# The most frightening TV show - ever - **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 1, 2007, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194 "2007-10-01T20:16:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![rhythmonly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee59a6/32.png) [@rhythmonly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhythmonly)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194/61 "2007-10-02T15:02:07Z")
Although I loved TZ/TOL as a kid, the thing that gave me the leaping fantods was the organ music from the Don Knotts film “The Ghost and Mr.Chicken”. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194/62 "2007-10-02T15:13:29Z")
[QUOTE=glee] Several generations of English children hid behind the couch when Dr. Who was on. “Exterminate!!” [/QUOTE] The worst one, for me, was “The Invasion”, with the Cybermen coming out of the sewers - those blank expressionless metal faces, and that awful noise in the background - creeped me right out. (Of course, I was about five or six years old at the time, so … ) ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194/63 "2007-10-02T15:22:04Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] If TV movies count, then the [kid at the window](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC5HZzjjI9Y) in _Salem’s Lot_ freaked me the hell out when I was a kid. Doesn’t look as scary now, but in the late 1970s- man, that was some evil shite. [/QUOTE] Well thanks a fucking bunch SAMPIRO,I remembered that episode as scary and taking your word for it that it wasn’t as frightening over the years viewed it out of nostalgia . Now thanks to you this grown adult male will probably lie awake all night in a cold sweat with one eye on the window. I just hope that you can live with yourself is all. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194/64 "2007-10-02T15:27:51Z")
I can’t believe that this thread has come this far and no one has yet mentioned the episode of **Tales From The Darkside** titled “Inside The Closet.” It’s about a girl who rents a room that has a small door in it, a tiny locked closet about three feet high. But sometimes, the door opens on its own… And like everything else today, it’s on YouTube, although [it’s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JJeWbL54dU) [in](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mV2agefQU8) [four](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHzhgcA-GMs) [parts](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U7CaLEn65M). ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194/65 "2007-10-02T15:47:40Z")
Listening to Rod Serling’s opening narration about the Twilight Zone was enough to creep me out. I am the wimp of wimps. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194/66 "2007-10-02T15:51:48Z")
For me it’s gotta be The X Factor. Some of those contestants are _really_ fucking scary ---
**Author:** ![Nikki\_Tikki\_Tavi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3da27b/32.png) [@Nikki\_Tikki\_Tavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nikki_Tikki_Tavi)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194/67 "2007-10-02T15:57:36Z")
[QUOTE=Max Torque] I can’t believe that this thread has come this far and no one has yet mentioned the episode of **Tales From The Darkside** titled “Inside The Closet.” It’s about a girl who rents a room that has a small door in it, a tiny locked closet about three feet high. But sometimes, the door opens on its own… And like everything else today, it’s on YouTube, although [it’s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JJeWbL54dU) [in](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mV2agefQU8) [four](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHzhgcA-GMs) [parts](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U7CaLEn65M). [/QUOTE] Super, that’s going to keep me up tonight. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194/68 "2007-10-02T15:59:18Z")
[QUOTE=chowder] Some of those contestants are _really_ fucking scary [/QUOTE] Sharon Osbourne. Hello? And [name removed to protect the SDMB] when the underaged lads are around… ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194/69 "2007-10-02T16:00:45Z")
[QUOTE=t-mobileguy] I would hide under my couch whenever Dr. Who came on. The show itself didn’t scare me, but the opening music… To this day still gives me goose bumps. Guess I’m kind of a wimp huh? [/QUOTE] So I take it you did not enjoy the joke in the Family Guy Star Wars episode where they went into hyperspace? ;)\* My scary show was some horror show on in the early 1980’s, definitely around 1983-4. I can’t remember the name of it (Tales from the Darkside maybe?), but they did an episode featuring a creature called the “Shadowman”. He lived under your bed and wanted to kill you. But the shadowman under your personal bed couldn’t harm you, just other people. The show featured a boy who made his shadowman a slave. I think there was a Cyrano de Bergerac plot in it somewhere. When the boy left to go on a date with the hot girl, he met the shadowman from under someone else’s bed. To this day I’m afraid to get my feet too close to the edge of my bed at night thanks to that show. And _The Sixth Sense_. And that episode of the _Dungeons and Dragons_ cartoon where kids were being sucked under their beds and made to work as slaves in an underground city. \*For those who didn’t see it, when the Millenium Falcon went into hyperspace, they played the opening from the Tom Baker-era Dr. Who. ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194/70 "2007-10-02T16:04:26Z")
