September 18, 2023 • 55 mins
In what was meant to be an episode focused on the seminal three-parter The Tale of the Silver Sight, Jose and Eric waffle on for nearly an hour with general reminiscences about what might be the ultimate expression of '90s horror for children, Are You Afraid of the Dark? We talk best episodes, worst episodes, underrated episodes, and...uh...Hayden Christensen. Join us next time as we get specific!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
услithers
(00:30):
Hello and welcome once more to Black Magic Treehouse, the podcast where every episode
is submitted for your approval.
What do you think about that?
I was going to say let me predict and that was going to be my prediction.
(00:52):
Well that's a pretty safe bet to go with today's topic and guess what?
Well first of all, very rude, very rude to start a podcast and not introduce ourselves.
My name is Jose and I am but one of the hosts of this podcast.
Our other host is this guy over here.
I am Eric.
(01:13):
I am but two of the podcast.
Yes, but number two.
Look him up on IMDB.
So here at Black Magic Treehouse, our purview is all the creepy things that you might have
enjoyed watching, reading, listening to as a child from some bygone era.
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And sometimes we also hone our sights on media from more recent years.
But today we are still in the hot tub time machine.
We are going back to our own adolescence to discuss possibly, I think Eric, our conjoined
most beloved boy.
(01:58):
I just powered through it, man.
I think it's fine.
Yeah, I know.
It's just, I don't know.
Okay.
I would say that today's topic is probably our most treasured piece of media from our
childhood when it comes to creepy kid stuff.
(02:20):
We are of course talking about, are you afraid of the dark?
Am I being rude and speaking for you in that sense?
Is this your most treasured piece of media or have I grossly overestimated your adoration
of this television show?
I think that's pretty spot on.
I don't know.
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I feel like every time we do this podcast, I always want to just trash R.L.
Stine even though he's part of the reason that I became a horror fan.
But if you're asking me, are you afraid of the dark better and usually more consistent
than Goosebumps, I would say yes, probably.
(03:03):
Yeah, I think that's definitely fair to be honest with you.
It's definitely fair.
And yes, poor Bobby's world.
Be on our show, Joe Beale Bob Stine.
I know.
Can't you tell that we are just the biggest fans the way that we just mercilessly degrade
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you and your life's work?
Yeah, call us.
The thing is though, he did not have a full team of right.
Well, I guess there's debate about whether or not he did.
But presumably he was writing one Goosebumps book every month for seven years or however
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long the original series went.
So I don't want to give him too hard a time comparing him to a show that had like a whole
team of writers and directors and kids of varying acting ability.
Yes, varying is right.
That's for sure.
But yeah, I wanted to since we're, as I said, in the hot tub time machine, I wanted to contextualize
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the show just a little bit.
Don't want to get too much into the weeds with backstories and points of origin.
But I did want to ask you as far as your personal point of origin was concerned, how did you
come to know this show?
Like what were some of your initial memories watching this as a whippersnapper?
Oh, well, I do actually have a story about that.
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How fun you should ask.
Oh, how cool that is.
My sister, my sister is a year older than me.
And probably we were like six and seven maybe, but we were staying at my grandparents' house
on my dad's side.
And there, you know, it was just a pretty boring suburb in Illinois, small town Illinois,
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and there wasn't really a whole lot to do.
But there was a kid there named Tim, who I'm still not sure how he was related to us because
this is the only time I saw him.
I think it was maybe one of those deals where it was like somebody's side of the family
that you just never saw, like my grandmother's cousins on somebody else's side or something.
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But he was a kid who was our age.
And he found out that we didn't really know that much about Nickelodeon.
So he took it upon himself, like for an entire day, we just sat in the TV room and watched,
you know, like Wienerville and Clarissa Explains It All.
And he would just, it was more of a Tim's Explains It All, wait, however that title
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would be formatted grammatically.
And he would just tell us about the various shows, what the secret world of Alex Mack's
premise was.
And part of that was Are You Afraid of the Dark?
And I'm pretty sure the first episode I saw was the one with Frank Gorshin, where he's
the, like that girl lives in the house and then there's like a, I don't remember if it's
(06:06):
like through the mirror, through some mechanism, she like goes back in time and meets the former
resident of the house.
And then Frank Gorshin shows up with like a long fingernail and he's like a threatening
guy because he wants the stone or something like that.
Yeah, I think he's looking for a stone.
Yeah, so we watched that.
He's looking for a stone.
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And then later on in that same trip, maybe the next day, the episode, which I think you
know that frightened me off of the show for another several years came on, which is The
Tale of the Midnight Madness.
Is that the title?
Oh, yeah.
With the Mocktooth vampire coming out of the screen.
Yeah, Bubba Nosferatu.
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So I fell in love with the show on day one and then I got scared away from it on day
two and then probably didn't watch it for another like four years after that.
Wow.
What drew you back to it?
Or made you feel like you were ready?
That's a good question.
I don't know if there was anything specific.
I think I was a kid who was very interested in horror stuff, but also just too scared
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of it most of the time.
I think it was probably just a natural progression of getting older and you know, still being
fascinated by it and then eventually deciding like, okay, I'm ready.
I can handle this.
Do you happen to remember?
So you said your second episode scared the bejesus out of you and just a tangent off
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of that briefly, that is one of my favorite episodes.
I think it's kind of a fan favorite, The Tale of the Midnight Madness from season two.
I also have indelible memories of watching that episode as a kid.
I think I might have actually been at my grandparents house.
Very, very possible.
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And it was one of those things where I was equally fascinated by it because this was
right around the time that I was getting into the older monster movies.
I don't think that I would have seen Nosferatu by that point, but in either case, his appearance
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was still familiar to me.
But I love the concept and still do.
I love the concept of the time of fictional characters entering reality or vice versa,
just as a kid who was preoccupied with books and movies to the degree that I was an M.
That was always a trope that I really enjoyed.
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But yeah, it also scared the crap out of me just because in that episode, it's like, oh,
it's a real threat now.
And he comes out of the movie screen and he bites the theater manager on the neck and
it's like, oh my goodness, shit's getting real.
It's a really nervy feeling, even with the big old kind of like spirit Halloween red
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neck teeth that he's sporting.
He's still a really terrifying figure.
And Eric and I actually did a little commentary on that episode years and years ago.
I'm trying to point people back towards that old thing.
Hey, I told you we are in the hot tub time machine.
So we're looking at all of it, including our previous attempts to do this kind of thing
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when we knew even less than we do now.
So in any case, yeah.
Let me ask you this, Jose.
Have you seen Hot Tub Time Machine or is it just a handy reference when you want to talk
about time travel?
Yep, just a handy reference, you know, doing the millennial thing.
Given how many culturally relevant movies I ask you if you've seen and you're always
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like, no, I only watch horror.
I was going to give you a hard time if Hot Tub Time Machine was like the one non-horror
movie you've seen in your entire life.
Exactly.
I got the t-shirt and everything.
It's the one that I stand by.
Post-millennium, it's just a vast wasteland with one little diamond in the rough and that
diamond's name is Hot Tub Time Machine.
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I think it even got a sequel, didn't it?
Because it was like kind of a thing.
Like a direct to video sequel, I think.
Possibly, with all those American Pie presents, Naked Mile or whatever.
Seems appropriate.
But the question I wanted to ask you was at what point do you recall starting to really
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like the show?
Was there any one episode that you recall seeing back then that kind of did it for you?
It's like, oh, this is kind of scary, but I'm also really into it.
Do you recall anything like that from your actual childhood?
Well, I feel like we've already talked about Tale of the Dead Man's Float on this very
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podcast.
But that is, if I'm ranking episodes, I think that's got to be number one because I think
it was just such a good...
The best kids' horror and the best episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark are the ones
that can still maintain the threat without...
(11:29):
The buck teeth on the vampire may have been a little bit too far into conceding, like,
this is a show for kids, so we can't make it too scary.
But I think Tale of the Dead Man's Float really just found that perfect middle ground of like,
this is perfectly G-rated.
There's nothing overtly putrescent about it.
But it's still... it's a good workaround, like that EC Comics corpse demon with the
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red dye and all that is like perfect imagery for children's horror.
Yes, perfect image for children.
We should get a motivational poster of the ghost from Tale of the Dead Man's Float, hanging
in every child's bedroom.
It's like, you can do it.
Yeah.
And then, let's see, but I was trying to think of a different episode because I feel like
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we've already talked about that on some other episode of Midnight...
What's our podcast called?
Our podcast is called The Midnight Society, don't you remember?
Whatever the hell this thing is called.
Black Magic Treehouse.
There it is.
Black Magic Treehouse.
That's right.
I'm actually trying to reach back into the recesses of my mind to recall what episodes
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made like your top 10 that you blogged about on your first site.
Oh, sure.
Probably Tale of the Gastly.
I bet they're probably the same still.
I think Tale of the Gastly Grinner would be on there.
The Tale of the Dark Music, is that what it's called?
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Where the kid in the basement has like the demon that beats his sister at the end.
Yeah, I'll promise you.
The Tale of the 109.1 or whatever the station is with the dead, with Gilbert Gottfried being
sinister.
I'm sure there are others.
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What about you?
Oh, no, that's a great, great passel of episodes.
The funny thing about Tale of the Dark Music was that was one that I never saw as a kid.
I only saw it as an adult.
I want to say, oh, I don't know, sometime in college, 19, 20 years old, I came across
a website that was selling bootleg copies of the Are You Afraid of the Dark Seasons.
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So I bought them like you do because it unfortunately has not been released intact all seven seasons
on Region 1 to my knowledge.
So you know, get on that people.
Come on.
Don't have us resorting to these drastic methods of going to the black market.
But in any case, that was one that my wife vividly remembered.
