This story was initially printed on Oct. 3, 2019. We’re republishing it forward of Halloween.
Halloween, for all its spooky charms, could be an awesome vacation. There’s the nervousness of discovering a superb costume, the stress to courageous fearsome issues like haunted homes and scary motion pictures and, in fact, the wrestle to nab the most effective sweet.
These in search of a extra low-key technique to rejoice fall’s most thrilling vacation can (and will) bask in a binge of TV’s finest Halloween episodes. In spite of everything, the vacation has impressed a number of the most memorable vacation specials. Who may neglect the traditional Buddies episode by which Monica and Chandler host a drama-filled costume social gathering with ruthless arm-wrestling competitions? Or the heartwarming proposals that happen in Halloween episodes of Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn 9-9?
Right here’s a run-down of the most effective Halloween TV episodes of all time, offered in alphabetical order.
“Fort Evening” doesn’t depend on costumes, sweet or any typical Halloween gags to convey the thrills for viewers. Quite the opposite: the Belcher youngsters, joined by their friends — the Pesto twins and Darryl — are foiled from getting the most effective sweet within the neighborhood after they’re first trapped of their fort by a truck, then by Louise’s nemesis Millie. Ultimately, the children discover their manner out of the fort. Though they’ve missed out on trick-or-treating for the 12 months, they nonetheless discover a technique to get their sugar repair with a well-deserved prank on Millie.
It’s no secret that the officers and detectives at Brooklyn 9-9 love Halloween — a lot so, in truth, that they’ve an annual Halloween Heist by which the stakes are stacked for the precinct as they break up into groups to both pull off or cease a scheme. For the fifth annual Halloween Heist, nevertheless, Jake (one of many custom’s originators), makes use of the frilly competitors as a technique to suggest to his fellow detective, his companion and girlfriend Amy.
Whereas a typical episode of Buffy is normally as scary as a Halloween episode of another present, “Concern, Itself” actually upped the ante for the gang as every of them faces his or her deepest private fears whereas attending a frat party-turned-night of the residing lifeless.
One in every of Cheers‘ long-running jokes got here on the expense of postman Cliff’s love life, which is why “Fairy Tales Can Come True” is such a heartwarming shock. Within the episode, the regulars collect at Cheers, the place Cliff, dressed as Ponce de Leon, amazingly hits it off with a lady dressed as Tinker Bell. Whereas the 2 take pleasure in one another’s firm a lot that they shut the bar down, they make plans to fulfill one another as their common selves the following evening. Each rooster out a number of instances earlier than they lastly meet once more — however after they do, it’s a romantic second value ready for.
Larry David’s quirky neuroticism is on full show in “Trick or Deal with,” when he refuses, as a matter of principal, to provide Halloween sweet to 2 teenage ladies sans costumes. As is perhaps anticipated, it ends in catastrophe, with the next TP-ing and vandalism of his house being the least of his worries.
Frasier and Niles’ literary-themed Halloween social gathering turns into the setting for a showdown between the brothers after a comic book misunderstanding with Roz leads Niles to consider that the connection between his brother and his one real love, Daphne, is perhaps greater than what he assumed.
Rising pains are hardly ever extra visceral in Freaks and Geeks than in its Halloween episode, “Trick and Treats,” by which Sam and his pals try and return to the straightforward joys of their childhood by dressing up and doing one final spherical of trick-or-treating. Unluckily for them, nevertheless, they’ve a couple of challenges to take care of: a bully, and an unlucky shock encounter with Sam’s large sister Lindsay, out for an evening of pranks.
In “The One With the Halloween Occasion,” the gang gathers for a dressing up social gathering hosted by Monica and Chandler, however the evening takes a flip for the dramatic as lots of the pals confront their very own challenges. For Chandler, a pink bunny go well with costume prompts his delicate nature, whereas Phoebe offers with the wiles of her evil twin Ursula. For Rachel, newly pregnant, trick-or-treaters seem to be the proper technique to faucet into her maternal aspect — however issues don’t go fairly as deliberate.
Whereas this episode of Gilmore Women may very well be seen as largely a automobile for Rory’s twenty first birthday and the stress of her rift together with her mother and finest buddy, Lorelai, it’s additionally an in-depth have a look at the acute quirkiness of their city, Stars Hole, and the best way by which Halloween brings it totally to bear.
