Trivia / Freaky Stories

• Adored by the Network: YTV loved the series to bits. Its pilot episode received heavy amounts of hype and promotion, with reruns being a regular part of the schedule for many years after it ended and quick segments from random episodes being used as filler after movies or between other TV shows whenever such was needed. Even though Decode pulled funding with the third season, YTV would've killed for more episodes.
• Contest Winner Cameo: The photo of the little girl that can be seen in the background of the diner set for the Larry and Maurice puppets was the winner of a 1998 contest held as a promotional collaboration with Pop-Tarts to get the chance to appear on the show. However, due to Animation Lead Time (and the fact the show dropped the diner set for the human actors after the first season), she didn't actually get the chance to appear on the show as planned, so the staff opted for having a photo of her appear in the background of every episode and invited the girl and her family to see the behind-the-scenes production of the puppets' set.
• Creator Backlash: Steve Schnier strongly disliked the fanmail segments of Season 2, saying "they took away from the stories, added no value, and ate up ideas."
• Creator Cameo: That photo of the two chefs in the Ted's Diner set? Creator Steve Schnier and set designer Ted Bastille (after whom the diner was named)!
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Steve Schnier considers his favorite stories to be "Mixed Nuts", "Stolen Lunchbox", "Jaxx in a Box", "Break a Leg", "Femme Fatale", "The Suspect", and "The Lodger" (the last of which he has described "the ultimate Freaky Story").
• Directed by Cast Member: The Canadian French dub was directed by Benoît Marleau, who also voiced Larry.
• Executive Meddling: The fan mail segments of Season 2 came about because of this. US broadcaster Fox Family wanted to get more commercial airtime during episodes and needed segments that could be easily cut out without interrupting the flow. Thus, they requested the addition of an easily removable fan mail segment, much to the annoyance of the Canadian production staff. Tellingly, the Canadians were quick to get rid of these segments after Fox Family dropped the show during its third season.
• He Also Did: Series creator Steve Schnier was the 2014 Guinness World Record holder for owner of the World's Largest Pair of Googly Eyes.
• No Export for You:
  • Fox Family aired each individual story as part of their Animated Anthology shows, so viewers south of the border didn’t get to see Larry or Maurice. The diner did appear, but only in the title card. Unfortunately, they also ended up dropping the series after Season 2, which soon led to its cancellation; Season 3 is only 9 episodes as opposed to 13, as that's what Decode was willing to finance.
  • The individual stories were broadcast in-between commercials or to fill time in Latin America's Cartoon Network, to the point where many aren't aware they were attached to something else entirely.
• Only So Many Canadian Actors: The voice actors for the hosts, as well as virtually every one of the narrators featured in each segment, are composed of prominent Toronto-based actors and voice artists who have appeared in dozens of others live-action and animated TV shows and movies produced in Canada, including the likes of Alyson Court, Chris Wiggins, Don Francks, Jonathan Wilson, and Benedict Campbell.
• The Other Darrin: Larry de Bug was voiced and puppeteered by James Rankin in the show proper, but for the series pilot, Gord Robertson (most famous for voicing Zoboomafoo) did the character (Rankin was originally scheduled for the gig, but the Larry puppet used in the pilot was too small for his hands, forcing the producers to quickly replace him with Robertson).
• What Could Have Been: In TheCartoonGamer8000's interview with series creator Steve Schnier, quite a lot has been revealed:
  • The series was going to be an anthology of fairy tales from around the world. However, Schnier found that many of the folk stories he researched were quite violent but also too interesting to be bowdlerized for kids TV, inspiring him to instead make a show about urban legends - aka the modern-day equivalent of folktales.
  • The show was previously pitched to CBC and CTV before YTV ultimately picked it up.
  • Steve Schnier originally wanted every story to be animated by a different artist from a different part of Canada. While this idea was ultimately scrapped, almost no two episodes have the same writer or composer, with many of them coming from as far away from Toronto or Ottawa (where most of the show's production was set) as you can imagine.
  • Steve Schnier originally wanted the series intro to be the show's title being screamed out loud (in the vein of the song "Devil's Haircut" by Beck), but in his words, "wiser minds prevailed".
  • As seen in the series pilot, Larry was originally a solo host, and he hung out at a zoo instead of a diner. He told the stories himself to viewers, with the stories presented as still animatics instead of a full 4-minute cartoon. The decision to create Maurice the Maggot came about as a result of realizing that Larry needed somebody to play off with for the show proper.
  • Executive Meddling proposed replacing the puppets with CGI animation (done by Mainframe Entertainment!) as a cost-cutting measure (a single day of shooting could cost 50 thousand!). Fortunately, Steve Schnier managed to convince them to keep the puppets by showing an original tape of Maurice sliding up to the camera and saying "Larry, teach me how to be charming" as copious amounts of slime dribbled from his mouth, which not only caused the executives to burst into laughter but also convinced them that the puppets were able to do things CGI versions of the characters could not.
  • The final Freaky Story, "The Lodger", was originally going to just end with the twist of the mystery inn guest being Santa Claus, but on the night before recording, Steve Schnier (who wrote the episode) quickly threw in the double twist of the real Santa being kidnapped and replaced by Jack the Ripper in a flash of inspiration.
• Working Title: Urban Legends. According to Steve Schnier, it was YTV that suggested the Freaky Stories name, although he has admitted in hindsight, it helped the show in the long run, as the writers quickly ran out of real urban legends to adapt and found the new title gave them more leeway in terms of what stories they tell.
• Write Who You Know:
  • Larry 's name and appearance was based on Steve Schnier's friend and fellow animation director Larry Jacobs. Meanwhile, Maurice was based on an unpleasant boss that Steve had while working at Nelvana (where he first met Larry Jacobs when the two worked on The Magic School Bus).
  • Several stories were based on actual incidents in Steve's life or to members of Steve's family.
    • The segment about the cabbie and the elephant was based on something that had genuinely happened to Steve's own father, right down to the license number of the taxi involved. Supposedly, Steve's parents were initially unhappy with him choosing to adapt the story, as for them, it had proven a major financial struggle (the elephant had crushed the back of the cab and they were unable to convince the insurance agent of their story), but they ultimately came to like it.
    • The one about the girl who went to the grape juice factory and saw a classmate hock a loogie into the juice vats was based on a real event from Steve's childhood. Steve has admitted that like the girl, he hasn't drank grape juice since then.
    • The story of the doctor who accidentally leaves a fecal sample in his coat pocket when going to a play was based on an incident that happened to an uncle of Steve's, retold with his permission.

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