list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around Eerie, Indiana [TV Series] on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/Eerie_Indiana_TV_Series/169838/default.aspx Title: Eerie, Indiana [TV Series]
Year: 1991
Number of Lists: 3
Number of blog posts: 2
Number of discussion threads: 2
SpoutRating: 4
]]>Sat, 31 Jan 2009 22:13:35 GMTEerie, Indiana [TV Series]19913224http://www.spout.com/images/no_image.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/Eerie_Indiana_TV_Series/169838/default.aspxFilm http://www.spout.com/groups/sci_fi/Re_Kurt_Vonnegut/4/35629/1/ShowPost.aspxPost By: TheWorkingDead
Post To: sci-fi
Post Date: 9/27/2008 1:21:00 AM
Body: [quote user="Risselada"] [/quote] I'm not sure if I've read any really good examples. Any suggestions? [/quote] Haruki Murakami delves a bit into that, although probably not as much as you'd want. I would recommend him, though. If you enjoyed Vonnegut at all I think you'll enjoy Murakami. Kafka on the Shore is a good one. Have you read any Bret Easton Ellis? His newest novel, Lunar Park, is his only official horror tale, where he's being haunted by his past creations, most prominently Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. Uhm.... Grant Morrisson, in the run of comics he did for Animal Man, had the character slowly become aware of his position as a comic book character. At the end of the series he actually tracks down where Morrisson lives and confronts him. And a fun, silly one; in one of the final episodes of Eerie, Indiana(the original series in the early 90s), the friend/enemy of the main character finds a script for an episode of Eerie Indiana, and attempts to write the main character off the show. There are more, I know, and probably a lot better ones, but those are the ones I know, and can think of right now.
]]>Sat, 27 Sep 2008 05:21:00 GMTTheWorkingDeadsci-fi9/27/2008 1:21:00 AM[quote user="Risselada"] [/quote] I'm not sure if I've read any really good examples. Any suggestions? [/quote] Haruki Murakami delves a bit into that, although probably not as much as you'd want. I would recommend him, though. If you enjoyed Vonnegut at all I think you'll enjoy Murakami. Kafka on the Shore is a good one. Have you read any Bret Easton Ellis? His newest novel, Lunar Park, is his only official horror tale, where he's being haunted by his past creations, most prominently Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. Uhm.... Grant Morrisson, in the run of comics he did for Animal Man, had the character slowly become aware of his position as a comic book character. At the end of the series he actually tracks down where Morrisson lives and confronts him. And a fun, silly one; in one of the final episodes of Eerie, Indiana(the original series in the early 90s), the friend/enemy of the main character finds a script for an episode of Eerie Indiana, and attempts to write the main character off the show. There are more, I know, and probably a lot better ones, but those are the ones I know, and can think of right now. http://www.spout.com/blogs/rik_tod/archive/2008/9/8/34920.aspxPost By: rik_tod
Post To: The Cinema 4 Pylon: SpOutpost
Post Date: 9/8/2008 11:46:57 PM
Body: Director: George SiougasGreece, 24 minutes, colorCinema 4 Rating: 7I have spent a shocking number of minutes the last few days recounting the trials of living with a handful of my roommates from past days. These roommates are, for the most part and as far as I can surmise, still friends, and thus, I shall not detail in such a public place the names and antics of said possible "still-friends." I will save those tales for a time when said stories directly tie in with whatever subject about which I am writing, or if I am just really good and pissed off at them.By "recounting," I mean that I was engaged in a series of conversations with random current friends of mine, wherein certain items were brought up by them, which then reminded me of an anecdote involving this old story or that past occurrence, and all of them, for some odd reason, involved things that happened when mired (ooh, perhaps too strong a word considering I have been so careful up to this point) in cohabitation with those mostly "still-friends." This was not purposeful, though it could possibly point to some form of repressed... something... bubbling ever so slightly below the surface of which I was not aware until I watched The Fridge tonight.The next film in my epic meandering through the Shorts! Volume 3 DVD set, The Fridge is a Greek film short whereupon one's enjoyment of it entirely depends on how you like your horror-comedies served to you. If you like them sick, gory and cruel, then please depart the premises. The Fridge might lead you down the path towards thinking it will turn sharply at any moment in that direction. But, buyer of this appliance of simmering evil, much like in the movie, beware! This film is top-loaded with an almost mid-period Spielbergian or early, early Burtonian whimsy, like it wandered out of a Greek version of Amazing Stories or Eerie, Indiana. (Mind you, this is not necessarily a recommendation in and of itself.) In fact, the film's 24-minute running length would actually suit its use on such a show, and if I found out it had been used thusly, it wouldn't surprise me one bit.At its center, not counting the demonic refrigerator with the clawed-arm handle and the eerie orange-glowing light in the taloned grip sitting atop it, is one of those Puck-style (and by this I refer to The Real World, not Shakespeare) spiky-blond roommates that gets on everyone's nerves just by breathing too loud in the adjacent room. Upon reflection, to those former roommates of mine who may or may not be "still-friends," I might have portrayed this style of roommate. The problem in being on either end of these miseries of coexistence is that one never really considers that when you blow up at something they did, on their side of things, one of their pet peeves concerning you might be that you blow up at everything they do. And vice-versa versa-vice ad nauseum stick a cork in it fuck you i'm gonna kick your ass try it asshole crash boom smash whew hey let's go get a beer what the hell was that all about i don't know. Then everything is fine until the next time someone's leftovers go missing.Such behavior lies at the heart of this quite unsubtle and very silly exercise in over-the-top fantasy filmmaking. For unknown reasons, a shabbily dressed man frantically wheels a magnet-covered refrigerator to a spot at the end of a very open alleyway. The man then runs away in fear, desperately looking over his shoulder. The horns blare on the soundtrack in the manner to which he have become accustomed when something in the realm of great danger looms ahead for us in the film. We then meet that spiky-blond slacker, George, who eats out of the tiny fridge in his shared flat like a coyote who has discovered a carcass on a freeway, with one eye constantly over his shoulder, ready to bolt at the slightest sign of any of his three roommates. With the fridge being so small, despite George's attempts to remove any and all edibles from it posthaste, the roommates are fed up with it, and they decide that George is the one to take their pooled cash (he doesn't want to throw in) and get a bigger, better model.Of course, given the opening, George will be the one to discover the fridge in the alley, which may or may not be possessed or actually be some form of demonic creature, keep the cash for himself, and pass the thing off as a new purchase. I am unsure of the prevalence of refrigerators in either Greece or in Europe in general for having handles in the shape of the devil's forearm, or of having that orange-glowing ball thing in a demon's grip looming like the Eye of Sauron atop it, but the roommates don't seem to notice anything odd. All is peachy as far as they concerned... until things start to happen.And all of them happen to George. Food goes missing, and he gets the blame; he can't open the door, but then the roommates can easily, and then when he tries again, he can't; he hears a noise behind the machine, tries to fix it, the machine shuts down, everything melts, and he gets the blame and towel with which to clean it up. If you smell the words "battle of the wills" floating around the corner like a five-day old, room temperature club sandwich, then you would win the last Red Bull in the fridge. (Frankly, you can have the goddamn stuff...)The Fridge is not all that original an entertainment -- as much in the way of genre fare goes, there are basic tropes which cry out to be followed, even by those who would subvert genre -- but entertain it squarely does. Somehow, it even manages to make a thieving schlub like George seem completely sympathetic. It helps that you will hate his roommates as much they seem to have grown weary of him. Some of my old roommates are my dearest, closest friends to this day -- though not all of them are -- but if there was one theme that ran throughout these failed attempts at space-sharing, it was the food issue. The refrigerator unit almost always seemed to be at the center of most of these arguments, and so it is very shrewd of the filmmakers to fixate on this common anger point and run it crashingly through the apartment.And yes, a couple of those food-involved moments were brought up when I sought to make small talk by dishing deeply on the antics of roommates past. They aren't really sore spots at all, but just very funny in the telling, which is why I was sharing loopy tales of my "still-friends" with my current friends. But it does make me wonder if there was some other force at work in those apartment and condo kitchens of yore that caused all the distress. Not just a monstrous fridge which disappears food and has sloppy manners, but perhaps also a derelict dishwasher which destroyed a series of my favorite mugs and painted all of my white plastic bowls the nauseating color of Spaghetti-O sauce, or a phantom garbage disposal which spewed noxious filth all over the counter that remained there for several days while I was off on vacation. Surely these fiends must truly be to blame for my woes.See how I am? Anything to make amends. Even after all these years, you gotta stick by your roomies...
