Welcome to Night Vale

Welcome to Night Vale is a podcast presented as a radio show for the fictional town of Night Vale, reporting on the strange events that occur within it. The series was created in 2012 by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. Published by Night Vale Presents since March 15, 2015, the podcast was previously published by Commonplace Books. Cecil Gershwin Palmer—the host, main character, and narrator—is voiced by Cecil Baldwin, while secondary characters are sometimes voiced by guest stars or recurring guests—such as Dylan Marron, who voices Carlos. The podcast typically airs on the first and fifteenth of every month, and consists of "news, announcements and advertisements" from the desert town, located "somewhere in the Southwestern United States." In an interview with NPR, Joseph Fink said that he "came up with this idea of a town in that desert where all conspiracy theories were real, and we would just go from there with that understood."
Production.
Every episode of the podcast includes a piece of music as "the weather", each by a different independently published artist. The theme and background instrumental music to the series were created by the musician and composer Disparition.
In October 2013, "Welcome to Night Vale" began presenting live shows, which continued into 2014 with a tour of the West Coast. In addition, it was announced during the episode "The Auction" that a novel would be published in 2015. Fink stated that "it's going to have all the characters and weird atmosphere that you want from Night Vale, with a brand new story that explores parts of Night Vale that we just haven't been able to get into with the podcast". When the book became available for pre-order the following March, it became Amazon's #2 title seven months ahead of its October release date.
"Welcome to Night Vale"s plot consists of long form storytelling. Individual episodes usually function as standalone narratives and only rarely contain significant developments in story line. The writers employ running jokes and plot arcs; for example, The Glow Cloud, one of the series' most iconic characters, hypnotizes the townspeople with its colors and noxious gas, making people chant "ALL HAIL THE GLOW CLOUD", and eventually becomes president of Night Vale's school board. Another running joke is that the job with the highest death rate is being an intern at the radio station; the only interns and former interns who are currently alive include (in order of appearance) Cecil, Chad Bowinger, Dana Cardinal, Maureen, and Kareem.
Characters and narratives may emerge and develop slowly, while unrelated stories may combine to form new plot points. Major stories which have occurred include the development of a romantic relationship between Cecil and Carlos; the stranding of several characters, including Carlos, in a "desert otherworld"; the invasion of Night Vale by the corporation StrexCorp, from the rival town of Desert Bluffs, and StrexCorp's eventual expulsion from Night Vale; the 2014 mayoral elections, with subsequent terrorist activities by failed mayoral candidates The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home and Hiram McDaniels; and the complications surrounding McDaniels' subsequent imprisonment and trial. The series' fourth anniversary in June 2016 coincided with a two-part climax to the most recent storyline: the invasion of Night Vale by mysterious strangers, led by a demonic beagle puppy accidentally summoned from Hell by Chad Bowinger, a former radio intern. The early plot point of a miniature city buried under the town's bowling alley resurfaced after this, in addition to the sporadic appearance of Huntokar, a deer-headed deity with connections to both the tiny city and Night Vale's unusual nature. More recent plot points include the resolution of the Blood Space War, the aging of Lee Marvin, the town being brought back into the normal flow of time, and the whereabouts of the missing Delta flight 18713.
Premise.
"Welcome to Night Vale" takes place in the fictional town of Night Vale, a desert town somewhere in the southwestern United States. In this town, the myriad of paranormal and supernatural occurrences are treated as mundane. For example, Cecil remarks on how cute the cat hovering above the sink in the station bathroom is, but does not find it strange that the cat is doing so. Fink describes the town as "a Southwestern commuter suburb with no place for anyone to commute to".
Guest writers.
While every episode of the show is written by creators Joseph Fink and Jeffery Cranor, so far 28 episodes and 2 bonus episodes have had guest co-writers.
Books.
"Welcome to Night Vale".
