Truth or Scare

Last updated
Truth or Scare
Truth or Scare.jpg
The Truth or Scare intertitle.
Written byKevin Barry
Directed byDavid R. Hale
Presented by Michelle Trachtenberg
ComposerDon Grady
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes22 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producersRasha Drachkovitch
Jim Rapsas
EditorSusan Barnes
Camera setupmultiple camera set-up
Running time22 minutes
Production company 44 Blue Productions
Original release
Network Discovery Kids
ReleaseOctober 25, 2001 (2001-10-25) –
January 1, 2003 (2003-01-01)

Truth or Scare is an American television series on the Discovery Kids network. The show aired from October 25, 2001, to January 1, 2003. It was hosted by Michelle Trachtenberg [1] [2] in a style similar to Maila Nurmi as horror host "Vampira" and Cassandra Peterson as horror host "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark." The series first aired on Discovery Kids as a part of the network's Scary Saturday Night Sleepover lineup. After the series ended, reruns of the show aired on The Hub until October 29, 2012.

Contents

Premise

In each episode, Trachtenberg appeared as the hostess/narrator telling the stories of famous hauntings and other paranormal phenomena in some sort of spooky goth subculture. The show's setting was in a styled library surrounded by props that relate to the episode's theme. She usually then said some short line or phrase. After that clips of the episode were shown, she then said something along the lines of "Next on Truth or Scare...". The show then continued onto Trachtenberg narrating stories about the topic while reenactments performed. She then explained some background information about the story. In between stories, commercial breaks are held, but before each break Michelle would give an intro to what the next story would be. The episodes themselves are actually documentaries that are presented to a younger audience (with most of the footage being intact), the most notable are the castle ghosts episodes which originate from the British documentary miniseries "Castle Ghosts of The British Isles".

Episodes

  1. "Castle Ghost of England" - Myths and legends of ghosts that are associated with the castles of England.
  2. "Dracula" - The evolution of Bram Stoker's Dracula.
  3. "Wolfman: The Myth and the Science" - The legend of the werewolf.
  4. "The Curse of Tutankhamen" - A legend of a curse on the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamen.
  5. "Castle Ghost of Ireland" - Past and present merge in the Ireland's castle halls of the world.
  6. "Ghosthunters" - Modern "ghostbusters" investigate paranormal phenomenon.
  7. "UFOs Over Phoenix" - The mysterious sightings of UFOs in Phoenix, Arizona.
  8. "America's Haunted Houses" - People investigate reports of ghosts and mysterious happenings in America.
  9. "Castle Ghost of Scotland" - Stories of Scotland's turbulent past tell of hauntings.
  10. "Bigfoot" - The urban legend of Bigfoot.
  11. "Night Visitors" - The Bell Witch; Mercy Brown vampire incident; Emily's Bridge; the Hammond Castle hauntings.
  12. "The Bermuda Triangle" - The mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle.
  13. "Castle Ghosts of Wales" - Haunted Welsh castles.
  14. "The True Story of Halloween" - The history of Halloween.
  15. "Hollywood Haunts" - Hollywood's notorious sites for being haunted.
  16. "Haunted Hotels" - Historic hotels that have a reputation for being haunted.
  17. "Scare Me" - Some people avoid being scared, while others seek out the thrill of it.
  18. "Real Witches" - The history of witches.
  19. "Loch Ness Monster" - The myth of the infamous Loch Ness Monster in Scotland.
  20. "Psychic Science" - The practice of psychics and mediums.
  21. "Roswell & Area 51"
  22. "Crop Circles"

Episode topics

Home media

The episode "The Curse of Tutankhamen" appears as a bonus feature on Tutenstein Volume 1: The Beginning.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R. L. Stine</span> American writer and producer (born 1943)

Robert Lawrence Stine, sometimes known as Jovial Bob Stine and Eric Affabee, is an American novelist, short story writer, television producer, screenwriter, and executive editor.

<i>Scare Tactics</i> American TV series or program

Scare Tactics is an American comedy horror hidden camera television show, produced by Scott Hallock and Kevin Healey. Its first two seasons aired from April 2003 to December 2004. After a hiatus, the show returned for a third season, beginning July 9, 2008. The first season of the show was hosted by Shannen Doherty. Stephen Baldwin took her place in the middle of the second season. At the beginning of the third season, the show was hosted by Tracy Morgan. The fourth season began on October 6, 2009. On July 17, 2017, it was announced that Blumhouse Television was going to produce a new season of the show.