Glee‘s Halloween particular had its characters re-enacting the campy 1975 cult traditional The Rocky Horror Image Present, with the scholars taking over the enduring roles of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, Janet, Brad and the remainder of the solid, whereas Mr. Schue, Emma Pillsbury and her boyfriend Carl (performed by visitor star John Stamos) reckon with their love triangle. Followers of the unique movie had been fast to note that the unique Brad and Eddie (Barry Bostwick and Meatloaf, respectively) made cameos within the particular.
Meredith’s previous comes again to hang-out her as she feels her late mom’s presence in each scenario, which she tries to treatment by bringing her mom’s ashes to the hospital. Whereas Meredith ultimately makes peace together with her mom, a revered surgeon herself, by washing her stays down the surgical procedure room sink, there’s much more taking place at Seattle Grace this Halloween, together with a person with a “haunted” foot, chainsaws galore and a bit boy in search of a brand new pair of ears.
On this Halloween episode from the present’s seventh season, we see everyman Ted Mosby lastly reunite together with his dream lady (visitor star Katie Holmes), who was dressed as a “Slutty Pumpkin” after they met at a rooftop Halloween social gathering a decade in the past. Within the years since their preliminary assembly (and after Ted misplaced the sweet on which she had written her quantity), he’s by no means stopped trying to find her — however as soon as he finds her, issues aren’t fairly what he expects.
The At all times Sunny gang made good use of actress Kaitlin Olson’s real-life being pregnant to make a Halloween episode of epic proportions. And in typical style, nothing seems as anticipated. Whereas the episode aired throughout Halloween week, the precise episode doesn’t happen throughout Halloween, however in a sequence of flashbacks to a Halloween previous. When the boys harass Dee for gaining weight, she casually informs them that she obtained pregnant on the final 12 months’s Halloween social gathering by considered one of them. The remainder of the episode is a rollicking experience of every of their hazy views and recollections, with a race to seek out witnesses who will give them accounts of what actually occurred that evening.
If you’ve been on the air for so long as Fashionable Household has, there’s no scarcity of Halloween episodes — particularly when Claire Dunphy, Halloween fanatic extraordinaire, is concerned. Nevertheless, it’s the present’s first Halloween episode that’s essentially the most endearing because it establishes the Dunphy-Pritchard crew and all their eccentricities as they take care of Claire’s really scary Haunted Home.
If there’s anybody who loves a theme, it’s Leslie Knope, however even the perky do-gooder of Pawnee couldn’t maintain her spirits up throughout a dressing up social gathering when she discovered that her principal squeeze Ben obtained a job supply which may threaten their relationship. To not fear, nevertheless — the title’s “shock” comes with a twist that’s candy, not spooky, when Ben proposes to Leslie, solidifying their standing as probably the cutest energy couple in all of Indiana.
Stranger Issues offers within the enterprise of otherworldly thrills, so it ought to come as no shock that the present’s Halloween episode was further spooky, crammed with flashbacks to the Upside Down, imprecise rumblings of the Demogorgon and a mysterious creature present in a trash can. However one of many highlights of the episode is pleasant quite than scary: in line with the sequence’ normal spirit of Eighties nostalgia, the boys adorably gown because the Ghostbusters for Halloween.
The Workplace has greater than sufficient hilarious Halloween episodes, however “Costume Contest” may simply take the cake for its wild ranges of drama and aesthetic acrobatics. When a dressing up contest is introduced, the Scranton staffers duke it out for finest costume (can anybody ever neglect Gabe dressed as a really tall, very glittery Woman Gaga?). However the competitors for the costume contest isn’t anyplace near the rivalry constructing between Michael and Darryl, making this episode one for the books.
Nobody does a Halloween particular fairly like The Simpsons, whose writers got here up with their very own campy style identify for the annual episodes: the “Treehouse of Horror.” The present’s sharp humor and sense of satire are honed most exquisitely in “Treehouse of Horror V: The Shinning,” a superb spoof of The Shining, by which Homer goes loopy like Jack Nicholson’s Jack Torrance. Not like Jack, nevertheless, he loses his thoughts because of not having any cable or beer, which is fairly on-brand.
Whereas The Twilight Zone didn’t have any designated Halloween specials, the sequence has develop into a go-to for Halloween lovers, with marathons typically scheduled forward of the vacation. One of many episodes most cited for embodying the eerie high quality for which the present is remembered is “Residing Doll,” a harrowing story a few doll out for revenge towards a merciless man. Annabel is shook!