'HAUNTED HUB' ANNUAL PROGRAMMING EVENT SCARES UP SPOOKY LINEUP THROUGHOUT THE MONTH OF OCTOBER ON THE HUB TV NETWORK FEATURING OCTOBER 13 SEASON PREMIERE OF 'R.L. STINE'S THE HAUNTING HOUR: THE SERIES'

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- This October, The Hub TV Network will once again celebrate Halloween by hosting a month-long "Haunted Hub" lineup of spine-tingling television, movies, online games and a sweepstakes that kids can enjoy with their entire family. The cornerstone of the "Haunted Hub" lineup is the season premiere of the 2012 Daytime Emmy ^® Award nominated and critically acclaimed " R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: The Series" on Saturday, October 13 ( 6 p.m. ET).   

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R.L. Stine ("Goosebumps"), the master of kids' spooky storytelling is back for a third season of " R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: The Series" with all-new tales of suspense that invariably evoke chills, thrills and scares!  The half-hour anthology series aimed at kids and teens premieres with the special two-part episode "Grampires" featuring popular actor Christopher Lloyd ( Back to the Future, "Taxi").

"Grampires" follows Mike and his sister Cristen as they pay a surprise visit to their grandfather (Lloyd) in his creepy new Sunset Estates retirement community, only to discover that something is not quite right with Grandpa and his nocturnal neighbors, and eventually leading to a showdown at the bingo hall with an entire community of vampires.

America's leading Halloween retailer, Party City, will present the two-part season premiere as well as an all-new episode airing the following week.  The Hub and Party City will be counting down to Halloween with spooky costume tips for kids of all ages in a customized, on-air vignette that leads up to the holiday.

One week prior to the premiere episode of "Grampires," the "Haunted Hub" celebration kicks off on Saturday, October 6 ( 4-7 p.m. ET) with a special marathon of the scariest episodes from the first two seasons of " R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: The Series" featuring some of Hollywood's most popular teen stars including Ariel Winter ("Modern Family"), Bailee Madison ( Just Go With It, upcoming Parental Guidance), Jake Cherry ( Night at the Museum), Debby Ryan ("Jessie"), Gabe Basso ("The Big C") and Frankie Jonas ("Jonas" television series).

"Grampires" star Christopher Lloyd is not the only familiar face stopping by " R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: The Series" this October.  Upcoming episodes "The Cast" ( October 20) and "The Weeping Woman" ( October 27) feature actors Robert Capron ( Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and Rico Rodriguez ("Modern Family") respectively.

• " R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: The Series" -- "The Cast" (New episode: Saturday, October 20 (6 p.m ET).; encore presentation: Saturday, October 27, 6:30 p.m. ET). Desperate to be cool, Lex (Robert Capron,  Diary of Wimpy Kid) pulls a prank on the neighborhood cat lady, getting caught and breaking his arm in the process. To save himself, he rats out his friends and soon it's more than guilt that's gnawing at him.
• " R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: The Series" -- "The Weeping Woman" (New episode: Saturday, October 27 ( 6 p.m. ET); encore presentation: Saturday, November 3, 6:30 p.m. ET). Rico Rodriguez ("Modern Family") stars as a boy who learns the scary folk tale of the child-stealing river witch, "La Llorona." He soon comes face to face with the terrifying creature and must defeat her in order to save his friends.

Best known for writing the best-selling books "Goosebumps ^®" published by Scholastic, R.L. Stine is concurrently celebrating the 20 ^th anniversary of the books that inspired the series that appears on The Hub (Saturdays 5 p.m. ET) with 74 episodes produced by Scholastic Media.  For the first time ever, The Hub's online destination, hubworld.com, will host full-length episodes of "Goosebumps" throughout the month of October.  As a special tribute to the 20 ^th anniversary event, The Hub will telecast a special four hour marathon of "Goosebumps" episodes on Monday, October 22 ( 4-8 p.m. ET ).

During the "Haunted Hub" programming event, The Hub will also present a spook-tacular lineup of family-favorite, Halloween-themed movies, including:

• Monday, October 8 ( 4 p.m. ET): Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein
• Monday, October 8 ( 6 p.m. ET): Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman
• Friday, October 12 ( 9 p.m. ET): Gremlins
• Saturday, October 13 ( 9:30 p.m. ET): Gremlins 2: The New Batch
• Monday, October 15 ( 8 p.m. ET): Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
• Friday, October 19 ( 2 p.m. ET): The Haunted Pumpkin of Sleepy Hollow

In addition, The Hub will present "The Hub's Monster-Us Makeover Sweepstakes" in which one lucky family will win a trip to Los Angeles, where they will be "transformed" into creatures of the night by a professional Hollywood makeup artist, plus win $5,000 cash and a scary costume prize pack from Party City.  The winning family will also appear on television during " R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: The Series" episode "The Weeping Woman" ( Saturday, October, 27, 6 p.m. ET ).  Beginning Saturday, September 29, visitors can visit www.hubworld.com to enter and find more details about the sweepstakes.

Viewers will also have an opportunity to extend their engagement with the "Haunted Hub" by visiting a frightfully ghoulish and re-vamped version of hubworld.com to check out Halloween-themed video clips of all of The Hub's scariest episodes of fan-favorite programs. Visitors to the site will also have an opportunity to participate in the "Monster-Us Makeover" photo upload activity, which allows users to create strange and haunting versions of their own photos that can be printed or downloaded and shared.

Meanwhile, The Hub's Facebook page will serve up a daily list of out-of-this-world spooky predictions with the new astrology-based " Horrorscopes" application that guarantees to chill and thrill.  Additional social media engagement will include live tweeting from cast members of " R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: The Series" on Twitter, a costume photo contest on Facebook, and behind-the-scenes production photos on Instagram.

" R.L. Stine's The Haunting: The Series" is produced for The Hub by Front Street Pictures in association with The Hatchery, LLC.  The series is executive produced by Dan Angel, Billy Brown, Harvey Kahn and Kim Arnott.

Additional information on this year's hottest Halloween costumes can be found at a local Party City store or PartyCity.com. 

About The Hub

THE HUB is a multi-platform joint venture between Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK) and Hasbro, Inc., (NASDAQ: HAS) with a goal of entertaining, enlightening, empowering and educating children and their families.  The cable and satellite television network features original programming as well as content from Discovery's library of award-winning children's educational programming; from Hasbro's rich portfolio of entertainment and educational properties built during the past 90 years; and from leading third-party producers worldwide.  The Hub lineup includes animated and live-action series, as well as specials, game shows, and family-favorite movies.  The network extends its content through a robust and engaging online presence at www.hubworld.com.  The Hub rebranded from Discovery Kids on October 10, 2010, and reaches more than 64 million U.S. households.  The Hub logo and name are trademarks of Hub Television Networks, LLC.  All rights reserved.

To find the channel in your area, please visit http://www.hubworld.com and check the channel locator at the top of the page.

Visit The Hub on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/hubtvnetwork

SOURCE The Hub TV Network

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