Night Gallery - The Cemetery. Also, I think it was NG, the episode where a young Richard Thomas becomes the Sin Eater after his father dies. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194/71 "2007-10-02T17:14:45Z")
[QUOTE=Meyer6] Oh my God - childhood nightmare relived! The statues voice still gives me the heebie-jeebies. [/QUOTE] 😕 But it’s just Ernie’s voice with reverb. ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194/72 "2007-10-02T17:24:18Z")
For me, it’s the Green Acres where the ghost of Molly Turgiss keeps appearing till Lisa “Dahling, I love you but give me Park Avenue” Douglas gives her a beauty makeover. I only know the ending from Googling it because I was too freaked out by the ghost to watch the show through. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194/73 "2007-10-02T17:24:44Z")
[QUOTE=rhythmonly] Although I loved TZ/TOL as a kid, the thing that gave me the leaping fantods was the organ music from the Don Knotts film “The Ghost and Mr.Chicken”. [/QUOTE] Oh, you mean [_this_ haunted organ](http://www.percepto.com/media/mp3/015/13.mp3)? 🙂 [Complete score.](http://www.percepto.com/projects/015/) ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194/74 "2007-10-02T17:36:07Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] The episode of Twin Peaks that answers the question “Who Killed Laura Palmer?” [/QUOTE] Good God, Yes! ---
**Author:** ![Fir\_na\_tine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fir\_na\_tine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fir_na_tine)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194/75 "2007-10-02T17:39:27Z")
[QUOTE=phouka] Several years ago, when I was teaching Literature to a bunch of jaded 8th graders, I showed them the Twilight Zone episode, “To Serve Mankind”. I do so love being a teacher. [/QUOTE] And I’ll bet you are one of their favorites. 😃 Being able to make an 8th grader think is a major accomplishment. ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194/76 "2007-10-02T17:44:47Z")
[QUOTE=Pochacco] **Night Gallery** … either [The Cemetery](http://www.scifilm.org/tv/tvgraphics/ng-cemetery.jpg) or [The Doll](http://www.scifilm.org/tv/tvgraphics/ng-thedoll.jpg). [/QUOTE] Another vote for “Night Gallery”: “The Doll” There were some notable “Twilight Zone” episodes, and some other “Night Gallery” episodes (like the “Centipede”). But “The Doll” gave me nightmares for weeks. And to this day, I can still conjure up that evil grinning doll vision..aaahhhh. In thinking about it, that episode really shows what directing and cinematography are all about. Compare it to those crappy Chucky movies. The one episode was so much scarier, and that doll hardly moved at all. It was all in the presentation of what it had done. Impressive. (I had to buy all the “Night Gallery” episodes on DVD just to continue scaring the crap out of myself 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194/77 "2007-10-02T17:53:32Z")
Can’t really remember the amazing horrors of my youth. But the Buffy episode _Hush_ had a few notable moments–that still work on repeated viewings. Like what Giles’ girlfriend sees float by when she looks out the window… ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194/78 "2007-10-02T18:01:39Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] The Outer Limits had plenty of monsters – the network “suits” insisted on a weekly “bear” – but even as a kid I was disappointed in TOL. They seemed to get their hands on a clever idea or image, but not know what to do with it. You had your occasional winner, like DEmon With A Glass Hand, but you had ten losers for each one. And every monster looked like it was made of rubber, and they all had that same fake-sounding roar. [/QUOTE] I remember **The Zanti Misfits** as being pretty damn scary. But the first thing that comes to mind is the Hitchcock episode **The Jar**. ---
**Author:** ![sockswsandals](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@sockswsandals](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sockswsandals)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194/79 "2007-10-02T18:11:43Z")
[QUOTE=Clockwork And Candy] An episode of Sesame Street. No, _really_. Oddly enough, I remember very little of the actual sketch. (Maybe I’ve blocked it out.) Bert and Ernie were in an Egyptian tomb and one of the statues kept talking to Ernie whenever Bert was out of the room. He had this deep booming voice. It terrified me. I couldn’t sleep that night. I hate Jim Henson. [/QUOTE] When I first saw this thread yesterday I almosted posted this very sketch as it was the first and only TV sketch I can remember scaring me as a kid. Glad to see others out there are as traumatized as I am. Despite the trauma, I do have to give, ahem, mad props to Mr. Henson. His work influenced my formative years greatly. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194/80 "2007-10-02T18:22:16Z")
I didn’t grow up with TV so I didn’t get scared by it as a kid. But that clown from IT with the exploding blood balloons was no picnic even to the older me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-frightening-tv-show-ever/421194.md?page=5)