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This issue is about ‘Goosebumps’ covers ranked by scariness, dark humor jokes, the funniest tweets from yesterday, bad first dates, and much more.

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The TV Comedy That Got Canceled Mid-Show Returns After 50 Years

According to television legend, no show in the history of the medium was canceled faster than Turn-On, a 1969 comedy showcase that didn’t last long enough to air an entire episode. Amazingly, ABC stations turned off Turn-On only 10 minutes into its initial broadcast.

Here’s the story: In 1968, producer George Schlatter was red-hot thanks to the success of his hip comedy show, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. Eager to strike while the iron was hot, Schlatter dreamed up a new concept full of short clips, quick cuts, and controversial topics. Viewers saw two computer operators in charge of ‘programming’ the different pieces that would appear in the show, a pretty mind-blowing concept in the late 1960s.

All 62 ‘Goosebumps’ Covers Ranked By Scariness

Generally, exposing a young child to intentionally scary media isn't advisable. It’s the sort of behavior of a babysitter with a taste for chaos, who knows they’ll be long gone by the time the nightmares come. The act of purposely frightening yourself is something reserved for adults, whose emotions have long been dulled by the unending, slow drip of terror and uncertainty that is human life.

Somehow, though, beloved book series Goosebumps managed to not only sell horror to parents and kids, but to both create and dominate a section of children’s literature while doing so. Now, are the books genuinely that scary? Generally, no; in fact, some are outright horror-comedies. That said, there are a couple rogue tales that truly scared the piss out of a generation, and a lot of that had to do with the covers.

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