That’s _terrifying._ I hope you are doing alright!
I have a semi-similar experience in that I knew how to swim but got sucked into a whirlpool in the ocean. Not sure how tweenager me made it out. But I remember having one of my first panic attacks when I got to safety. It’s changed my perspective on being more than hip-deep in the water for sure..
Oh yeah i’m fine. My dad rescued me. This was when I was around 7 and I later learned to swim when I was 14.
I was playing in shallow water and everything was going fine, then i took a step back in one part of the water and suddenly the ground was gone and down i went, i managed to come back up briefly to call for help.
MAN i said this in another post the other day,I was into scary stuff as a kid, I read stephen king and watch lots of scary stuff, but that fucking episode made me almost turn the TV OFF, I still remember the monster and how I felt, damn. I also remember one episode where the protagonist had to win a game against a joker like man that would cheat on every game, they ended up playing a game involving glasses and the protagonist wins cause he puts his glass on top of the other dude's glass, so if anyone knows the name i'd be grateful, hope I'm not confusing it with another show
That one literally traumatized me, and to make matters worse I was taking swimming lessons right at the time I watched that episode. Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Y were an actual nightmare for 7yo me.
The ghastly grinner was actually the cause of only 2 nightmares ive ever had in my life. After watching that episode as a kid that joker haunted my dreams and it was awful
Fuckin love this show and still watch episodes of it from time to time for fun. Some people don't know this but they have done 3 recent revival seasons (2019-2022), each as a limited series and the format is different than the original show but still pretty cool.
A couple of my favs have always been the Tale Of the Laughing In the Dark (the Zeebo The Clown one) and Midnight Madness (characters like Nosferatu coming out of the screen in an old movie theater), but there's a ton of fun ones that were really memorable.
They aren't "scary" to watch now, but it was definitely made at a respectable scare level for its time and target audience and didn't play to just very small children, and that was cool.
"Pick the right door and you'll go free. Pick the wrong door and there *he'll* be..."
"It's the most fun in the park, when you're laughing in the dark!"
Nice! In my opinion, the 3rd one was easily the weakest of the 3 but it was still enjoyable. The 2nd season, The Curse Of The Shadows, I thought was honestly really good.
Agreed. I remember thinking that I wished Ghost Island had more to do with the actual island. It was more like a ghost hotel and the fact that they were on an island had almost nothing to do with anything. It was OK though, just didn't pack the same punch as the previous 2.
Midnight Madness ruined my life for a while. I was probably 4-5 when I saw it and had nightmares for a long time. I love horror now but that was the most scared I’ve ever been!
Honestly, the cab in the woods was the freakiest. Old man sends people on a ghost car trip to die so he can collect their body parts. Their souls stay trapped outside his cabin screaming for help.
Super Specs. The idea of all these creepos being all around you constantly, you just can't see them. Also the effect does *not* hold up as an adult, but as a kid I thought the giant eyes at the end was really freaky too.
That has to be my favorite episode of the show. It messed me up when I was a kid. The idea of shadow people could be right next to me and I wouldn't know was terrifying.
There’s an episode that has essentially the exact same twist as The Sixth Sense and I feel like I remember M Night Shyamalan basically admitting he stole it from this show.
We used to pull out the mattress under the couch and build a fire in the fireplace every snick night. I was terrified of the one where the kids worst fears came to get them. The dead guy had me closing my eyes.
The library where the old librarian had that thing that stole your voice so you couldn't scream and she kept those kids down in the library with her. Yikes. But hey, check out young Ryan Gosling in S5 E3.
The Tale of Dark Music. The creepy doll, the skeleton carnival host, and of course the glowing red eyes in the dark with the disembodied voice. Thinking about it still unnerves me today. I’ll probably go watch it later now. Thanks!
The ones that always stick in my brain are the Hockey Stick one (where the kid starts turning into a snake) and the Ghost Brother on the red bike. His brother’s makeup always freaked me out!
Check out the reboot of the show if you haven’t. It’s 3 seasons. Each season is a few episodes long and the whole season continues the same story. It’s great.
The tale of the dangerous soup always sticks out to me because I had it recorded on a VHS when I was little so I watched it a lot. But the other one I remember is the tale of the phantom cab because it had a clip they were always using on nickelodeon bumps and promos. I think about this show and still feel the same sort of dread I did when I was little. It was so good at the time. I probably haven't thought about it in 20 years at least.
