As an Australian who grew up with this show as a kid. Let me just say: The scary and disturbing content in this show was very VERY tame, compared to other Australian kids shows of the time. Shows like "Lift Off" and "Plasmo" come to mind. That being said. I loved this show.
At school in South Australia in the 90s, they made us watch the pissing contest episode. With over twenty years of hindsight, I still can't imagine why they did that.
As an Australian who both loves your channel and loves this show, I’m so excited to see you discussing it here! It was a pillar of our childhoods, and is either loved or hated 😂 One thing is certain: the theme song absolutely slaps !!
There's a whole generation of kids in the UK that can hear the first four notes of the theme song and suddenly there's "Have you ever? Ever felt like this? Have strange things happened, are you going round the twist!" riding around their head, doing skids, popping wheelies and kerbie-endoes, all day.
A very iconic show for us Australians, it was definitely a part of my childhood. I have a vivid memory of the scarecrow episode where my friend actually left the room because it terrified him. Definitely had a lot of scenes you couldn't have in childrens program now, whirly willy for one. But happy you've got to see it, very nostalgic video for me, thank you
Oh, I adored Round the Twist as a child!! I wrote so many stories inspired by the episode where Pete kisses a tree spirit and becomes pregnant with her baby and spent most of my days wishing we would move to a lighthouse
That show kind of reminds me of Eerie Indiana. It has a similar concept with a family moving to a small town with odd occurrences. It was created in part by Joe Dante the director of Gremlins and The Burbs.
OMG! I was *obsessed* with that show. Better than Goosebumps or Are You Afraid of the Dark? imho. And Marshall was so adorable. Watching him go from Eerie to Salem was a bit of a mind twist for young me.
@@lauratruxillo6264 I will say it depends on the episode. There are a few of AYAotD that are just classic young horror, but I remember more Eerie eps, and they rarely went too far.
Thank you, Roses, for making me spit out part of my dinner with that REO Speedwagon clip. The comedic timing was perfect and I lost it! Happy I had a napkin nearby! This seems like a show I would have loved as a kid with the goofy humor and accents. Even Little Candy loved accents. Thanks for the laughs!
In terms of these kind of weird stories for kids, I remember being obsessed with eerie indiana as a kid, my mom showed it to me and it became *the* show I watched on saturday mornings. I feel like I remember always feeling bad for the characters at the end of things primarily but it's been a hot minute so I don't remember alot of things specifically anymore
I don't remember anything about it except being horrified by one episode where the main character's friend gets hit by a truck or some shit and this girl gets a heart transplant from him and gets possessed or something, it was so bizarrely dark for a kids show.
Hey there, I’m Mark and live in Australia. I loved this when I was kid and teenager. It really got me into fantasy. I also it probably the most Australian show without doing all that aussie over the top stuff. It makes it a really humble show. In the 90s there was a few comics written based off stories from the show and I really loved to read them when the show wasn’t on. Here are recommended stories. “Nails” is a really good one. Freaked me out with the some what body horror of it. “The copy” is one I may of had my 1st cry at something on TV. And finally “pink bow tie” is one I loved as a kid and it’s one on the comics strips I read. It’s got a great story structure. There are so many other episodes I could talk about but I will leave it at that. I enjoy all your videos and I have myself got into murder she wrote. Stay spooky
S2 E10 "Yuckles" in which a rare breed of mushroom can copy any object (or lifeform) and would eventually explode into glue like gunk. It was the photograph of the explorer that found them first, featuring his identical twin, that had mysteriously vanished, is what scared me most. Essentially a child-friendly version of "The Thing" which central premise, utterly terrified my developing brain as a child.
Thank you for covering this, I adored this show and Jennings' books growing up. Fun fact I don't think was mentioned in here was the actress for the first Linda, Tamsin West sung the theme tune :)
The episode with the fox and the lemon tree was the one that lived in my head rent-free for years. It took me so long to find this show because the Dutch name is different from the original.
Yeah, I have very vague memories of the show in general, but that one episode I could describe in pretty good detail. I don't think I've even seen it more than once. It's just there, permanently lodged in my brain.
I’m so happy you’re finally tackling this show. It was a proper institution of Australian kids TV in the ‘90s, as was the writing of Paul Jennings. Both were huge parts of my childhood. I hope it’s a show you might explore more in future, because there is so much to talk about in it, even in the post-Jennings seasons.
I used to watch Around the Twist as a kid in the UK. I was quite small, so I don't remember it very well. Your episode actually provides more detail than I'm able to recall on my own. I remember one episode that took place in a lighthouse haunted by a ghost. At first the kids thought the ghost was out to get them, but it turned out he was actually friendly. I also remember the water spirit covered in your episode. But the main episode I remember was one where one of the kids got a hold of a TV remote that could pause, rewind, and fast forward people in real life. It was wacky and fun to think about. And who could forget the theme song? It's super catchy!
Omg memory unlocked!!! And yes, that theme song was so good... Sadly I only remember one episode, when the youngest twist shaved with a magical razor and started to grow and grow a beard till he was becoming cousin it, the solution was to have eldest twist shave with it and then the youngest, so the order was restored... Yes, it was a vengeful and strict razor
As an Australian, you can never convince me that Round The Twist is not both Horror and Comedy at the same time. However weird it seems now, I was always excited to watch it as a kid
Oh my god, yes! This is the show that has been bugging me for ages now. I remember going on vacation with my family one summer back in the early/mid 90s and sitting in the hotel room watching Fox Kids. I didnt know what the name of the show was, and the only things I could remember was someone microwaving some underwear and a frog contest where a large frog was squashed by a smaller one after it landed on it. Those things always stuck with me, and when I tried looking up to see what the show was, I kept getting directed to Eerie, Indiana. I am so happy that I can put a name these memories. Thanks!
