I came across a random picture from “Beetlejuice“, the cartoon spun off from the amazing Tim Burton film, and realized I watched that show every Saturday morning. I don’t even think I liked it at first, but after awhile it was a staple of my television cartoon menu.

In the tv series, Lydia and Beetlejuice are besties who hang out all the time seeing how Lydia is anti-social. She would much rather hang out with the dead than living people. The gothic duo would travel to the “Neitherworld” whenever Lydia had the time. Lydia was such an awesome character in the movie, who wouldn’t want to watch what chick does in animated form? She’s like quintessential anti-social, kinda goth, really smart girl character before MTV gave us my favorite cartoon nihilist, Daria.

“Beetlejuice” ran for four seasons, starting out on ABC for three years and then finishing up on Fox for its last season. If you’re feeling nostalgic for late-eighties/early nineties animation, the Blu-Ray edition of the Beetlejuice dvd contains a few episodes of this series. And if my memory serves me correctly, I think The N airs episodes every blue moon or so. Beware, the cartoon was made for kids, so it’s somewhat lighthearted in comparison to the movie. No word when the actual tv series will be on dvd yet.

Do you remember “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” on Nickelodeon? I remember watching that show when it premiered in 1991.

“The Tale of the Thirteenth Floor” episode clip:

It was like a wonderful jumble of tv serial theatrics reminiscent of “The Twilight Zone” and themes from the Goosebumps book series. Didn’t you just get chills when they threw that dust onto the fire?! Granted, as an adult re-watching these episodes, some of the thrills have gone. Still, I think “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” was a pretty decent original kids series.

Each week they had new characters and stories to tell, sometimes with a twist of horror, other times more science fiction based. This serial format helped keep this tv show on air for 5 seasons! That’s a pretty big feat for a darkly themed kids show. Definitely longer than what most primetime sci-fi shows get these days! Look at “Moonlight” for example. Mick St. John’s dashing looks and vampire charisma couldn’t keep it on air past one season.