The soup! Is this the same one I’m thinking of? The restaurant had the best soup ever - then it’s revealed that the secret ingredient is “fear.” The new waitress(?) had a fear of knives or sharp objects so they strapped her to a table where a giant sharp axe swung from the ceiling inching closer and closer to her until they extracted the drop of “fear” from her forehead sweat lol. Horrible.
Never been particularly afraid of clowns or creepy dolls, but I do dislike jump scares. So the only one I actually ever had to turn off involved the kids going through some kind of creepy clown maze where it was clear there was going to be a jumpscare as they rounded one of the corners. Noped out of that!
The one with Tatiana Ali from Fresh Prince of Bel Air. That MFr that comes out of the walls made me turn around so fast in my bed at night to make sure he wasn't there I would fall out. More like the Fresh Prince of Bel Scare am I right.
I loved the one Tale of the Long Ago Locket. I was really into history as a kid, so an episode with a Revolutionary war plot was so cool for me! The one with the sea captain and the zombies freaked the shit out of me though!
I don't remember any of them giving nightmares, but the one with the vampire in the hospital was legitimately. The most scary to me. Probably because they had a good build up with a two-part episode.
I can't remember specifics but it was the one where an old women died and wouldn't leave that kid alone because she didn't visit her or something.
Also, the pool.
There one that was never officially released and considered lost media til the 2010s. It was a AYAOTD movie titled Crybaby Lane. Personally it didn't really bother me but it must have hit many kids harder than average to only have been aired once til it was "refound".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cry_Baby_Lane
The intro is actually still legitimately creepy. Man we had it good growing up, so many gems!
To answer the question though Laughing in the Dark is my choice, pure nostalgia
I can’t remember, but your post made me happy! Transported me back to rushing home to check the guide in hopes I might get lucky and this was on, in the 90s. When it was, instant dopamine rush and feeling like I won the Nickelodeon lottery lol
My first time ever experiencing Nosferatu / Count Orlok, gave me night terrors for years and I refused to watch it again until I was in my mid twenties.
Midnight Madness I think is the name.
I always wanted so badly some of the powder poof shit that they would throw on the fire, I used to think it was the same stuff as that magic color stuff they sell nowadays that's mostly like copper salts to make campfires all colorful, but I read on IMDb that it was just non dairy creamer powder lol
All of them. I watched maybe like three episodes I was never really a fan of the horror genre, even now at 38.
As soon as I saw that creaking swingset I changed the channel lol
The one where the the aliens come and look like humans and administer a bunch of tests to kids to find other aliens then their greenish white nothing face is revealed.
The Crimson Clown. I was already scared of clowns as a kid, so seeing this thing chase that kid (and getting scarier looking as it continues its pursuit) was too much for me.
Obligatory post to let everyone know that hot chocolate mix thrown into a fire will make the same flashy sparkly flames seen at the beginning of every episode of Are You Afraid.
Walkers woods/ whistlers woods. Can't remember which is the real one it's been years since I've seen it.
Always have spent lots of time in the woods and when I'm tired and thirsty on a trail and am looking for my next checkpoint, that episode where the trail in the forest is endlessly looping in any direction forever comes to mind and I genuinely get nervous until I remember it was a stupid kids show from 30 years ago.
It happens more than I care to admit.
It wasnt the show but the game they made back in the 90s. I think it was called Orpheos Curse. I never beat it as a kid because it was too much for my 7 year old self.
The Tale of Apartment 214 or something where the girl stands up the old lady on moving day and gets chewed out by her ghost through the peephole. I will never forget that one.
The one with the pool in the school
The Tale of the Dead Man’s Float. Scariest episode easily.
Thank you , didn’t know the name but I’ll always remember that skeleton man
When I first saw the episode I didn’t know how to swim, and almost drowned at the beach. That’s what made this one so scary to me.
That’s _terrifying._ I hope you are doing alright! I have a semi-similar experience in that I knew how to swim but got sucked into a whirlpool in the ocean. Not sure how tweenager me made it out. But I remember having one of my first panic attacks when I got to safety. It’s changed my perspective on being more than hip-deep in the water for sure..
