Channel 21: A Horror Story Concept

So, I've been recently watching those "Local 58" videos on You Tube and I have to admit that I enjoy them and I find the concept of it all very intriguing.

I sort of wanted to do my own spin on the concept but in a story format and I'm looking for advice on how to do it.

The premise of the story is that there is a local cable access channel in some rural backwoods area back in the 1990's or early 2000's, and this cable access channel is only carried by a small independent cable provider.

During the daytime they only air local advertisements or informercials, so nobody really pays any attention to it. During the safe harbor hours at night, the channel starts airing bizarre and sinister programming, which forms the basis of the story.

The story is kind of like an anthology with the framing device being the protagonist staying up all night and watching the channel out of a mix of boredom and insomnia.

They turn the TV to the local cable access station, thinking it will just be things like local announcements and informercials that could serve as background noise to fall asleep to.

Unlike the Local 58 videos where there seems to be an implied overarching narrative, the format of Channel 21 is a lot more varied. Think along the lines of Robot Chicken but horror instead of comedy. I might include some sort of overarching plot arc later on, but for now it's a collection of short stories based on the programs on Channel 21

The first story is titled "OVA" and it's apparently a low-budget anime OVA from the 1980's or 1990's, complete with the rampant violence, bizarre plots, and bad dialogue that you'd expect from an early 90's OVA dub. Remember old anime like Ninja Scroll or Angel Cop? Yeah, this OVA makes those titles look like something from Studio Ghibli.

The second story is titled "Paid Programming" and it concerns a weird informercial that never really reveals what it's advertising and gets creepier as it goes along.

The third story is titled "Bloopers and Blunders" and the program in question is one of those cheap rip-offs of America's Funniest Home Videos that were popular back in the early 90's. The videos in question become more disturbing at each turn and would include footage of historical disasters like the Hindenburg, the assassination of Robert Kennedy, and nuclear weapons tests from the 1950's. The host also becomes more manic and unhinged after each video is played.

It would be a trilogy of sorts and what I am wondering is if there is any potential in the idea and how would I best go about conveying a TV broadcast in a text-based story?

Any feedback or constructive criticism is welcome.

Edited by NinjaGoth on Jul 13th 2019 at 6:38:58 AM

Sounds somewhat reminiscent of "Welcome to Nightvale", the radio show, except using TV instead of a radio station.

I will have to check that story out, never heard of it before.

Also, I came up with some more programming, possibly for a second arc.

One of the programs is a midnight movie called Dusk of the Dead.

The program is supposedly a zombie horror film from the early 1980's that was a cheap foreign mockbuster of both Dawn of the Dead and The Warriors. The dialogue is once more cheap and poor quality, on par with the OVA and apparently the film was dubbed into English using the same cast of voice actors.

Both the anime OVA and Dusk of the Dead were distributed and dubbed in the early 90's by a Chicago-based company called Sayre Park Media.

Sayre Park Media was a very small outfit and was shut down in 2000 shortly before a major police crackdown on a street gang, with indictments for gunrunning, extortion, drug trafficking, and money laundering.

Another program is a public access program titled "Local Forum"

Local Forum is a call-in TV program with a focus on politics and current events. As the program progresses, the show gets calls from different callers spouting strange conspiracy theories and trolling. However, the host of the show does not cut off the callers, but actively engages them in conversations and arguments.

Local Forum is like a TV-based hybrid of Coast To Coast AM and True Capitalist Radio but with a heavy dose of nightmare fuel.

The next program is a low-budget children's program called "The Magic Coal Mine"

The Magic Coal Mine is a live-action show from the early 90's that was greenlit to cash in on the success of Shining Time Station and was mining-themed as opposed to the railroad-themed Shining Time Station.

The children on the show like to talk to a magical being known as Mr. Foreman.

Mr. Foreman would often tell stories to the children (depicted by animated segments) that were themed around infamous conspiracy theories such as the JFK assassination, the "Deep State" conspiracies, Area 51, World War III, and the faking of the Moon Landing.

Mr. Foreman was apparently played by two actors, both seem to be obscure and were credited under obvious pseudonyms.

The first actor bore a striking resemblance to Oystein "Euronymous" Aarseth, the late guitarist of the black metal band Mayhem who was murdered in 1993. Chillingly, this actor spoke with a pronounced Scandinavian accent.

The second actor heavily resembles the comedian Bill Hicks in both appearance and his voice.

When it comes to Welcome to Night Vale, the way I tend to describe it is to imagine that little of town in the middle of nowhere where all the weird stuff happens... then imagine what its public news radio must sound like.

"Have any of our listeners seen the glowing cloud that has been moving in from the west?"

Interesting, I'll check it out.

So, what do you all think of my TV concept and programming ideas for this story?

Edited by NinjaGoth on Jul 13th 2019 at 1:47:44 PM

I'd Love to see it

Thanks, I will be posting the first few chapters of it tomorrow and I'll share the links if you all are interested.

That sounds awesome. I love horror, and this concept intrigues me.

Thanks.

I haven't been able to post anything yet but I do have some rough drafts written down in Word.

I am truly excited. This kind of thing is my jam.

I'm glad

Hm, would you want there to be some form of over-arching narrative?

What I would suggest (and take or leave this idea as you desire): The TV station is haunted, an alien broadcast, or some eldritch being. Something not necessarily malevolent (possibly even benevolent), but very alien and very creepy. It wishes to warn the town about something, but because it's so weird it can really only communicate in extremely cryptic and creepy imagery.

I like that idea a lot and I actually have been working on an over-arching narrative about an ancient conspiracy with all sorts of subsidiary organizations.

Channel 21 and its bizarre programming would be linked to it as a sort of "testing ground" for things like subliminal messages or predictive programming, and I could tie in your idea of a strange otherwordly entity into the conspiracy narrative (maybe the conspiracy serves the entity or the entity opposes the organization's goals and is creating a schism within its ranks?)

We see a similar over-arching narrative with Channel 21's direct inspiration Local 58, except the narrative in that is a lot more direct and closely intertwined.

I had the idea of a conspiratorial Greater-Scope Villain to serve as a contrast to the Cosmic Horror approach of Local 58, while at the same time achieving that same sense of helplessness and dread that the Cosmic Horror genre is supposed to invoke (only done with political conspiracies instead of eldritch otherworldly beings)

Hey, sorry for the thread necromancy but seeing as that Local 58 is back, I think I need to revisit this idea and see it through.

I've also got an idea for another program in the lineup of Channel 21, a historical documentary that is similar to the ones done by Ken Burns. However, it presents some sort of weird alternate history rife with conspiracy theories and events that outright did not happen in real life, with the implication being that this is a program from an alternate timeline or parallel universe that somehow made it over to our side of existence.

Forgive me if this offends you, but this reminds me of modern day History Channel-what with their shows being about how history was how aliens were looking after us and whatnot.

While I am not rolling my eyes out with the concept of Channel 21, some others might.

I'm not offended at all. The decay of History Channel actually inspired that particular idea.

(Sadly, even that's gone from History Channel so they can make room for more reality shows and reruns of American Pickers)