I haven't seen this show in over 25 years, but I do remember certain episodes, such as a curse that made the older brother say "without my pants" in every sentence, the older sister falling for a boy with a skin condition (who turns out to be a merman) and the lengthy story arc involving the little brother trying to make his feet as stinky as possible to ward off a bunch of bullies from hurting his magical friend. (At least that's how I remember it; I also remember the kid's plan is thwarted when he ends up falling feet-first into a puddle, completely cleansing the grime he built up and erasing the smell.)
Watched this as a kid and am still haunted by a body horror episode where a kid keeps growing additional finger nails. - come to think of it the episode may be called 'nails'...
This show aired in France too, and back then, it left a big impression on me, especially the episode with the remote control. Thank you for another great video.
As an Australian who grew up watching and loving this show in the 90’s, only the first and second seasons count in my eyes as they were based on Jennings short stories and were filmed 2 years apart and only the child actors changed where the 3rd and 4th seasons were filmed over 10years later and the tone is more childlike
The clips from "Know All" hit me like a freight train oh my god. I definitely saw it as a kid but just remembered a lot of the imagery as a weird fever dream and don't remember anything else about the show. Wow!
YOOOOOOOOOO this show did not leave my mind since I saw a couple parts as a small child in melbourne in like 1999 or something because they absolutely terrified me! Specifically the scene of the toad eating the frogs, and the lint monster in general. As an adult I see how unrealistic they are, but until literally this video I was convinced they literally filmed a real life toad eating real life frogs and aired it on child's television, and I always had such a visceral reaction to the memory that I was too terrified to try and find it years later. Thanks for the nostalgia trip!
Good lord. That scarecrow clown chase was way scarier than it needed to be. I mean, Scarecrow Clown That’s freaking scary on it’s own. I was actually flipping out when he slammed into the door then broke through the window. It was terrifying 😅
I loved My Teacher Is An Alien! Those books were so fundamental to me, and peak Coville-wacky, sometimes gross, but always about compassion and empathy. The fourth one…yeah there are some scenes there that haunt me. They’re not goofy at all. The kids tour the planet looking at the best and worst of humanity and it gets rough. I’m surprised “Nails” wasn’t one of the episodes you covered since it’s the only one that I really remember In a similar vein, did you ever watch “Eerie, Indiana?”
A staple of 90’s Aussie television for kids. Surprisingly enough, for all the weird, scary, and kooky it brings, it was tame by comparison to some other things we had running around the same time. Always good memories with this show.
Growing up in north-west Victoria, Round the Twist was an absolute pillar of my childhood. It was one of the few shows that I'd watch with my older siblings and I was happy to discover the works of Paul Jennings a couple of years after I saw the show. Two episodes that have always stayed with me are Without My Pants (an adaptation of Jennings' "Without A Shirt") and Little Black Balls (I'll never forget the "Ten Years on Bread and Water" chant, plus it features a goat, which is fun).
As a 40-year-old brit, I absolutely loved this show growing up and I somehow remembered the peeing contest to this day even though I've never seen it since. I can see from this review it was bursting with creativity and humour and had an absolute banger of a theme song.
Loved the Lint Monster episode. It's scary fun. The reason the cast changed so much was because there was an 8 year gap between seasons 1 and 2 and seasons 3 and 4. The show was so popular overseas they went back and made another 2 seasons!
That frog explosion is the greatest ending to a show I ever seen. I forgot a watched this show as a kid, I taught it was a dream than I heard the intro and has flashbacks
I have the season 1 disk of this show and also studied it in primary school. I specifically remember the story about the kid feeding lemons to a fox fleapelt to bring it back to life and giving it his grandfather’s eyes
So glad you took the time to review this tv show! It was one of my absolute favourites growing up. One thing to note about some of the later seasons is that some of the episodes are actually remakes of episodes that were seen in seasons 1 and 2, as the later seasons were made nearly a decade after the first season. Another thing I noticed when looking back on this series is that the stories could be very different in theme depending on which one of the three children the story seemed to focus on. E.g. Bronson stories tending to be more goofy/slapstick/weird comedy, while Linda stories tended to be more adult/spooky. Pete's stories usually were somewhere between the two. I think this was meant to reflect the differences in maturity between the three.
Holy crap this show looked absolutely insane lmao. I can't imagine that frog race scene or water spirit episode today, or heck even arguably back then in the U.S. for a kids show, but you mentioned it aired here too so that's crazy. Blows my mind seeing people in the comments say this is the tame version of Australian kids shows hahaha. This show looks amazing.
Odd memories of this show. One about an ice cream machine turning into a boy and still be able to produce ice cream through his nostrils. And I could misremembering but another episode has the teen boy having a tree spirit fall in love with him which results in him becoming pregnant and giving birth. Would like to see you cover those in the future.
The tree sprite fell for him because he peed on her tree. Yeah, I heard that episode was so controversial that it almost got banned in its native Australia.
Have you ever seen the Nancy Drew TV show from 1977? I was obsessed with it as a child. I recently re-watched and it very much gives the signature camp mystery vibe that MSW has.
I grew up in Australia at the time when Jennings books were WILDLY popular with school kids. I was an avid reader, so I read them all - but even before they were adapted into this show every kid was reading them, even the kids who would normally never read. The show felt like a hit-and-miss adaptation, but still pretty fun for the time.
It's so cool seeing someone on youtube bring up Australia media!! I grew up reading Paul Jennings books and watching Round the Twist after school. It's such a unique show I haven't read/seen anything like it. Aussie schools would also play the episodes because they wanted to encourage kids to read more, it was a good day when the teacher would bring out the tv to watch it :)
Used to LOVE this when it was on Children’s BBC here in the UK. Main episodes I remember were the water creature that helped Bronson piss really high, the scarecrow one, a cloning machine with a melting clock episode & one with a visiting ghost ship (I think).
It blows my mind that I ever knew about this show when I was a kid, since I was born and raised in Spain in the 80s/90s... and yet this show made it to my country and I managed to watch a few episodes. It's probably one of the only liveaction shows I watched as a kid just because of how wacky (with a dash of creepy) the adventures were, and it probably explains a lot about my tastes XD (I get a strong Gravity Falls vibe from it). I was just thinking about this show the other day and couldn't remember the title, so I'm glad you brought it up in time for the season!
