Post by Squidetor on Mar 25, 2017 21:32:55 GMT -5
Alright, we at Nick Relics are all about preservation. We try and preserve lost Nickelodeon history, whether it be lost Nick pilots/shows, lost bumpers, or even lost Nick history in general.
Therefore, we cannot just push away and ignore the fact Nickelodeon tried to keep "Cry Baby Lane" hidden away for over a decade.
Let's get started... this is going to be quite an RTTTA...
"Cry Baby Lane", original teaser title "Someone Wants to Meet You" was a previously lost Nickelodeon made-for-TV film that aired on Saturday, October 28th, 2000 during it's Saturday night block, SNICK. The block was hosted by Melissa Joan Hart and aired at 8 PM EST. After that, the film never reaired again, and Nickelodeon hid it deep within their vault for over a decade.
Now, a little history on the production of the film itself. Nickelodeon originally wanted to have the movie released in theaters, with a budget of $10,000,000. However, due to shortages of time, the movie's budget was cut to only $800,000, the movie's length was cut from 2 hours to only about an hour, and was set to air as a made-for-TV film. Majority of the movie was shot in Kingston, New Jersey (not too far from my location), and shots of the town in the movie were filmed in Ohio.
Nickelodeon didn't even really take the time to advertise the film that well, being completely honest. There are quite a lack of commercials/advertisements for the film that have surfaced online, and is one of the many, many reasons the film was forgotten for years...
The premise of the film was intended to be similar to Nick's popular TV show, "Are You Afraid of the Dark?", in which the film would be scary, but also goofy and child-friendly at the same time. Therefore, the film was given a TV-Y7 rating during it's first and only airing on Nickelodeon.
However, I guess Nickelodeon's vision of child-friendly horror wasn't exactly... "child-friendly"...
Here's the plot of the movie...
Excuse my language...
...but for fuck's sake, Nickelodeon.
THAT'S NOT EVEN THE WORST OF IT! IN THE MOVIE, IN ORDER FOR ANDREW TO SEND THE EVIL TWIN BACK TO HELL, HE HAS TO DIG UP THE EVIL TWIN'S DEAD BODY AND BREAK A ROOT GROWING OUT OF IT IN ORDER TO SAVE THE TOWN...
...I need a breather...one moment...
Okay, I'm good now. Anyhow...
They actually passed this off as child-friendly?
Now, you can see why Nickelodeon only aired it once. The very next day after it aired, parents all over the United States complained about the content of the movie, rightfully so. Therefore, Nickelodeon kept the movie locked away, never to be aired again.
Over the years, Nickelodeon's stance on the movie was pretty distorted...
First, they deemed the airing of the movie as "accidental".
Then, they claimed the movie was banned.
THEN, they claimed the movie was a myth.
THEN, they claimed they had no idea what "Cry Baby Lane" was.
As you can see, Nickelodeon tried their absolute best trying to keep the movie hidden away... that didn't stop the internet from searching for it, though.
Over the years, fans around the world tried their absolute best to find evidence of the movie. Clips, images, anything they could find. Before 2011, "Cry Baby Lane" was deemed an urban legend, a myth. Every time someone tried to ask Nickelodeon about it, their stance was one of the four scenarios listed above. They really did try hard to erase any trace of the movie being real, and they did succeed for the time being. So much so, that the infamous "Cry Baby Lane" Creepypasta surfaced online. The Creepypasta wasn't that good, it contained the typical cliches that you would find in Sonic.exe or any other "lost episode" Creepypastas out there. In a nutshell, it told of some dude who worked for Nickelodeon Studios (you know, the cliche that's in almost every lost episode Creepypasta aside from "I was at a garage sale...") and was set to work on the film with the director, who, big surprise, wanted the film to have legitimate photos of dead children in the film. What a shocker... blah blah blah, the movie aired containing the dead children images and that's why it was banned.
Yeah...
