By now, we've established that Australian kids' shows have a history of being cooked. We've talked about the fever dream that was Parallax, the questionable design of Coredor from Plasmo and how terrifying Jeopardy actually was.
Today, we're deep diving into another relic from the '00s era — Grizzly Tales For Gruesome Kids.
Called Grizzly Tales for short, the episodes were adapted from a book series of the same name by Jamie Rix. They often were cautionary tales centred around naughty children being taught a lesson in some spectacularly gruesome ways.
But that's just it — even though it was based on children's novels and marketed as a kids' show, Grizzly Tales was TERRIFYING.
Like, I distinctly remember an episode called "The Barber Of Civil", where this hairdresser chopped off the tongues of children who were being rude and foul-mouthed.
Or, what about the one with the boy who tortured spiders and in retaliation, they entered his body and spun WEBS along his RIBS.
Truth be told, the creepy cinema introduction was fairly spooky in its own right.
It definitely set the mood, with the lightening and the whole random taps you on the back and hands you a mysterious box of goodies before slinking away and cackling vibe.
Not to mention, that the "snacks" always turned out to be an assortment of delicious, uh, slugs, worms, beetles — you know, all the creepy crawlies.
Which would then be eaten, by this poor, young, naive boy.
We would then be welcomed by this frightening caretaker, who would provide commentary on all the episodes.
As well as his spider companion, Spindleshanks, who was was probably the least scary thing about this series.
Now, normally I'm the first to scream at a spider — but this little thing, with that adorable smile? Nah, he's cute.
Even though the majority of the episodes were pure nightmare fuel, there was something about Grizzly Tales that I loved as a kid and kept me coming back for more.
So anyway, here's an ode to another cooked kids' show that graced Australian screens, as well as to all the "loverrrrs of SQUUUEEEM" who watched it during their childhoods.
