Cry Baby Lane (found Nickelodeon TV horror film; 2000)
Title card
Status: Found
Date found: 2011
Found by: Firesaladpeach
Cry Baby Lane (original teaser title: Someone Wants to Meet You) is a believed-to-be-lost 2000 Halloween-themed comedy horror television film that premiered only once on Nickelodeon on the night of October 28, 2000, after this, it was never shown again, nor released in any home media.
The film was never aired outside the United States nor translated/dubbed into other languages. It was also never re-aired or released for any other software media until a recording of it was re-discovered in 2011. It is unknown how many viewers the original 2000 airing attracted.
The film's original premise was to be both scary and child-friendly. However, this still triggered an extreme number of parents complaining in mass about the film's content as they found the film to be too frightening and inappropriate for children.
This triggered Nickelodeon to state that they did not own the film and were not responsible for its "accidental" airing, with some Nick workers even denying the existence of the film whatsoever, or that they knew something about it when contacted by forums and sites from 2007 to 2011, due to that it was considered a lost film for more than 11 years. This ensued into the launch of several fan-sites in the early 2000’s where people could talk about the film’s existence. Despite the overwhelming evidence, every time the site contacted Nickelodeon; they always replied that they did not know anything about the film. Some Nickelodeon workers even went as far to spread lies and false evidence that the whole movie wasn't real, never being released on TV, and being simply a myth.
In 2011, a user on the blog forum Reddit.com under the name "Firesaladpeach" stated that she had a bootleg VHS of the film that she recorded on the original night of October 28, 2000, on a thread on the talk board “/r/TodayILearned”, where a user taught to other people about the film and its mystery surrounding it. She later released the film on YouTube, attracting hundreds of viewers. This likely ensued a reaction which prompted TeenNick to re-air the film on October 31, 2011, who proclaimed in advertising that it was "Nickelodeon’s Dark Secret,” so scary it was “Banned from TV.” The film was originally rated TV-Y7 in 2000, but in its 2011 re-release, it was re-rated TV-PG-V, for moderate violence, unnerving scenes, and suggestive content; in 2015, it was re-rated once again, this time to TV-G for its second airing\second reissue on TeenNick. In 2016 it was Re-Runed again, This was recorded by "ianolivia" and uploaded by "Notelu" on February 21st, 2017, This version is higher quality then both the 2000 and 2011 Recordings (2000 recording is low-quality 360p, 2011 recording is 360p but is at a low framerate, while the 2016 recording is 480i and with no framerate problems)
This also revealed that Nickelodeon had the film all along since they knowingly stated its airing via introduction and were most likely ready for a negative reaction to their makeshift film.
The film’s director Peter Lauer was interviewed soon after its re-discovery, he said that he was surprised and flattered by the attention his film had gotten 11 years after its original release, he claimed that he was even unaware of its supposed banning by Nickelodeon, in his words: "I just assumed they didn't show it again because they didn't like it. I thought it [the movie] failed, and I moved on."
A Nickelodeon representative later claimed that the film was never banned, disowned, or destroyed by Nickelodeon; it was just merely forgotten.
The film was already troubled even before airing; it was originally set to be a big cinema film under a budget of $10 million, but as Halloween approached, it was then ordered to be a $800,000 TV Film made under a hurry for an October 31 release in a 20-day shooting. Today, the film has made its own cult following.
The film, both in its original 2000 VHS bootleg, and 2011 HD Edition can be viewed on YouTube. They are featured down below: