Return to Eerie
When digital watches aren't a neat idea
Eerie Indiana – The Lost Hour, 1991
My Memory:
I think about this episode every spring when the clock’s go forward and we lose an hour. What would happen if you didn’t change your clock- and decided to keep that hour?! That’s what this episode is about… I think. I remember that the kids that didn’t turn their clocks back disappeared into their own time vortex- it was the same town, but empty. This was always a fantasy for me, what would it be like to see the world without all the people in it?! Then Covid came along and it turned out to be boring and everyone just watched the Repair Shop instead. Still, I loved this show for its crazy ideas and how it made the impossible seem possible, even for just 23 sweet minutes. Also- something about milk cartons with pictures of disappeared kids on it- what happened to them?!
The reality:
Eerie Indiana was a kids’ network show that was too weird for schedulers to know what to do with. I know it’s unusual for TV high heidyins to ever make the wrong call, but you’re going to have to believe me- they cancelled after only one series. Despite its short run, Eerie Indiana lives on as a cult hit in the memories of many Gen X/late millennials’ minds and the subsequent rise of the cool weirdo- everything from X Files, Buffy, to Stranger Things- proves that there really is an audience for this sort of thing, commissioners-out-there-who-read-this.
The series features teenager Marshall Teller who’s tragedy is that his family moved him from New Jersey to Indiana. This gritty back story means Marshall is street wise, and he can look at this perfect little suburb town and see what’s really going on. Spoiler: it’s weird. He befriends a younger kid, Simon, to team up and explore the odd stuff. They always keep a trophy from their adventure to file away in Marshall’s locked cupboard that he in no way called his X files.
According to IMDB the series was created by Jose Rivera (Motorcycle Diaries) and Karl Schaefer- (a showrunner who now show runs a Netflix show called Black Summer about zombies). And this episode was written by Ellen Degenere’s brother, Vance.
From the first shaky notes of the harmonica, I’m feeling the warm and fuzzies of childhood nostalgia. Why is it the only time you hear the harmonica is in Westerns and prison movies? It’s got that foreboding other worldly quality to it. So off the bat we know we’re in for a sinister time in Eerie Indiana. The title sequence references lots of spooky twilight zone/ early horror film imagery which must have meant nothing to me at the time, but still found its way into my primordial soup brain tagged #popculture.
Let’s get to Marshall and his narration. Marshall, 13, is clearly very cool and any kid (or any kid watching this) would bulldoze their own grandmother to be in his club. His voiceover feels like he’s letting you in on his deepest darkest secrets. I can see why this was so compelling to kids- you’re always in on the joke. Having said that, I also wanted to be part of Rolf’s Cartoon Club, so maybe I’m not so discerning.
Marshall is itemising some of the spooky stuff he’s found in his town. It’s really hard to believe this came out BEFORE the X Files. Marshall has serious proto- Mulder energy. “Item: Elvis is on my paper round. Item: Big Foot eats out of my trash. Item: Even man’s best friend is weird.”
Ok slight nit-pick, but if you’re starting with Elvis, moving to Big Foot you can’t just end with a dog chasing its tale. The third one needs to be the topper! For example- Item: UFOs land in my yard, item: my teacher can squeeze through drainpipes, item: Donald Trump is president. (Ha, comin’ atcha with the politics).
Marshall’s parents enter the picture and I’m reminded of how in America everyone’s dad is a middle aged, bespectacled bore, and their moms are much younger, more attractive manic-pixie-dream-moms. You spend half the episode wondering how they got together. Is there an original writer out there somewhere whose parents this trope is based on? The Wheelers from Stranger Things are the worst offenders and it’s never ever mentioned. Having said all that, Marshall’s mom (Who is also Dawson’s mom in da Creek!) seems cool and that’s how I think I look in an oversized checked shirt.
Here comes the premise! It’s almost midnight and Marshall and Simon (his Watson to Marshall’s Holmes) don’t want to go to sleep. They’re busy drinking milk and watching a tiny TV in Marshall’s bedroom. Aww sleepovers at 13 are cute!
Marshall’s dad is laying down the law- time to go to sleep, and oh yeah the state of Indiana doesn’t do daylight saving like everyone else so they DON’T change their clocks back. Marshall is annoyed that they won’t get an extra hour. “We’ve been Eerified again!” shouts Simon. I have no idea about American geography so I don’t know if this is a fun joke or not.