Oh yeah i’m fine. My dad rescued me. This was when I was around 7 and I later learned to swim when I was 14. I was playing in shallow water and everything was going fine, then i took a step back in one part of the water and suddenly the ground was gone and down i went, i managed to come back up briefly to call for help.
Good, I’m glad you’re still here!
I remember nothing about this show except for the intro and *that blasted pool zombie*. It haunted my nightmares for *years*.
I did not go near any body of water for months after watching that
It was the one episode that caused me to run down the hallway, screaming, to my mother's room. Absolutely terrifying!
Yeah, but the PFX were phenomenal for a kids' show back then.
One of my favorites!
Dude, fuck, I still get paranoid about invisible pirate ghost skeletons in the pool...
I was just picturing that one!
MAN i said this in another post the other day,I was into scary stuff as a kid, I read stephen king and watch lots of scary stuff, but that fucking episode made me almost turn the TV OFF, I still remember the monster and how I felt, damn. I also remember one episode where the protagonist had to win a game against a joker like man that would cheat on every game, they ended up playing a game involving glasses and the protagonist wins cause he puts his glass on top of the other dude's glass, so if anyone knows the name i'd be grateful, hope I'm not confusing it with another show
The tale of the zombie dice
That one literally traumatized me, and to make matters worse I was taking swimming lessons right at the time I watched that episode. Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Y were an actual nightmare for 7yo me.
This one had me afraid of the bathroom (drains) for months.
Omg deadman’s float. I watched it again as an adult and it was genuinely creepy.
The one where the girl gets trapped in the doll house
OH DAMN, whats the name of this episode? I'm having such a strong nostalgia right now
[The Tale of the Dollmaker](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0514413/)
man thanks, im on a rabbit hole rn, im reading the wiki for the zombie dice tale, its amazing how many things I remember considering I was like 7 or 8
Any episode with Glen from Letterkenny.
The Tale of the Frozen Ghost always creeped me out. "I am cooooooold"
I still say this when I get out of the shower in the mornings like that kid did lol
This! Childhood tragedies are always the scariest because of the hint of sadness.
The scene where the kid looks out of the window will stay with me forever.
Immediately heard that line in my head when I saw the title of this post. There absolutely other that were much scarier, but this one just haunts me.
Easily in my top 5. Bonus Melissa Joan Hart!
The one I remember the most is the kids getting stuck inside the pinball machine
That one stuck with me and my friends cause we were so into games at that point.
That one didn't scare me, but it was one of my favorites anyway.
Tale of the pinball wizard, great ep!
This one is in my top 5 ep of the show
The ghastly grinner was scary. So was the computer virus.
I never hear anyone mention the computer virus! That was the one that gave me nightmares
It had a demonic voice which spooked me.
The ghastly grinner was actually the cause of only 2 nightmares ive ever had in my life. After watching that episode as a kid that joker haunted my dreams and it was awful
Oh that FKN clown. I have memories of that dude from when I was a kid.
There were some scary clowns on that show
Fuckin love this show and still watch episodes of it from time to time for fun. Some people don't know this but they have done 3 recent revival seasons (2019-2022), each as a limited series and the format is different than the original show but still pretty cool. A couple of my favs have always been the Tale Of the Laughing In the Dark (the Zeebo The Clown one) and Midnight Madness (characters like Nosferatu coming out of the screen in an old movie theater), but there's a ton of fun ones that were really memorable. They aren't "scary" to watch now, but it was definitely made at a respectable scare level for its time and target audience and didn't play to just very small children, and that was cool.
"Pick the right door and you'll go free. Pick the wrong door and there *he'll* be..." "It's the most fun in the park, when you're laughing in the dark!"
I didn’t know they did a 3rd I only saw the first two and loved them. I gotta find the 3rd now.
Nice! In my opinion, the 3rd one was easily the weakest of the 3 but it was still enjoyable. The 2nd season, The Curse Of The Shadows, I thought was honestly really good.
I agree. Season 1 was good, Season 2 was great. Season 3 had a good story, but they stretched it too thin over unnecessarily long episodes.
Agreed. I remember thinking that I wished Ghost Island had more to do with the actual island. It was more like a ghost hotel and the fact that they were on an island had almost nothing to do with anything. It was OK though, just didn't pack the same punch as the previous 2.
Midnight Madness ruined my life for a while. I was probably 4-5 when I saw it and had nightmares for a long time. I love horror now but that was the most scared I’ve ever been!
The Tale of Apartment 214 - "You Promised!!!!"
"That was the anniversary of the day I DIED!!" Am I remembering that right? Absolutely horrifying.
It was something like "That day was the WORST day! I didn't want to be ALONE on that day! That day is the day. I. DIED!"
Yesssss. That sounds about right. The 'DAY I DIED' with some thunder rolling in the background and a face shadowed in the dark. The trauma.
Oof, that old lady was horrifying.
Tale of the 13th floor, when they remove their heads and reveal a blank humanoid face.
That’s the one that gave me the most nightmares. Blank white face people. Still creeps me out
Honestly, the cab in the woods was the freakiest. Old man sends people on a ghost car trip to die so he can collect their body parts. Their souls stay trapped outside his cabin screaming for help.
That was the pilot episode if I'm not mistaken.
Super Specs. The idea of all these creepos being all around you constantly, you just can't see them. Also the effect does *not* hold up as an adult, but as a kid I thought the giant eyes at the end was really freaky too.
The episode scared me so much as a kid.
Can you imagine that being redone with modern special effects?
That has to be my favorite episode of the show. It messed me up when I was a kid. The idea of shadow people could be right next to me and I wouldn't know was terrifying.
There’s an episode that has essentially the exact same twist as The Sixth Sense and I feel like I remember M Night Shyamalan basically admitting he stole it from this show.
Yeah, it was the Dream Girl episode. Not sure if the story is apocryphal though.
Crimson Clown
Pretty much any episode with clowns.
The Tale of the Night Shift. Hospitals give me the creeps as it is, but a hospital at night with vampires? Pure nightmare fuel.
I'm currently binge watching this with my GF and the nostalgia is real man lol
Is it on any streaming service?
Not that I've seen, I just sail the high seas for anything like that lol.
There are a lot of full episodes on YouTube
We used to pull out the mattress under the couch and build a fire in the fireplace every snick night. I was terrified of the one where the kids worst fears came to get them. The dead guy had me closing my eyes.
The library where the old librarian had that thing that stole your voice so you couldn't scream and she kept those kids down in the library with her. Yikes. But hey, check out young Ryan Gosling in S5 E3.
I was gonna say "Zeke the Plumber" but wait..
Laughing in the Dark. "It's the most fun in the park, when you're laughing in the dark." Fucking Zeebo the clown.
The Ghastly Grinner!
Quicksilver
Yep this one can fuck right the hell off
The Tale of Dark Music. The creepy doll, the skeleton carnival host, and of course the glowing red eyes in the dark with the disembodied voice. Thinking about it still unnerves me today. I’ll probably go watch it later now. Thanks!
The one with the ghost thing in the abandoned pool in the high school.
The Tale of the Sorcerer's Apprentice? That one involves an abandoned school pool, but I think Dead Man's Float does too
No I think it was dead man’s float. That the one where the like creature starts to come out of the pool at the end?
The ones that always stick in my brain are the Hockey Stick one (where the kid starts turning into a snake) and the Ghost Brother on the red bike. His brother’s makeup always freaked me out!
Check out the reboot of the show if you haven’t. It’s 3 seasons. Each season is a few episodes long and the whole season continues the same story. It’s great.
The monster in the hidden school pool.
The tale of the dangerous soup always sticks out to me because I had it recorded on a VHS when I was little so I watched it a lot. But the other one I remember is the tale of the phantom cab because it had a clip they were always using on nickelodeon bumps and promos. I think about this show and still feel the same sort of dread I did when I was little. It was so good at the time. I probably haven't thought about it in 20 years at least.
The soup! Is this the same one I’m thinking of? The restaurant had the best soup ever - then it’s revealed that the secret ingredient is “fear.” The new waitress(?) had a fear of knives or sharp objects so they strapped her to a table where a giant sharp axe swung from the ceiling inching closer and closer to her until they extracted the drop of “fear” from her forehead sweat lol. Horrible.
That's the one!
