35 Years Ago, Nickelodeon Launched A Horror Series That Scared A Generation Of Kids

If you grew up in the 1990s, you belong to a generation of kids who were scared senseless by one of Nickelodeon's best ever shows. We're talking about the classic series "Are You Afraid of the Dark?," which hit TV screens in the early '90s with the goal of providing a spooky thrill ride for youngsters looking to dip a toe into the horror genre.

"Are You Afraid of the Dark?" was a horror anthology series, with each episode containing one scary story as the central plot. The framework for each episode was that the stories were being told by different children — all part of a dedicated group of young storytellers called the Midnight Society — around an evening campfire.

When the pilot premiered in October 1991, youngsters found themselves hooked because of an element they'd never seen before: horror produced for and starring kids like them. Plus, the kids on the show weren't just a vehicle for the gimmick – they were fleshed out characters, given both vivid personalities and values that played into the stories they would tell.

"Are You Afraid of the Dark?" co-creator and writer-director D.J. MacHale has been credited with influencing a wave of feminist horror fans thanks to the way he portrayed girls in the show. During a 2019 interview with Syfy, he said that he set out to create an inclusive series that empowered young viewers. "I wrote about strong characters and many of them happened to be girls," he said. "I write about kids who find themselves in challenging situations, and ultimately solve the problems themselves ... no matter their sex, race, or age."

The show became a big hit for Nickelodeon when the first full season dropped in 1992 — the pilot episode, "The Tale of the Twisted Claw," aired as the fourth episode of Season 1. "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" quickly became known for being a genuinely scary outlet for kids that never pulled punches just because its audience consisted of children. Yes, it may have created some childhood TV trauma, but that was part of the appeal. "The writers knew we watched because we wanted to be scared, and the show almost always delivered," said AV Club's Michelle Welch.

A revival ran for two seasons between 1999 and 2000, and the series was rebooted in 2019 for three short seasons through 2022, but neither had the same staying power as the original show. According to Daniel DeSanto, who played Tucker, that's partly down to the fact that TV writers were more willing to push the boundaries of kids shows back then. "There's no way we could get away with that show, I think, today," he told People. "So thank God it was then and it was ahead of its time."