Ghosts, zombies and monsters come to life every week in October as Nickelodeon celebrates the spookiest month of the year with the premiere of DEADTIME STORIES, a brand-new, half-hour series, scaring on Thursday, Oct. 3, at 8 p.m. (ET/PT). The single-camera show stars Jennifer Stone (Wizards of Waverly Place) as "The Babysitter," who shares stories from her collection of creepy tales with children every week. Deadtime Stories is based on the popular eponymous children's book series, and chronicles kids' eerie encounters, from hauntings to monsters to Supernatural occurrences. The series will premiere every Thursday at 8 p.m. (ET/PT), with two back-to-back episodes on Nickelodeon.
"Deadtime Stories offers a mysterious element that complements our comedy-filled programing," said Russell Hicks, Nickelodeon's President of Content Development and Production. "Fans of the popular book series will delight in seeing their favorite haunted tales jump off the pages and onto the screen."
In each episode of Deadtime Stories, kids embark on different thrilling adventures with ghostly tales, including a grave with something unusual buried inside, a wishing game gone awry and a magic kit with irreversible tricks. The series is created by the Hillenbrand brothers and the Cascone sisters and distributed by DHX Media. David and Scott Hillenbrand have a long track record across multiple genres including extensive work on hit kids shows such as Spider-Man (Animated), Sweet Valley High and Power Rangers, while Annette and Gina Cascone have an equally long track record of writing spine tingling tales for middle grade and young adult readers.
"We are thrilled to be working with
Nickelodeon to bring this wonderfully engaging book series to life. We are excited to have the incredibly talented Jennifer Stone anchoring the show; and it has been a pleasure working with all of the young performers and established veteran actors throughout the series," said series producers, David and Scott Hillenbrand.
In the series premiere, "Invasion of the Appleheads," Katie and Andy attend their town's famous haunted hayride, where legend says locals were turned into zombies. When the siblings see people acting strangely, they have to find a way to save the town before history repeats itself. Immediately following is "Along Came a Spider," where best friends, Mikey and Max, stumble upon an old science kit and discover that some of the animals in the kit are not quite as dead as they seem.
The popular Deadtime Stories book series written by the Cascones, originally included 17 titles and has sold over 2 million copies. It is has been republished and released in hardcover, paperback and digital by major publisher Tor Books/Starscape, a division of the Macmillan Group, in addition to
Being carried by Scholastic.
About Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon, now in its 34th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books, and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in almost 100 million households and has been the number-one-rated basic cable network for 18 consecutive years.
Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB).
About DHX Media
DHX Media (www.dhxmedia.com) is a leader in the creation, production and licensing of family entertainment rights. DHX Media owns markets and distributes 8,500 half hours of children's entertainment content, and exploits owned properties through its consumer products licensing business. DHX Media is recognized for brands such as Caillou, Busytown Mysteries, Inspector Gadget, Johnny Test, Animal Mechanicals, Kid vs. Kat, Super WHY!, Rastamouse, and Yo Gabba Gabba. The company also provides programming for Cookie Jar TV, the weekend morning block on CBS. DHX Media's full-service international licensing agency, Copyright Promotions Licensing Group, (CPLG), represents numerous entertainment, sport and design brands. DHX Media has offices in Toronto, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Halifax, London, Paris, Barcelona, Lisbon, Milan, Munich, Netherlands and DHX Media is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
About the Hillenbrand Brothers and Cascone Sisters.
David and Scott Hillenbrand are known for creating and delivering audience-pleasing entertainment across multiple genres and delivering high quality productions for the targeted demographics. The brothers have been involved in thousands of hours of episodic television and numerous feature films. They have extensive experience in the kids & family genre working on shows such as The Adventures of Oliver Twist (UPN), Pinocchio (HBO), Spiderman (Fox/Marvel), Space Cats (NBC), X-men (Marvel/Fox) and
Power Rangers (FOX). The brothers were excited to team up with the "Twisted Sisters" Annette and Gina Cascone who have written more than twenty-eight books and two movies together. Their books include young adult thrillers, as well as the Deadtime Stories series for middle-grade readers. They have also produced and written numerous books for series packagers such as Parachute Publishing, where they worked on the mega-successful R.L. Stine series.