The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids is a supernatural children's book series. The books in the series are co-authored by Marcia T. Jones and Debbie Dadey. John Steven Gurney is the original illustrator of the series and originated the appearance of the characters. During the early 2000s, some of the books were reissued with cover illustrations by Nathan Hale.

History's Greatest Mysteries is an American documentary television series that aired on the History Channel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jon-Erik Beckjord</span> American paranormal investigator (1939–2008)

Jon-Erik Beckjord was an American paranormal investigator, photographer, and cryptozoologist interested in UFOs, crop circles, the Loch Ness Monster, and Bigfoot. Throughout his life, he owned three separate, small-scale museums that featured displays, mostly photographs, of alleged UFO, Nessie, and Bigfoot sightings. He made guest appearances on national radio and television shows, but was criticized by skeptics and fellow cryptozoologists alike for not providing substantive evidence to back up his claims of the existence of paranormal beings.

Proof Positive is a paranormal investigation reality television show broadcast by the SciFi Channel beginning on October 6, 2004, through December 8, 2004. It was shown as part of the "SciFi Wednesday" evening schedule line up in the United States along with other reality television programs as Scare Tactics and Ghost Hunters. Proof Positive ran for ten episodes.

<i>Sightings</i> (TV series) Television series

Sightings is an American paranormal and news television show that first aired in the 1990s. The show began on October 17, 1991, as a special titled The UFO Report: Sightings. It was followed by the follow-up reports, Ghost Report and the Psychic Experience. The creator and supervising producer of the initial episode, produced by Paramount for Fox TV, was Linda Moulton Howe. One of her episodes was A Strange Harvest, about the worldwide animal-mutilation mystery linked to extraterrestrial beings.

<i>Commander USAs Groovie Movies</i> American movie showcase series

Commander USA's Groovie Movies is an American movie showcase series that ran weekend afternoons on the USA Network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ghost hunting</span> Investigating reportedly haunted locations for ghosts

Ghost hunting is the process of investigating locations that are purportedly haunted by ghosts. Typically, a ghost-hunting team will attempt to collect evidence supporting the existence of paranormal activity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridgewater Triangle</span> Area in Massachusetts claimed to be the site of paranormal phenomena

The Bridgewater Triangle is an area of about 200 square miles (520 km2) within southeastern Massachusetts in the United States, claimed to be a site of alleged paranormal phenomena, ranging from UFOs to poltergeists, and other spectral phenomena, various bigfoot-like sightings, giant snakes and thunderbirds. The term was coined by New England based cryptozoologist Loren Coleman.

<i>Weird Travels</i> American TV series or program

Weird Travels is an American documentary paranormal television series that originally aired from 2001 to 2006 on the Travel Channel. Produced by Authentic Entertainment, the program features various paranormal subjects around the world, especially monsters and purportedly haunted locations around the world. The series is narrated by Don Wildman, who also hosts and narrates History's documentary television series Cities of the Underworld and Travel Channel's Off Limits.

The Unexplained: Mysteries of Mind, Space, & Time was a popular partwork magazine published by Orbis Publishing in the United Kingdom, between 1980 and 1983. It ran to 156 issues, with issue 157 being an index to the collection, and dealt with the paranormal and mysteries such as UFOs, the Bermuda Triangle, ghosts, spontaneous human combustion, the Cottingley Fairies, ancient knowledge, sea monsters, the Yeti, weird coincidences, stone circles, contact with the dead, and notable historical characters linked to the occult. The magazine was published as a journal, with page numbering continuing from one edition to the next. When the magazine ceased publication, a refund was offered if the consumer returned the covers.

Neil Spring(born 8 June 1981) is a Welsh novelist of supernatural horror, known for his bestselling books, The Ghost Hunters (2013) and The Lost Village (2017).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cryptid town</span> Town identified with a local cryptid

A cryptid town is a colloquial term given to a town which has a close cultural identity with a local cryptid, often with the goal of encouraging cryptid-related tourism. Cryptid towns may have festivals, museums, statues and research organisations dedicated to a given cryptid. Areas called cryptid towns tend to be rural and remote, which correlates with the types of areas cryptids are said to often originate from, which in turn can make them appear economically deprived and reliant on the economy of cryptid tourism. Some places may not necessarily be best known for their folklore or rely on it for tourism, but do still feature it prominently in events and local culture.

References

  1. ↑ Monaghan, Carol (October 24, 2001). "TV show seeks truth behind the scare". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  2. ↑ Spreier, Jeanne (October 30, 2001). "Young viewers are treated to nothing bur boo skies for Halloween". Modesto Bee. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.