Eerie, Indiana: The Other Dimension

Come on, sleepyhead! Shake a leg!

Come, Mom! My name is Mitchell Taylor, and I've lived in Erie, Indiana all my life.

Up to now my biggest complaint was that everything was too normal.

I always wished something would happen, something weird even.

If only I'd listen to that old saying, be

careful what you wish for. It might come true.

That's my family.

Officially the most normal average family in

the most normal average town in the country.

If people only knew what I've come to know about Erie.

Mom, I found this thing in my sweater.

That's nice.

Morning, honey.

Mom's a software engineer. She programmed the entire

Erie nuclear plant from right here at this table.

Maybe that's why downtown Erie has that funny glow at night.

My sister, Carrie, spends way too much time looking in the mirror.

I've never peaked in her diary, but something

tells me nobody else makes an appearance.

That's my dad. He's a science professor at EU.

People figure science professors are kind of old-fashioned and boring.

Those people have probably met my dad.

Does anyone notice anything strange happening lately?

The only thing strange I know about is a young

man who hasn't cleaned his room in two weeks.

Well, that's not strange. It's not good, but it's not strange.

Well, I meant, you know, odd.

Unnatural, abnormal, peculiar, aberrant.

But the saurus is sure paying off.

Weird. That's what I'm trying to say. There's

some really weird things going on around here.

Mitchell, if anything weird is happening around here, I promise you.

Your father and I would be the first to notice.

Now, eat your cereal.

Uh, you know, I kind of think I'm not that hungry.

I'm gonna go meet Stanley down at the world of stuff.

Oh, Mitchell, when you're out, I need you to do me a favor.

Ted's cable stop? More channels than you ever thought you needed?

2,000 channels. And for a surprisingly low price.

What do we need 2,000 channels for?

Well, everyone's getting them. I hear they've got ten fashion channels.

And see, 46 Sci-Fi channels. How does that sound?

Better than the 52 educational channels, I guess.

I've already ordered it. I just need you to drop off the deposit.

Sure, 46 channels of Sci-Fi sounded cool.

But I had no idea that I was about to come face to face.

Mono a mono, eyeball to eyeball with 2,000 channels of weirdness.

The guy beside me is Stanley, my next door neighbor.

He's just a kid, but I let him hang out with me because his mom's always working.

As far as I know, they only communicate by fax and email.

Uh, Stanley, have you noticed anything strange happening like the strange?

Like the blueberries in my pancakes spelling out danger?

That would be strange. And I guess I have.

You? Well, I found a shrunken head in my sweater.

Something creepy jumped out of the fridge and my cereal told me to beware.

We could email my mom, but maybe she'd prefer us to some wet link.

Hey, cool. Look at me. I'm a tabloid TV host.

Tonight are our show of boys who talked to their cereal and parents who ignore them.

Our first guest today is our Mitchell Taylor.

Mitchell, is it true that the sugar-coated cereals make

better conversation than the healthier whole grain cereals?

Well, I used to talk exclusively to the multigrains.

Over here. Guys, thank goodness we got through here.

You gotta listen.

Listen? Who are you guys?

My name is Marshall Telling, and this is Simon Hall.

We're calling you from Erie, Indiana.

We're in Erie, Indiana.

You're not gonna believe this, but we're from another dimension of Erie.

You're right, that is hard to believe. You got any proof?

What's the matter? Don't you read your breakfast?

That was you?

Yeah. Who are you guys anyway? You look so much like us.

Uh, I'm Stanley. This is Mitchell.

Okay, listen.

Our dimension of Erie is the center of all weirdness in the universe.

Simon and me have found out that something's

ripped a hole between our Erie and yours.

Awareness is spilling out into your world, and we have to stop it. Mitchell, listen!

Good morning to you!

Tana is the name televised entertainment is the game.

So I see your check-in out the dish commander 2000.

She is a Marvel, isn't she?

Hey, so, what do you think of my specialty channels?

Have you ever seen anything like that?

Well, I'm sure we'd like them if we knew what they were supposed to be.

Oh, don't worry about it. That's why we give away a guide with every dish installed.

That! Oh, that's the old Jello channel.

And there! That's the theater of the absurd network.

They're still waiting for Godot.

And that! Oh, what the heck!

Even I don't know which one that is!

Wait, don't tell me. I know. You love it!

Right?

Actually, I find it a little weird.

I know, son. Everybody wants something a little different. They need it.

But I haven't been in Erie long, but between

you and I, this place is a little boring.

And what I said, what is the problem? You guessed it. Not enough channels!

And that is where I come in.

So, when can I install one of these fine dishes in your place of residence?

Oh! Anytime I guess.

My dad wanted me to drop a fire deposit.

Congratulations!

We can find the stuff that doesn't make sense,

Stanley and me resort to extreme measures.

I submit to you. The Black Cow.

More chocolate precip than any beverage known to man.

And a definite tonic for whatever else you.

The secrets and the sprinkles.

Mr. Crawford, do you know two kids named Marshall and Simon?

Sure. I love that show.

You've seen them?

Ever since I got my new Dish Commander 2000, I see it all.

I can watch the mall management network 24 hours a day.

The mall management network?

Oh, it's fascinating.

Flow patterns, plant placement, drinking fountains.

What Mark could you ask for an entertainment?

I can't begin to imagine.

It was bad enough that our airwaves were starting to be infected,

but the junk I knew could be nothing short of weird.

But those kids on the TV were right.

The same twisted stuff was starting to leak out into our very own reality.

It had to have something to do with those dishes.

And I had just ordered one for my own home.

Stanley, we gotta get home.

You know, water management can be a trick.

Mom, Dad, are you okay?

Well, of course they're okay!

There we go, all set.

Hey, why did you fire it up there, Nieber?

You do the honors, honey?

That would be the evolution channel.

One of my personal favorites.

Who am I kidding?

They're all favorites.

Oh, you folks are gonna love it.

Hey, hey, hey, hey.

He's timing up for that later.

Why don't we step in the next room and just dance with the paperwork?

Never work.

That's it.

This is not good, Stanley.

Not good to the Max.

We've got an exit ramp from the weirdness super highway right in my living room.

It'll be okay, Mitch.

All we have to do is dis-commute the dish.

Mommy!

You okay?

Whoa!

You boys watch it now, you hear?

There is some serious voltage driving that little down.

Enjoy it now.

What are we gonna do?

Mitch.

It took us forever to get through.

This pill is getting worse.

Tell me about it.

We're sure there's a connection between the

always new satellite dishes and the weirdness.

See Simon, I knew these guys would get it.

We think it all started when my family got a satellite dish.

A bunch of strange things here we began disappearing.

The problem is the weirdness is transferring faster now.

If we don't stop at soon the whole thing is going to reach critical mass.

Critical mass?

What do you mean?

Erie, as you and I know it will cease to exist across all the dimensions.

We gotta stop that from happening.

That might be harder than it sounds.

We have to work together and we can't do it without you.

It was at that moment, Stanley and I came to our own personal moment of truth.

We knew that we had to join our strange other

dimensional friends in a battle royale against weirdness.

It wasn't just normality on the morning.

It was to be our very existence.

Erie, Indiana, day five.

The weirdness in town was increasing.

Beautiful shot, look.

Oh, that's cool.

A lap time from Golf Channel to Golf Channel?

29 minutes flat.

Man, that's some awesome stuff.