{"id":9658,"date":"2017-03-13T08:00:39","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T12:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/?p=9658"},"modified":"2017-03-12T21:34:03","modified_gmt":"2017-03-13T01:34:03","slug":"first-fright-featuring-d-j-machale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/first-fright-featuring-d-j-machale\/","title":{"rendered":"My First Fright featuring D.J. MacHale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"9176\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/first-fright-featuring-kealan-patrick-burke\/firstfright_webbanner\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/FirstFright_WebBanner.jpg?fit=830%2C120&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"830,120\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"firstfright_webbanner\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/FirstFright_WebBanner.jpg?fit=830%2C120&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9176\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/FirstFright_WebBanner.jpg?resize=830%2C120&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"830\" height=\"120\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/FirstFright_WebBanner.jpg?w=830&amp;ssl=1 830w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/FirstFright_WebBanner.jpg?resize=350%2C51&amp;ssl=1 350w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/FirstFright_WebBanner.jpg?resize=768%2C111&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m a big fan of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4qTrgCWpLlM\" target=\"_blank\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are You Afraid of the Dark?<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the horror\/fantasy TV series that ran on Nickelodeon back in the &#8217;90s and early 2000s (if you\u2019re unfamiliar, think <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tales From The Crypt <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jr<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">., <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">or<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Twilight Zone <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for kids). The show wasn\u2019t my first introduction to horror, but it definitely helped fuel my then-burgeoning interest in the genre. Seen by millions over the last few decades, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are You Afraid of the Dark? <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is likely the first fright for more than a few writers pounding out spooky fiction today. So, I couldn\u2019t help but wonder, what would it be like to interview the brain behind the show, an architect of First Frights himself, and find out what, in turn, inspired him.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_9662\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9662\" style=\"width: 176px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"9662\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/first-fright-featuring-d-j-machale\/mchale\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/mchale.jpg?fit=176%2C266&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"176,266\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"mchale\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;D.J. MacHale&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/mchale.jpg?fit=176%2C266&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9662\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/mchale.jpg?resize=176%2C266&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"176\" height=\"266\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9662\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">D.J. MacHale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">D.J. MacHale is a writer, director, and producer. He is the author of two\u00a0popular young adult <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">book series, &#8220;Pendragon&#8221; and &#8220;Morpheus Road,&#8221; but is probably best known to horror fans as the co-creator of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are You Afraid of the Dark<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">? Before he terrified millions of Gen-Xers with the likes of Zeebo the Clown, the Frozen Ghost and the Ghastly Grinner, MacHale was just another kid from Connecticut with a spooky children\u2019s book.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>(Interview conducted by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/johnbrhel\" target=\"_blank\">John Brhel<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><b>CEMETERY DANCE ONLINE: What was your &#8220;first fright?&#8221; <\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">D.J. MACHALE: My mother read to me all the time. And there were two stories&#8212;two very different stories&#8212;that I remember distinctly. And one, believe it or not, was a Dr. Seuss story called \u201cWhat Was I Scared Of?\u201d It was part of the book <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Sneetches and Other Stories<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. There were actually four different stories in this book, and the last one was \u201cWhat Was I Scared Of?\u201d It was about a little character that was being haunted by a pair of pale green pants with no one inside them. He would be walking down the street and he\u2019d see in the distance this pair of pants, just floating. And it freaked him out. And he\u2019d run away, and no matter where he went he would be afraid that whenever he\u2019d turn the corner, there those pants would be. And they always were. And that concept, that image of those pants, freaked me out when I was a kid. Not enough to terrify me, but enough to go, &#8220;This is really weird.&#8221; \u00a0In the end, they kind of come together and it turns out the pants were afraid of him, so they got to be friends. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"9663\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/first-fright-featuring-d-j-machale\/whatafraid\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/whatafraid.jpg?fit=318%2C343&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"318,343\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"whatafraid\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/whatafraid.jpg?fit=318%2C343&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-9663\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/whatafraid.jpg?resize=318%2C343&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"318\" height=\"343\" \/>But it was never explained; there\u2019s no rationale behind it. But I always remember that feeling of mystery. And that\u2019s the thing that I like about scary stories most. One of the reasons why I\u2019m a fan of spooky stories and ghost stories is because they\u2019re always mysteries. Because it\u2019s always about a ghost and the ghost wants something. And whether it\u2019s a good thing or a bad thing, the ghost wants something. And the mystery is the main character trying to figure out what that ghost wants. And it\u2019s not necessarily about getting heads chopped off or dying in gruesome ways or things like that, it\u2019s putting the clues together of what it really means. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019d go so far as to say that the title <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are You Afraid of the Dark?\u00a0<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is a derivation of that title. The original title we had for the show was <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scary Tales<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. And Nickelodeon said, &#8220;We like the show, but the title is too bland. We need a Nickelodeon-type title.&#8221; At the time they had shows like <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clarissa Explains It All <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You Can\u2019t Do That on Television&#8212;<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">long, weird titles. I went back to that story and said, &#8220;&#8216;What Was I Scared Of?&#8217;\u00a0That\u2019s a good title.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Knowing that this was something that scared you, what made it interesting to you? Why would you want to bring more of that on yourself?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s the same for everyone. What is it that\u2019s attractive about being scared? Obviously, there are certain levels of being scared, no matter how old or how sophisticated you are. When you\u2019re really young, it\u2019s pretty low-threshold.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I like to play along. I like to try to figure out what\u2019s going on. And with any kind of supernatural story, there\u2019s always a mystery involved. But then the stakes are raised because it\u2019s not just a mystery about who stole the coffee cup&#8212;it gets into the land of imagination, too. You can start using your imagination and say, &#8220;Wow, the rules of science and nature don\u2019t apply here,&#8221; and that\u2019s appealing to me. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The same thing kept popping up on this little creature and the creature was scared. So in reading it, I\u2019m thinking, &#8220;What could this possibly mean? What could it want? Why are these pants floating there?&#8221; Which is exactly what the main character is thinking, too. So there\u2019s tension, there\u2019s a mystery and then there\u2019s that element of &#8220;That\u2019s weird. It\u2019s a pair of floating pants.&#8221; The conflict gets resolved, but not the explanation for why there\u2019s a pair of pale green pants with no one inside them walking around.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Did you read the story to your daughter?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, I read it to my daughter and she loved it. I immediately tried to immerse my daughter in my childhood&#8212;which meant I got all of the books I loved as a kid&#8212;and quickly found out that not all of them are that good. Dr. Seuss still holds up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Based on your work, it seems that you prefer stories that take place beyond the bounds of the real world? Why is that?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I don\u2019t know why that is. I write science fiction. I write supernatural. I write fantasy. But I think I do that for a couple of reasons. It just comes out. All of the stuff that I\u2019ve written, produced, or directed, there\u2019s a common theme. Every year on <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are You Afraid of the Dark?<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">people would pitch me ideas for different episodes. I\u2019d ask, &#8220;What\u2019s the story?&#8221; and they\u2019d tell me, &#8220;I have a story about a haunted golf ball.&#8221; And I\u2019d say, \u201cBut who are the kids?&#8221; They\u2019d say &#8220;Who cares?&#8221; I want a story about a couple of kids who are going through some sort of conflict in that real life that would be interesting to watch even if they never came across something supernatural. Then when we care about the characters and want to know what\u2019s going to happen to them, then you give them the haunted golf ball, then you\u2019re totally with them. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I think that in all my stories&#8212;whether it\u2019s TV or books or movies, whatever&#8212;there\u2019s always some sort of real-world conflict that you can relate to. Then you layer on the fun stuff. I like stories about real people that you can either see yourself in or see your friend or feel whatever conflict they\u2019re going through and then&#8212;holy shit&#8212;they have a haunted golf ball. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Do you think that \u201cWhat Was I Scared Of?\u201d influenced you in any way as a writer? <\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Because as simple as that story was, it set the premise of &#8220;spooky mystery.&#8221; And how much it affected me and how much it scared me, I kept wanting to turn the page and find out what\u2019s going on. I think it probably just clicked something in my brain. Not only was I then drawn to reading and watching more of those things, but that actually ultimately influenced the stuff that I wrote. I can\u2019t say that there was a direct line from \u201cWhat Was I Scared Of?\u201d to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are You Afraid of the Dark?<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> But \u201cWhat Was I Scared Of?\u201d was probably the first story like that that I ever heard or read, so it stands to reason that was probably the first one that put me on the path.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m a big fan of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, the horror\/fantasy TV series that ran on Nickelodeon back in the &#8217;90s and early 2000s (if you\u2019re unfamiliar, think Tales From The Crypt Jr., or The Twilight Zone for kids). The show wasn\u2019t my first introduction to horror, but it definitely helped fuel my &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/first-fright-featuring-d-j-machale\/\" class=\"more-link button bg-gold white\">Continue Reading!<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;My First Fright featuring D.J. MacHale&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[979],"tags":[1106,294,1105,803,980],"class_list":["post-9658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-first-fright","tag-are-you-afraid-of-the-dark","tag-columns","tag-d-j-machale","tag-john-brhel","tag-my-first-fright"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>My First Fright featuring D.J. 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