Happy Halloween 2022!

 

Welcome back for the final scare of the 2022 Countdown to Halloween!

This has really been a great, fun season. We saw The Munsters, The Sanderson Sisters, Michael Myers (for the last time?), the return of McDonald's Halloween Happy Pails, a new Halloween Whopper, Chucky Season 2, a better Great Pumpkin soundtrack, and even a last-minute issue of Ghostbusters spoons (thank you Sonic!). I know there's other great stuff I'm leaving out, but I can't fit it all in one post. Let's just say we've had a jam-packed season.

But don't let the fun end today. November 1st is All Hallow's Day, and November 2nd is All Souls' Day/Day of the Dead, so I consider those days the afterparty of Halloween--take advantage!

I can't thank you enough for stopping by and sharing in my goofiness. I never know if the stuff I find entertaining will be found that way by others, but thanks to your clicks and comments, I see that you love it too. Thank you again!

Thanks also again to Naila Moon and Dex for their hard work in keeping the Countdown going. Let's do it again next year.

And with that, I close out the Countdown by saying--

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Please stay tuned in November!

The Fall Guy, "October the 31st," Guest Starring Elvira

 

Well, this is it! The last weekend before Halloween and my penultimate article for the Countdown. Time certainly does fly, but what a time we've been having along the way!

The last long-form program for the Countdown is a fun one. Today I feature a Halloween episode of the '80s action series The Fall Guy. The series stars Lee Majors as Colt Seavers, a full-time Hollywood stunt man and part-time bounty hunter who, with help from his friends, captures crooks on the run for extra money.

In this episode, Colt is supposed to be part of a horror movie starring Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (played, of course, by the always wonderful Cassandra Peterson) filming in an old house, but the owner of the house refuses to let the crew film there. Soon after, supernatural hijinks happen--or are they really supernatural?

The Fall Guy was always a lighthearted series, but this episode is even more tongue in cheek than usual. And they're not just paying lip service to Halloween with an episode title like "October the 31st." This episode actually aired on Halloween night, 1984.

Enjoy! Make the most of this last spooky weekend! Please come back Monday for my last article for the Countdown to Halloween!

Disney's Haunted Halloween, 1983 Educational Film

 

During this time of year, media are always recounting the same Halloween safety tips year after year. Trick-or-treat with friends, wear reflective costumes so cars can see you, etc. Kids have been beaten over the head with these tips for a hundred years. But here are the same tips presented with fun.

Today I feature Halloween safety tips as told with classic spooky Disney animation. Disney's educational film division made this back in 1983, likely for distribution in schools, libraries, and other kid-friendly venues. The film features clips from such Disney classics as The Headless Horseman, "Trick or Treat" featuring Donald Duck and his nephews, Disney's Haunted Mansion, and other great spooky Disney fare.

A shout-out is necessary to my Twitter friend The Haunted Drive-In, purveyor of great Halloween and other coolness, for uploading this film to YouTube. Check out his channel here for more awesome videos.

Enjoy!

Halloween TV commercials 2022 Edition Part 2

 

Today begins the last full week of October! The big night is exactly one week from today! It's crunch time, people, so let's ramp up the festivities!

Today I dip once again into the Halloween TV commercial well. First up, this quick but fun commercial for Hershey. It's only 15 seconds, but it's still one of the Halloweeniest commercials you'll see!

Here is a very old school commercial for Woolworth's, a discount retail chain long shuttered but fondly remembered by those my age and older. I may have featured this commerical before years ago, but it's so great, I don't care. This is Halloween to me!

Pharmacy chains have long been a main place to get your Halloween essentials. In this commercial, Walgreen's provides a little helper to make everyone's Halloween happy!

I never would have expected a company to "get" the awesomeness of Halloween to be a realtor, but in this 30-second commercial, Coldwell Banker gets it!

IHOP has traditionally been a gret place to get fun holiday-themed meals and promotions; I fondly remember the Addams Family meals from a few years ago. Unfortunately, they're not doing anything that extravagent this year that I know of, but perhaps they still offer these fun pancake meals from years past?

Halloween safety tips are always plentiful: on TV, retail store shopping bags, schools, everywhere. Here is a minute-long public service announcement from the '80s featuring everyone's favorite fat cat, Garfield!

Finally, I have not one but two fun commercials from Red Bull, which always has great commercials. Here are two of them with a creepy twist! Red Bull does in fact give you wings--BAT wings!