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And she would tell me about I'm like, wow, that sounds kind of weird.
And we watched it.
And like, you know, I'm sure there are like, I'm sure there have been there has been series
since then, like, you know, some of the more modern ones you have like R.L.
Stein's The Haunting Hour, there's that series on Netflix that I've seen, like pictures of
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creeped out.
So I can't help but wonder, you know, we're talking about like how horrific can you get
for kids?
I feel like that that bar has or I should say that envelope has been pushed far afield
from where it was, you know, back in the 90s, early 2000s when we were younger.
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So I'm curious how the things we found horrific, even something like the ghost from Dead Man's
Float, how that stacks up to some things we you might see in a more modern series.
But in any case, I say that to contextualize that I had I had little experience with more
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modern series, so I didn't really know how far they would go.
But seeing that episode, Tale of the Dark Music as an adult and, you know, having that
attachment to it in the sense of, oh, this was something that was on TV when I was a
kid.
So I kind of knew how far a story like this could or couldn't go.
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It might seem pretty tame, probably does seem pretty tame, you know, when stacked up against
modern sensibilities, but when I watched that, you know, the 20 something year old, my jaw
hit the floor because I'm like, oh, my God, they really went for it.
Like, and this was that was like episode five.
It was maybe not episode five.
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But in any case, it was like very it was first season very early on in the series.
Like they went for it.
And it's kind of funny in that episode and others, I think, too, they would do this.
There was this tendency even as far back as Alfred Hitchcock presents, you know, Alfred
Hitchcock would have his opening introduction and his closing narration, usually in the
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closing narration for like 90 percent of those shows.
If there was any indication that the criminal had gotten away with it or was going to get
away with it, you know, he was essentially forced by the networks to pander to, you know,
instilling law and order.
And so the tale proper would end and he would be like, oh, well, you know, like five minutes
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after the story ended, they were caught.
So don't worry.
Yeah.
Justice is served.
The same thing happens in the tale of the dark music.
And she's like, oh, well, you know, I'm trying to make a reference here and I'm having trouble
with it.
The one that Roald Dahl wrote where the woman hits her husband with a frozen side of beef
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or a lamb chop or something.
Lamb to the slaughter.
Yeah.
I feel like there's a the coda on that is like that she tried it again, but then it
was it was thought or something, so it didn't kill the person and that's how she got caught.
That's right.
Yeah, I think that is correct.
And it's like, man, what do you got to do that?
The story was just fine the way it is.
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They actually do that at the end of dark music because it ends with, you know, the demon
and the root seller promising our hero that he'll give him whatever he wants as long as
he feeds him.
And then you hear his bratty sister calling from upstairs and then the boy just gives
the camera and us the viewer this very knowing, you know, kind of sinister smile.
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And you know, that's like something really startling.
Like I said, even as a 20 something year old, I was I was like clutching my pearls.
I'm like, oh, my goodness, you know, but like whoever whatever his face was from the first
season, the kind of obnoxious blonde kid, he was the one telling that story.
And somebody asked him, did he really feed his sister to the monster?
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And he's like, no, he thought twice about it, but it was always kind of something he
had in his back pocket.
It's like, I don't know, that smile told me something completely different.
I don't know if I even believe what you have to say about that, even though it's your story.
But anyway, I think the obnoxious blonde kid was named Eric.
(18:54):
Oh, I think you're right.
That's such an obnoxious name.
So it fits the character.
Yeah, good representation for people like me.
But I actually wrote a list not too long ago for a website that was like my 10 most memorable
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Are You Afraid the Dark episodes.
And I that that phrase memorable was like my concession, my concession to the Internet,
the entire Internet that I'm not claiming these are the best episodes.
I'm just saying that there are elements about them that make them the most memorable, which
is, I don't know, kind of a lame thing to do, because it's like, well, if they're the
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most memorable, then we really don't need your list to tell us they're the most memorable
because we remember them.
Maybe.
But in any case, tell the ghastly Grinner made the list.
That's one of the episodes that I feel like was kind of, you know, certainly on the goofier
side and I like it just fine.
But I do really appreciate other episodes that, you know, didn't make my list because
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they weren't maybe flamboyant enough to be memorable per se.
I'll touch on those in just a moment.
But just like I know what else made the list was tell them.
Yeah.
Tell the night shift, which we talked about.
Yes.
Fantastic.
Fantastic.
And the last five episode.
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That's a yeah, that is a season.
I'm pretty sure I mean, no, I don't know.
It was before the reboot with Tucker leaving the Midnight Society for sure, because I think
they had one called Tale of the Night Nurse later on, but that was a different one.
Did you just real quick, did you watch the seasons?
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Well, first of all, Tale of the Silver Sight, I know is one, two and three of season seven.
So did they have more like regular episodes after that?
Or was that the whole series finale?
No.
So by the way, listener, the actual topic of today's episode is the Tale of the Silver
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Sight, the three part special that headlined the seventh and final season of Are You Afraid
of the Dark?
That is actually what we are in our typical Blackmagic treehouse fashion.
We are gradually, eventually organically getting to as we mow through the rest of the terrain
of this beautiful show.
(21:31):
But yeah, based on what I remember and based on the information available on, you know,
those great valuable sources of consistent, reliable information, Wikipedia and IMDB,
Tale of the Silver Sight was a three parter, which is interesting for the fact that it
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was aired over the span of one night.
So it was in three parts and it was aired over just one night, April 2nd, 2000.
So I would have been fourth grade at that time, I think fourth grade.
But the rest of the season, which was only like three months worth of episodes, I think
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I saw like this came out April 2nd and then the final season's last episode aired in June.
So it was more like a mini season by most standards, but I think it had just about the
same amount of episodes as all the other seasons, if I'm not mistaken.
But yeah, it was actually like a little bit of a special event.
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And I remember actually watching this in real time when it debuted.
This is your first time having seen it though, correct?
Yes, I gave up after like four episodes when they brought the new cast in.
Was there a gap between season five and six?
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I feel like there was like a couple of years that they took off.
Yeah, let's take a peek see here.
I guess I could just be looking this up myself instead of just having you do it.
Well, you know, but I just thought you might know off the top of your head.
I don't actually, but let's see.
I feel like you are correct.
So season five.
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So Tale of the Deadman's Sloth, first episode of season five.
That was October 1995.
Last episode, Tale of the Night Shift, last episode of season five, February 1996.
Season six, first episode.
1999.
So yeah, a gap of about three years there.
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That seems crazy.
It seems like it was a shorter amount of time in retrospect.
I was wondering because I was thinking shows today, like it's kind of normal to just take
a year or two off.
Like Stranger Things drops seasons, what, like every two, three years now?
But it's just like a normal thing.
But like when you're a kid, I was like, do I just remember that gap as being longer than
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it was because, you know, time is so much slower when you're younger.
Whereas now it's like, you know, something drops and you're like, I wonder when the last
time they dropped one of these was, oh, five years ago.
Back when my life was completely different.
So much more peaceful.
But also the same.
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Yeah.
So anyway, I was just wondering about that.
But I stopped watching.
I gave it a shot and I couldn't really take to the new cast members.
I didn't really like most of the stories.
And I don't know if it's because they were objectively worse or if it was just that I
was, you know, three years older.
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I think all of those statements have some basis in fact, close to objectionable fact,
just kind of glancing through the listings for for season seven.
It does for the most part seem like it's the the aesthetic was different, I think, like
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the actual the quality of the film.
So it it just had a different feel and a different look to it.
So that was a little jarring, I think.
There are some fairly good episodes in season seven.
And I do mean fairly right after Silver Sight.
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The episode that came after that was the tale of the stone maiden, which I feel is one that
a fair amount of folks probably remember.
That was kind of a neat episode.
And then there's the tale of the many faces, which that sticks out of my mind.
That was kind of a fairly memorable episode, kind of creepy because he had all these little
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teen models, part of this this cult led by this woman who was stealing their youth and
their beauty.
And they like wore these blank expressionless masks.
So that was pretty good.
That was pretty solid.
But yeah, on the whole, they they just kind of lacked the magic touch.
I think D.J. McHale, the show, the creator of the show and writer and director of many
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episodes from the previous five seasons, I think he was not so involved in the last two
seasons.
And I think that shows not to.
But he was the he was the main force behind his three parter, right?
I know he at least wrote them.
I didn't.
Yeah, he didn't direct them.
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But he did he did write the three parts for Tale of the Silver Sight.
And what I was going to say, I'm too busy scrolling through the the season six episodes
like, oh, yeah, I'm like mentally tallying them as as I'm trying to carry on the thread
of the conversation.
I think the the thing that sticks out to me about the last two seasons is so not only
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do they have that kind of different visual aesthetic to them, you know, that marks them
is different.
I feel like the tone of them, they seem it's kind of appropriate that you brought up the
goosebumps comparison.
I feel like the tone of them is closer to the type of thing that you would see in goosebumps
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than most of the episodes from the previous five seasons.
The first five seasons, I feel like things were kind of more rooted in I don't want to
sound too old.
You know, I don't want to sound like too old timey about this, which I guess is a weird
thing to say.
But I felt like things were kind of rooted more in folklore and magical realism, just
(28:04):
kind of like classic horror traditions from literature and cinema.
There was also this strain of adventure, which is really apparent and tell the silver side
and a lot of the episodes that DJ Mikhail wrote and directed.
There's kind of an interesting fun fact associated with that that I had confirmed from an episode
(28:29):
of a podcast that DJ Mikhail was a guest on because it was just something that was bothering
me.
I'm like, he keeps referencing these episodes that he wrote.
But when you look up the credits, it says, oh, screenplay by or written by Chloe Brown.
And I'm like, what's the story there?
And as it so happens, it was confirmed in this podcast episode that I forget who he
(28:53):
said it was.
But some big wig, either at the network or part of the production team, some producer
told him, look, it's not a good look for you to have your name all over the show.
So if it says, created by DJ Mikhail, directed by DJ Mikhail, written by DJ Mikhail, you're
(29:14):
better off just using a pseudonym.
And that's what he did.
And I feel like in the podcast episode, he was like, in retrospect, that was dumb.
But it was just what I did at the time.
Yeah, Aaron Sorkin got away with it on West Wing.
Yeah, right.
That's interesting because Chloe Brown is a name that I always remember because so many
(29:37):
of them my favorite episodes.
Oh, Tale of the Dangerous Soup was one of hers or his, I guess.
That was one that was on my blog list.
But do you want to get back to the cliffhanger you left us with where you were saying, I
have some episodes I want to talk about that I didn't put on my most memorable list?
Well, I can't say that I'm able at present to talk about them in so much detail because
(30:01):
it's been a good while since I've seen them.
But there are a couple of the more softer episodes that are just really touching that
not too many people talk about just because they're not as exciting, they're not as flamboyant
as some of the more memorable ones.
(30:23):
And just kind of describing them in that way, I'm sure you know at least one of them that
I'm referring to.
And I think this one actually made your list.
It's the Tale of the Shiny Red Bicycle.
Oh, yes.
Yeah, you know, just really touching ones like that.
That one I really, I remember because like I said, it's been a while since I've seen
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it.
I remember really enjoying because which is perhaps a strange way to say to typify my
feelings towards that episode because it's not a thrill a minute kind of story.
It's more introspective and I was kind of astounded by it in a way.
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Again, this was one of the episodes that I saw as an adult.
If I saw it as a kid, you know, during its initial airing or on reruns, I don't remember
it and it probably flew over my head if I did because really it's unless you have dealt
with the passing of a loved one or a friend, that episode, if you're seeing it as a kid,
(31:35):
is probably not going to resound that much with you outside of the fact that the ghost
of his friend is talking to him.
Creepy.
And then, you know, you're on to the next thing.
You're over here back on the couch playing your gameboy, having totally forgotten it.
But seeing it as an adult, you know, once you've weathered a few funerals and things
(31:56):
like that, it is incredibly moving.
And it's doubly surprising for the fact that its main character, as in all the other episodes,
is a young person, is a teen who has lost this friend and he's having these memories
of when they were kids.
I may be marring some of the details of this episode since it's been so long, but he's
(32:19):
basically grieving and he cannot let the memory of his friend go.
And I believe the episode ends with this grieving teen's younger brother getting into an accident.
And that's kind of like the catalyst for him moving on from these, you know, these mourning
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feelings for his departed friend because he values what's in front of him.
He values, you know, the emotional connections that he has with his younger brother, who
I think he was neglecting through the course of the episode just because he was so entrenched
in his grief.
Does that sound correct to you?
(33:02):
Yeah, I think so.
I've seen it somewhat more recently because we have Paramount+, which has a selection
of episodes of the first five seasons.
For some reason, there are some that are missing.
Yeah, like you said, it's so strange that there's no commercial release of all the
episodes because season six and seven, not on Paramount+, at all.
(33:22):
Some of those you can buy through Amazon, which groups them not by season, but into
weird volumes, which like has a handful of episodes from every season.
It's so weird.
So it's hard to cross reference like what could I watch through here and what could
I watch through Amazon that I would have to buy to fill in the gaps of what they don't
have on Paramount and are there episodes that both of them are missing?
(33:45):
So anyway, back to your question.
That is the gist of it.
But yeah, his friend comes back as it goes to warn him about going to save his brother
because there's like a bike accident and then there's like a damn opening or whatever and
his little brother is about to drown.
(34:08):
So episodes like that, I wasn't quite as emotionally taken with this other episode, but I think
DJ McHale talked about it at some length in that podcast episode and his contextualizing
of it just made me appreciate it more.
(34:28):
Episodes like the Tale of Train Magic, that is just and I think I may be piggybacking
on some of the things he said in that podcast.
I really do appreciate the, what shall we say, the kind of generous, I guess that's
(34:54):
the only way I can think to put it right now.
I appreciate the generous purview that DJ McHale was taking, especially with those first
five seasons where even though it was called Are You Afraid of the Dark and it had its
share of spooky moments, creepy episodes, he really was approaching it with more of
(35:14):
a mind to encompass the whole fantastic spectrum in kind of a similar way to Rod Serling with
The Twilight Zone where it wasn't just, you know, like werewolves and ghosts.
It was also things that kind of just touched on the supernatural or, you know, the Tale
(35:37):
of Train Magic.
It was just kind of like a wistful story that didn't necessarily have like a big bogey
monster in the center of it.
So even though, you know, that may not be like the first episode I go to when I retrieve
my Black Market DVDs, it's ones like that that make me really appreciate the show for
(36:00):
what it was and what it was trying to do.
Did you have anything, whether it was those episodes or along those lines that did the
same thing for you?
Well, gee, I guess it's my turn to scroll now.
Because I think I always mix up, oh, this doesn't just have a, hold on.
Let me go to the list of Are You Afraid of the Dark episodes.
(36:22):
There you go.
Good old Wikipedia.
Series overview.
Oh, you know what?
Here's my hot take for the episode.
The Tale of Laughing in the Dark, overrated.
That is a boring episode.
Nothing happens.
I can see that.
That actually did make my list though.
(36:46):
And it was essentially for the reason that, you know, it, and this was a time when we
weren't so inundated with the whole scary clown, killer clown, psycho clown parade.
You know, it's practically a staple of the Halloween season now.
But even so, I still appreciate it for the fact that it is a scary clown episode that
(37:14):
never really shows you the scary clown.
And that may be why people, you know, don't like it.
It's like, well, damn it.
If I'm going to watch a scary clown episode, show me the scary clown.
But I actually, I think it is unsettling because you've never seen Z-Bo in the flesh, so to
speak.
You only see his fun house stand in.
(37:34):
Well, you are incorrect.
We will agree to disagree on that one.
The Tale of the Dream Machine is another one that was on my list.
You know, the ones that I didn't like that much were the dorky ones because I'm seeing
Tale of the Dark Dragon, which is...
(37:56):
Wait, is that the one that I'm thinking it is?
Oh, never mind.
I don't even remember that one.
I wonder if that's the one that's on Paramount+.
Because I don't remember that one at all.
I was thinking of the one where they like go to a school and then they're like hatching
dragon eggs or something.
Do you remember that one?
Do you want to know what that episode is called?
(38:17):
Sure.
You want to know what it's called?
I do.
The Tale of the Hatching.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, it's called The Tale of the Hatching.
The one about the hatching.
It's called Tale of the Hatching.
Yeah, here it is.
Sure is.
Who need human children to care for their lizard alien offspring?
It's funny.
I was kind of a...
(38:38):
I mean, I still am in a lot of ways, but I feel like I'm much more open-minded these
days.
But as a kid, and we've touched on this a little bit, I was like a strict horror purist.
So anything that smacked even a little bit of science fiction-y, I was like, eww, no,
(39:00):
no, don't like it.
Take it away.
If it was anything that involved aliens or conspiracies or robots, I'm like, dumb, boring.
Come on, show me.
Show me the monster.
I want a monster from Transylvania or under the ground.
Can you give me something?
So I don't know if that was kind of along the same lines of dorky stuff that you were
(39:23):
referring to.
I thought you would maybe make mention of stuff like Tale of the Pinball Wizard or something
like that.
Oh, yeah.
Boo.
Upnakes.
I was going to say something and then I totally forgot.
Oh, about horror purity.
(39:43):
I'm the same way, but it's weird because when I'm watching a science fiction movie
that unexpectedly turns into a horror movie, I love that.
But I don't like it when, yeah, horror suddenly turns into like a weird fantasy kind of thing.
I'm like, ew, P.U.
No, thank you.
It's funny how that works.
(40:07):
But I found one that is closer to your original question, which is the Tale of Apartment 214,
which is where the, yeah, it's about the girl who makes friends with an old lady next door
and then it turns out the old lady's a ghost.
And then the old lady's getting mad because she's lonely and the girl keeps forgetting
(40:30):
to or stuff gets in her way or whatever.
And you can tell from my description, I don't concretely remember what happens, but it's
one of those ones that I think I would not have liked as a kid because I was like, oh,
it's a sad ghost, not a scary ghost.
Who cares?
Thumbs down.
But watching it as an adult when you understand becoming older and irrelevant, I think it
(40:54):
becomes more poignant to you.
Oh, and then the girl, the little girl who doesn't have or maybe they just moved so she
doesn't have a ton of friends.
And then the ghost who doesn't have friends because she's dead.
And then they find each other in this crazy thing we call life and death.
(41:15):
This crazy thing we call, are you afraid of the dark?
We'll be afraid together.
Oh, what a sweet message.
Should I have more episodes to shit talk though?
Because I probably can.
That would be fun.
Who's complaining at this point?
I will say about Apartment 214, you know, for the shall we say the kind of, as you used
(41:42):
to use your word, the poignant, realistic underpinnings that that story has, like you
said about, you know, just kind of forgetting our elders, neglecting them, forgetting their
stories, that episode has a genuinely creepy moment when you mentioned, you know, the old
(42:03):
lady getting mad at the girl for forgetting her.
That's actually a really unsettling sequence that I remember seeing as a kid.
And there was like, oh, because it's basically just an old woman, an adult yelling at this
girl.
And I think like they film it like you there's at least one sustained shot where you're kind
(42:23):
of like seeing it from the girl's perspective.
So the old woman is like getting up from her rocking chair and she's just coming at you,
you know, the camera, the viewer, and, you know, basically lambasting her for how could
you forget me?
And that's that I will say, you know, even though as a kid might not have fully understood
(42:44):
the scenario or what it was referencing, that was a genuinely like, oh, creepy moment.
And all it was was just this actress whaling her heart out.
It's like, wow, who knew I could get shook like that.
That's true.
Yeah, I did forget about that part.
That is, it's kind of like that moment in The Sixth Sense with the housewife or whatever,
(43:04):
who's like, do you remember the part where there's the woman who's like yelling at, is
his name Cole?
The kid?
She's yelling at him like, like he's her abusive husband.
And she's just like, it's kind of a similar type of shot where you're seeing it from his
perspective and she's just like, coming towards him screaming and then she's like shows him
or the wrist that she slashed like, look what you made me do because you were so horrible
(43:28):
to me.
Yeah, that is an effective setup.
I'll give you that one.
You win this round.
Let's have more adults yelling at kids.
But speaking of, let's have more adults yelling at kids in our horror medium.
Speaking of the dorky ones though, real quick, I will say one that I always liked, even though
it is a dorky one, is The Tale of the Final Wish, which is about the girl who loves fairy
(43:51):
tales and then gets sucked into the world of the Sandman and his Bobcat gold twait.
That one is-
Hi there.
Wow, I didn't know you had a Bobcat gold twait impression just ready to go, locked and loaded.
Yeah, I was waiting for my moment and it came.
He also made a horror movie.
(44:12):
Did you see Willow Creek?
I heard about it.
I heard about it.
I've not seen it now.
It's interesting.
Yeah.
Bigfoot movie, right?
It is, yeah.
It's about people going to where they shot the Patterson Gimli Bigfoot.
It's funny because they're running into all the Bigfoot weirdos, all the conspiracy theorists
(44:35):
and all the crazy people.
They're kind of rolling their eyes at that.
Then it gradually turns into... The part that I think people celebrate, it's found
footage like Blair Witch style, but there's a sequence where they're in a tent in the
middle of the night and then it's just this really long sustained shot of just something
(44:58):
hits the tent and then they hear a noise and they're just cowering inside waiting for it
to be over.
It's good.
It's worth watching.
It's only like 80 minutes or whatever.
Cat Goldthwait, unlikely horror ally.
That can't help but put me in mind of a season six episode, The Tale of Bigfoot Ridge.
(45:24):
I mentioned that only to say that in that podcast episode... Do you like how I'm talking
about another podcast episode in this podcast?
I'm basically promoting it and I'm totally forgetting which one it was, but in that interview
with DJ Mikkel, he referenced this episode where he said that there was really a drop
in quality in those last two seasons.
(45:47):
At first, he was not naming names, but he said, we had one episode where the lead actor
was just so horrible.
I don't understand how.
He even got past the screen test, but it just sank that episode and the podcast hosts were
just pressing him like, okay, come on, do tell.
(46:10):
He finally admitted it.
It was The Tale of Bigfoot Ridge starring Hayden Christians.
Do you know what's funny about that?
It's like, huh?
Another podcast.
What's funny about that?
Another podcast, which you trash, called Welcome to Deadcast also has a story where they went
to a convention and the producer, I think it was a producer of Goosebumps, was telling
(46:36):
a story about how they had this one kid who kept coming in and auditioning and they were
like, we can't hire this kid.
He's just too bad.
Then eventually they ran out of actors and they had to cast him in Goosebumps and it
was Hayden Christians.
Oh my God.
Wow.
He gets around.
What episode was he in?
(46:56):
I don't know.
He was like a snazzy photographer kid doing the whole like, oh yeah, we've played with
the camera, baby, that kind of thing.
Oh my God.
Wow.
Those two stories make me feel kind of bad for him.
Let me see.
(47:17):
I think it's not fair to judge him by Star Wars because everybody is bad in the prequels,
but he's really good in a movie called Shatter Glass where he plays a real life journalist
who got caught for making up all of his stories.
He's really good at that.
It's possible to become talented.
(47:38):
Two things.
One, it looks like Hayden Christiansen played Zane in two episodes.
Oh, well, because it was part one and part two, but they did.
I didn't realize this was a two parter, but in Goosebumps, Night of the Living Dummy 3
was a two parter.
He played Zane in those two episodes.
(48:00):
I don't remember the only moment from, oh boy, we're just like all over the map here,
but the only moment I remember watching from that episode of Goosebumps, again, indelible
memories like my mother's bedroom, catching this in the middle of the afternoon, who knows,
probably on like Fox Kids.
(48:21):
And it scared the crap out of me.
It was like I turned the channel just as this moment came.
And it's at the end of the episode where whatever the gangster dummies name, Bugsy Mugsy, whatever,
he throws Slappy out the attic window.
(48:42):
And of course, in typical 90s fashion, you see Slappy sliding down the roof, but it's
like a dwarf actor in dummy clothes, which is really unsettling, even more so than just
the dummy himself.
(49:02):
When you see him moving, the actor moving in Slappy's clothes, it's like that is 10
times more frightening than anything we saw in the two Goosebumps movies with Jack Black.
They cannot hold a candle to a dwarf actor in dummy clothes.
Oh my God.
But he's like hanging from the gutter of the house.
(49:24):
And he like screams.
This is like the dummy now.
So we see him head on.
So it's a dummy and he screams, I'm invincible.
And then he gets fucking struck by lightning and he explodes.
And that was like me just turning to the station in the middle of the afternoon.
And I'm like sitting there on the couch shell shocked, like, what the hell did I just see?
(49:47):
So that's the best episode of Goosebumps is what you're saying.
Yeah, because I skipped all the Hayden Christensen parts and I just got dwarf actor exploded
by lightning.
Yeah.
So anyway, Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Is that what we're talking about in this episode?
I'm losing it.
I could say more about Hayden Christensen if you want.
(50:08):
He's coming to...
No.
Oh, that was the second thing.
That was the second thing was that full circle yet again, you completed the circuit of my
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Hayden Christensen story with your Goosebumps Hayden Christensen story.
So I'm going to complete the circuit with your shattered glass mention.
I was told by a coworker of mine back when I was at the public library, he's like, we
(50:36):
were filming like a training video for our indoor planetarium.
So I was like the onscreen talent, you know, showing this is how you inflate it.
And he's like, he was like editing the footage and he's like, your voice reminds me of somebody
and I can't put my finger on it.
And I'm like in suspense the whole time.
And I'm sure you listener can tell where this is going because I kind of spoiled it.
(51:00):
And he comes back and eventually tells me, hey, here's a YouTube link.
This is the movie I was talking about Hayden Christensen.
And I was like instantly deflated like, oh, really?
And he's like, yeah, I mean, the way he put it, he's like, man, I could have just closed
my eyes.
And it was like, you know, Hayden Christensen was in the room with me.
(51:21):
It's like, please stop talking.
It's just depressing me.
And I watched the I watched the I watched the clip.
I didn't watch the movie proper, but I watched, you know, a couple of clips and I'm like,
I guess I can kind of see it.
You know, it's just that like that very.
It's like mellow meets monotone.
Yeah, it's like I guess that's the vibe that we both give off.
(51:43):
It's like mellow tone.
That's my that's my official brand.
Did you have a monologue in the training video about how sand gets everywhere?
No, I did not talk about how sand gets everywhere or like the integrity, you know, journalistic
integrity or anything like that.
So missed opportunity, I guess.
(52:05):
I'm sorry, Hayden, maybe you'd like to be a guest on our show.
We're you know, we're celebrating you the same way we celebrate R.L.
Stein.
Welcome to our podcast, Hayden Christensen.
Yeah.
Oh, poor guy.
I know.
Well, he's going to be I think he's fine because he got brought back for Obi Wan, I think.
(52:25):
And everybody's posted how much they love him.
And I'm like, I'm sure it's probably a terrible show because everything.
But also, he's coming to Denver Fan Expo next weekend, which I won't be at.
And if you want a photo op with him, like the normal photo op price, you know, people
from like the office will be like 50 bucks and then people who are actually who else
(52:50):
is going to be there?
You know, people who are actually like relevant now are like maybe one hundred and fifty.
And then Hayden Christensen is like two hundred and fifty dollars for a photo.
So he's making bank.
Making bank or that's just, you know, the indication that work is kind of trickling
in these days.
(53:11):
He's like, man, this reminds me of when I was a kid auditioning the hell out of Are
You Afraid of the Dark and Goosebumps?
Man, I would cheer, though, if they brought him back for the movie, like playing for the
Goosebumps movies where he's just like playing an older version of his character and he sees
Slappy or something and he's like, oh, my God, it's happening again.
(53:34):
I thought you were I thought you combusted after that lightning strike.
I want to watch that episode.
That sounds like it's that sounds like it's meant to be funny, but I'm guessing it's
probably not meant to be funny.
It was definitely I mean, watching it as a kid didn't abstract me as funny and it was
like as serious as a oh, I forgot what the saying was.
(53:58):
OK, here we go.
Cancer.
Oh, heart attack.
Serious as a heart attack.
Yeah, cancer is pretty bad.
But you know, did it make it didn't make the.
OK, yeah.
Anyway, anyway, should we talk about the tale of the silver site or do you have more general
thoughts about are you afraid of the dark pre?
(54:23):
Well, probably, but, you know, it's what been already an hour.
Yeah.
And we haven't talked about the reason we're here today.
Tell the silver site.
So let's bring it back.
Tune in next time for the thrilling conclusion on Black Magic Treehouse.
услithers
(00:30):
Hello and welcome once more to Black Magic Treehouse, the podcast where every episode
is submitted for your approval.
What do you think about that?
I was going to say let me predict and that was going to be my prediction.