]]>Tue, 09 Sep 2008 03:46:57 GMTrik_todThe Cinema 4 Pylon: SpOutpost9/8/2008 11:46:57 PMDirector: George SiougasGreece, 24 minutes, colorCinema 4 Rating: 7I have spent a shocking number of minutes the last few days recounting the trials of living with a handful of my roommates from past days. These roommates are, for the most part and as far as I can surmise, still friends, and thus, I shall not detail in such a public place the names and antics of said possible "still-friends." I will save those tales for a time when said stories directly tie in with whatever subject about which I am writing, or if I am just really good and pissed off at them.By "recounting," I mean that I was engaged in a series of conversations with random current friends of mine, wherein certain items were brought up by them, which then reminded me of an anecdote involving this old story or that past occurrence, and all of them, for some odd reason, involved things that happened when mired (ooh, perhaps too strong a word considering I have been so careful up to this point) in cohabitation with those mostly "still-friends." This was not purposeful, though it could possibly point to some form of repressed... something... bubbling ever so slightly below the surface of which I was not aware until I watched The Fridge tonight.The next film in my epic meandering through the Shorts! Volume 3 DVD set, The Fridge is a Greek film short whereupon one's enjoyment of it entirely depends on how you like your horror-comedies served to you. If you like them sick, gory and cruel, then please depart the premises. The Fridge might lead you down the path towards thinking it will turn sharply at any moment in that direction. But, buyer of this appliance of simmering evil, much like in the movie, beware! This film is top-loaded with an almost mid-period Spielbergian or early, early Burtonian whimsy, like it wandered out of a Greek version of Amazing Stories or Eerie, Indiana. (Mind you, this is not necessarily a recommendation in and of itself.) In fact, the film's 24-minute running length would actually suit its use on such a show, and if I found out it had been used thusly, it wouldn't surprise me one bit.At its center, not counting the demonic refrigerator with the clawed-arm handle and the eerie orange-glowing light in the taloned grip sitting atop it, is one of those Puck-style (and by this I refer to The Real World, not Shakespeare) spiky-blond roommates that gets on everyone's nerves just by breathing too loud in the adjacent room. Upon reflection, to those former roommates of mine who may or may not be "still-friends," I might have portrayed this style of roommate. The problem in being on either end of these miseries of coexistence is that one never really considers that when you blow up at something they did, on their side of things, one of their pet peeves concerning you might be that you blow up at everything they do. And vice-versa versa-vice ad nauseum stick a cork in it fuck you i'm gonna kick your ass try it asshole crash boom smash whew hey let's go get a beer what the hell was that all about i don't know. Then everything is fine until the next time someone's leftovers go missing.Such behavior lies at the heart of this quite unsubtle and very silly exercise in over-the-top fantasy filmmaking. For unknown reasons, a shabbily dressed man frantically wheels a magnet-covered refrigerator to a spot at the end of a very open alleyway. The man then runs away in fear, desperately looking over his shoulder. The horns blare on the soundtrack in the manner to which he have become accustomed when something in the realm of great danger looms ahead for us in the film. We then meet that spiky-blond slacker, George, who eats out of the tiny fridge in his shared flat like a coyote who has discovered a carcass on a freeway, with one eye constantly over his shoulder, ready to bolt at the slightest sign of any of his three roommates. With the fridge being so small, despite George's attempts to remove any and all edibles from it posthaste, the roommates are fed up with it, and they decide that George is the one to take their pooled cash (he doesn't want to throw in) and get a bigger, better model.Of course, given the opening, George will be the one to discover the fridge in the alley, which may or may not be possessed or actually