Goosebumps vs Are You Afraid of the Dark?

When I was growing up, there were some popular authors I didn't like, namely Roald Dahl and Maurice Sendak (although there were some exceptions). I was more a Tomie dePaola type of person, but I also liked R. L. Stine's Goosebumps books. It was turned into a show on the Fox network, and like the books, the only ones that ever scared me were the Slappy episodes. I can look back on them now and laugh, but at the time Slappy was the little kids' version of Chucky Childsplay. Based on what I've heard other people say, however, popular opinion claims that Goosebumps was scarier (or at least better) than Nickelodeon's Are You Afraid of the Dark? I beg to differ.
Goosebumps had the potential to be scary depending on what frightened you as a child (for me and others, it was dolls coming to life with borderline murderous intent). However, I found that most of them ended on a comical ending or an ambiguous one that was probably meant to be scary but didn't really get much of a reaction out of me even as a child. Are You Afraid of the Dark? did have a lot of hokey episodes that weren't that scary, but I do remember several episodes that did give me the creeps. It could have also had something to do with the airing times - Goosebumps was usually after-school fare, while Are You Afraid of the Dark? was on the Saturday night or "Snick" block right before its viewers' bedtime. You do the math.
In college I found a book in the university library called What's So Scary about R. L. Stine?, and it's a very informative read that I would recommend to anyone wanting to know more about him and his process. His schedule was such that he was cranking out one book a month. To me it sounds like that would account for some of the strange twist endings that you wouldn't see coming, as if he'd written down the first thing that came to mind so he could meet his deadline, but that didn't always make it good. As for AYAotD?, I preferred the first group of kids but it didn't really matter to me. The series finale movie "The Tale of the Silver Sight" brought everyone together nicely. In the end, I enjoyed installments of both series, but even on television I just recall thinking that AYAotD? had more going for it overall in terms of scariness. Goosebumps could be a comedy when it wanted to be and often was. That didn't necessarily make it bad, but it certainly made it less scary in addition to when it was confusing or nonsensical. Maybe if I saw either show again now I would have a different opinion, but I'm just going by what I remember experiencing when I was younger. I couldn't pick out all of the ones I liked or disliked from either, but I do remember episodes of AYAotD? in which Melissa Joan Heart and Gilbert Gottfried had guest starring roles and they were pretty good. Also, I did always prefer the Goosebumps books over the show. My friend and I even had the board games but they were usually more fun when we made up our own rules and scenarios.