TV horror-fantasy for children as transnational genre: Round the Twist, generic subversions, and quality Australian children's television

During the 1990s, the horror anthology series became a popular mode of children’s television, influenced in large part by the Canadian-US series Goosebumps (1995–1998) and Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1990–2000), two live action children’s series popular across many Western countries in the 1990s. This chapter examines Australian fantasy-horror television series, Round the Twist (ACTF, 1989–2001), exploring how its narrative and aesthetic devices both resonate with and deviate from the exceedingly popular Canadian-US series Goosebumps and AYAOTD? Unlike Goosebumps and AYAOTD?, which were funded and produced by for-profit production companies and cable channels for children (Cinar/Nickelodeon and YTV/Fox Kids, respectively), Round the Twist was produced by Australian non-profit production and policy hub the Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF). As a result, Round The Twist presents a particularly complex example of fantasy-horror television for children that reveals much about how Australian approaches to children’s entertainment differed from those in North America in the 1990s.