be some form of demonic creature, keep the cash for himself, and pass the thing off as a new purchase. I am unsure of the prevalence of refrigerators in either Greece or in Europe in general for having handles in the shape of the devil's forearm, or of having that orange-glowing ball thing in a demon's grip looming like the Eye of Sauron atop it, but the roommates don't seem to notice anything odd. All is peachy as far as they concerned... until things start to happen.And all of them happen to George. Food goes missing, and he gets the blame; he can't open the door, but then the roommates can easily, and then when he tries again, he can't; he hears a noise behind the machine, tries to fix it, the machine shuts down, everything melts, and he gets the blame and towel with which to clean it up. If you smell the words "battle of the wills" floating around the corner like a five-day old, room temperature club sandwich, then you would win the last Red Bull in the fridge. (Frankly, you can have the goddamn stuff...)The Fridge is not all that original an entertainment -- as much in the way of genre fare goes, there are basic tropes which cry out to be followed, even by those who would subvert genre -- but entertain it squarely does. Somehow, it even manages to make a thieving schlub like George seem completely sympathetic. It helps that you will hate his roommates as much they seem to have grown weary of him. Some of my old roommates are my dearest, closest friends to this day -- though not all of them are -- but if there was one theme that ran throughout these failed attempts at space-sharing, it was the food issue. The refrigerator unit almost always seemed to be at the center of most of these arguments, and so it is very shrewd of the filmmakers to fixate on this common anger point and run it crashingly through the apartment.And yes, a couple of those food-involved moments were brought up when I sought to make small talk by dishing deeply on the antics of roommates past. They aren't really sore spots at all, but just very funny in the telling, which is why I was sharing loopy tales of my "still-friends" with my current friends. But it does make me wonder if there was some other force at work in those apartment and condo kitchens of yore that caused all the distress. Not just a monstrous fridge which disappears food and has sloppy manners, but perhaps also a derelict dishwasher which destroyed a series of my favorite mugs and painted all of my white plastic bowls the nauseating color of Spaghetti-O sauce, or a phantom garbage disposal which spewed noxious filth all over the counter that remained there for several days while I was off on vacation. Surely these fiends must truly be to blame for my woes.See how I am? Anything to make amends. Even after all these years, you gotta stick by your roomies... http://www.spout.com/groups/I_Love_Childrens_Movies/Re_Creepy_and_Weird/372/20135/1/ShowPost.aspxPost By: indieabby88
Post To: I Love Childrens Movies
Post Date: 9/25/2007 12:48:52 PM
Body: I think "Monster House" is kind of a rarity in today's kids movies. It was really a good throwback to the days when filmmakers didn't treat kids as people far too impressionable to be presented with darker situations or images. I mean, we watched movies like that all the time when we were kids, and look how we turned out!...on second thought, hmm. Anyway, your "Coraline" reference is a great example of the fact that kids tend to gloss over some of the weirder stuff in movies or books if the story is engaging enough.Anyway, here a few of the ones that come to mind for me:"The Dark Crystal": I never really liked this one as much as the other Jim Henson movies, but not because it was creepy. I just didn't care much for those deer-people. Anyway, do you remember Chamberlain? Super-duper creepy.I actually was not a fan of "The Goonies" when I first saw it, because it scared the bejeezus out of me. After a couple of years, though, I thought it was pretty awesome."Bill and Ted's Bogus Adventure": I realize, this isn't exactly a kid's film, but when I was between 9 and 11, Bill and Ted were what all cool kids watched. Anyway, I think the concept of death is kind of an iffy subject when it comes to kids, especially the personification of death.I can come up with more later, but I'm a bit strapped for time.
]]>Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:48:52 GMTindieabby88I Love Childrens Movies9/25/2007 12:48:52 PMI think "Monster House" is kind of a rarity in today's kids movies. It was really a good throwback to the days when filmmakers didn't treat kids as people far too impressionable to be presented with darker situations or images. I mean, we watched movies like that all the time when we were kids, and look how we turned out!...on second thought, hmm. Anyway, your "Coraline" reference is a great example of the fact that kids tend to gloss over some of the weirder stuff in movies or books if the story is engaging enough.Anyway, here a few of the ones that come to mind for me:"The Dark Crystal": I never really liked this one as much as the other Jim Henson movies, but not because it was creepy. I just didn't care much for those deer-people. Anyway, do you remember Chamberlain? Super-duper creepy.I actually was not a fan of "The Goonies" when I first saw it, because it scared the bejeezus out of me. After a couple of years, though, I thought it was pretty awesome."Bill and Ted's Bogus Adventure": I realize, this isn't exactly a kid's film, but when I was between 9 and 11, Bill and Ted were what all cool kids watched. Anyway, I think the concept of death is kind of an iffy subject when it comes to kids, especially the personification of death.I can come up with more later, but I'm a bit strapped for time. http://www.spout.com/blogs/theworkingdead/archive/2007/7/25/16048.aspxPost By: TheWorkingDead
Post To: TheWorkingDead Blog
Post Date: 7/25/2007 10:11:00 AM
Body: One of the most well-remembered shows from my youth is Eerie, Indiana. The show ran from 1991-1992 as I was entering my teens, and it fed my appetite for the bizarre and supernatural at a time where I was still a bit too squeamish for most horror films. It's available on DVD now in a complete collection, sadly missing is any form of extras, but for a show this cool having it on DVD is worth it alone. Joe Dante was a creative consultant, and frequent episode director, on the show, which featured other fine directors such as Bob Balaban(Parents) and Tim Hunter(The Rivers Edge). If the talent lineup is any indication to you, this family show was mature in a way that may surprise a lot of modern audiences. It was creepy-fun in a way that most Joe Dante projects are, but it was still surprising to me as to how dark some of these episodes became.The show was a lot like a kids version of the X-Files(but before there was an X-Files). The two heroes, Marshal and Simon, are the only people in the town of Eerie Indiana who realize that it's the center of weirdness for the whole world, and each episode showcases another adventure they have in trying to gather evidence to show the world. Most often they don't try to prove anything to anyone, and instead merely catalog the evidence in their cluttered attic. The difference between this and other shows of the supernatural is that the show often doesn't try to explain the weirdness, or sometimes even resolve it. Often it just shows that the world is a strange place, and it's always going to be that way. It's a great message for kids that today would have to be wildly toned down from it's original dark roots.One episode in particular has Marshal(our hero) vying with his best friend for the affections of the new girl in school, who also happens to have a heart condition and moved to Eerie so she could hopefully get a transplant(Eerie, Indiana is the best place to be if you need an organ quick). In the midst of the two friends showing off for the girl, Marshal's friend is hit by a car and dies, his heart ending up inside the new girl. To further complicate matters, every time Marshal goes to kiss his new love, she has what can only be described as a mild heart attack. To cap it off, there's an ending shot that may either be a throwaway joke or an implication that the girl dies in the end. That's probably off-putting to a lot of adults who never watched the show, but it really isn't that bad. We have a tendency to look back on these stories of our youth and become shocked at how upsetting they are, but we all forget what it was like as a kid. Terry Gilliam has a great quote, which I'm going to boil down to it's essence here, that 'kids are the smartest audience'. Basically what we see as dark and scary kids see as a great adventure. We really underestimate what kids can process, and as a result end up homogenizing their entertainment. And that's a shame, because as a parent I'd really like for my daughter to have something like this, and it just doesn't exist anymore. Sure, she can watch my DVDs, but really, each generation should have it's own things, nostalgia isn't THAT healthy, especially when passed down the line.Other episodes were often less dark, but never less weird, ranging from families keeping their children in large Tupperware containers so they never age, dogs plotting to overthrow their human captors, a vast underground storage area for every lost item in the US, and a sentient tornado that benevolently visits the town every year, avoiding doing any damage as long as the townspeople throw a festival. The highlight, and most surprising thing about the show, was a 4th wall shattering episode towards the end of the series that is more clever and unique than most episodic television, kids show or not. For this episode alone, which I will not spoil here, it's worth the price of the box set.As far as complaints go, my only one is that the series ended too soon. That's a common complaint when something you like isn't around anymore, but in this case it's doubly true. The show was cancelled quickly into it's second season, leaving the back story of Dash X, the white-haired, amnesiac, sometime-friend sometime-nemesis of our heroes woefully incomplete. It's obvious the producers had an overarching story in mind, but with only 5 episodes the only hint we get is that it may involve an elderly alien who was stranded on earth for over a century. Other than that, though, the show was just as good as I remembered it.I don't think it's just nostalgia tinting my vision. I think the show really is that good. Or at least that interesting, and definitely something that wouldn't be on the air today, at least not in this fashion. Just look at the late 90s remake for the Fox Kids block, which was watered down past the point of blandness. It really is a shame, because the world needs something like this today, fun and creepy and imagination-inspiring. Check it out!http://workingdeadproductions.blogspot.com
