Secret Adventures
Secret Adventures is an American Christian television series created by George Taweel and Rob Loos. It was released between 1993 and 1995 as direct-to-video VHS tapes spanning seven half-hour episodes. The series concerns teenager Drea Thomas, who has an overactive imagination. She baby-sits Rebecca and Matt, and they learn moral lessons in their everyday lives. At least once per episode, they go on a "secret adventure" and are magically transformed into animated characters. There, they usually learn an important life lesson relevant to the framing real-world plot. Premise. The series takes place in  Hampton Falls, New Jersey, roughly half-way between New York and Philadelphia, as a fictional stand-in for Princeton, New Jersey. The local students go to Hampton Falls Junior High School where Mrs. Joan Long is the school Principal. There Drea Thomas and her friends Kim and George, and her adversaries Arlene and Marcy, contend with the seventh grade. Drea babysits Mrs. Long's two children Rebecca and Matt, who are in elementary school. Each episode uses Grandpa as the framing device to drive home the moral lesson of the episode. Drea often narrates to her "E.D." or electronic diary , to provide additional context for the audience. Each group of characters acts out a plot based on learning the moral lesson that's relevant to them. The "secret adventure" segment is a short animated vignette where the Drea, Rebecca, and Matt are magically converted into animated characters; it is implied they use their imagination. In these adventures, they usually are turned into anthropomorphized animals and encounter situations that clarify the moral lesson of the episode. For example, in "Spin," an episode about telling the truth, Drea runs for class president but in order to win against the popular Arlene, she  must bend the truth and outright lie to gain an advantage. Meanwhile Matt gets paint on Dad's sheet music and instead of speaking up for his mistake, he hides it. The next day Drea finds the ruined music in his bag. Drea, Matt, and Rebecca go on a secret adventure to become fish, showing how lies can have consequences. This encourages Matt and Drea to tell the truth in their respective stories. At the conclusion of the episode, Drea and Grandpa complete the framing device and explicitly state the moral lesson. Not all episodes have an explicit Christian message , but if there is one, usually Grandpa will state that connection in the conclusion. Drea has an active imagination and everyday objects often become alive and react to her situation. These effects are usually achieved with computer animation. Her Toaster, for example, is alive and talks to her. It is mentioned in the first episode that Rebecca and Matt can see these animations, but the other characters cannot. Production. The series was filmed at the CBS Studios Center in Studio City, Los Angeles, California. Exterior school scenes were shot at John Burroughs Middle School in Los Angeles. Second unit  scenes were also filmed in Princeton, New Jersey. Holder Hall's gothic tower at Rockefeller College features prominently. StarToons produced the animated sequences. Peter Baldwin, known for his works on "Deep Space Nine" and "Lois and Clark", directed the series. Release. In 1997, the series of videos were re-released with branding by The Family Channel and distributed by Columbia TriStar Home Video. This release dropped the "s verb" titles in favor of more direct references to the moral lesson of each episode. As of 2020, the series is available for streaming on Pure Flix.