(00:52):
Well that's a pretty safe bet to go with today's topic and guess what?
Well first of all, very rude, very rude to start a podcast and not introduce ourselves.
My name is Jose and I am but one of the hosts of this podcast.
Our other host is this guy over here.
I am Eric.
(01:13):
I am but two of the podcast.
Yes, but number two.
Look him up on IMDB.
So here at Black Magic Treehouse, our purview is all the creepy things that you might have
enjoyed watching, reading, listening to as a child from some bygone era.
(01:35):
And sometimes we also hone our sights on media from more recent years.
But today we are still in the hot tub time machine.
We are going back to our own adolescence to discuss possibly, I think Eric, our conjoined
most beloved boy.
(01:58):
I just powered through it, man.
I think it's fine.
Yeah, I know.
It's just, I don't know.
Okay.
I would say that today's topic is probably our most treasured piece of media from our
childhood when it comes to creepy kid stuff.
(02:20):
We are of course talking about, are you afraid of the dark?
Am I being rude and speaking for you in that sense?
Is this your most treasured piece of media or have I grossly overestimated your adoration
of this television show?
I think that's pretty spot on.
I don't know.
(02:41):
I feel like every time we do this podcast, I always want to just trash R.L.
Stine even though he's part of the reason that I became a horror fan.
But if you're asking me, are you afraid of the dark better and usually more consistent
than Goosebumps, I would say yes, probably.
(03:03):
Yeah, I think that's definitely fair to be honest with you.
It's definitely fair.
And yes, poor Bobby's world.
Be on our show, Joe Beale Bob Stine.
I know.
Can't you tell that we are just the biggest fans the way that we just mercilessly degrade
(03:25):
you and your life's work?
Yeah, call us.
The thing is though, he did not have a full team of right.
Well, I guess there's debate about whether or not he did.
But presumably he was writing one Goosebumps book every month for seven years or however
(03:45):
long the original series went.
So I don't want to give him too hard a time comparing him to a show that had like a whole
team of writers and directors and kids of varying acting ability.
Yes, varying is right.
That's for sure.
But yeah, I wanted to since we're, as I said, in the hot tub time machine, I wanted to contextualize
(04:10):
the show just a little bit.
Don't want to get too much into the weeds with backstories and points of origin.
But I did want to ask you as far as your personal point of origin was concerned, how did you
come to know this show?
Like what were some of your initial memories watching this as a whippersnapper?
Oh, well, I do actually have a story about that.
(04:34):
How fun you should ask.
Oh, how cool that is.
My sister, my sister is a year older than me.
And probably we were like six and seven maybe, but we were staying at my grandparents' house
on my dad's side.
And there, you know, it was just a pretty boring suburb in Illinois, small town Illinois,
(04:55):
and there wasn't really a whole lot to do.
But there was a kid there named Tim, who I'm still not sure how he was related to us because
this is the only time I saw him.
I think it was maybe one of those deals where it was like somebody's side of the family
that you just never saw, like my grandmother's cousins on somebody else's side or something.
(05:21):
But he was a kid who was our age.
And he found out that we didn't really know that much about Nickelodeon.
So he took it upon himself, like for an entire day, we just sat in the TV room and watched,
you know, like Wienerville and Clarissa Explains It All.
And he would just, it was more of a Tim's Explains It All, wait, however that title
(05:43):
would be formatted grammatically.
And he would just tell us about the various shows, what the secret world of Alex Mack's
premise was.
And part of that was Are You Afraid of the Dark?
And I'm pretty sure the first episode I saw was the one with Frank Gorshin, where he's
the, like that girl lives in the house and then there's like a, I don't remember if it's
(06:06):
like through the mirror, through some mechanism, she like goes back in time and meets the former
resident of the house.
And then Frank Gorshin shows up with like a long fingernail and he's like a threatening
guy because he wants the stone or something like that.
Yeah, I think he's looking for a stone.
Yeah, so we watched that.
He's looking for a stone.
(06:27):
And then later on in that same trip, maybe the next day, the episode, which I think you
know that frightened me off of the show for another several years came on, which is The
Tale of the Midnight Madness.
Is that the title?
Oh, yeah.
With the Mocktooth vampire coming out of the screen.
Yeah, Bubba Nosferatu.
(06:48):
So I fell in love with the show on day one and then I got scared away from it on day
two and then probably didn't watch it for another like four years after that.
Wow.
What drew you back to it?
Or made you feel like you were ready?
That's a good question.
I don't know if there was anything specific.
I think I was a kid who was very interested in horror stuff, but also just too scared
(07:14):
of it most of the time.
I think it was probably just a natural progression of getting older and you know, still being
fascinated by it and then eventually deciding like, okay, I'm ready.
I can handle this.
Do you happen to remember?
So you said your second episode scared the bejesus out of you and just a tangent off
(07:38):
of that briefly, that is one of my favorite episodes.
I think it's kind of a fan favorite, The Tale of the Midnight Madness from season two.
I also have indelible memories of watching that episode as a kid.
I think I might have actually been at my grandparents house.
Very, very possible.
(08:00):
And it was one of those things where I was equally fascinated by it because this was
right around the time that I was getting into the older monster movies.
I don't think that I would have seen Nosferatu by that point, but in either case, his appearance
(08:24):
was still familiar to me.
But I love the concept and still do.
I love the concept of the time of fictional characters entering reality or vice versa,
just as a kid who was preoccupied with books and movies to the degree that I was an M.
That was always a trope that I really enjoyed.
(08:44):
But yeah, it also scared the crap out of me just because in that episode, it's like, oh,
it's a real threat now.
And he comes out of the movie screen and he bites the theater manager on the neck and
it's like, oh my goodness, shit's getting real.
It's a really nervy feeling, even with the big old kind of like spirit Halloween red
(09:08):
neck teeth that he's sporting.
He's still a really terrifying figure.
And Eric and I actually did a little commentary on that episode years and years ago.
I'm trying to point people back towards that old thing.
Hey, I told you we are in the hot tub time machine.
So we're looking at all of it, including our previous attempts to do this kind of thing
(09:36):
when we knew even less than we do now.
So in any case, yeah.
Let me ask you this, Jose.
Have you seen Hot Tub Time Machine or is it just a handy reference when you want to talk
about time travel?
Yep, just a handy reference, you know, doing the millennial thing.
Given how many culturally relevant movies I ask you if you've seen and you're always
(09:59):
like, no, I only watch horror.
I was going to give you a hard time if Hot Tub Time Machine was like the one non-horror
movie you've seen in your entire life.
Exactly.
I got the t-shirt and everything.
It's the one that I stand by.
Post-millennium, it's just a vast wasteland with one little diamond in the rough and that
diamond's name is Hot Tub Time Machine.
(10:23):
I think it even got a sequel, didn't it?
Because it was like kind of a thing.
Like a direct to video sequel, I think.
Possibly, with all those American Pie presents, Naked Mile or whatever.
Seems appropriate.
But the question I wanted to ask you was at what point do you recall starting to really
(10:45):
like the show?
Was there any one episode that you recall seeing back then that kind of did it for you?
It's like, oh, this is kind of scary, but I'm also really into it.
Do you recall anything like that from your actual childhood?
Well, I feel like we've already talked about Tale of the Dead Man's Float on this very
(11:09):
podcast.
But that is, if I'm ranking episodes, I think that's got to be number one because I think
it was just such a good...
The best kids' horror and the best episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark are the ones
that can still maintain the threat without...
(11:29):
The buck teeth on the vampire may have been a little bit too far into conceding, like,
this is a show for kids, so we can't make it too scary.
But I think Tale of the Dead Man's Float really just found that perfect middle ground of like,
this is perfectly G-rated.
There's nothing overtly putrescent about it.
But it's still... it's a good workaround, like that EC Comics corpse demon with the
(11:57):
red dye and all that is like perfect imagery for children's horror.
Yes, perfect image for children.
We should get a motivational poster of the ghost from Tale of the Dead Man's Float, hanging
in every child's bedroom.
It's like, you can do it.
Yeah.
And then, let's see, but I was trying to think of a different episode because I feel like
(12:19):
we've already talked about that on some other episode of Midnight...
What's our podcast called?
Our podcast is called The Midnight Society, don't you remember?
Whatever the hell this thing is called.
Black Magic Treehouse.
There it is.
Black Magic Treehouse.
That's right.
I'm actually trying to reach back into the recesses of my mind to recall what episodes
(12:44):
made like your top 10 that you blogged about on your first site.
Oh, sure.
Probably Tale of the Gastly.
I bet they're probably the same still.
I think Tale of the Gastly Grinner would be on there.
The Tale of the Dark Music, is that what it's called?
(13:05):
Where the kid in the basement has like the demon that beats his sister at the end.
Yeah, I'll promise you.
The Tale of the 109.1 or whatever the station is with the dead, with Gilbert Gottfried being
sinister.
I'm sure there are others.
(13:28):
What about you?
Oh, no, that's a great, great passel of episodes.
The funny thing about Tale of the Dark Music was that was one that I never saw as a kid.
I only saw it as an adult.
I want to say, oh, I don't know, sometime in college, 19, 20 years old, I came across
a website that was selling bootleg copies of the Are You Afraid of the Dark Seasons.
(13:56):
So I bought them like you do because it unfortunately has not been released intact all seven seasons
on Region 1 to my knowledge.
So you know, get on that people.
Come on.
Don't have us resorting to these drastic methods of going to the black market.
But in any case, that was one that my wife vividly remembered.
(14:18):
And she would tell me about I'm like, wow, that sounds kind of weird.
And we watched it.
And like, you know, I'm sure there are like, I'm sure there have been there has been series
since then, like, you know, some of the more modern ones you have like R.L.