Anyhow, for years on end, the movie was deemed just a myth, and Nickelodeon continued to deny that the movie existed.
That is, until the movie was found.
In 2011, someone made a post on the "Today I Learned (TIL)" subreddit on Reddit.com, describing the brief history of the then-deemed hoax. Soon enough, the post went viral, and not only that...
A Reddit user by the name "firesaladpeach" came out and said that she had a bootleg recording of the movie, telling she had no idea it was lost. After many people questioned her on whether or not she was lying, she eventually finally released the entire movie online. The original broadcast from 2000 can be seen here:
The movie was finally found in its entirety, and was no longer a hoax.
So, you might be wondering... how did Nickelodeon react to this after their previous comments? Did they try to take the movie down?
It may surprise you, but...
That's right, Nickelodeon pretty much just said "fuck it" and rebroadcasted the movie on The 90's Are All That block on TeenNick back in 2011. They decided it was a good way to bring viewers in by advertising the movie as Nickelodeon's "dark secret" and "banned from TV". Here's an actual promo from 2011:
They tried really hard to advertise this movie as a big deal, and sure enough, it worked! They even reaired it on The Splat twice on Halloween 2015 and 2016, I guess they're trying to make it as a holiday tradition. Good call, Nick. They also changed the rating from TV-Y7 to TV-PG-V for moderate violence. Once again, good call.
Here's an original promo for the movie that aired in 2000 that recently surfaced:
Anyhow, that's about it for Cry Baby Lane! I may do another RTTTA tomorrow, so look forward to that! <3
EDIT: I also forgot to insert the airing of the movie during The Splat's Nick or Treat, here's the airing in high quality:
Therefore, we cannot just push away and ignore the fact Nickelodeon tried to keep "Cry Baby Lane" hidden away for over a decade.
Let's get started... this is going to be quite an RTTTA...
"Cry Baby Lane", original teaser title "Someone Wants to Meet You" was a previously lost Nickelodeon made-for-TV film that aired on Saturday, October 28th, 2000 during it's Saturday night block, SNICK. The block was hosted by Melissa Joan Hart and aired at 8 PM EST. After that, the film never reaired again, and Nickelodeon hid it deep within their vault for over a decade.
Now, a little history on the production of the film itself. Nickelodeon originally wanted to have the movie released in theaters, with a budget of $10,000,000. However, due to shortages of time, the movie's budget was cut to only $800,000, the movie's length was cut from 2 hours to only about an hour, and was set to air as a made-for-TV film. Majority of the movie was shot in Kingston, New Jersey (not too far from my location), and shots of the town in the movie were filmed in Ohio.
Nickelodeon didn't even really take the time to advertise the film that well, being completely honest. There are quite a lack of commercials/advertisements for the film that have surfaced online, and is one of the many, many reasons the film was forgotten for years...
The premise of the film was intended to be similar to Nick's popular TV show, "Are You Afraid of the Dark?", in which the film would be scary, but also goofy and child-friendly at the same time. Therefore, the film was given a TV-Y7 rating during it's first and only airing on Nickelodeon.
However, I guess Nickelodeon's vision of child-friendly horror wasn't exactly... "child-friendly"...
Here's the plot of the movie...
"Andrew and his older brother Carl enjoy listening to ghost stories that the local undertaker, Mr. Bennett, tells them. One night Bennett tells the tale of a local farmer whose wife gave birth to conjoined twins, one being good-natured while the other was clearly evil. The farmer, ashamed of them, kept the twins locked in their room. Eventually the twins got sick from a liver disease and died together, so the farmer sawed them in half and buried the good twin in a cemetery and the bad twin in a shallow grave near the house, at the end of an old dirt road called Cry Baby Lane, as whoever is caught out there at night will hear the cries of the deceased twin. Later, Andrew, Carl, and a group of friends decide to hold a séance in the cemetery where the good twin is buried, but soon after the seance, a creepy phenomenon occurs around the town. When Andrew consults Mr. Bennett about it, he confesses that when the twins were separated, the farmer mixed up the twins and tossed the good one in the field and that the good twin is crying for help, not vengeance, and the bad twin possesses nearly everyone in town, and it is up to Andrew to stop him."
