Forgotten Television: Eerie, Indiana

Eerie, Indiana, a small town in the middle of America where everything seems extra normal, but for a New York City teen newly transplanted to suburbia, Marshall Teller (Omri Katz, Dallas), soon learns that things are not always what they seem and soon learns that Eerie is the hub of all things weird in the universe.  Along with his side-kick Simon (Justin Shenkarow) the pair investigate and stop various nefarious supernatural and otherworldly things that happen in this supposedly normal sleepy little town. Later the pair is joined by Dash X (Jason Marsden), a mysterious young man, with no memory of who he is or where he came from.  What type of weird things do the duo (and later the trio) battle in Eerie? How about werewolves, aliens, cult leaders, ghosts of incompetent gunslingers, Elvis (who is not dead), hyperintelligent dogs planning on taking over the world, a Mummy, and even a “Tupperware” lady using “Forever Ware” to keep her children young forever and that is just a few of the wonderful, weird things that we can find in Eerie, Indiana.  The weirdness doesn’t stop with Marshall and Simon though.  In 1998, Eerie Indiana: The Other Dimension showed an alternate reality version of Eerie, where Mitchell (Bill Switzer) and Stanley (Daniel Clark), two boys who seem to be very similar versions of Marshall and Simon find that the weirdness from Marshall’s version of Eerie has leaked into his through a portal that opened between the two dimensions, and with the help of Stanley, he must find and stop all the things that crossed over and have infiltrated what was a very normal town.

Eerie, Indiana is a horror science fiction television series that lasted a single season that ran from September 15, 1991, to December 9, 1993.  After the first thirteen episodes, the show was retooled and introduced the character of “Dash X” and a few other cast changes that were all explained via the weirdness that was Eerie.  One episode, “The Broken Record” that had already been filmed but not aired after the retooling was not shown in the initial run but was later part of the syndication. After cancellation on NBC, the show was reran on the Disney Channel from 1993 to 1996.  In 1997, The Fox Kids Network ran the show on Saturday mornings which created a cult following and enough interest in Fox Kids to produce a spin-off called Eerie, Indiana: The Other Dimension, but that also only lasted one season. The original show produced a total of 19 episodes and was met with good critical acclaim.  The spin-off ran for a total of 15 episodes.

I was in the Navy when the original show premiered and completely missed it, and I am sorry that I did, having now seen it in preparation for this article I was a bit more impressed with it than I thought I would be.  Omri Katz who had been in Dallas preceding his role on Eerie, and just before starring in Hocus Pocus, is a charismatic and talented actor who delivered his dialogue with dry wit and spot on comic timing.  And Justin Shenkarow matches that energy as the younger, but just as eager side-kick.  One of the fun parts of the show is the subtle and sometimes not so subtle homage paid to old genre science fiction and horror films, like naming a werewolf character “Mr. Chaney” in reference to Lon Chaney, Jr. who starred in the 1941 The Wolf Man, or Ray Walston playing an alien cult leader, when he starred as an alien in the 1963 sitcom My Favorite Martian. The series is full of similar “in-jokes” that is fun for an aware audience.  The plots were almost absurdist in style adding comedy, but there was quite a bit of drama as well. Unfortunately, I can’t say I was as impressed with the spin-off. The production isn’t bad, but it just wasn’t as good. I do think that the two leads were well chosen and were quite good in their roles, but there was just something off in the writing and the new series didn’t have the same magic that the original had captured, as hard as it tried to, or maybe it was trying too hard to “capture” something instead of creating its own special vibe.