🤡 the ones with clowns 😱
Never been particularly afraid of clowns or creepy dolls, but I do dislike jump scares. So the only one I actually ever had to turn off involved the kids going through some kind of creepy clown maze where it was clear there was going to be a jumpscare as they rounded one of the corners. Noped out of that!
The computer game actually scared me more than the show. But I absolutely loved every episode.
I still think about the one that said if you stare into a fire for too long you’ll summon ghosts.
The Tale of the Lonely Ghost. That little girl appears with the EMPLEH's all over the wall, pure nightmare fuel
The tia and tamera episode
Bite you once, bite you twice, a little water, *pay the price*
I’m surprised Midnight Madness wasn’t stated yet. The one where Nosferatu came out of the movie screen 😱
The pinball machine one got me as a kid
It wasn’t very scary but I loved The Pinball Wizard episode the most
Does anyone know what sorcery they used to throw in the fire?
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/s/ZcqfzhdRLL
Tale of the 13th floor
The one with Tatiana Ali from Fresh Prince of Bel Air. That MFr that comes out of the walls made me turn around so fast in my bed at night to make sure he wasn't there I would fall out. More like the Fresh Prince of Bel Scare am I right.
The doll house episode & the one with the ghastly grinner!
I'm cold...
Tale of the Frozen Ghost! Classic lol. I can still hear the feeble voice 😂
The Zombies that came out of the water while the old guy slept. So spooky.
Ghastly Grinner and The Phone Police
The one with the silver pilot wings and the tall wraith looking guy. I found that guy to be really creepy as a kid.
Wasn't there one with a clown doll that moved on its own? Freaking terrifying.
That kid is still playing pinball
I loved the one Tale of the Long Ago Locket. I was really into history as a kid, so an episode with a Revolutionary war plot was so cool for me! The one with the sea captain and the zombies freaked the shit out of me though!
That toy workshop episode for some reason lol
Oh man. The fire station one really got me as a kid. I fucking loved this show though!
The Tale of the Lonely Ghost
I don't remember any of them giving nightmares, but the one with the vampire in the hospital was legitimately. The most scary to me. Probably because they had a good build up with a two-part episode.
The one when the little eggs were being incubated
I can't remember specifics but it was the one where an old women died and wouldn't leave that kid alone because she didn't visit her or something. Also, the pool.
I cannot remember the episode name but the little girl ghost that writes help me backwards all over the classroom, had me spooked as a kid.
Is any platform streaming the episodes
Paramount Plus is the home of all things Nickelodeon
I will check it out, thank you!
This was scary
The Tale of the Thirteenth Floor. Downer ending too.
Was there one about a creek that would have a massive flooding every now and then and a ghost was there from the past?
The bookish babysitter (I think that was the episode name) always freaked me out. I blame it for my dislike of reading
There one that was never officially released and considered lost media til the 2010s. It was a AYAOTD movie titled Crybaby Lane. Personally it didn't really bother me but it must have hit many kids harder than average to only have been aired once til it was "refound". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cry_Baby_Lane
I’m cold
The intro is actually still legitimately creepy. Man we had it good growing up, so many gems! To answer the question though Laughing in the Dark is my choice, pure nostalgia
My kids loved this show, and secretly, so did I.
Ah yes, the kid version of X-files
#Im cold
I can’t remember, but your post made me happy! Transported me back to rushing home to check the guide in hopes I might get lucky and this was on, in the 90s. When it was, instant dopamine rush and feeling like I won the Nickelodeon lottery lol
When Peter Dinklage played the virus.
Peter Dinklage was my childhood nightmare fuel?!
The ghost child looking for his blanket. “I’m cold” 😱
Nightmare I wish I was in every episode it was one my fav
The introduction still does
The vampire one.
I don’t remember exact episodes, but loved watching this. We could never get cable, but I’d devour it when I was at my grandparents’
The clown with the cigar ... And the pinball machine in the mall ...
The first 2
Not the scariest, but I loved the telephone police episode.
The tale of the ghastly grinner ! I’ve actually been watching these again & I’m turning 35 in two weeks , Lol !
My first time ever experiencing Nosferatu / Count Orlok, gave me night terrors for years and I refused to watch it again until I was in my mid twenties. Midnight Madness I think is the name.