Stein's The Haunting Hour, there's that series on Netflix that I've seen, like pictures of
(14:42):
creeped out.
So I can't help but wonder, you know, we're talking about like how horrific can you get
for kids?
I feel like that that bar has or I should say that envelope has been pushed far afield
from where it was, you know, back in the 90s, early 2000s when we were younger.
(15:02):
So I'm curious how the things we found horrific, even something like the ghost from Dead Man's
Float, how that stacks up to some things we you might see in a more modern series.
But in any case, I say that to contextualize that I had I had little experience with more
(15:26):
modern series, so I didn't really know how far they would go.
But seeing that episode, Tale of the Dark Music as an adult and, you know, having that
attachment to it in the sense of, oh, this was something that was on TV when I was a
kid.
So I kind of knew how far a story like this could or couldn't go.
(15:50):
It might seem pretty tame, probably does seem pretty tame, you know, when stacked up against
modern sensibilities, but when I watched that, you know, the 20 something year old, my jaw
hit the floor because I'm like, oh, my God, they really went for it.
Like, and this was that was like episode five.
It was maybe not episode five.
(16:11):
But in any case, it was like very it was first season very early on in the series.
Like they went for it.
And it's kind of funny in that episode and others, I think, too, they would do this.
There was this tendency even as far back as Alfred Hitchcock presents, you know, Alfred
Hitchcock would have his opening introduction and his closing narration, usually in the
(16:36):
closing narration for like 90 percent of those shows.
If there was any indication that the criminal had gotten away with it or was going to get
away with it, you know, he was essentially forced by the networks to pander to, you know,
instilling law and order.
And so the tale proper would end and he would be like, oh, well, you know, like five minutes
(17:01):
after the story ended, they were caught.
So don't worry.
Yeah.
Justice is served.
The same thing happens in the tale of the dark music.
And she's like, oh, well, you know, I'm trying to make a reference here and I'm having trouble
with it.
The one that Roald Dahl wrote where the woman hits her husband with a frozen side of beef
(17:26):
or a lamb chop or something.
Lamb to the slaughter.
Yeah.
I feel like there's a the coda on that is like that she tried it again, but then it
was it was thought or something, so it didn't kill the person and that's how she got caught.
That's right.
Yeah, I think that is correct.
And it's like, man, what do you got to do that?
The story was just fine the way it is.
(17:48):
They actually do that at the end of dark music because it ends with, you know, the demon
and the root seller promising our hero that he'll give him whatever he wants as long as
he feeds him.
And then you hear his bratty sister calling from upstairs and then the boy just gives
the camera and us the viewer this very knowing, you know, kind of sinister smile.
(18:11):
And you know, that's like something really startling.
Like I said, even as a 20 something year old, I was I was like clutching my pearls.
I'm like, oh, my goodness, you know, but like whoever whatever his face was from the first
season, the kind of obnoxious blonde kid, he was the one telling that story.
And somebody asked him, did he really feed his sister to the monster?
(18:33):
And he's like, no, he thought twice about it, but it was always kind of something he
had in his back pocket.
It's like, I don't know, that smile told me something completely different.
I don't know if I even believe what you have to say about that, even though it's your story.
But anyway, I think the obnoxious blonde kid was named Eric.
(18:54):
Oh, I think you're right.
That's such an obnoxious name.
So it fits the character.
Yeah, good representation for people like me.
But I actually wrote a list not too long ago for a website that was like my 10 most memorable
(19:14):
Are You Afraid the Dark episodes.
And I that that phrase memorable was like my concession, my concession to the Internet,
the entire Internet that I'm not claiming these are the best episodes.
I'm just saying that there are elements about them that make them the most memorable, which
is, I don't know, kind of a lame thing to do, because it's like, well, if they're the
(19:37):
most memorable, then we really don't need your list to tell us they're the most memorable
because we remember them.
Maybe.
But in any case, tell the ghastly Grinner made the list.
That's one of the episodes that I feel like was kind of, you know, certainly on the goofier
side and I like it just fine.
But I do really appreciate other episodes that, you know, didn't make my list because
(20:05):
they weren't maybe flamboyant enough to be memorable per se.
I'll touch on those in just a moment.
But just like I know what else made the list was tell them.
Yeah.
Tell the night shift, which we talked about.
Yes.
Fantastic.
Fantastic.
And the last five episode.
(20:27):
That's a yeah, that is a season.
I'm pretty sure I mean, no, I don't know.
It was before the reboot with Tucker leaving the Midnight Society for sure, because I think
they had one called Tale of the Night Nurse later on, but that was a different one.
Did you just real quick, did you watch the seasons?
(20:49):
Well, first of all, Tale of the Silver Sight, I know is one, two and three of season seven.
So did they have more like regular episodes after that?
Or was that the whole series finale?
No.
So by the way, listener, the actual topic of today's episode is the Tale of the Silver
(21:10):
Sight, the three part special that headlined the seventh and final season of Are You Afraid
of the Dark?
That is actually what we are in our typical Blackmagic treehouse fashion.
We are gradually, eventually organically getting to as we mow through the rest of the terrain
of this beautiful show.
(21:31):
But yeah, based on what I remember and based on the information available on, you know,
those great valuable sources of consistent, reliable information, Wikipedia and IMDB,
Tale of the Silver Sight was a three parter, which is interesting for the fact that it
(21:53):
was aired over the span of one night.
So it was in three parts and it was aired over just one night, April 2nd, 2000.
So I would have been fourth grade at that time, I think fourth grade.
But the rest of the season, which was only like three months worth of episodes, I think
(22:15):
I saw like this came out April 2nd and then the final season's last episode aired in June.
So it was more like a mini season by most standards, but I think it had just about the
same amount of episodes as all the other seasons, if I'm not mistaken.
But yeah, it was actually like a little bit of a special event.
(22:38):
And I remember actually watching this in real time when it debuted.
This is your first time having seen it though, correct?
Yes, I gave up after like four episodes when they brought the new cast in.
Was there a gap between season five and six?
(23:01):
I feel like there was like a couple of years that they took off.
Yeah, let's take a peek see here.
I guess I could just be looking this up myself instead of just having you do it.
Well, you know, but I just thought you might know off the top of your head.
I don't actually, but let's see.
I feel like you are correct.
So season five.
(23:23):
So Tale of the Deadman's Sloth, first episode of season five.
That was October 1995.
Last episode, Tale of the Night Shift, last episode of season five, February 1996.
Season six, first episode.
1999.
So yeah, a gap of about three years there.
(23:47):
That seems crazy.
It seems like it was a shorter amount of time in retrospect.
I was wondering because I was thinking shows today, like it's kind of normal to just take
a year or two off.
Like Stranger Things drops seasons, what, like every two, three years now?
But it's just like a normal thing.
But like when you're a kid, I was like, do I just remember that gap as being longer than
(24:11):
it was because, you know, time is so much slower when you're younger.
Whereas now it's like, you know, something drops and you're like, I wonder when the last
time they dropped one of these was, oh, five years ago.
Back when my life was completely different.
So much more peaceful.
But also the same.
(24:32):
Yeah.
So anyway, I was just wondering about that.
But I stopped watching.
I gave it a shot and I couldn't really take to the new cast members.
I didn't really like most of the stories.
And I don't know if it's because they were objectively worse or if it was just that I
was, you know, three years older.
(24:54):
I think all of those statements have some basis in fact, close to objectionable fact,
just kind of glancing through the listings for for season seven.
It does for the most part seem like it's the the aesthetic was different, I think, like
(25:21):
the actual the quality of the film.
So it it just had a different feel and a different look to it.
So that was a little jarring, I think.
There are some fairly good episodes in season seven.
And I do mean fairly right after Silver Sight.
(25:41):
The episode that came after that was the tale of the stone maiden, which I feel is one that
a fair amount of folks probably remember.
That was kind of a neat episode.
And then there's the tale of the many faces, which that sticks out of my mind.
That was kind of a fairly memorable episode, kind of creepy because he had all these little
(26:03):
teen models, part of this this cult led by this woman who was stealing their youth and
their beauty.
And they like wore these blank expressionless masks.
So that was pretty good.
That was pretty solid.
But yeah, on the whole, they they just kind of lacked the magic touch.
I think D.J. McHale, the show, the creator of the show and writer and director of many
(26:28):
episodes from the previous five seasons, I think he was not so involved in the last two
seasons.
And I think that shows not to.
But he was the he was the main force behind his three parter, right?
I know he at least wrote them.
I didn't.
Yeah, he didn't direct them.
(26:50):
But he did he did write the three parts for Tale of the Silver Sight.
And what I was going to say, I'm too busy scrolling through the the season six episodes
like, oh, yeah, I'm like mentally tallying them as as I'm trying to carry on the thread
of the conversation.
I think the the thing that sticks out to me about the last two seasons is so not only
(27:17):
do they have that kind of different visual aesthetic to them, you know, that marks them
is different.
I feel like the tone of them, they seem it's kind of appropriate that you brought up the
goosebumps comparison.
I feel like the tone of them is closer to the type of thing that you would see in goosebumps
(27:37):
than most of the episodes from the previous five seasons.
The first five seasons, I feel like things were kind of more rooted in I don't want to
sound too old.
You know, I don't want to sound like too old timey about this, which I guess is a weird
thing to say.
But I felt like things were kind of rooted more in folklore and magical realism, just
(28:04):
kind of like classic horror traditions from literature and cinema.
There was also this strain of adventure, which is really apparent and tell the silver side
and a lot of the episodes that DJ Mikhail wrote and directed.
There's kind of an interesting fun fact associated with that that I had confirmed from an episode
(28:29):
of a podcast that DJ Mikhail was a guest on because it was just something that was bothering
me.