Thanks! Only a couple more posts to go! And one more thing, on a personal note:

GO PHILLIES!

The Munsters' Revenge (1981)

 

And we say adieu to Week 3 of the Countdown to Halloween with a long form program, as we do every Friday. This weekend, it's the 1981 TV-movie The Munsters' Revenge!

In this TV-movie, which first aired Feburary 27, 1981, actors Fred Gwynne, Al Lewis, and Yvonne DeCarlo are reunited in their Munster roles, with Herman and Grandpa mistaken for thieves (the true thieves are robot replicas from a nearby museum). It's up to the Munsters to clear the family's ghoul, er, good name.

This is another item I haven't yet seen, but I still feel compelled to share, especially with the Munsters on everyone's mind thanks to the new Rob Zombie film. The Munsters' Revenge is the first of several reunions and reincarnations of the franchise. Let's see if it's a good one.

Enjoy! Have a great weekend! Be spooky! You can also watch the movie directly on YouTube at this link!

Square Pegs, "Halloween XII"

 

Hey there, Generation X! Today we get totally tubular on the Countdown with a Halloween episode of the short-lived early '80s sitcom Square Pegs.

In this series, two nerdy high school girls, played by Amy Linker and Sarah Jessica Parker (yes, THAT Sarah Jessica Parker) go to great lengths to be popular, with usually unsuccessful results. The show includes the usual cast of offbeat suburban teens you'll find in most '80s projects, but the show still has a sweetness and charm that many other '80s teen shows lack. And the show is dripping with 80s-ness. You'd think it was a modern day period piece laying the '80s on thick, but no, this is just the way the show is. I love it!

In this episode, the girls are suprised to be invited to a Halloween party for the cool kids. But after awhile, they suspect they are being watched. For nefarious purposes, maybe?

Tune in and see. Enjoy! Totally!

Pumpkin Moon Animated TV Special (2005)

 

Welcome to Week 3 of the Countdown to Halloween! Today, I offer a special I've been trying to track down for years.

In researching material for Countdowns past, I came across a song written for a British animated TV special called Pumpkin Moon. The animation looked very cute, as was the song, but I couldn't find the special anywhere. Information on the special was sparse as well; all I could find was that it was made for British TV and was based on a children's book.

Now, after years of patience, I finally found it! Pumpkin Moon is about the relationship between a black cat and a magical jack o' lantern and the bond they form. Meanwhile, a small army--literally a small army--of witches looks to wage war on the benevelent pumpkins of the Midwestern US town they inhabit.

I haven't had the chance to see this before blogging it (always a role of the dice), so I'll be watching this for the first time along with you.

Enjoy! You can also watch the special directly on YouTube here.

John Carpenter's Halloween: The TV Edit

 

Another Friday means another long-form program, and today is another special one.

Today is one of the biggest days this Halloween season, because today is the release of the long-awaited movie Halloween Ends, the final showdown between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). It opens in theaters today and appears on the streaming service Peacock.

In preparation and celebration of this event, here is where it all started--the original classic Halloween. But at the same time, not quite the original!

This is in fact the TV edit of the film made for broadcast on NBC on October 30, 1981, which was the movie's television debut. After editing the film for content (this was over-the-air TV after all), Halloween was running too short for a two-hour broadcast, even with commercials. So at the request of the network, brand new scenes were shot specifically for the TV version, filmed at the same time as Halloween II (which was opening in theaters the same weekend this version of the original aired). Reluctantly, John Carpenter and the other filmmakers agreed, and this edit of the movie was born.

Enjoy! Have a great weekend! Eat, drink, and be spooky! Beware the Bogie Man!

Saturday Night Live's Stefon on Halloween's Hottest Tips

 

As we get closer to Halloween, it's important to shore up your Halloween plans. If you live in New York City, here are some of the hottest Halloween celebrations according to Saturday Night Live's Stefon (played hilariously by Bill Hader). Enjoy!

Groovie Goolies, "Witches' Brew"

 

Welcome to Week 2 of the Countdown to Halloween! Let's not waste time and get right to it.

Today I offer an episode of the short-lived but fondly remembered animated series The Groovie Goolies. The Filmation-produced series aired as part of CBS's Saturday morning lineup during the 1970-1971 season, and features caricatures of famous monsters living together and performing in a rock band. Each episode was packed with music and comedy.

Here is a typical episode of the series titled "Witches' Brew." Enjoy!

