ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?

Are You Afraid of the Dark? is a Sci-Fi/horror-themed television series. The original series was a joint production between the Canadian companies YTV and Cinar and the American company Nickelodeon. The episode "The Tale of the Phantom Cab" was aired as a pilot on the evening of October 31, 1991.

Both series revolved around a group of adolescents who referred to themselves as the "Midnight Society". One night a week, at a secret location in the woods, one member would tell a scary story to the group. The actual story, rather than the telling, was displayed to the television viewer. The story was shown between the group's arrival at the site and their departure. Each storyteller would begin their story by saying "Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this story..." at which point he or she would toss birch bark powder into a campfire to heighten the flames and produce an eerie white smoke. The storyteller would continue by announcing its title (The Tale of...).

The themes of the stories usually revolved around paranormal phenomena, such as ghosts, magic, haunted houses, magical curses, aliens, witches and the like coming into contact with normal teenagers.

Sources of these tales varies, many were adaptations of public domain fairytales and short stories or urban legends. ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?