In October 2015 Fink and Cranor released a novel by the same name, "Welcome to Night Vale". It is told primarily from the viewpoints of Jackie Fierro and Diane Crayton, both citizens of Night Vale who have been featured in the podcast. Critical reception for the book has been positive. The audiobook is narrated by Cecil Baldwin.
"It Devours!".
In the March 15, 2017 episode of the podcast, Fink announced a second novel, titled "It Devours!", which deals with Carlos and his team of scientists investigating the Cult of the Smiling God. It was released October 17, 2017. The audiobook is narrated by Cecil Baldwin.
"The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home".
In the September 15, 2019 episode of the podcast it was announced that the third Night Vale novel, "The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home" was released on March 24, 2020. The novel was once again co-written by Fink and Cranor and focuses on the backstory of the title character. The audiobook is narrated by Mara Wilson, who provides the voice of the Faceless Old Woman on the podcast.
Script books.
To date "Welcome to Night Vale" has released four books featuring scripts from the show as well as commentary, introductions by the authors and original illustrations. Each book corresponds to a season (or year) of the podcast. They include "Mostly Void, Partially Stars" for Year One, "The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe" for Year Two, "The Buying of Lot 37" for Year Three, and "Who's a Good Boy?" for Year Four.
Reception.
The show has been described as "the news from Lake Wobegon as seen through the eyes of Stephen King", and Christopher Wynn of "The Dallas Morning News" characterized it as "NPR meets The Mothman Prophecies". "The Daily Dot"s Gavia Baker-Whitelaw compared the podcast to being "caught somewhere between Weird Twitter and 'Tales of the Unexplained'" and said that it is "well worth a listen—although possibly not after dark, if you live in a small town yourself". Colin Griffith of "The A.V. Club" said the show is "really well done, offering a surrealist/absurdist (and occasionally existentialist) take on community radio, with dispatches from the small, delectably nightmarish desert town of Night Vale". Writing for "TechGeek", Erin Hill considered the uniqueness of the podcast to be "its presentation of what is ordinary", adding that "many of the things that Cecil reports goes against our idea of normal, but [everything] is presented in a manner that makes it seem mundane".
In July 2013, "Welcome to Night Vale" was ranked second on the top 10 audio podcasts list on iTunes, behind radio program "This American Life". During the same month, it surpassed "This American Life" to become first on the podcasts list, having received 150,000 downloads during a single week.
In December 2013, "The A.V. Club" ranked the show 7th on its Best Podcasts of 2013 list.
Co-producer Jeffrey Cranor attributed this spike in popularity to both Tumblr and fans of the television series "Hannibal". Max Sebela, a creative strategist for Tumblr, stated that the fan following began to "spiral out of control" beginning on July 5, with that week having "20,000-plus posts about 'Night Vale,' with 183,000-plus individual blogs participating in the conversation, and 680,000-plus notes". The Twitter account for the podcast has been noted as having more than 20,000 followers by July 2013.
According to "The Daily Dot", new listeners primarily come through fan following and word of mouth primarily on Tumblr with fan fiction and fan art focusing on the romantic relationship between the show's narrator and scientist Carlos. Fans have published "fanscripts", transcripts of the podcast, in order to widen the accessibility of "Welcome to Night Vale".
On October 15, 2015 producers Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor were interviewed on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert", and Cecil Baldwin appeared for a Community Calendar public service message for Night Vale. Mike Rugnetta of PBS's web show Idea Channel compares the show to horror writer H. P. Lovecraft's style of writing about fear of what we don't know. He says "But Night Vale turns Lovecraft's 'unimaginable terror' into 'drab mundanity'."
Television adaptation.
In December 2017, it was announced that Gennifer Hutchison, a writer and producer on "Better Call Saul" and "Breaking Bad", is adapting "Welcome to Night Vale" for television. The series is being produced by Sony Pictures Television, where Hutchison has an overall deal, and developed for FX. Fink and Cranor will serve as executive producers.