Happy Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples' Day! For those in Canada, Happy Thanksgiving!

The Love Boat, "Ship of Ghouls" (1978)

 

It's Friday people! And during the Countdown to Halloween, I like to share a long-form program for the weekend. This weekend's feature should be a treat.

In reviewing last year's articles, I noticed a glaring omission--there was no Vincent Price feature last year! I do my best to put Vincent in the mix at least once every year, but I completely dropped the ball last year and didn't notice it until this year. To fix that dreadful mistake, I'm featuring the great man now, but in an unlikely place.

This is an episode of The Love Boat, titled "Ship of Ghouls." Originally airing on Saturday, October 28th, 1978 on ABC, this episode features Price as a great illusionist who is blind to the affections of his female friend. There are two other subplots, but Vincent's is the one that makes this a Halloween episode. There is also a Halloween costume party that is a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, the video is cut off at the very beginning, but the fidelity is quite good.

Enjoy, Vincent fans! Have a great weekend! Do something spooky, it's the first weekend of October! Make it a great one!

Superman, "The Mummy Strikes" (1943)

 

Our next Halloween treat for you this month is a short cartoon from the Famous Studios series of Superman cartoons.

In this one, Clark Kent and Lois Lane investigate to learn who murdered a famed Egyptologist. In typical Clark and Lois fashion, they run afoul of undead mummies! Those crazy kids!

Enjoy!

Halloween TV Commercials 2022 Edition

 

Welcome again kiddies! It's time to kick off the Countdown to Halloween in earnest with my annual look at Halloweeny, spooky, or creepy TV commericals. These are always one of my favorite articles to write, because there's something about televised capitalism that really puts you in the Halloween spirit!

First up:  a demonstration of the Kodak Instamatic camera at Universal Studios Hollywood--with a little help from our fiends!

Next up: an awesome promo for Cinemax's "Drive-In Saturday Night Horrors" programming from the late '80s. The four films featured here are all '80s horror classics--what a film festival these would make! Then again, Oh, God! You Devil beforehand is a nice bonus!

This next one is in honor of the not-yet-official news that McDonald's is bringing back Halloween Happy Pails! McDonald's hasn't offered Halloween Pails since the Great Pumpkin tie-in ones from 2016; this commercial is for the 2011 incarnation of the pails, which came with stickers that kids could use to create their own Pail design.

Craft store chain Michael's has long been an important place for Halloween decorations, but I didn't know they ever had costumes as well! Here's proof from this delightfully low tech commercial from 1991!

One thing about Halloween that doesn't get mentioned enough--it's a surprisingly good way to make a love connection! And you can get affordable help creating a costume from your local Goodwill. Just look at this lucky fellow who found a costume and a connection thanks to Goodwill!

AMC is known today as the cable network for Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, but the channel's origins is as American Movie Classics, a home for great films from '30s through the '60s and even earlier! It's where I saw some great early horror films like the ones featured in this promo. I wish the channel was still like this!

I hope you enjoyed this collection; please let me know in the comments. I hope to have more for you later this month. Thanks!

Welcome to the 2022 Countdown to Halloween!

 

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Welcome one and all to the 2022 Countdown to Halloween at Me and You and a Blog Named Boo!

Once again, our annual festival of fright rises up from the primordial soup and blesses us with spooky fun and frivolity. For the next 31 days, the blog will feature nothing but the scariest, creepiest, the most Halloweeniest content possible. And you're going to love every minute of it! There will be cartoons, commercials, movies, TV episodes, music, and who knows what else!

Let's not forget that the Countdown doesn't exist in a vacuum. This is only of one of dozens of awesome sites participating in this event. Please visit the main Countdown to Halloween site for all of the wonderful participants, and visit each and every single one!

There's something even extra special at the main Countdown site this year. For the first time ever, there is Countdown to Halloween merchandise! You can buy this amazing Countdown to Halloween t-shirt, designed by Chad Savage, and what a great design it is! 100% of the proceeds will go to the organization Haunters Against Hate, which promotes LGBTQ+ appreciation and support among the Halloween community. Get this awesome shirt today!

I simply must pay respect to the event's coordinators, Michelle aka Naila Moon of Zombie Crossings and Dex of AEIOU And Sometimes Why, for keeping the event alive--or at least undead! The Countdown simply wouldn't exist without them. Thank you very much Michelle and Dex!

And now, without further ado, let the 2022 Countdown to Halloween begin!