I still love this series dearly, it's such a retro 90's dream to me. Like most fans I first ever saw it when I was a kid at school, and being a big fan of horror movies and stories and stuff like that I was immediately hooked and it made a big impression on me and really captured my young imagination. It was so cool and fun seeing a group of kids around a campfire in the dark sharing scary stories. My favourite group was from the first season, there's something especially special about those earliest episodes to me. There isn't any throughout the series that quite manage to shake that 'safe' feeling that children's programming provides, but there's certainly a brilliant variety to them. There's occasionally some real imagination behind the goofy veneer, and some of the directors were able to be very creative with what they were given and managed to make their episodes stand out. They go from genuinely creepy tales like "Dark Music", "Laughing in the Dark" and "The Dollmaker", to more poignant and moving yarns like "Apartment 214" "Shiny Red Bicycle" and "Dream Girl". There were also the odd seriously whacked-out episodes like "The Tale of the Ghastly Grinner." But man, when they were bad they weren't kidding, and there's a fair amount of lame episodes where the cheesiness positively oozes from every frame and the acting is so gloriously bad that it's liable to leave you feeling a bit light-headed! We were all children when we loved it the most, but there's still loads of fun to be had from the show to this day. Maybe to some not in the most flattering light, but I think it holds up just fine, it's the greatest children's anthology show there ever was. I try to take it as seriously as possible even if the episode sure isn't making it easy. I don't enjoy it purely as a goof, like I'm not only deriving enjoyment by laughing at it, I don't believe I'd be a true fan if that were the case. I feel a tremendous loyalty towards this show, watching the eerie intro sequence and hearing the theme tune always gives me a warm nostalgic feeling inside that makes me smile. It will always be classic and great to me. From the bottom of my heart I thank every one of the different directors, producers and all of the creative minds that gave life to Are You Afraid of the Dark, you people gave many childhoods an extra touch of spooky magic!

Are You Afraid of the Dark was a favorite for anyone who was a kid aged between 5 or 6 to mid teens (maybe older even) when it was on starting in 1992. It served as a special point in the original SNICK Saturday night programming, as it was the last show to air before the channel reverted to TVLAND programming. Even when an episode didn't entirely work or was too goofy for its own good (and there were a few times, lets admit it fans), there was always a sense of excitement and anticipation to see where the next scary story would head next at that time of night before bed. Some of the essentials were the movie theater episode (Nosferatu, anyone? who hasn't wanted to go through the screen from this episode); the one that sticks quite prominently involving a clown in an amusement park (his nose!); ones with big doses of tongue-in-cheek (dark) humor like with the comic-book villain posed very much like the Joker; even a trippy one, like with the see-through glasses that featured figures of death ala Bergman.There were many others, feeding directly into phobias and other ticks that held some kids in a panic, or at least interest, if presented right in the episode. And even the gimmick of the Midnight Society was not too old fashioned; having kids tell stories around a campfire, proving worth of the member based on how good the story could get, was essential to making this not only about how scary a story could get, but about the act of storytelling itself. Can a kid get rightfully engrossed and shaking in their shoes in half an hour? Would the cliffhangers give enough leverage to stay through the commercials? If memory serves me right, most of the episodes that were most effective stuck long after the episode ended, with little pieces of episodes still staying prevalent to this day nearly fifteen years later. And luckily, aside from a few glaring exceptions in fashion style (and a slightly different level of technology), the show is not dated either in seeing the same episodes again. For older audiences they aren't always spooky, which may make them all the better to hold onto for the next generation to scare the hell out of them.At the least, it's worth seeing just for the opening titles; the first two shots look like they're out of a true horror movie, or a scary anti-drug ad.

This was a truly great show for a younger audience. Since I crawl I've been into Horror. At age 8 you don't get as much Horror as wanted but this was a great option.I remember not missing episodes every week. It aired on Nickelodeon on Fridays.I have positive memories towards this show and it's part of my childhood. Now as an adult, I catch it on time to time but I must say that it's just not the same thing...For a young person's horror standards, it's a very good t.v. show with decent casts, and interesting plots. My favorite episode dealt with an evil clown named Zeebo.

I grew up watching old school Nickelodeon and Snick. Nickelodeon is trash compared to its earlier Snick years. Who could ever forget the line ups they had. Ren and Stimpy, Are You Afraid of the Dark, Clarrisa Explains it All, The Secret World of Alex Mac, Pete and Pete, Hey Dude, Salute Your Shorts, Keanan and Kell, Doug, Rugrats, Rocko's Modern Life, Clarrisa Explains it All, Guts, Double Dare, What Would You Do, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Hey Arnold, that's all I can think of for now.Now the newer Nickelodeon is NOTHING compared to the old. The only shows worthy of mentioning are Spongebob and Fairly Oddparents. The quality of the shows are down now a days, the acting is horrible and they stories are not entertaining. If they were smart the people over at Nickelodeon studios would air some old shows for the kids of today to get a taste of what good TV is. I grew up in the golden age of Nickelodeon cartoons, I feel bad for the kids of today who have to put up with these new shows that are not entertaining at all or are to scientific for them to understand.