VHistory reviews Tape 1548: Eerie, Indiana

[froodle]

Eerie, Indiana - tape 1548

I don’t think I’ve watched Eerie, Indiana before, but it’s executive producer is Joe Dante, so I’m hoping it’ll be fun.

In the first episode, our young heroes find an old letter in an old book, open it, and awakens Tobey Maguire from the past.

Marshall’s family love Maguire when he turns up, and they’re upset when Marshall banishes him from the house.

There’s a trippy dream sequence.

Maguire asks Marshall to deliver the letter, one he failed to deliver years before, to the love of his life, and there’s a happy ending when they manage to find her.

In the next episode, Marshall meets a girl called Sara Bob, who has a lot of very unruly brothers.

She’s an artist, and things she draws become real. He’s just had his bike stolen, so she draws it, and it’s back outside the store they’re in.

I’m enjoying the little touches, like the police patrol car with far too many aerials on the roof.

This one almost has a quite melancholy ending. And the credits play on the family all being called Something-Bob.

Next episode has Marshall annoyed that Indiana doesn’t have daylight saving time, so he sets his watch back, stranding him an hour before the rest of the town.

He’s rescued from the evil garbagemen who are cleaning up the town, by an old milkman, and he ends up on a milk carton in the regular time.

In the next episode, there’s a new museum in town, dedicated to Eerie’s weirdness, but the mayor, Gregory Itzin, doesn’t like it.

Next we meet Matt Frewer as a Tornado chaser who believes Tornados are alive.

We also learn that Eerie’s sister town is Normal, Illinois.

In the next episode, the owner of the World of Stuff (Archie Hahn) is revealed as an imposter, and the real owner is restored, played by John Astin. I wonder if they just felt like recasting a recurring character, and came up with an Eerie, Indiana way to do it.

In the last episode, every year the town picks a Harvest King, and the honour includes being fed to a werewolf.

What a great little show this is.

After this, recording stops, and underneath there’s a short segment of a German gameshow called Riskier Was which looks like it was a version of the US show Wipeout. Recording stops after a minute or so of this.