Omg! This was my childhood! The excitement of hearing the opening music. I'm 32 and still love this show and can't wait to show my daughter. The theme song was sung by the chick who played the first Linda Tamsin West. Gribble was also his last name it was James Gribble.
One of the first episodes that comes to mind when I think of this show is season 1's The Gum Leaf War. There's something about it that makes me feel nostalgic for 19th Century Australia, even though I obviously wasn't there.
Aussie here: I grew up watching this show and it was normal viewing for both girls and boys. I liked that it featured a single dad and his kids and had realistic bullies in Gribble and his gang. I always felt the Lighthouse Ghosts added a nice air of mystery throughout the show too. Also, the theme song was sung by the chic who played the original Linda Twist.
oh lord the frog episode would've devastated me as a kid 😂 i've heard **about** this show but knew nothing about it, but i'm happy my introduction to it could be your video! this show looks like a wild ride and i absolutely love it just from what you've shown here
One of my favorite book series as a kid that could be considered "spooky" was The Bailey School Kids. The 90s/early 2000s were certainly a different time.
Welp, that theme song is stuck in my head again, thanks. But in all seriousness, it's awesome that something Australian is being mentioned and it unlocked a core memory
UK kid of the 90s here. I remember this show fondly, we had a weird number of Aussie shows on Channel 5. I had remembered a couple of weird plots and googled the show to clear up my memory and ended up more confused. Still loved it.
I loved the romantic one about the merman/selkie boy. Oh, and the one with the magic seagul. I agree that the whole show did have an odd mixed tone, veering between juvinile humour, and folk horror. It was the folktale inspired episodes I most liked.
I have been waiting for you to talk about round the twist. 😁 None of my friends remember this show but this theme song lives year round in my head. I loved watching this!
I recently found this show on UA-cam after another channel did a video on this show. It seemed so familiar and when I watched it I realized that I HAD seen it as a kid, but I only remember the first season. Of those eps Ilike S1Ep9 Lucky Lips because it reminds me of when I was a young man with a crush. (Plus, the older brother kisses the teacher and his sister which is just... this is a kids show?) I also like S1ep11 The Copy just cause it's a good ep that has a kind of sad ending. There is also a running theme about the instruments in the attic playing themselves which I always thought was cool and creepy. In S1E13 Lighthouse Blues you learn the story behind them.
I remember watching this show on tv as a kid. 2 episodes I especially remember is the one with the mushrooms who would grow and then copy to look like other things for a short time. and the own with the owl hat that made the wearer behave as any animal they looked at (I remember that one because near the end, they used the hat to fly like a bird)
Another Aussie here. Thanks for checking out one of my childhood shows! It's very rare to see our little cultural gems show up on international UA-cam channels let alone ones I was already subscribed to. They really just don't make shows like this anymore, and unfortunately not even here in Australia these days. To answer your question about our acceptance of things that other countries and cultures find more offensive, I do believe we have always been more lenient on that kind of stuff, especially in the 90s and early 00s. Basically anything that doesn't involve people hurting each other (gory or otherwise) is far more accepted here but violence has been a lot more strict, especially with video games up until we finally got an R rating in the early 2010s to bring gaming on par with our ratings systems of other types of media (you probably remember hearing about a lot of games getting banned here back then, it was practically a meme). Australia is still notoriously strict on interactive drug use (specifically when it's based on real world drugs) and having them tied to buffs or rewards is an easy way to still get a game banned here, regardless of our R rating. Unfortunately of late, political correctness has taken its toll here and as a result children's and teen's shows play it way safer than they used to, but you can still see some of our more lenient cultural differences in content aimed at a slightly older audiences such as our Australian adaptation of the popular reality show "Survivor" for example, which features a lot more uncensored language and nudity than the American show that it's based on.
This aired in the UK back in the day, and we loved it. I also read one of the books of short stories that this series draws upon - and I remember thinking, "Hey! I've seen this episode!". We got a lot of the Australian kids TV back in the 90s - there were a couple of great sci-fi shows too (I remember particularly enjoying Escape From Jupiter).
It's the weirdest thing, I remember Round The Twist, it formed part of my childhood as part of the BBC's afterschool block along with TMNT and Goosebumps, but I can't recall any specific episodes. I do remember the toad eating the frogs, about the one thing I have a clear memory of. There also might have been an episode with a haunted public toilet but my memories are vague.
HOLY SHIT! I've had a couple memories of a show I watched as a kid but had no clue what the show was. I couldn't figure out how to google "kid's get trapped in house completely covered in a several feet thick layer of bird shit" or "Family feud using magic leaf whistles" to figure out which show it was. It's actually kind of relieving to know I didn't make those memories up.
The water spirit is just the Stand "Aqua Necklace" from Jojo's Part 4, Diamond is Unbreakable. I don't care that this came out first, everything is a Jojo's reference!
The episode of this I always remember is the one with the mushrooms that would duplicate whatever they were placed next to, and hide the original - specifically the scene where one of the kids rides off on a bike that turns out to be a mushroom, which collapses a few minutes later. As a child (and not having seen it in over 3 decades), the thought that any character was going to turn out to be replaced by mushrooms was my first taste of "The Thing"-style psychological horror.
An episode you have to watch is Grandad's Gifts. I remember watching every episode as it aired. Being a kid in Australia in the late 80s, early 90s was a great experience with some fantastic tv.
I remember these being shown on Danish TV, at least some of them, but I really only remember the distinct theme tune. Thing is, we also had the Canadian "Are you afraid of the dark?" (featuring a young Elisha Cuthbert) around the same time, and I know I've mixed up some of the episodes of those two series. I can't recall what either show was called here, although it's possible they didn't have a Danish title since it was the 90s and they were run as part of the kid-teen block of the day (which was removed at the end of the 90s because they decided TV shouldn't cater to kids or teens)
I had a book of behind the scenes stuff for I think the first two seasons (it had Jennings involved, one of the episodes I wanted to suggest, The Copy, S1E11 had him as a cameo) as a kid. Good bit of exististential horror if I remember correctly. Also Gribble-the-elder makes me mostly think of the actor's same role at the same time on Lift Off as a school staff member, specifically I have a strong memory of him as 'Mr Fish' working in the school tuckshop, microwaving a kid's lunch for them... and the kid left coins in the bag, so it led to a fire.
I remember this playing on UK TV. There was an episode where a kid becomes magnetic to trash, so random trash objects start flying across the town to slam into him. It really stuck with me.
Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury DBE (16 October 1925 - 11 October 2022) In the early morning of October 11, 2022, Lansbury died 'peacefully' in her sleep at the age of 96 in her Los Angeles home.
I saw a few episodes of this show on Fox Kids, but as I recall, they only aired a handful of episodes in this area before it was taken off the schedule. I liked it, but didn't get to see any of the other episodes until many years later. The episode I always think of is "Without My Pants". When the kids dig up a skeleton on the beach, the oldest son is cursed to end every sentence with that phrase. "I can't go to school... without my pants. Everyone will laugh at me... without my pants."
Say, I actually have a book with the Wonderpants short story in it! Looks like they took a lot of liberties with the screen adaptation, but it's so cool that that story's getting recognized! Edit to add: The two main ones I noticed were the underwear's appearance and the animal involved. In the book, the underpants are pink with fairies on them, and embarass Pete in the locker room. The race is also a mouse race, and a bully gets accused of entering a rat.
I remember seeing this at the end of the Fox Kids block around the time I was Slappy for Halloween , so I think 7 (97)? I used to love this show because of how seamless the surreal humor and horror was. Very dark comedy at times, right next to Goosebumps and all the other weird shows they'd shove on Fox Kids. Thank you for the memories, love the channel.
In the context of the song, it is saying; 'Have you ever, ever felt like this? when Strange things happen, **are you losing your mind**? Although it is much more commonly used to express frustration.
Classic show for Aussies of my generation. I think the second season cast is the definitive cast, and in hindsight, Linda was probably an early crush. There were several actresses that played the role, but they were all pretty endearing. NGL, I think the first (?) Linda looks incredibly cute in that clown costume.
So much Paul Jennings is horror based, you should definitely check out projects like the TV show and book series of ‘Wicked!”, or “Deadly!’ Book series. My favourite short of his is definitely ‘Blue Jam’, which has a terrifying premise, that still gives me chills as an adult!
This show was so much as kid growing up in Australia. It introduced me to the work of Paul Jennings who was very much our crazy version of R.L Stein with some really out there ideas
It would be great if you could cover 'Grandad's Gifts' from season 2, aka the one with the dead fox, because that episode has haunted me for decades and maybe inflicting it on to your audience will somehow release me from it Ring style.
Still love this show. Funnily enough, the first season was the one I always pictured when I recall the series. For some reason, the green baby, the food eating contest, and the frog in underwear were always on at random points in my childhood... maybe it was a VHS we had that only had a limited run of episodes. I was maybe 5 or so when this was airing. I didn't initially know Paul Jennings was related to the series until later when I read some of his books and recognised some of the stories.
As an Australian who grew up with this show as a kid. Let me just say:
The scary and disturbing content in this show was very VERY tame, compared to other Australian kids shows of the time. Shows like "Lift Off" and "Plasmo" come to mind.
That being said. I loved this show.
Uhh!! Roses should definitely get on this!
Claymation freaks me out to this day and Plasmo and other such shows are the reason.
EC from lift off creeped the heck out of me as a kid.
There are scarier things living in the grass in AUS.
@@scottysunday if you take the head of EC and superimpose the…host? of Mulligrubs, you get one complete face!
At school in South Australia in the 90s, they made us watch the pissing contest episode. With over twenty years of hindsight, I still can't imagine why they did that.
At least it wasn't the episode where one of the boy characters gets pregnant after urinating on a wood nymph's tree.
Round the Twist - encouraging 90's aussie kids to finish their school work early all through primary school. This show was amazing.
"This show is fucked up!"
The timing and delivery of that line was absolutely perfect!
As an Australian who both loves your channel and loves this show, I’m so excited to see you discussing it here! It was a pillar of our childhoods, and is either loved or hated 😂 One thing is certain: the theme song absolutely slaps !!
Truly! See also: the Ship to Shore theme. An absolute tune.
This show was an absolute pillar of 90's kids TV in the UK
I can't stop saying "Without my pants" without my pants... a classic!
There's a whole generation of kids in the UK that can hear the first four notes of the theme song and suddenly there's "Have you ever? Ever felt like this? Have strange things happened, are you going round the twist!" riding around their head, doing skids, popping wheelies and kerbie-endoes, all day.
YES!!!
I still know all the lyrics to the theme tune off by heart ~
@@MarJay1980 Didn't he get the 'without my pants' curse by touching a dead dog or am I misremembering things? 😅
A very iconic show for us Australians, it was definitely a part of my childhood.
I have a vivid memory of the scarecrow episode where my friend actually left the room because it terrified him. Definitely had a lot of scenes you couldn't have in childrens program now, whirly willy for one. But happy you've got to see it, very nostalgic video for me, thank you
I swear it must've been the one episode I missed. That said, I mostly remember the Matthew Waters (redhead Bronson) years more.
Oh, I adored Round the Twist as a child!! I wrote so many stories inspired by the episode where Pete kisses a tree spirit and becomes pregnant with her baby and spent most of my days wishing we would move to a lighthouse
How do I not remember that episode????? Got to look that one up.
You unlocked a memory for me I didn't think I had. I'm not sure whether to thank you or not.
