TV Tuesdays: Eerie, Indiana (1991-1992)

In our sporadic feature, known as TV Tuesdays, we take a long look at short-lived television shows. Some may have been forgotten for good reason, while others just might have been prematurely killed by impatient networks. Every week, we will review an episode of said show, in chronological order, from beginning to end. At the end of the series, we'll summarize our thoughts on the show as a whole, giving it a final score. Without further adieu, let's get started with the intro for our next televised failure.

If you walked up to any given person and asked them what they thought of the non-hit early nineties television show “Eerie, Indiana”, you would probably get a lot of blank stares and confused looks. After all, you'd be referring to the show that finished 94th out of 98 shows in terms of viewership that season...to say that it didn't even register on most people's radar still sounds like we're putting it mildly. It's one of those shows that was virtually destined to disappear from the moment it aired.

I would have been like everyone else had my mom and I somehow caught wind of it in the early going. I honestly can't say for sure how many episodes I saw—after all, it's been over two decades since it aired, and I was only 7 years old at the time—but we never forgot the debut episode, in which a woman keeps her twin sons “fresh”, and young, by sealing them in life-size plastic food containers every night. Was every episode this unabashedly weird and over-the-top?  That is the kind of question that brought me back to this creepy little city exactly 25 years after the last first-run episode aired.

Unsurprisingly, the show never took off, and was axed after just one nineteen-episode season (though, rather curiously, an equally short-lived spinoff entitled “Eerie, Indiana: The Other Dimension” was produced just six years later). However, time has been somewhat kind to the series...although it's still not well-known, it has received quite a few loving nostalgic revisits via bloggers and was even mentioned in a list of the 50 Scariest TV Shows of All Time by Complex.com (a baffling mention since many episodes are simply lighthearted and bizarre, but hey, press is press!). A 2003 DVD release no doubt brought it to the attention of others, but has since gone out of print, with prices hitting $50 or more for the entire series.

Was this show the youngsters answer to “Twin Peaks” as it is frequently touted? Or has time rightfully buried a show that deserved the rather abrupt fate that it got? We'll find out, together, over the course of the next nineteen weeks, as I take a look at an episode every Tuesday until no more remain. Join me, won't you?