Do You Remember?

The old Halloween shows and specials that would come on during October back in the day ("the day" meaning the early 90's, 80's and before my time, the 70's)? The classic fun-filled moderately corny Halloween themed episodes of your favorite sitcom or once a year cartoon special? Those were the damn days, right? The leaves all turned golden browns and various shades of red before waltzing down to the ground. Mom and dad would rake the crisp, warm toned leaves into a large pile, just so you could run, flail your arms and dive into the pile, burying yourself in that autumn-like smell of the cool outside air...yea, that shit never happened for me either. Plus, we always hired help to do all the yard work.

Do you remember the time when you would get home from school, do your homework or at least pretend to have most of it done, solely so you could plop in front of the TV and watch your spooky shows, decorate the house for the one time of year when it's "acceptable" to scare the holy terror out of people without getting a weird look? This article touches on those old shows and specials that makes you revert to that time when you had no cares in the world, a time when the worst thing you could get in your trick or treat bag or at school Halloween parties, were that sugary-demon of a sweet, Candy Corn. Let's take a trip down Memory Lane and reminisce about the shows that we all enjoyed one time or another.

1. The Halloween That Almost Wasn't (1979)

This was before my time, but I believe my parents actually had this on VHS (remember those?). It revolves around Dracula (Judd Hirsch) trying to save Halloween from the Witch (Mariette Hartley) who threatens it. It won an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Individual Achievement - Children's Program" and was nominated for three others. On VHS releases, it was retitled The Night Dracula Saved the World. My favorite part of the film is at the end when Dracula and the Witch end up doing some Saturday Night Fever bit, where they tear off their attire to reveal disco clothing and began dancing. Corny, but hey, it lasted in my mind for some unknown reason. Great Halloween flick for everyone.

2. The Witch's Night Out (1978)

The plot involves a witch who accompanies two children named Small and Tender with their babysitter (Bazooey) to a Halloween party and transforms them into a werewolf, Frankenstein's monster, and a ghost (previously their Halloween costumes). The witch takes them to the Halloween party-in-progress at her house. Other citizens of the town get offended. They try to catch these supernatural beings as a mob. The children and Bazooey spend the night as real eerie creatures but decide they need to become human beings again. A disco song entitled "Witch Magic" was sung in this film. One of my absolute favorites from my childhood. I may have to pop onto Amazon and purchase this gem.

3.  The Worst Witch (1986)

The film follows the plot of the 1974 book from the series, portraying the incidents of when young witch, Mildred Hubble (Fairuza Balk) turns herself invisible and transforms nemesis, Ethel into a pig, Miss Cackle's (Charlotte Rae) notorious twin sister Agatha (also, Charlotte Rae) plotting to take over the Academy, and the Grand Wizard (Tim Curry) viewing the Halloween Broomstick formation (sabotaged by Ethel's faulty broom which she lent to Mildred). It's an awesome story and surely a classic in any household.







4.  It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown (1966)

How can anyone NOT remember this holiday classic?! Linus and his blue-blanket toting ass spending the night in the pumpkin patch awaiting the arrival of the never before seen, Great Pumpkin, with skeptical, yet smitten Sally in tow. The Red Baron (Snoopy's Halloween alter-ego) is introduced to television, Charlie Brown's block-head receiving a couple of rocks in his trick or treat bag, and Lucy being bitchy as always...this classic toon is by far my absolute favorite! It's just not Halloween,  unless I watch this special, plain and simple.









5.  Garfield's Halloween Adventure (1985)

I believe I still may have this on VHS somewhere in our storage facility. The songs that Garfield sings about pirates and changing costumes are priceless to say the least. Garfield awakens to Binky the Clown chattering about Halloween Night and how much candy kids will be able to get while dressing in costume. Garfield schemes to have Odie dress up as his dim-witted coutnerpart and First Mate (Odie the Stupid), while going around the neighborhood to collect booty (no, not ass, pirate's treasure...in the form of candy). The night turns a bit eerie when they travel across troubled waters to an old house and meet up with an old cantakerous man, whom indulges the reluctant two in a ghost story. This actually used to freak me out a bit when I was a kid. That old man was a bit on the "what the hell?" side, and those damn pirate ghosts...yea, it was a child's show, but for a 4 year old at the time, it was a little unsettling before bedtime. Great Halloween special!

6. Disney's Halloween Treat (1982)

This was a variety of clips from Disney movies that compiled all of the infamous villains at the time. It was hosted by Jonathan Winters, who doubled as a freaky-ass Jack-o-lantern and then by some puppet-pumpkin later on. Mad Madame Mim, Captain Hook, Maleficent, and many other fearsome-wrong doers of the Disney world. One of the most memorable clips of this 47-minute Halloween romp, is the Bald Mountain scene from Fantasia. Pretty intense for children and from the 1940's era. The skeleton dance scene at the opening of the show was oddly intriguing as well.

7. Bugs Bunny's Howl-Oween Special (1978)

The green-faced witch with the tiny, Sandpiper-legs and the bobby-pins that would be inexplicably left behind as she bolted off screen, the weird vampire character with a thick Romanian accent, the genius little rats that scared the beetle-juice out of Sylvester the Cat...these were all great characters and clips in this Looney Tunes special.

8. The Halloween Tree (1993)

Based on Ray Bradbury's 1972 fantasy novel of the same name. It tells the story of a group of trick-or-treating children who learn about the origins and influences of Halloween when one of their friends is spirited away by mysterious forces.

This cartoon is often featured on Cartoon Network during the Halloween season. It features the voice of Leonard Nimoy as the children's guide, Mr. Moundshroud. Ray Bradbury himself provided the voice of the Narrator, and won an Emmy Award for writing the special's screenplay. The film changes the novel's group of night travelers from eight boys to three boys and a girl. A longer limited edition "author's preferred text" of the novel was published in 2005, which included the screenplay.





9. Goosebumps: The Haunted Mask pt.I (1995)

You know, although this special came on the cusp of when I began to lean away from the childish types of shows, this one seemed to stick with me for a bit. Hot on the trails of R.L. Stine's scary-stories for children, Goosebumps series. It follows Carly Beth, a timid girl who buys a Halloween mask that would not come off. José Rivera wrote the TV special, and Timothy Bond served as director. The special starred Kathryn Long as Carly Beth, Kathryn Short as Sabrina, George Davis as Steve and Amos Crawley as ChuckThe concept of having a mask attach itself to you and building off of your emotions, was genius. The Austin American-Statesman described it as "a live-action dramatization that's scary enough to give kids the creeps but probably not scary enough to give them nightmares." True enough, no nightmares were had on my end; however, I was a bit weary with the lights off in either of the rooms I stayed in at our home back then.

10. It Came from Underneath the Bed (1991)

Keeping with the R.L. Stine bit here (he also created this muppet-like television show, Eureeka's Castle), the Nickelodeon show, Eureeka's Castle, aired a Halloween episode titled, "It Came from Underneath the Bed" (aka: Nightmare on Magellan Street). Undoubtedly, he would create a special that the show would have a pretty impressive Halloween episode. They managed to put together a Halloween feature that was perfect in every way. It wasn't too scary for the little kids, but it was terror-laden without losing any of that colorful delight we came to expect from Eureeka's Castle.



And there you have it; 10 of the best (well, mine at least) Halloween specials in the past 30 or so years. It almost seems as if they don't even try anymore to create classics or even cult-classics. Well, if those days are indeed behind us, at least we have these greats vaulted in our minds, and for some of us, on DVD or Blu Ray. Did I miss any specials? Let me know.