I'm like, he keeps referencing these episodes that he wrote.
But when you look up the credits, it says, oh, screenplay by or written by Chloe Brown.
And I'm like, what's the story there?
And as it so happens, it was confirmed in this podcast episode that I forget who he
(28:53):
said it was.
But some big wig, either at the network or part of the production team, some producer
told him, look, it's not a good look for you to have your name all over the show.
So if it says, created by DJ Mikhail, directed by DJ Mikhail, written by DJ Mikhail, you're
(29:14):
better off just using a pseudonym.
And that's what he did.
And I feel like in the podcast episode, he was like, in retrospect, that was dumb.
But it was just what I did at the time.
Yeah, Aaron Sorkin got away with it on West Wing.
Yeah, right.
That's interesting because Chloe Brown is a name that I always remember because so many
(29:37):
of them my favorite episodes.
Oh, Tale of the Dangerous Soup was one of hers or his, I guess.
That was one that was on my blog list.
But do you want to get back to the cliffhanger you left us with where you were saying, I
have some episodes I want to talk about that I didn't put on my most memorable list?
Well, I can't say that I'm able at present to talk about them in so much detail because
(30:01):
it's been a good while since I've seen them.
But there are a couple of the more softer episodes that are just really touching that
not too many people talk about just because they're not as exciting, they're not as flamboyant
as some of the more memorable ones.
(30:23):
And just kind of describing them in that way, I'm sure you know at least one of them that
I'm referring to.
And I think this one actually made your list.
It's the Tale of the Shiny Red Bicycle.
Oh, yes.
Yeah, you know, just really touching ones like that.
That one I really, I remember because like I said, it's been a while since I've seen
(30:43):
it.
I remember really enjoying because which is perhaps a strange way to say to typify my
feelings towards that episode because it's not a thrill a minute kind of story.
It's more introspective and I was kind of astounded by it in a way.
(31:07):
Again, this was one of the episodes that I saw as an adult.
If I saw it as a kid, you know, during its initial airing or on reruns, I don't remember
it and it probably flew over my head if I did because really it's unless you have dealt
with the passing of a loved one or a friend, that episode, if you're seeing it as a kid,
(31:35):
is probably not going to resound that much with you outside of the fact that the ghost
of his friend is talking to him.
Creepy.
And then, you know, you're on to the next thing.
You're over here back on the couch playing your gameboy, having totally forgotten it.
But seeing it as an adult, you know, once you've weathered a few funerals and things
(31:56):
like that, it is incredibly moving.
And it's doubly surprising for the fact that its main character, as in all the other episodes,
is a young person, is a teen who has lost this friend and he's having these memories
of when they were kids.
I may be marring some of the details of this episode since it's been so long, but he's
(32:19):
basically grieving and he cannot let the memory of his friend go.
And I believe the episode ends with this grieving teen's younger brother getting into an accident.
And that's kind of like the catalyst for him moving on from these, you know, these mourning
(32:41):
feelings for his departed friend because he values what's in front of him.
He values, you know, the emotional connections that he has with his younger brother, who
I think he was neglecting through the course of the episode just because he was so entrenched
in his grief.
Does that sound correct to you?
(33:02):
Yeah, I think so.
I've seen it somewhat more recently because we have Paramount+, which has a selection
of episodes of the first five seasons.
For some reason, there are some that are missing.
Yeah, like you said, it's so strange that there's no commercial release of all the
episodes because season six and seven, not on Paramount+, at all.
(33:22):
Some of those you can buy through Amazon, which groups them not by season, but into
weird volumes, which like has a handful of episodes from every season.
It's so weird.
So it's hard to cross reference like what could I watch through here and what could
I watch through Amazon that I would have to buy to fill in the gaps of what they don't
have on Paramount and are there episodes that both of them are missing?
(33:45):
So anyway, back to your question.
That is the gist of it.
But yeah, his friend comes back as it goes to warn him about going to save his brother
because there's like a bike accident and then there's like a damn opening or whatever and
his little brother is about to drown.
(34:08):
So episodes like that, I wasn't quite as emotionally taken with this other episode, but I think
DJ McHale talked about it at some length in that podcast episode and his contextualizing
of it just made me appreciate it more.
(34:28):
Episodes like the Tale of Train Magic, that is just and I think I may be piggybacking
on some of the things he said in that podcast.
I really do appreciate the, what shall we say, the kind of generous, I guess that's
(34:54):
the only way I can think to put it right now.
I appreciate the generous purview that DJ McHale was taking, especially with those first
five seasons where even though it was called Are You Afraid of the Dark and it had its
share of spooky moments, creepy episodes, he really was approaching it with more of
(35:14):
a mind to encompass the whole fantastic spectrum in kind of a similar way to Rod Serling with
The Twilight Zone where it wasn't just, you know, like werewolves and ghosts.
It was also things that kind of just touched on the supernatural or, you know, the Tale
(35:37):
of Train Magic.
It was just kind of like a wistful story that didn't necessarily have like a big bogey
monster in the center of it.
So even though, you know, that may not be like the first episode I go to when I retrieve
my Black Market DVDs, it's ones like that that make me really appreciate the show for
(36:00):
what it was and what it was trying to do.
Did you have anything, whether it was those episodes or along those lines that did the
same thing for you?
Well, gee, I guess it's my turn to scroll now.
Because I think I always mix up, oh, this doesn't just have a, hold on.
Let me go to the list of Are You Afraid of the Dark episodes.
(36:22):
There you go.
Good old Wikipedia.
Series overview.
Oh, you know what?
Here's my hot take for the episode.
The Tale of Laughing in the Dark, overrated.
That is a boring episode.
Nothing happens.
I can see that.
That actually did make my list though.
(36:46):
And it was essentially for the reason that, you know, it, and this was a time when we
weren't so inundated with the whole scary clown, killer clown, psycho clown parade.
You know, it's practically a staple of the Halloween season now.
But even so, I still appreciate it for the fact that it is a scary clown episode that
(37:14):
never really shows you the scary clown.
And that may be why people, you know, don't like it.
It's like, well, damn it.
If I'm going to watch a scary clown episode, show me the scary clown.
But I actually, I think it is unsettling because you've never seen Z-Bo in the flesh, so to
speak.
You only see his fun house stand in.
(37:34):
Well, you are incorrect.
We will agree to disagree on that one.
The Tale of the Dream Machine is another one that was on my list.
You know, the ones that I didn't like that much were the dorky ones because I'm seeing
Tale of the Dark Dragon, which is...
(37:56):
Wait, is that the one that I'm thinking it is?
Oh, never mind.
I don't even remember that one.
I wonder if that's the one that's on Paramount+.
Because I don't remember that one at all.
I was thinking of the one where they like go to a school and then they're like hatching
dragon eggs or something.
Do you remember that one?
Do you want to know what that episode is called?
(38:17):
Sure.
You want to know what it's called?
I do.
The Tale of the Hatching.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, it's called The Tale of the Hatching.
The one about the hatching.
It's called Tale of the Hatching.
Yeah, here it is.
Sure is.
Who need human children to care for their lizard alien offspring?
It's funny.
I was kind of a...
(38:38):
I mean, I still am in a lot of ways, but I feel like I'm much more open-minded these
days.
But as a kid, and we've touched on this a little bit, I was like a strict horror purist.
So anything that smacked even a little bit of science fiction-y, I was like, eww, no,
(39:00):
no, don't like it.
Take it away.
If it was anything that involved aliens or conspiracies or robots, I'm like, dumb, boring.
Come on, show me.
Show me the monster.
I want a monster from Transylvania or under the ground.
Can you give me something?
So I don't know if that was kind of along the same lines of dorky stuff that you were
(39:23):
referring to.
I thought you would maybe make mention of stuff like Tale of the Pinball Wizard or something
like that.
Oh, yeah.
Boo.
Upnakes.
I was going to say something and then I totally forgot.
Oh, about horror purity.
(39:43):
I'm the same way, but it's weird because when I'm watching a science fiction movie
that unexpectedly turns into a horror movie, I love that.
But I don't like it when, yeah, horror suddenly turns into like a weird fantasy kind of thing.
I'm like, ew, P.U.
No, thank you.
It's funny how that works.
(40:07):
But I found one that is closer to your original question, which is the Tale of Apartment 214,
which is where the, yeah, it's about the girl who makes friends with an old lady next door
and then it turns out the old lady's a ghost.
And then the old lady's getting mad because she's lonely and the girl keeps forgetting
(40:30):
to or stuff gets in her way or whatever.
And you can tell from my description, I don't concretely remember what happens, but it's
one of those ones that I think I would not have liked as a kid because I was like, oh,
it's a sad ghost, not a scary ghost.
Who cares?
Thumbs down.
But watching it as an adult when you understand becoming older and irrelevant, I think it
(40:54):
becomes more poignant to you.
Oh, and then the girl, the little girl who doesn't have or maybe they just moved so she
doesn't have a ton of friends.
And then the ghost who doesn't have friends because she's dead.
And then they find each other in this crazy thing we call life and death.
(41:15):
This crazy thing we call, are you afraid of the dark?
We'll be afraid together.
Oh, what a sweet message.
Should I have more episodes to shit talk though?
Because I probably can.
That would be fun.
Who's complaining at this point?
I will say about Apartment 214, you know, for the shall we say the kind of, as you used
(41:42):
to use your word, the poignant, realistic underpinnings that that story has, like you
said about, you know, just kind of forgetting our elders, neglecting them, forgetting their
stories, that episode has a genuinely creepy moment when you mentioned, you know, the old
(42:03):
lady getting mad at the girl for forgetting her.
That's actually a really unsettling sequence that I remember seeing as a kid.
And there was like, oh, because it's basically just an old woman, an adult yelling at this
girl.
And I think like they film it like you there's at least one sustained shot where you're kind
(42:23):
of like seeing it from the girl's perspective.
So the old woman is like getting up from her rocking chair and she's just coming at you,
you know, the camera, the viewer, and, you know, basically lambasting her for how could
you forget me?
And that's that I will say, you know, even though as a kid might not have fully understood
(42:44):
the scenario or what it was referencing, that was a genuinely like, oh, creepy moment.
And all it was was just this actress whaling her heart out.
It's like, wow, who knew I could get shook like that.
That's true.
Yeah, I did forget about that part.
That is, it's kind of like that moment in The Sixth Sense with the housewife or whatever,
(43:04):
who's like, do you remember the part where there's the woman who's like yelling at, is
his name Cole?
The kid?
She's yelling at him like, like he's her abusive husband.
And she's just like, it's kind of a similar type of shot where you're seeing it from his
perspective and she's just like, coming towards him screaming and then she's like shows him
or the wrist that she slashed like, look what you made me do because you were so horrible
(43:28):
to me.
Yeah, that is an effective setup.
I'll give you that one.
You win this round.
Let's have more adults yelling at kids.
But speaking of, let's have more adults yelling at kids in our horror medium.
Speaking of the dorky ones though, real quick, I will say one that I always liked, even though
it is a dorky one, is The Tale of the Final Wish, which is about the girl who loves fairy
(43:51):
tales and then gets sucked into the world of the Sandman and his Bobcat gold twait.
That one is-
Hi there.
Wow, I didn't know you had a Bobcat gold twait impression just ready to go, locked and loaded.
Yeah, I was waiting for my moment and it came.
He also made a horror movie.
(44:12):
Did you see Willow Creek?
I heard about it.
I heard about it.
I've not seen it now.
It's interesting.
Yeah.
Bigfoot movie, right?
It is, yeah.
It's about people going to where they shot the Patterson Gimli Bigfoot.
It's funny because they're running into all the Bigfoot weirdos, all the conspiracy theorists
(44:35):
and all the crazy people.
They're kind of rolling their eyes at that.
Then it gradually turns into... The part that I think people celebrate, it's found
footage like Blair Witch style, but there's a sequence where they're in a tent in the
middle of the night and then it's just this really long sustained shot of just something
(44:58):
hits the tent and then they hear a noise and they're just cowering inside waiting for it
to be over.
It's good.
It's worth watching.
It's only like 80 minutes or whatever.
Cat Goldthwait, unlikely horror ally.
That can't help but put me in mind of a season six episode, The Tale of Bigfoot Ridge.
(45:24):
I mentioned that only to say that in that podcast episode... Do you like how I'm talking
about another podcast episode in this podcast?
I'm basically promoting it and I'm totally forgetting which one it was, but in that interview
with DJ Mikkel, he referenced this episode where he said that there was really a drop
in quality in those last two seasons.
(45:47):
At first, he was not naming names, but he said, we had one episode where the lead actor
was just so horrible.
I don't understand how.
He even got past the screen test, but it just sank that episode and the podcast hosts were
just pressing him like, okay, come on, do tell.
(46:10):
He finally admitted it.
It was The Tale of Bigfoot Ridge starring Hayden Christians.
Do you know what's funny about that?
It's like, huh?
Another podcast.
What's funny about that?
Another podcast, which you trash, called Welcome to Deadcast also has a story where they went
to a convention and the producer, I think it was a producer of Goosebumps, was telling
(46:36):
a story about how they had this one kid who kept coming in and auditioning and they were
like, we can't hire this kid.
He's just too bad.
Then eventually they ran out of actors and they had to cast him in Goosebumps and it
was Hayden Christians.
Oh my God.
Wow.
He gets around.
What episode was he in?
(46:56):
I don't know.
He was like a snazzy photographer kid doing the whole like, oh yeah, we've played with
the camera, baby, that kind of thing.
Oh my God.
Wow.
Those two stories make me feel kind of bad for him.
Let me see.
(47:17):
I think it's not fair to judge him by Star Wars because everybody is bad in the prequels,
but he's really good in a movie called Shatter Glass where he plays a real life journalist
who got caught for making up all of his stories.
He's really good at that.
It's possible to become talented.
(47:38):
Two things.
One, it looks like Hayden Christiansen played Zane in two episodes.
Oh, well, because it was part one and part two, but they did.
I didn't realize this was a two parter, but in Goosebumps, Night of the Living Dummy 3
was a two parter.
He played Zane in those two episodes.
(48:00):
I don't remember the only moment from, oh boy, we're just like all over the map here,
but the only moment I remember watching from that episode of Goosebumps, again, indelible
memories like my mother's bedroom, catching this in the middle of the afternoon, who knows,
probably on like Fox Kids.
(48:21):
And it scared the crap out of me.
It was like I turned the channel just as this moment came.
And it's at the end of the episode where whatever the gangster dummies name, Bugsy Mugsy, whatever,
he throws Slappy out the attic window.
(48:42):
And of course, in typical 90s fashion, you see Slappy sliding down the roof, but it's
like a dwarf actor in dummy clothes, which is really unsettling, even more so than just
the dummy himself.
(49:02):
When you see him moving, the actor moving in Slappy's clothes, it's like that is 10
times more frightening than anything we saw in the two Goosebumps movies with Jack Black.
They cannot hold a candle to a dwarf actor in dummy clothes.
Oh my God.
But he's like hanging from the gutter of the house.
(49:24):
And he like screams.
This is like the dummy now.
So we see him head on.
So it's a dummy and he screams, I'm invincible.
And then he gets fucking struck by lightning and he explodes.
And that was like me just turning to the station in the middle of the afternoon.
And I'm like sitting there on the couch shell shocked, like, what the hell did I just see?
(49:47):
So that's the best episode of Goosebumps is what you're saying.
Yeah, because I skipped all the Hayden Christensen parts and I just got dwarf actor exploded
by lightning.
Yeah.
So anyway, Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Is that what we're talking about in this episode?
I'm losing it.
I could say more about Hayden Christensen if you want.
(50:08):
He's coming to...
No.
Oh, that was the second thing.
That was the second thing was that full circle yet again, you completed the circuit of my
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Hayden Christensen story with your Goosebumps Hayden Christensen story.
So I'm going to complete the circuit with your shattered glass mention.
I was told by a coworker of mine back when I was at the public library, he's like, we
(50:36):
were filming like a training video for our indoor planetarium.
So I was like the onscreen talent, you know, showing this is how you inflate it.
And he's like, he was like editing the footage and he's like, your voice reminds me of somebody
and I can't put my finger on it.
And I'm like in suspense the whole time.
And I'm sure you listener can tell where this is going because I kind of spoiled it.
(51:00):
And he comes back and eventually tells me, hey, here's a YouTube link.
This is the movie I was talking about Hayden Christensen.
And I was like instantly deflated like, oh, really?
And he's like, yeah, I mean, the way he put it, he's like, man, I could have just closed
my eyes.
And it was like, you know, Hayden Christensen was in the room with me.
(51:21):
It's like, please stop talking.
It's just depressing me.
And I watched the I watched the I watched the clip.
I didn't watch the movie proper, but I watched, you know, a couple of clips and I'm like,
I guess I can kind of see it.
You know, it's just that like that very.
It's like mellow meets monotone.
Yeah, it's like I guess that's the vibe that we both give off.
(51:43):
It's like mellow tone.
That's my that's my official brand.
Did you have a monologue in the training video about how sand gets everywhere?
No, I did not talk about how sand gets everywhere or like the integrity, you know, journalistic
integrity or anything like that.
So missed opportunity, I guess.
(52:05):
I'm sorry, Hayden, maybe you'd like to be a guest on our show.
We're you know, we're celebrating you the same way we celebrate R.L.
Stein.
Welcome to our podcast, Hayden Christensen.
Yeah.
Oh, poor guy.
I know.
Well, he's going to be I think he's fine because he got brought back for Obi Wan, I think.
(52:25):
And everybody's posted how much they love him.
And I'm like, I'm sure it's probably a terrible show because everything.
But also, he's coming to Denver Fan Expo next weekend, which I won't be at.
And if you want a photo op with him, like the normal photo op price, you know, people
from like the office will be like 50 bucks and then people who are actually who else
(52:50):
is going to be there?
You know, people who are actually like relevant now are like maybe one hundred and fifty.
And then Hayden Christensen is like two hundred and fifty dollars for a photo.
So he's making bank.
Making bank or that's just, you know, the indication that work is kind of trickling
in these days.
(53:11):
He's like, man, this reminds me of when I was a kid auditioning the hell out of Are
You Afraid of the Dark and Goosebumps?
Man, I would cheer, though, if they brought him back for the movie, like playing for the
Goosebumps movies where he's just like playing an older version of his character and he sees
Slappy or something and he's like, oh, my God, it's happening again.
(53:34):
I thought you were I thought you combusted after that lightning strike.
I want to watch that episode.
That sounds like it's that sounds like it's meant to be funny, but I'm guessing it's
probably not meant to be funny.
It was definitely I mean, watching it as a kid didn't abstract me as funny and it was
like as serious as a oh, I forgot what the saying was.
(53:58):
OK, here we go.
Cancer.
Oh, heart attack.
Serious as a heart attack.
Yeah, cancer is pretty bad.
But you know, did it make it didn't make the.
OK, yeah.
Anyway, anyway, should we talk about the tale of the silver site or do you have more general
thoughts about are you afraid of the dark pre?
(54:23):
Well, probably, but, you know, it's what been already an hour.
Yeah.
And we haven't talked about the reason we're here today.
Tell the silver site.
So let's bring it back.
Tune in next time for the thrilling conclusion on Black Magic Treehouse.
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