]]>Wed, 25 Jul 2007 14:11:00 GMTTheWorkingDeadTheWorkingDead Blog7/25/2007 10:11:00 AMOne of the most well-remembered shows from my youth is Eerie, Indiana. The show ran from 1991-1992 as I was entering my teens, and it fed my appetite for the bizarre and supernatural at a time where I was still a bit too squeamish for most horror films. It's available on DVD now in a complete collection, sadly missing is any form of extras, but for a show this cool having it on DVD is worth it alone. Joe Dante was a creative consultant, and frequent episode director, on the show, which featured other fine directors such as Bob Balaban(Parents) and Tim Hunter(The Rivers Edge). If the talent lineup is any indication to you, this family show was mature in a way that may surprise a lot of modern audiences. It was creepy-fun in a way that most Joe Dante projects are, but it was still surprising to me as to how dark some of these episodes became.The show was a lot like a kids version of the X-Files(but before there was an X-Files). The two heroes, Marshal and Simon, are the only people in the town of Eerie Indiana who realize that it's the center of weirdness for the whole world, and each episode showcases another adventure they have in trying to gather evidence to show the world. Most often they don't try to prove anything to anyone, and instead merely catalog the evidence in their cluttered attic. The difference between this and other shows of the supernatural is that the show often doesn't try to explain the weirdness, or sometimes even resolve it. Often it just shows that the world is a strange place, and it's always going to be that way. It's a great message for kids that today would have to be wildly toned down from it's original dark roots.One episode in particular has Marshal(our hero) vying with his best friend for the affections of the new girl in school, who also happens to have a heart condition and moved to Eerie so she could hopefully get a transplant(Eerie, Indiana is the best place to be if you need an organ quick). In the midst of the two friends showing off for the girl, Marshal's friend is hit by a car and dies, his heart ending up inside the new girl. To further complicate matters, every time Marshal goes to kiss his new love, she has what can only be described as a mild heart attack. To cap it off, there's an ending shot that may either be a throwaway joke or an implication that the girl dies in the end. That's probably off-putting to a lot of adults who never watched the show, but it really isn't that bad. We have a tendency to look back on these stories of our youth and become shocked at how upsetting they are, but we all forget what it was like as a kid. Terry Gilliam has a great quote, which I'm going to boil down to it's essence here, that 'kids are the smartest audience'. Basically what we see as dark and scary kids see as a great adventure. We really underestimate what kids can process, and as a result end up homogenizing their entertainment. And that's a shame, because as a parent I'd really like for my daughter to have something like this, and it just doesn't exist anymore. Sure, she can watch my DVDs, but really, each generation should have it's own things, nostalgia isn't THAT healthy, especially when passed down the line.Other episodes were often less dark, but never less weird, ranging from families keeping their children in large Tupperware containers so they never age, dogs plotting to overthrow their human captors, a vast underground storage area for every lost item in the US, and a sentient tornado that benevolently visits the town every year, avoiding doing any damage as long as the townspeople throw a festival. The highlight, and most surprising thing about the show, was a 4th wall shattering episode towards the end of the series that is more clever and unique than most episodic television, kids show or not. For this episode alone, which I will not spoil here, it's worth the price of the box set.As far as complaints go, my only one is that the series ended too soon. That's a common complaint when something you like isn't around anymore, but in this case it's doubly true. The show was cancelled quickly into it's second season, leaving the back story of Dash X, the white-haired, amnesiac, sometime-friend sometime-nemesis of our heroes woefully incomplete. It's obvious the producers had an overarching story in mind, but with only 5 episodes the only hint we get is that it may involve an elderly alien who was stranded on earth for over a century. Other than that, though, the show was just as good as I remembered it.I don't think it's just nostalgia tinting my vision. I think the show really is that good. Or at least that interesting, and definitely something that wouldn't be on the air today, at least not in this fashion. Just look at the late 90s remake for the Fox Kids block, which was watered down past the point of blandness. It really is a shame, because the world needs something like this today, fun and creepy and imagination-inspiring. Check it out!http://workingdeadproductions.blogspot.com