canceled in their 8 to 9:30 slots, but the 9:30 slot stayed the same for a record of 5 seasons (from 1991 to 1996). That show was known as "Are You Afraid Of The Dark?" AYAOTD was a program featuring a cast of preteens who called themselves "The Midnight Society", a group of friends who gathered weekly in a forest campfire setting to tell spooky tales of ghosts, goblins, and anything within the supernatural and paranormal realms. A simple introduction into each weekly story began as "submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this story..." following a title for the episode ("The Tale of the Dead Man's Float", "The Tale of Apartment 214", etc). Seasons to season, members of the society were changed, replaced, but the stories never got stale.
What made AYAOTD revolutionary for its generation was within its story structure: the show avoided criticism that normal sitcoms and shows face because it avoided cliché formatting. The show never lost its spirit because each week featured new characters and scenarios, keeping the show fresh and appealing. It was an "X-Files" or, even closer, "Tales from the Crypt", for a younger audience.
But the show can still be appreciated at an older age: AYAOTD did truly deliver for its genre. To assume the show couldn't deliver scares because it targeted such a young age group is false because the show certainly did. Its demographic allowed more focus on creating natural suspense and fear rather than artificially supplying it in the forms of over-excessive gore, violence, and language. Because the show avoided those clichés, it used strong mood lighting, clever camera-work and omniscient music in order to heighten the tension and fear. AYAOTD's writers were sharp enough to create scary tales that tapped into primal fears and childhood nightmares. The stories covered every type of unnatural force possible but somehow spun them into its own creative style. In its first season alone, AYAOTD covered topics such as clowns, ghosts, possession, vampires, creatures lurking in basements, and things hiding in the dark. It also knew its strengths and weaknesses: it was good at making the things that needed to scary scary, but strong dialogue was an apparent flaw. The acting was at best B-material, but in itself it shows the appeal of AYAOTD: the show was a light horror pop confection that took itself just serious enough to make your pulse race and your breath to shorten.
10 out of 10 is a grade that shouldn't be given out like candy, and I abide by that opinion. In essence, AYAOTD deserves a 10/10 because it accomplishes the primary requirement: to entertain. AYAOTD accomplishes this effortlessly, even in its later seasons, because it applied a format that allowed for fresh new ideas every week, never tiring the storyline or the viewer. AYAOTD told its last tale in 1996 when it was sadly canceled. But its popularity and fan-base was so strong that the show was remade with an all-new cast in the 99-00 season. Sadly, while it sounded like a good idea to bring back such a favored show, it just wasn't the same without the original Midnight Society and was quickly canceled after its first season. AYAOTD is not a television show to scares your pants off if you're above the age of 10, but even if you are older, you can't help but feel your spine tingle at the thought of what may be lurking within each episode. And if that isn't entertainment, I don't know what is.
What made AYAOTD revolutionary for its generation was within its story structure: the show avoided criticism that normal sitcoms and shows face because it avoided cliché formatting. The show never lost its spirit because each week featured new characters and scenarios, keeping the show fresh and appealing. It was an "X-Files" or, even closer, "Tales from the Crypt", for a younger audience.
But the show can still be appreciated at an older age: AYAOTD did truly deliver for its genre. To assume the show couldn't deliver scares because it targeted such a young age group is false because the show certainly did. Its demographic allowed more focus on creating natural suspense and fear rather than artificially supplying it in the forms of over-excessive gore, violence, and language. Because the show avoided those clichés, it used strong mood lighting, clever camera-work and omniscient music in order to heighten the tension and fear. AYAOTD's writers were sharp enough to create scary tales that tapped into primal fears and childhood nightmares. The stories covered every type of unnatural force possible but somehow spun them into its own creative style. In its first season alone, AYAOTD covered topics such as clowns, ghosts, possession, vampires, creatures lurking in basements, and things hiding in the dark. It also knew its strengths and weaknesses: it was good at making the things that needed to scary scary, but strong dialogue was an apparent flaw. The acting was at best B-material, but in itself it shows the appeal of AYAOTD: the show was a light horror pop confection that took itself just serious enough to make your pulse race and your breath to shorten.
10 out of 10 is a grade that shouldn't be given out like candy, and I abide by that opinion. In essence, AYAOTD deserves a 10/10 because it accomplishes the primary requirement: to entertain. AYAOTD accomplishes this effortlessly, even in its later seasons, because it applied a format that allowed for fresh new ideas every week, never tiring the storyline or the viewer. AYAOTD told its last tale in 1996 when it was sadly canceled. But its popularity and fan-base was so strong that the show was remade with an all-new cast in the 99-00 season. Sadly, while it sounded like a good idea to bring back such a favored show, it just wasn't the same without the original Midnight Society and was quickly canceled after its first season. AYAOTD is not a television show to scares your pants off if you're above the age of 10, but even if you are older, you can't help but feel your spine tingle at the thought of what may be lurking within each episode. And if that isn't entertainment, I don't know what is.