We’re introduced to a milk carton and the concept of missing children photographed on the side. It’s been almost exactly a year since Janet Dorner, 13, went missing, how intriguing…
Marshall is setting his digital watch back- he’s determined to get his extra hour. Digital clocks get a bad rep in TV and film, mainly because of their affinity to home-made bombs. Douglas Adams criticized the whole human species for not getting over how ‘neat’ they are. But did you know they are keys to other dimensions?
Because of the episode length, things in Eerie move pretty fast- Marshall wakes up and everyone has disappeared. He meets extremely creepy bin men, who don’t talk, but are tasked with capturing lost people, killing them, and dumping them in their garbage truck, although the show doesn’t go into details. (Just going to point out here that Eerie Indiana also predates The Matrix.)
Marshall is saved by a mad milk man (think Doc Brown in Back to the Future, which did come BEFORE the show in chronological time, but also travelled to the time after the show in fiction time). Not-Doc seems to have all the answers- “Everybody is here, but not exactly right now.” This is reiterated in several ways, to which Marshall reacts by saying “nah, really?” in a way I’m not sure if he’s taking the piss or just acting like a cool 90s kid.
There is some heavy exposition needed to get through this. Of course Janet the missing girl is also here. She also changed her clock back! I feel like there should be other random people here if that’s all it takes. Not just rebel teens, but maybe some tired mums, travelling sales people who didn’t realise they were in Indiana, some guy who doesn’t know how to work his digital watch?! Anyway Not-Doc says “Through some fluke of physics you’re the only one that can save the girl!” Okay, that’s pretty lame, but let’s keep going.
Meanwhile to Marshall’s family it seems like he’s completely disappeared. Simon is trying to cover up for him- which is very noble and loyal of Simon- but he doesn’t know Marshall is in grave danger! Not so much Ride or Die, as Ride AND Die, Simon!
Marshall is instructed to look through the back window of the milk van- and low and behold he’s now looking out of the picture on the milk carton! He can even wave and shout to Simon! This makes no sense at all, but it IS cool so everybody calm down.
When Marshall tracks down Janet, she’s apparently spent her year playing pinball and being a rebel without a cause. I get that she’s supposed to be cool, but I wonder about Janet’s mental health after spending a full year here. She seems to have some libertarian leanings. Marshall’s obviously hoping for a sweet inter dimensional romance, but really he’s been stuck with a female Joe Rogan.
Anyway, they escape the agents from the Matrix and Marshall persuades Janet to look into the milk van and see her family, at which point she remembers that she kinda likes them after all. The milk man tells them how to get back - just set their watches right in the same place they stood. Keep it simple, stupid!
Janet kisses Marshall and they promise to see each other in the other Eerie.
Now Marshall just needs to tell Simon how to use his over complicated digital watch that he left at home. Uh oh! I knew these fiddly devils bracelets were nothing but trouble! Simon presses tiny buttons heroically and gets Marshall home just in time! (Ooh that was a fun pun!)
Weird twist I didn’t see coming- Marshall realises that the crazy milk man is the future version of himself!
“Cool!” Marshall says. No, Marshall! We all know you grow up to be Fox Mulder and ditch Simon for a cynical red head! But what really did happen to Marshall- or rather Omri Katz- the charismatic teen actor?
I know from googling novelty acts from Top of the Pop reruns that you should never look up people from the old time! It will only lead to great sadness!
Still- I couldn’t help myself-and according to online sources Omri Katz now runs a cannabis company called The Mary Danksters who “represent positivity, herb and unity.” If that’s true, then it’s as close to a happy ever after ending that a child actor in Hollywood could hope for.
Does it hold up?
It’s a yes from me. I didn’t quite remember the intricacies (or lack of) from the plot. I totally forgot about the trash guys and the romantic rebel girl. The bit that stuck out for me was the ability to see the same boring town from a new exciting perspective. The freedom to do what you want, drive your dad’s car around, play pinball. Those are the feelings that stuck with me. Obviously I failed to learn any of the lessons from this (like freedom comes with bad trash guys). But the cast are charming, the ideas are exciting and if they could have waited a couple of years and rebranded as X Files JNR we could have had more than a one hit wonder.