Are You Afraid of the Dark?: Season 3 Episode 4 The Tale of the Phone Police
Tucker tells a tale about why you shouldn't play pranks using a phone.
Series Index
Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1990-2000)
Characters/Groups
Pizza Delivery Guy - Richard Jutras
Officer John White - Erik Rutherford
The Midnight Society
Character thumbnails with links to profiles
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Detailed Synopsis
Frank arrives while most of the other members of the Midnight Society are waiting and asks who is telling a tale? Betty Ann says it is Tucker's turn and Kiki asks Gary where Tucker is at. Frank gets upset that Tucker isn't there yet, but Gary says Tucker is there. A phone starts ringing and Sam asks if she is missing something. Gary pulls out a cellphone and answers the call, and Tucker is on the other line. Gary then places the phone and a speaker on the chair where normally the member tells the tale. Tucker tells the others that he is telling his tale that way, because the telephone is the scariest thing in your house as you can lock your doors and windows, but all someone has to do is dial your number and if you answer it, then they are inside. He then says when you answer the call you make a connection and it might be to a place that you don't want to be connected to. Tucker then starts his tale.
At night, Chris makes a call and when the person answers he hangs up. Jake gives Chris a hard time for being scared and Chris then goes again. This time when the person answers he tells them he works for the Acme Appliance Company and asks them if their refrigerator is running then tells them that they better run after it before it gets away. Jake calls Chris' attempt lame and then calls someone and says he is from radio station KZIT and she has just been selected to be one of their lucky contestants. He tells her that all she has to do to win a dream vacation is to answer an easy question. He then asks her how wide Antarctica is in centimeters and she has ten seconds to answer. As the ten seconds count down, Annie grabs the phone from Jake and accuses him of making prank calls. She reminds him that she is in charge while their parents are away and tells him to stop acting like a wart. She then chastises Chris for letting Jake talk him into bad behavior. As she is leaving the room, she tells Jake he is going to get tagged by the phone police. Chris and Jake follow Annie and ask her what the phone police are. She tells them that the phone has certain rules of operation, you don't leave it off the hook, you don't let it ring too long and you don't make stupid calls. Jake tells Chris that Annie is making the story up. Annie then warns them that if they keep messing with the phone they will end up like the Baxter kid. She tells them about Billy Baxter who a long time ago was making prank calls and then the phone police got him. Jake doesn't believe her story and Chris decides to leave.
Jake grabs the phone book and finds the name Billy Baxter. He calls the number, which only has six digits, 311-299, and the person on the other line asks Jake for help. Jake hangs up but later in the night the phone rings. Jake answers it and the same voice asks him for help again and Jake hangs up. The phone then continues to ring no matter how many times Jake hangs it up. The next day Jake tells Chris about the phone call and how the phone continued to ring even after he unplugged it. As they are walking, they pass a phone booth and the phone starts ringing. Chris answers it and then hands the phone to Jake and the same voice from the night before asks for help. They go to the phone company and ask the Receptionist how they can find where Baxter's phone number is coming from and hand her a sheet of paper with his phone number. She tells them that the number is old and discontinued, but when Jake tells her that he called the number and it called him back, she says the records department is in the basement and then presses a button as they walk away. Chris and Jake go to the basement and Jake speaks to the Phone Clerk while Chris hides. Jake shows the Phone Clerk the number and the Phone Clerk invites Jake into the back. He accuses Jake of using the phone for prank calling and the phone police arrive and Officer John White grabs Jake and puts him in cell 13. A phone rings inside of the cell and when Jake answers it, it is Billy Baxter. He tells Jake that the phone only takes incoming calls and then hangs up.
Chris runs to Jake's house and rings the doorbell. Annie opens the door and Chris tells her that Jake was taken by the phone police. Annie asks Chris who he is and how he knows her name. She says she doesn't know who he is or who Jake is and threatens to call the police. Chris runs to where Jake's room is but now it is a sewing room. Annie runs after him and Chris tries to remind her of her telling him and Jake about the phone police and Billy Baxter. Annie says she knows about the phone police, but the kid who gets in trouble is named Jake O'Brian, not Billy Baxter. As Jake watches, another kid is put into a cell by the phone police. Chris goes to a phone booth and looks up Jake's name and finds a Jake O'Brian 288-133. Chris calls the number and it goes to the phone in Jake's cell. Jake answers the phone and asks Chris for help. Chris tells him how weird things have become and tells Jake he has a plan. Chris goes back to the phone company building and uses a payphone to call Jake's cell. He ties a rubber band around the switch hook and then places the phone back onto the cradle. He then sneaks by the Receptionist and takes the stairs down to the basement. After Jake repeatedly lets the phone ring, the Phone Clerk angrily walks towards his cell. Chris follows him and puts a piece of wood to block the large metal door from closing behind him. The Phone Clerk threatens to punish Jake for not answering the phone and when he opens the cell door, Chris pushes him into the cell and closes it after Jake gets out. He and Jake run back towards the large metal door, but the phone police enter the cell area. They climb out through a manhole, but the phone police chase them in their patrol vehicles. They run back to Jake's house and Annie once again knows who Jake and Chris are. Chris runs to Jake's room, and the room is back to normal. The doorbell rings and Jake and Chris tell her not to answer the door because it is the phone police. Annie says she made the story up and opens the door. A Pizza Delivery Guy enters the house and stares intently at Jake and Chris but then leaves after saying he went to the wrong address. Annie closes the door and calls Jake and Chris gullible for believing her story about the phone police. Chris asks Jake if what they experienced was real and the Pizza Delivery Guy walks back to his vehicle and pulls off the House Pizza logo, revealing the phone company logo underneath. The phone then starts ringing in Jake's room.
Tucker says Jake and Chris never made another prank call again, because they were never sure if the phone police were really real or if they could believe anything else they ever saw. Tucker sneaks up on Frank and yells the end, scaring Frank. Tucker dials Gary's phone again and the group jokingly runs to answer it and Gary ends the meeting.