That episode is one of my oldest memories and I’m haunted by that fact
Hahaha this is adorable. God I'm glad that the dizzy fanfic I wrote as a teenager wasn't enshrined on the internet
This episode traumatised me lol
That show kind of reminds me of Eerie Indiana. It has a similar concept with a family moving to a small town with odd occurrences. It was created in part by Joe Dante the director of Gremlins and The Burbs.
OMG! I was *obsessed* with that show. Better than Goosebumps or Are You Afraid of the Dark? imho.
And Marshall was so adorable. Watching him go from Eerie to Salem was a bit of a mind twist for young me.
Eerie Indiana was incredible! The show was a total gateway drug into the mystical, sci-fi and horror for me.
I don’t know about better than AYAotD, but definitely better than Goosebumps!
The episode about the heart transplant lives rent free in my head
@@lauratruxillo6264 I will say it depends on the episode. There are a few of AYAotD that are just classic young horror, but I remember more Eerie eps, and they rarely went too far.
Thank you, Roses, for making me spit out part of my dinner with that REO Speedwagon clip. The comedic timing was perfect and I lost it! Happy I had a napkin nearby!
This seems like a show I would have loved as a kid with the goofy humor and accents. Even Little Candy loved accents. Thanks for the laughs!
In terms of these kind of weird stories for kids, I remember being obsessed with eerie indiana as a kid, my mom showed it to me and it became *the* show I watched on saturday mornings. I feel like I remember always feeling bad for the characters at the end of things primarily but it's been a hot minute so I don't remember alot of things specifically anymore
Loved it
Showed it to you.
Eerie Indiana as amazing
I don't remember anything about it except being horrified by one episode where the main character's friend gets hit by a truck or some shit and this girl gets a heart transplant from him and gets possessed or something, it was so bizarrely dark for a kids show.
@@MichaelRileyBrisbane I seem to remember an ongoing plot about a ghost family of musicians the lived at the top of the lighthouse, very intriguing
Hey there, I’m Mark and live in Australia. I loved this when I was kid and teenager. It really got me into fantasy. I also it probably the most Australian show without doing all that aussie over the top stuff. It makes it a really humble show. In the 90s there was a few comics written based off stories from the show and I really loved to read them when the show wasn’t on. Here are recommended stories. “Nails” is a really good one. Freaked me out with the some what body horror of it. “The copy” is one I may of had my 1st cry at something on TV. And finally “pink bow tie” is one I loved as a kid and it’s one on the comics strips I read. It’s got a great story structure. There are so many other episodes I could talk about but I will leave it at that. I enjoy all your videos and I have myself got into murder she wrote. Stay spooky
S2 E10 "Yuckles" in which a rare breed of mushroom can copy any object (or lifeform) and would eventually explode into glue like gunk.
It was the photograph of the explorer that found them first, featuring his identical twin, that had mysteriously vanished, is what scared me most.
Essentially a child-friendly version of "The Thing" which central premise, utterly terrified my developing brain as a child.
Omg dude, The Copy was heartbreaking! It stuck with me for years!
Thank you for covering this, I adored this show and Jennings' books growing up. Fun fact I don't think was mentioned in here was the actress for the first Linda, Tamsin West sung the theme tune :)
I love that the episode featuring a Water Spirit is centred around a pissing contest.
Certainly not something you see every day.
I remember this episode! It was so bizarre.
It sounds like someone's weird fever dream.
There's also the episode where Pete pisses on a tree and falls pregnant with a tree spirits baby
Totally was someone's fetish
tbh more normal than you'd think for teenage boys in high school.
The episode with the fox and the lemon tree was the one that lived in my head rent-free for years. It took me so long to find this show because the Dutch name is different from the original.
Yeah, I have very vague memories of the show in general, but that one episode I could describe in pretty good detail. I don't think I've even seen it more than once. It's just there, permanently lodged in my brain.
I thought the fox and the lemon tree was this show! I was just remembering that one lately myself
This was 100% the one that fucked me up the most.
I’m so happy you’re finally tackling this show. It was a proper institution of Australian kids TV in the ‘90s, as was the writing of Paul Jennings. Both were huge parts of my childhood. I hope it’s a show you might explore more in future, because there is so much to talk about in it, even in the post-Jennings seasons.
Such a great show. The bird poo episode has stayed with me for literal decades
The clone episode genuinely gave me a few sleepless nights. Why did everything else just vanish but her clone died like an actual person?
It's so tragic!
I used to watch Around the Twist as a kid in the UK. I was quite small, so I don't remember it very well. Your episode actually provides more detail than I'm able to recall on my own. I remember one episode that took place in a lighthouse haunted by a ghost. At first the kids thought the ghost was out to get them, but it turned out he was actually friendly. I also remember the water spirit covered in your episode. But the main episode I remember was one where one of the kids got a hold of a TV remote that could pause, rewind, and fast forward people in real life. It was wacky and fun to think about. And who could forget the theme song? It's super catchy!
It's just the nightmarish fever dream experience of being a child in Australia
^ this :)
Omg memory unlocked!!! And yes, that theme song was so good... Sadly I only remember one episode, when the youngest twist shaved with a magical razor and started to grow and grow a beard till he was becoming cousin it, the solution was to have eldest twist shave with it and then the youngest, so the order was restored... Yes, it was a vengeful and strict razor
As an Australian, you can never convince me that Round The Twist is not both Horror and Comedy at the same time. However weird it seems now, I was always excited to watch it as a kid
other shows I remember from my childhood I recommend: Plasmo, Genie From Down Under, Lil Elvis Jones and finally Flipper and Lopaka.
Huge nostalgia trip for an Australian.
And I instantly recognise a heap of the filming locations just from these brief scenes.
Oh my god, yes! This is the show that has been bugging me for ages now. I remember going on vacation with my family one summer back in the early/mid 90s and sitting in the hotel room watching Fox Kids. I didnt know what the name of the show was, and the only things I could remember was someone microwaving some underwear and a frog contest where a large frog was squashed by a smaller one after it landed on it. Those things always stuck with me, and when I tried looking up to see what the show was, I kept getting directed to Eerie, Indiana. I am so happy that I can put a name these memories. Thanks!
I haven't seen this show in over 25 years, but I do remember certain episodes, such as a curse that made the older brother say "without my pants" in every sentence, the older sister falling for a boy with a skin condition (who turns out to be a merman) and the lengthy story arc involving the little brother trying to make his feet as stinky as possible to ward off a bunch of bullies from hurting his magical friend. (At least that's how I remember it; I also remember the kid's plan is thwarted when he ends up falling feet-first into a puddle, completely cleansing the grime he built up and erasing the smell.)
But its okay because he still has his socks in his pockets which he uses to win the day at the last moment. Chekov's Socks.
Watched this as a kid and am still haunted by a body horror episode where a kid keeps growing additional finger nails. - come to think of it the episode may be called 'nails'...
This show aired in France too, and back then, it left a big impression on me, especially the episode with the remote control. Thank you for another great video.
As an Australian who grew up watching and loving this show in the 90’s, only the first and second seasons count in my eyes as they were based on Jennings short stories and were filmed 2 years apart and only the child actors changed where the 3rd and 4th seasons were filmed over 10years later and the tone is more childlike
The clips from "Know All" hit me like a freight train oh my god. I definitely saw it as a kid but just remembered a lot of the imagery as a weird fever dream and don't remember anything else about the show. Wow!
YOOOOOOOOOO this show did not leave my mind since I saw a couple parts as a small child in melbourne in like 1999 or something because they absolutely terrified me! Specifically the scene of the toad eating the frogs, and the lint monster in general. As an adult I see how unrealistic they are, but until literally this video I was convinced they literally filmed a real life toad eating real life frogs and aired it on child's television, and I always had such a visceral reaction to the memory that I was too terrified to try and find it years later. Thanks for the nostalgia trip!
Its a sad day Angela's passed on .
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Good lord. That scarecrow clown chase was way scarier than it needed to be.
I mean,
Scarecrow
Clown
That’s freaking scary on it’s own.
I was actually flipping out when he slammed into the door then broke through the window. It was terrifying 😅
I loved My Teacher Is An Alien! Those books were so fundamental to me, and peak Coville-wacky, sometimes gross, but always about compassion and empathy. The fourth one…yeah there are some scenes there that haunt me. They’re not goofy at all. The kids tour the planet looking at the best and worst of humanity and it gets rough.
I’m surprised “Nails” wasn’t one of the episodes you covered since it’s the only one that I really remember
In a similar vein, did you ever watch “Eerie, Indiana?”
A staple of 90’s Aussie television for kids. Surprisingly enough, for all the weird, scary, and kooky it brings, it was tame by comparison to some other things we had running around the same time. Always good memories with this show.
Growing up in north-west Victoria, Round the Twist was an absolute pillar of my childhood. It was one of the few shows that I'd watch with my older siblings and I was happy to discover the works of Paul Jennings a couple of years after I saw the show. Two episodes that have always stayed with me are Without My Pants (an adaptation of Jennings' "Without A Shirt") and Little Black Balls (I'll never forget the "Ten Years on Bread and Water" chant, plus it features a goat, which is fun).
As a 40-year-old brit, I absolutely loved this show growing up and I somehow remembered the peeing contest to this day even though I've never seen it since. I can see from this review it was bursting with creativity and humour and had an absolute banger of a theme song.
Loved the Lint Monster episode. It's scary fun.
The reason the cast changed so much was because there was an 8 year gap between seasons 1 and 2 and seasons 3 and 4. The show was so popular overseas they went back and made another 2 seasons!
That frog explosion is the greatest ending to a show I ever seen. I forgot a watched this show as a kid, I taught it was a dream than I heard the intro and has flashbacks
I have the season 1 disk of this show and also studied it in primary school. I specifically remember the story about the kid feeding lemons to a fox fleapelt to bring it back to life and giving it his grandfather’s eyes
I'm glad you and other have enjoyed this show, but when I saw the scarecrow I literally was screaming "MY EYES!!!"😳😱.
So glad you took the time to review this tv show! It was one of my absolute favourites growing up. One thing to note about some of the later seasons is that some of the episodes are actually remakes of episodes that were seen in seasons 1 and 2, as the later seasons were made nearly a decade after the first season.
Another thing I noticed when looking back on this series is that the stories could be very different in theme depending on which one of the three children the story seemed to focus on. E.g. Bronson stories tending to be more goofy/slapstick/weird comedy, while Linda stories tended to be more adult/spooky. Pete's stories usually were somewhere between the two. I think this was meant to reflect the differences in maturity between the three.
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Holy crap this show looked absolutely insane lmao. I can't imagine that frog race scene or water spirit episode today, or heck even arguably back then in the U.S. for a kids show, but you mentioned it aired here too so that's crazy. Blows my mind seeing people in the comments say this is the tame version of Australian kids shows hahaha. This show looks amazing.
Odd memories of this show. One about an ice cream machine turning into a boy and still be able to produce ice cream through his nostrils. And I could misremembering but another episode has the teen boy having a tree spirit fall in love with him which results in him becoming pregnant and giving birth. Would like to see you cover those in the future.
Oh, I remember those as standout ones too!
oh that second one messed me up :')
Definitely remember the ice cream nostril scene and the tree episode definitely stuck with me.
The tree sprite fell for him because he peed on her tree. Yeah, I heard that episode was so controversial that it almost got banned in its native Australia.
Have you ever seen the Nancy Drew TV show from 1977? I was obsessed with it as a child. I recently re-watched and it very much gives the signature camp mystery vibe that MSW has.
Very happy this got a review. As an Australian growing up in the nineties this was my favourite show as a kid.
I grew up in Australia at the time when Jennings books were WILDLY popular with school kids. I was an avid reader, so I read them all - but even before they were adapted into this show every kid was reading them, even the kids who would normally never read. The show felt like a hit-and-miss adaptation, but still pretty fun for the time.
Oh wow! Paul Jennings was such a legend. Crushed so many of his books but they definitely freaked me out big time.
It's so cool seeing someone on youtube bring up Australia media!! I grew up reading Paul Jennings books and watching Round the Twist after school. It's such a unique show I haven't read/seen anything like it. Aussie schools would also play the episodes because they wanted to encourage kids to read more, it was a good day when the teacher would bring out the tv to watch it :)
Used to LOVE this when it was on Children’s BBC here in the UK. Main episodes I remember were the water creature that helped Bronson piss really high, the scarecrow one, a cloning machine with a melting clock episode & one with a visiting ghost ship (I think).
It blows my mind that I ever knew about this show when I was a kid, since I was born and raised in Spain in the 80s/90s... and yet this show made it to my country and I managed to watch a few episodes. It's probably one of the only liveaction shows I watched as a kid just because of how wacky (with a dash of creepy) the adventures were, and it probably explains a lot about my tastes XD (I get a strong Gravity Falls vibe from it). I was just thinking about this show the other day and couldn't remember the title, so I'm glad you brought it up in time for the season!
Omg! This was my childhood! The excitement of hearing the opening music. I'm 32 and still love this show and can't wait to show my daughter.
The theme song was sung by the chick who played the first Linda Tamsin West. Gribble was also his last name it was James Gribble.
Thanks for covering this! My favourite episode is The Copy. I still say "a dork, a dag, a total dipstick" to this day!
This was a show loved over here in the UK. The actor who played Linda in the first series sang the theme song
One of the first episodes that comes to mind when I think of this show is season 1's The Gum Leaf War. There's something about it that makes me feel nostalgic for 19th Century Australia, even though I obviously wasn't there.
Aussie here:
I grew up watching this show and it was normal viewing for both girls and boys.
I liked that it featured a single dad and his kids and had realistic bullies in Gribble and his gang.
I always felt the Lighthouse Ghosts added a nice air of mystery throughout the show too.
Also, the theme song was sung by the chic who played the original Linda Twist.
Omg. That book cover just unleashed a ton of childhood memories.
oh lord the frog episode would've devastated me as a kid 😂
i've heard **about** this show but knew nothing about it, but i'm happy my introduction to it could be your video! this show looks like a wild ride and i absolutely love it just from what you've shown here
🎶 Have you ever, ever felt like this?
Strange things happen, when you’re going round the twist 🎶
I love the Basket interlude, but I really enjoyed your random jokes and notes, like the REO Speedwagon reference or the riff on what price the Earth.
One of my favorite book series as a kid that could be considered "spooky" was The Bailey School Kids. The 90s/early 2000s were certainly a different time.
Welp, that theme song is stuck in my head again, thanks. But in all seriousness, it's awesome that something Australian is being mentioned and it unlocked a core memory
UK kid of the 90s here. I remember this show fondly, we had a weird number of Aussie shows on Channel 5.
I had remembered a couple of weird plots and googled the show to clear up my memory and ended up more confused. Still loved it.
I loved the romantic one about the merman/selkie boy. Oh, and the one with the magic seagul. I agree that the whole show did have an odd mixed tone, veering between juvinile humour, and folk horror. It was the folktale inspired episodes I most liked.
So glad I found this channel. Iv been a huge horror fan my entire life and this is such a nostalgia trip back to my early 2000’s childhood.
I have been waiting for you to talk about round the twist. 😁
None of my friends remember this show but this theme song lives year round in my head. I loved watching this!
Another Aussie here. This takes me back. We always watched the VHS in the library on wet play days.
I recently found this show on UA-cam after another channel did a video on this show. It seemed so familiar and when I watched it I realized that I HAD seen it as a kid, but I only remember the first season. Of those eps Ilike S1Ep9 Lucky Lips because it reminds me of when I was a young man with a crush. (Plus, the older brother kisses the teacher and his sister which is just... this is a kids show?) I also like S1ep11 The Copy just cause it's a good ep that has a kind of sad ending. There is also a running theme about the instruments in the attic playing themselves which I always thought was cool and creepy. In S1E13 Lighthouse Blues you learn the story behind them.
I remember watching this show on tv as a kid. 2 episodes I especially remember is the one with the mushrooms who would grow and then copy to look like other things for a short time. and the own with the owl hat that made the wearer behave as any animal they looked at (I remember that one because near the end, they used the hat to fly like a bird)
Another Aussie here.
Thanks for checking out one of my childhood shows! It's very rare to see our little cultural gems show up on international UA-cam channels let alone ones I was already subscribed to. They really just don't make shows like this anymore, and unfortunately not even here in Australia these days.
To answer your question about our acceptance of things that other countries and cultures find more offensive, I do believe we have always been more lenient on that kind of stuff, especially in the 90s and early 00s. Basically anything that doesn't involve people hurting each other (gory or otherwise) is far more accepted here but violence has been a lot more strict, especially with video games up until we finally got an R rating in the early 2010s to bring gaming on par with our ratings systems of other types of media (you probably remember hearing about a lot of games getting banned here back then, it was practically a meme). Australia is still notoriously strict on interactive drug use (specifically when it's based on real world drugs) and having them tied to buffs or rewards is an easy way to still get a game banned here, regardless of our R rating.
Unfortunately of late, political correctness has taken its toll here and as a result children's and teen's shows play it way safer than they used to, but you can still see some of our more lenient cultural differences in content aimed at a slightly older audiences such as our Australian adaptation of the popular reality show "Survivor" for example, which features a lot more uncensored language and nudity than the American show that it's based on.
My favorite episode of this show was Grandad's Gifts. It's such a beautiful and at the same time, haunting story.
This aired in the UK back in the day, and we loved it. I also read one of the books of short stories that this series draws upon - and I remember thinking, "Hey! I've seen this episode!". We got a lot of the Australian kids TV back in the 90s - there were a couple of great sci-fi shows too (I remember particularly enjoying Escape From Jupiter).