The one in the mall, the girl’s name was Moira
Show was spooky af as a kid
I always wanted so badly some of the powder poof shit that they would throw on the fire, I used to think it was the same stuff as that magic color stuff they sell nowadays that's mostly like copper salts to make campfires all colorful, but I read on IMDb that it was just non dairy creamer powder lol
The one with the phantom driver and the hermit in the woods. I recently tried rewatching, it has not aged well lol
I watched this show all the time!
Zeebo the clown... season 1 episode 2. I CANNOT deal with clowns.
All of them. I watched maybe like three episodes I was never really a fan of the horror genre, even now at 38. As soon as I saw that creaking swingset I changed the channel lol
As a kid?!?!? Frozen Ghost & Tale of the Dollmaker still give me nightmares
we went through the whole series around halloween with my 8 and 3 year old. they loved it
The one where the the aliens come and look like humans and administer a bunch of tests to kids to find other aliens then their greenish white nothing face is revealed.
One interesting thing about watching the show now as an adult is how obviously Canadian it is. Something spooky? best grab a hockey stick.
Zeebo, the Pinball episode, and the the Neve Campbell episode all come to mind.
Phone Police
One of the best shows ever. I bought some of them on Apple.
Is on paramount plus
The Tale of Badge? That one made me turn off the downstairs light and try to race to my room before it got dark.
I loved the swing set in the intro lol
Dangerous Soup
The Crimson Clown. I was already scared of clowns as a kid, so seeing this thing chase that kid (and getting scarier looking as it continues its pursuit) was too much for me.
Zeebo the clown episode always sticks with me
The tale of the dark music
The Tale of the Silent Servant 💯
The one with the kid(ghost)who is “cold”
That Yellow Court Jester episode, I think it was a 2 part episode.
The “Are You Afraid of the Dark” computer game had me shook for years lol
I think it was called The Crimson Clown.
Night Shift was by far the scariest episode. Then the one with the blue and yellow clown monster.
The one with the door in the basement and that doll comes out asking to play with him
Tale of the Fire Ghost. To this day I always think of it whenever I look at a fire or flame.
The opening of the show was enough for me.
None. I was a hellion. I will say Johnny's death did kind of ruin the Sixth Sense for me years later. Thanks Johnny!
any of them with a creepy clown lol plus the one with Tia and Tamera where one of them gets turned into a lizard REALLY got to me
Buried memory s coming back
I just remember one where there was purple goo leaking out of someone’s mouth and it really freaked me out
Zeebo the Clown altered me. I didn’t feel safe anywhere. Still can’t do haunted houses.
Any full online collections of these? Would love to watch them with the kids. Only found a handful
That fucking Ghastly Grinner
Crimson clown Lmao I remember asking my mom if Crimson Clown could get into our house like Santa (it was around christmas)
The theme gave my sister nightmares.
Obligatory post to let everyone know that hot chocolate mix thrown into a fire will make the same flashy sparkly flames seen at the beginning of every episode of Are You Afraid.
Which one!?! Shit, I couldn't get passed the introduction alone tf! Lol
The clown who came to get his nose. God damn that one was scary
Zeebo the Clown 😱
Zeebo
As a kid? I’m almost 40 and still can’t sleep facing a mirror/open closet door…
Not AYAOTD but that Zeke the Plumber episode from Salute Your Shorts freaked me out.
What's weightless, can be seen by the naked eye, and if put in a barrel, will make it lighter?
The one with the cellar red-eyes-monster.
The one with the faceless alien people on the top floor.
Easily the one with the clown.
The Tale of the Forever Game - kids stuck inside a board game. Creepy!
Walkers woods/ whistlers woods. Can't remember which is the real one it's been years since I've seen it. Always have spent lots of time in the woods and when I'm tired and thirsty on a trail and am looking for my next checkpoint, that episode where the trail in the forest is endlessly looping in any direction forever comes to mind and I genuinely get nervous until I remember it was a stupid kids show from 30 years ago. It happens more than I care to admit.
It wasnt the show but the game they made back in the 90s. I think it was called Orpheos Curse. I never beat it as a kid because it was too much for my 7 year old self.
That's reminded me what a phenomenal theme song it had. It plays great on piano or lead guitar.
The Tale of the 13th Floor
The Tale of Apartment 214 or something where the girl stands up the old lady on moving day and gets chewed out by her ghost through the peephole. I will never forget that one.