Henry Winkler Executive Produced One Of The Best Supernatural Sci-Fi Shows For Kids

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In the late 1990s, Disney and Henry Winkler teamed up to create "So Weird," which was essentially The Disney Channel's answer to "The X-Files." The show was produced by The Fonz himself and followed the exploits of a self-possessed, determined young girl as she traveled the United States aboard her musician mother's tour bus, encountering all manner of supernatural occurrences along the way. It was much darker than the standard Disney Channel fare of the time, but this was the '90s, and genuinely scary kids entertainment was par for the course. 

I might be biased, but '90s kids TV really was unbeatable. For whatever reason, kids shows of the era weren't afraid to lean into darker themes and mature storylines that made an entire generation feel as if they weren't being talked down to by their on-screen heroes. It can be seen in everything from the film noir-inspired, dark deco vibes of "Batman: The Animated Series" to the many '90s kids horror shows that are still somehow scarier than you remember.

"Are You Afraid of the Dark?," "Goosebumps," "Tales from the Cryptkeeper;" heck, even the "Stranger Things"-like spooky sci-fi show "Eerie, Indiana" was consistently creepy in a way that made us all feel as if we probably shouldn't be allowed to watch. It was truly a golden age. But amidst the glut of shows collectively responsible for inducing many of our earliest nightmares, there were several less successful examples that were often just as good. Their ranks included the lesser-known R. L. Stine horror series "The Nightmare Room," which frequently matched the quality of Stine's best-known work. Then, there was "So Weird," Disney's attempt to ape the success of "Goosebumps" and "Are You Afraid of the Dark?"

You don't often hear "So Weird" mentioned among the many kids shows of yesteryear that covered extremely dark topics. But it's as worthy of praise as both "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" and "Goosebumps." That said, unlike those shows, "So Weird" wasn't an anthology series, though it did feature a new paranormal-entity-of-the-week with each episode. The show aired from January 1999 to September 2001 and starred Cara DeLizia as Fiona "Fi" Phillips, a teen girl whose rockstar mom, Molly Phillips (Mackenzie Phillips), tours the United States via bus. Fi and Molly are joined on said bus by Fi's super-skeptical brother Jack (Patrick Levis), Molly's band manager Irene (Belinda Metz), Irene's husband Ned (Dave Ward), and Ned and Irene's son Clu (Erik von Detten), who accompanies Fi on her many paranormal investigations.

"So Weird" is dark in the sense it tackles adult themes — most notably grief. It's definitely a horror show you can watch with the whole family, but Fi's fascination with the supernatural is mostly propelled by the fact her father died in a car accident when she was three years old. Later in the series, she discovers he was just as interested in unearthly phenomena and ultimately died as a result.

Unlike other kids horror series of the time, "So Weird" was much more reminiscent of "The X-Files," with Fi investigating strange goings-on à la Gillian Anderson's Dana Scully. There was also an obvious attempt to capitalize on the rising popularity of the internet at the time, with Fi communicating with like-minded individuals through her "So Weird" website. With the help of Clu and her online community, Fi dealt with everything from alien invasions to ghosts, Bigfoot, gremlins, angels, and even cults. Then, she left the show altogether.

Cara DeLizia exited "So Weird" after two seasons, so the show's writers reworked things to revolve around Annie Thelen (Alexz Johnson), a friend of the family who comes to live with the Phillips. But the third season of "So Weird" also saw the series become more lighthearted, thereby capturing the shift away from the darker '90s kids horror trend. "So Weird" was canceled after that, becoming yet another victim of the dreaded Disney Channel 65-episode rule. Nevertheless, it left a respectable legacy as one of the last great kids horror shows of the era, and it remains beloved by those who saw it during its original run.

Henry Winkler, whose company Fair Dinkum Productions produced "So Weird," remains fond of the show, too. According to the book "Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel's Tween Empire" (via People), Winkler was partly inspired to work on "So Weird" by his own belief in the supernatural. After losing his "treasured ID bracelet" in Central Park and ultimately finding it again, the actor credited a "higher power" for helping him retrieve his beloved bracelet and had always "believed since [he] was that age that [he] will be in the vicinity when aliens land on the Earth, and they will be friendly." No wonder the actor spoke enthusiastically of "So Weird" during a 2024 episode of the "Smartless" podcast.

For those that missed it at the time, all three seasons of "So Weird" are available to watch on Disney+. For a long time after its finale aired, the show was unavailable, but it has since returned for the streaming age to nourish your inner '90s child.