Fridays at the Countdown mean long-form programs, and this week, it's the 1995 TV special Halloween On Ice!
In this special that aired on the TNT cable network on October 8, 1995, figure skating superstars Nancy Kerrigan, Todd Eldridge, Scott Hamilton, and more skate in full costume in outrageous Halloween performances. I wouldn't think of figure skating and Halloween going together, but this special is quite convincing! Plus, I've always appreciated figure skating; my mother is a huge fan and watched it frequently during my childhood.
This special must have been a success, as there were several others through the late '90s and even early 2000s.
Enjoy below or directly on YouTube here. Have a great weekend!
For today at the Countdown, I'm keeping it short with a classic cartoon.
Here is "The Haunted House," probably the first "scary" cartoon produced by Walt Disney. Most of my favorite cartoons are from the 1940s and after, but this is a beautiful black-and-white cartoon with rich imagery and a great combination of spookiness and Disney-style whimsy.
Plus, it's in the public domain. No fear of Disney lawyers for me--yay!
We start another week in the 2026 Countdown to Halloween, and we kick it off with a Halloween-centric episode of...Newhart?
Yep! Well, kind of.
In this, only the second episode in the history of the series, Dick and Joanna Loudon (Bob Newhart and Mary Frann) are disturbed to learn that the lovely Vermont inn they've recently purchased has the 300-year-old body of a woman buried in the inn's basement--a woman who was burned at the stake for being a witch.
This is a surprising plot for a sitcom as good-natured and mild as Newhart, but the episode retains the small-town charm the series is known for despite being about the body of a supposed witch, and therefore, this episode totally fits the vibe I've established with this blog all these years.
This Friday's long-form program is the 1980 TV-movie Doctor Franken.
In Doctor Franken (aka The Franken Project), the titular physician is a well-respected surgeon in a Manhattan hospital with a bit of a secret: he's been experimenting with the body of a presumed-dead man, replacing shattered parts of his body with new parts--from other patients.
Franken. Frankenstein. Get it?
When the patient surprisingly recovers, he realizes that his new parts retain the experiences of their former owners--including the eyes he received from a murder victim, making the patient a retroactive witness to the murder.
The movie, which stars Robert Vaughn as Franken and Teri Garr in a supporting role, acted as a pilot for a regular series that never materialized. That's not surprising--this is pretty grim stuff for an ongoing primetime TV series, especially in 1980.
Enjoy below or directly on YouTube here. Have a great weekend!
We're back for another haunt in the Countdown. Nest up: this year's batch of Halloween TV commercials!
Well, they're not all Halloween related specifically, but they do all have a spooky, scary, or creepy theme. That's Halloween enough for me!
First up, a fun commercial for Carvel Ice Cream's Halloween cakes. I've featured one before in the Countdown, but this is a different one with a different cake than the previous commercial. Ice cream cakes aren't my favorite type of cake, but Carvel made them seem so fun! Stay tuned for the funky bumper music that appears after the commercial!
Local commercials are often my favorite, because what they lack in production values they make up for in sincerity. I love this House of Bargains ad from 1985 featuring your favorite personality and mine, Discount Dracula! No offense to the actor, but the name suits him!
If you're still looking for a costume this year, look no further than either (or both?) of these Flo and Jamie costumes, courtesy of Progressive Insurance! Well, maybe not this year since this commercial is from 2016, but maybe you can get creative and make your own! Just put on a white shirt and overalls and you're golden!
I still have a working Atari 2600 video game system, so if I come across this Demon Attack game in my retro game shop, I'm picking it up!
Rounding out this year's crop of commercials, I have no less than five brand-new ones airing on TV right now. Xfinity is showcasing how reliable their services can be--even in the heart of a zombie apocalypse. Now THAT'S reliability!
We start off the first full week of the Countdown to Halloween with a Halloween-themed episode of the classic TV series M*A*S*H.
In "Trick or Treatment," the 4077 staff is getting ready for a big Halloween party, with everyone in full costume, when they get barraged by incoming wounded and rowdy Marines. Also, Father Mulcahey realizes a patient the staff thought was dead is in fact still alive! Guest starring George Wendt and, of all people, Andrew "Dice" Clay.
This episode aired November 1, 1982 (November 1st is All Hallows Day, so it's still in-season), and it aired with two other Halloween-themed episodes on CBS that night, one of which is Square Pegs, which I blogged back in 2022, and you can still see it here.
The other episode is one that I'll feature next week right here on the blog, so stay tuned!
For right now, enjoy M*A*S*H, recorded exactly as it aired that night, with commercials and all, embedded below or directly on YouTube here. Thanks!
Hello again, and welcome back for the first full-fledged post of my 2026 Countdown to Halloween. As it's a Friday, I usually present a long-form program to watch, and to kick off the first October weekend, I present the 1977 made-for-TV horror film Curse Of The Black Widow!
As the movie opens, Los Angeles has been perplexed by a series of bizarre murders in which men are drained of their bodily fluids (yuck) through large wounds in their chests and in place is found spider venom. A police detective teams up with a private investigator to find out what's going on, which leads them to three unusual women, two of which are twins. Weird stuff ensues.
Made-for-TV horror movies are a mixed bag in quality, but I love coming across them because I'm always surprised they were even attempted due to the restrictions on what can be shown on broadcast TV back then--but they were attempted more often than I first realized! Several have even become horror classics (Trilogy of Terror, Dark Night of the Scarecrow, and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, for starters). Is this one a classic? I'll let you decide for yourself.
I will say this--look at that cast! Donna Mills, Patty Duke, Vic Morrow, June Lockhart, June Allyson, Max Gail (Wojo from Barney Miller!), Roz Kelly (Pinky Tuscadero!)--Sid Freakin' Caesar! A cavalcade of stars!
The movie is also produced and directed by Dan Curtis, the creator of Dark Shadows, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and several other made-for-TV horror films (Trilogy of Terror, Bram Stoker's Dracula, among others).
And do you SEE that TV Guide ad above? Look at it! LOOK AT IT!
Here it is, in all its webbed glory, in embedded form on directly on YouTube here. Enjoy! And thanks for being a part of the Countdown to Halloween! Let me know what you think of my posts in the comments!