...but for fuck's sake, Nickelodeon.
THAT'S NOT EVEN THE WORST OF IT! IN THE MOVIE, IN ORDER FOR ANDREW TO SEND THE EVIL TWIN BACK TO HELL, HE HAS TO DIG UP THE EVIL TWIN'S DEAD BODY AND BREAK A ROOT GROWING OUT OF IT IN ORDER TO SAVE THE TOWN...
...I need a breather...one moment...
Okay, I'm good now. Anyhow...
They actually passed this off as child-friendly?
Now, you can see why Nickelodeon only aired it once. The very next day after it aired, parents all over the United States complained about the content of the movie, rightfully so. Therefore, Nickelodeon kept the movie locked away, never to be aired again.
Over the years, Nickelodeon's stance on the movie was pretty distorted...
First, they deemed the airing of the movie as "accidental".
Then, they claimed the movie was banned.
THEN, they claimed the movie was a myth.
THEN, they claimed they had no idea what "Cry Baby Lane" was.
As you can see, Nickelodeon tried their absolute best trying to keep the movie hidden away... that didn't stop the internet from searching for it, though.
Over the years, fans around the world tried their absolute best to find evidence of the movie. Clips, images, anything they could find. Before 2011, "Cry Baby Lane" was deemed an urban legend, a myth. Every time someone tried to ask Nickelodeon about it, their stance was one of the four scenarios listed above. They really did try hard to erase any trace of the movie being real, and they did succeed for the time being. So much so, that the infamous "Cry Baby Lane" Creepypasta surfaced online. The Creepypasta wasn't that good, it contained the typical cliches that you would find in Sonic.exe or any other "lost episode" Creepypastas out there. In a nutshell, it told of some dude who worked for Nickelodeon Studios (you know, the cliche that's in almost every lost episode Creepypasta aside from "I was at a garage sale...") and was set to work on the film with the director, who, big surprise, wanted the film to have legitimate photos of dead children in the film. What a shocker... blah blah blah, the movie aired containing the dead children images and that's why it was banned.
Yeah...
Anyhow, for years on end, the movie was deemed just a myth, and Nickelodeon continued to deny that the movie existed.
That is, until the movie was found.
In 2011, someone made a post on the "Today I Learned (TIL)" subreddit on Reddit.com, describing the brief history of the then-deemed hoax. Soon enough, the post went viral, and not only that...
A Reddit user by the name "firesaladpeach" came out and said that she had a bootleg recording of the movie, telling she had no idea it was lost. After many people questioned her on whether or not she was lying, she eventually finally released the entire movie online. The original broadcast from 2000 can be seen here:
The movie was finally found in its entirety, and was no longer a hoax.
So, you might be wondering... how did Nickelodeon react to this after their previous comments? Did they try to take the movie down?
It may surprise you, but...
That's right, Nickelodeon pretty much just said "fuck it" and rebroadcasted the movie on The 90's Are All That block on TeenNick back in 2011. They decided it was a good way to bring viewers in by advertising the movie as Nickelodeon's "dark secret" and "banned from TV". Here's an actual promo from 2011:
They tried really hard to advertise this movie as a big deal, and sure enough, it worked! They even reaired it on The Splat twice on Halloween 2015 and 2016, I guess they're trying to make it as a holiday tradition. Good call, Nick. They also changed the rating from TV-Y7 to TV-PG-V for moderate violence. Once again, good call.
Here's an original promo for the movie that aired in 2000 that recently surfaced:
Anyhow, that's about it for Cry Baby Lane! I may do another RTTTA tomorrow, so look forward to that! <3
EDIT: I also forgot to insert the airing of the movie during The Splat's Nick or Treat, here's the airing in high quality: