Candle Cove (Sugar Wiki)/WMG

The force behind the show is a relative of The Wire.
They both take on the superficial appearance of a pleasant, harmless TV program, but really have some nefarious purpose in mind. Nobody's face got eaten in this case, but... who's to say what's next?

Alternatively, the Slender Man is involved.
Mostly because they're both primarily talked about on the internet and target children.
 * And links to static. And insanity. And Nightmare Fuel.
 * Slendy is the creator. The Skin Taker is his Author Avatar. Janice was some poor kid he abducted and promised fame. Also, Slendy's suit happens to be made of children's skin.
 * This may be becoming... semi-canon? Don't know how you determine what's "canon" and what's not in the Mythos. But Everyman HYBRID has been going down this lane. The most recent video, at least, has the cast (and Damsel) talking about "finding the treasure" while watching a blank screen.
 * Perhaps during the early '70s he decided to take a break from terrorizing young filmmakers and, instead, work with them on his hidden passion: Sid and Marty Krofft-style children's programming. He did his best, but supernatural horror just isn't one of those things you can leave at the door, you know?
 * The Slender Man? I doubt it. The screaming episode is here. Go to 0:38 and pause immediately before the static. Something else seems to be behind the show.
 * Naw, that's Slenderman. He's just showing off his mask for his cameo apperance.

Alternatively alternatively, it was Candle Jack.
I mean, just look at the title, it's obvNot me this time, sorry
 * I'd happily get snatched by Candle Jack if it meant I was safe from the Skin Taker. *clears throat* Candle Jack. Um. Candle Jack. Candle Jack of the loving of the pumpkin pie? I'll bake one, I'll bake them all, seriously, just...Candle Jack! FUCKING CANDLE JACK ALREADY! i can feel his teeth on my skin he's waiting why is he waiting
 * Candle Jack can't get you out of this adventure. You have. To go. Insi

Alternatively alternatively alternatively, it was the demons from Smile Time.
Candle Cove started out as a real show, but got into financial trouble, forcing the creators to make a Deal with the Devil. The demons immediately took over, possessed the puppets, and began feeding on the audience.

Candle Cove was a real show...
But something happened to the actors and staff of the show, and they are only able to come in contact with people who watched the show before, or are made aware of it by someone who has watched it.

Candle Cove isn't just dead static.
The last poster probably heard about it from a friend, but was a Cloudcuckoolander, and watched dead static. Everyone else, i.e., kids who weren't CloudCuckooLanders, actually watched it.
 * Alternatively, he made up the story about watching static, actually he's just a message board troll who loves messing with people's heads. The show was real and its supposed creepiness was just a combination of low production values, incompetence of its makers, and the imagination of the kids who watched it.
 * Or his mother was the one hallucinating. She's the only person we know of who saw the static, and one person seeing things is more likely than several people seeing the same things.
 * Or, there's a third theory. It wasn't dead static but it was a television show on a station that didn't come in very clearly. That conclusion wasn't reached by many younger people (most of those who know the creepypasta) since many young people grew up with cable and satellite, and thus only know something either coming in clear or not at all. Back in the day (boy, do I sound old), kids would often watch TV channels that only partially came in, which if you weren't watching it and just passing by (as we can safely assume the mother was, as she would have no reason to watch a children's show about pirates) looks like dead air and sounds like dead air or it was close enough that she just called it static. I can remember things that I taped as a kid that were very snowy chanels that only partway came in visually and audially that my parents thought of as just static, and when I played them back, sure enough, they were intact. The only mystery is how they knew the ship was red, but it could be that the kids (remember this aired in 71-72, not long out of the 60s, so there was still black and white TV) saw enough red on black and white that they were pretty sure that the Laughingstock was indeed red (notice that no other colors are explicitly named), or perhaps it came in clear enough at times that the snowy picture had some color to it from time to time. Kids are a lot more willing to watch TV stations that only partially come in than adults are.
 * Actually, the forum thread seems similar to a psychological phenomena I heard about, where one person comes up with a vaguely defined memory, another person invents details to add to that vague memory, which convinces the one who reads or hears about them that he/she has "remembered" those details from before and elaborates on them, which in turn prompts other people to "remember" those elaborations in so on. Notice how almost every reply on the thread after the first entry begins with something along the lines of "Oh, yeah I remember (repeats some detail brought up in a previous reply)..." followed by some addition. I think this could either be Confabulation, False Memory Syndrome, or some other phenomena that I've forgotten the name of (I'm not a psychologist after all) related to mass hysteria. In essence, you could say that there never was a Candle Cove and that all the memories the characters have are inventions of their collective conversation.

The "last episode" was not actually the last episode
It was just the last one anyone watched, having been scared so badly by it that they never wanted to see the show again. The series continued past that point for an unknown amount of time (presumably not long, if nobody was watching, but then again, we can't be sure).
 * On this note, it's possible the later episodes were additional screaming and similar creepy things.
 * Or perhaps it was addressed afterwards (some might have missed the screaming episode or not been fazed by it) and never mentioned again.

The "last episode" made much more sense in context
The screaming part being the most memorable is simply all that people saw it could remember. It's also very likely that Janice wasn't crying because the rest of the cast was screaming, but rather because of the same thing that made them scream. Perhaps they were ALL subjected to something horrible (yes, including the villains).
 * Or perhaps they were screaming because Janice was crying.
 * Alternately, the guy who said it was real said the screaming episode may have been a false memory implanted by the thread starter who later mentioned a nightmare about them screaming.

The show was indeed real, but it wasn't static
The static stuff is just people being trolls.

The Show isn't as malevolent as everyone makes it out to be.
The show was originally going to be an actual show, created by some well meaning and talented, but very money-lacking puppeteers, who could only afford the cheapest equipment. Unfortunately, before the show they spent so long preparing was able to be put on television, the building they worked in burnt down, killing the entire staff. They were so determined to create it though, that their spirits transmitted their show through the only medium they could, the minds of imaginative children (or childish tropers, apparently). Unfortunately though, they could only keep contact for so long, resulting in the emotional "static" of the last episode, right where contact was cut off, and the characters were completely uncontrolled for a few minutes. Overall though, despite a few traumatized children, the show and its creators never really meant any harm. All the fires which had mysteriously been connected to this were just coincidence.

The chat thread was set up by the show's producers.
The original post on the forum was posted by whoever created the show to study how much the children remember of it into adulthood. The forum goes on a lot later than recorded, and the OP begins analyzing each chat member further for long term effects.
 * Or perhaps it was a place to get ideas for Flapjack by planting a seed and kicking off some false memories.

Candle Cove was real...
...But not as a show. The girl who was Janice was really in a place/world where the only other inhabitants were puppets or puppet like things. She was forced to go "adventuring" with them. And they were all somehow constantly being recorded. What was seen by others wasn't filmed with a camera, it was through something else's eyes. This could explain why Janice was said to sometimes breakdown crying...

Candle Cove was a regular show.
It was a normal show, but the Shadow Men altered something and made the actors, creators, or whole damn studio unpeople. The only people that can see it or remember it are kids who saw it at the time it aired and are especially sensitive to Timey Wimey stuff. It could definitely explain why some people's memories seem to be fuzzy. And maybe the Nightmare Fuel Unleaded portion of it is just what happens to memories when stuff like that happens.
 * Maybe even the Shadow Men deemed the show too creepy and decided to take things into their own hands?

Candle Cove ran from the early 50's to the late 90's.
As shown in this archived 4chan thread (Remember, because this is 4chan Ads are definitely NSFW!) https://web.archive.org/web/20160630015509/http://4chanarchive.org/brchive/dspl_thread.php5?thread_id=23656001&x=Candle+Cove+General

Candle Cove was in fact a real show.
Yeah, I know, it's not the most original concept, but hear me out. The person who posted the thread, at the time, was thoroughly stoned. He sat down to watch TV, but his cable was out, and thus, only static showed up. However, as a result of him being high, he was completely convinced he was seeing Candle Cove, a show from his childhood. He wakes p the next morning, the rest of the night a blur, except from the fact he saw Candle Cove. He posted the thread, and some of the more bizarre descriptions (i.e. the "Screaming Episode", the static, etc.) were all just posts by trolls. The story was a copy of the thread by one of the trolls.

Candle Cove heralds the Arrival
Thirteen wounded  from the halls of beyond. Within the  vailing one finds final silence.
 * Do you need an orb repairman or something? I know one on the corner of 207th that could help.
 * ̷ͤ̃̂͐̆̔̚The ẙͥ̊̆̉̈nuȎͫ͌̽̀̾̚͏mber is vOͯ͛̓̆̌͊̚id.