It's the weirdest thing, I remember Round The Twist, it formed part of my childhood as part of the BBC's afterschool block along with TMNT and Goosebumps, but I can't recall any specific episodes. I do remember the toad eating the frogs, about the one thing I have a clear memory of. There also might have been an episode with a haunted public toilet but my memories are vague.
HOLY SHIT! I've had a couple memories of a show I watched as a kid but had no clue what the show was. I couldn't figure out how to google "kid's get trapped in house completely covered in a several feet thick layer of bird shit" or "Family feud using magic leaf whistles" to figure out which show it was. It's actually kind of relieving to know I didn't make those memories up.
The water spirit is just the Stand "Aqua Necklace" from Jojo's Part 4, Diamond is Unbreakable. I don't care that this came out first, everything is a Jojo's reference!
I am Danish and grew up watching this show as well and that theme song lives rent free in my head to this day ...
The episode of this I always remember is the one with the mushrooms that would duplicate whatever they were placed next to, and hide the original - specifically the scene where one of the kids rides off on a bike that turns out to be a mushroom, which collapses a few minutes later. As a child (and not having seen it in over 3 decades), the thought that any character was going to turn out to be replaced by mushrooms was my first taste of "The Thing"-style psychological horror.
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An episode you have to watch is Grandad's Gifts. I remember watching every episode as it aired. Being a kid in Australia in the late 80s, early 90s was a great experience with some fantastic tv.
I remember these being shown on Danish TV, at least some of them, but I really only remember the distinct theme tune. Thing is, we also had the Canadian "Are you afraid of the dark?" (featuring a young Elisha Cuthbert) around the same time, and I know I've mixed up some of the episodes of those two series. I can't recall what either show was called here, although it's possible they didn't have a Danish title since it was the 90s and they were run as part of the kid-teen block of the day (which was removed at the end of the 90s because they decided TV shouldn't cater to kids or teens)
I had a book of behind the scenes stuff for I think the first two seasons (it had Jennings involved, one of the episodes I wanted to suggest, The Copy, S1E11 had him as a cameo) as a kid. Good bit of exististential horror if I remember correctly.
Also Gribble-the-elder makes me mostly think of the actor's same role at the same time on Lift Off as a school staff member, specifically I have a strong memory of him as 'Mr Fish' working in the school tuckshop, microwaving a kid's lunch for them... and the kid left coins in the bag, so it led to a fire.
I remember this playing on UK TV. There was an episode where a kid becomes magnetic to trash, so random trash objects start flying across the town to slam into him. It really stuck with me.
Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury DBE (16 October 1925 - 11 October 2022) In the early morning of October 11, 2022, Lansbury died 'peacefully' in her sleep at the age of 96 in her Los Angeles home.
I came to say this!!!
The theme song is forever burned in my brain! Great vid as always
I saw a few episodes of this show on Fox Kids, but as I recall, they only aired a handful of episodes in this area before it was taken off the schedule. I liked it, but didn't get to see any of the other episodes until many years later.
The episode I always think of is "Without My Pants". When the kids dig up a skeleton on the beach, the oldest son is cursed to end every sentence with that phrase. "I can't go to school... without my pants. Everyone will laugh at me... without my pants."
Say, I actually have a book with the Wonderpants short story in it! Looks like they took a lot of liberties with the screen adaptation, but it's so cool that that story's getting recognized!
Edit to add:
The two main ones I noticed were the underwear's appearance and the animal involved. In the book, the underpants are pink with fairies on them, and embarass Pete in the locker room. The race is also a mouse race, and a bully gets accused of entering a rat.
I remember seeing this at the end of the Fox Kids block around the time I was Slappy for Halloween , so I think 7 (97)? I used to love this show because of how seamless the surreal humor and horror was. Very dark comedy at times, right next to Goosebumps and all the other weird shows they'd shove on Fox Kids. Thank you for the memories, love the channel.
In the context of the song, it is saying; 'Have you ever, ever felt like this? when Strange things happen, **are you losing your mind**?
Although it is much more commonly used to express frustration.
God, I remember this. The theme tune is a godsdamn time capsule of nostalgia. And yeah as a kid it was DEFINITELY terrifying as well as bizarre.
Classic show for Aussies of my generation. I think the second season cast is the definitive cast, and in hindsight, Linda was probably an early crush. There were several actresses that played the role, but they were all pretty endearing. NGL, I think the first (?) Linda looks incredibly cute in that clown costume.
I'm impressed you made it through an entire episode about a frog competition and not reference Willy Beamish.
We loved this show when we were kids. We'd cycle up the garden path singing the theme tune. It was so good!
Glad to hear you particularly enjoyed 'No is Yes'. That was always my fave as a kid.
So glad you’ve done a video on this. It’s perfect content for your channel.
So much Paul Jennings is horror based, you should definitely check out projects like the TV show and book series of ‘Wicked!”, or “Deadly!’ Book series. My favourite short of his is definitely ‘Blue Jam’, which has a terrifying premise, that still gives me chills as an adult!
This show was so much as kid growing up in Australia. It introduced me to the work of Paul Jennings who was very much our crazy version of R.L Stein with some really out there ideas
You've... you've awakened parts of my mind that were long forgotten.
It would be great if you could cover 'Grandad's Gifts' from season 2, aka the one with the dead fox, because that episode has haunted me for decades and maybe inflicting it on to your audience will somehow release me from it Ring style.
Still love this show.
Funnily enough, the first season was the one I always pictured when I recall the series. For some reason, the green baby, the food eating contest, and the frog in underwear were always on at random points in my childhood... maybe it was a VHS we had that only had a limited run of episodes. I was maybe 5 or so when this was airing.
I didn't initially know Paul Jennings was related to the series until later when I read some of his books and recognised some of the stories.
My sister and I always loved the one with the goat, and the 'Little Black Balls' song. :D
"Ten years on bread an' warrtahh..."
Yes! As an Aussie kid this was compulsory viewing. I adored the Paul Jennings stories it was based on too. Waking up to this in my feed was a treat.