Happy Halloween 2023!

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for spending your Halloween season with me! It means so much to me you don't even know. I hope you've had as much fun with this blog as I've had. And be sure to check out the other great blogs of the Countdown to Halloween. Many thanks once again to Dex and Naila Moon for keeping this great tradition alive, especially to Naila (Michelle), who is stepping down as the prime showrunner after this year. Thanks again, Michelle!

Tonight is of course the finale, which is trick or treating. Please make sure you give out great candy or have great costumes, because no one wants to experience the "Trick or Treat Blues!"

Be safe, be healthy, and once again, Happy Halloween!

Coming soon!

The Last Halloween with Richard Moll and clip from Friends Halloween Episode with Matthew Perry

 

Hello one and all! It's almost over! We have but two days left of the Halloween season (although I think November 1st and 2nd are Halloweenish enough to celebrate). 

Today's post is a bit of a sad one. We lost two TV comedy greats this weekend, Richard Moll of Night Court and Matthew Perry of Friends. I have two offerings in their honor.

The Last Halloween is a 1991 TV special about adorable aliens who befriend two young Earth children as the aliens search for candy. Richard Moll plays a henchman to a villainess (Rhea Perlman) out to destroy the local candy factory. It's intended for young children, but it's wholesome fun.

Next is a fun clip from a famous Halloween episode of Friends. Here, Chandler, already humiliated by having to wear a pink bunny costume given to him by Monica, is doubly humiliated by seeing Joey's costume--as Chandler! 😂

These two great actors will be sorely missed, but at least we have their outstanding work to enjoy forever.

See you tomorrow for the grand finale of the Countdown to Halloween! Thanks!

The Curse of Dracula TV Series (1979)

 

Here we are at the end of Week 4 of the Countdown to Halloween! This is the last weekend before the big night, so let's soak in as much candy-fueled joy as we can these last few days!

This weekend I present to you a long program, but I hope you will find it entertaining. This is the 1979 short-lived TV series The Curse of Dracula. This was in fact a series within a series.

In February of 1979, NBC debuted an anthology called Cliffhangers. The series consisted of three different series under the Cliffhangers umbrella title, similarly to what they did with the NBC Wheel of Mystery (Columbo, McMillan & Wife, McCloud). Each week the Cliffhangers series would present an episode of one of the three adventure series: this Dracula series, Stop Susan Williams, and The Secret Empire. The Curse of Dracula was the highest rated of the three series.

But not highly rated enough. All three Cliffhangers series were canceled later than season, but a follow up movie, The World of Dracula, aired in 1986. Maybe I'll save that one for next year. :)

Here, edited into one giant block, is the entire Curse of Dracula. I've embedded it below, but you will probably prefer watching it directly on YouTube here.

Enjoy! Have a great last weekend of the season!

Garfield's Halloween Adventure and It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, October 30th, 1985

 

Today I offer an especially awesome treat! Brace yourselves!

Today I offer a solid hour of 1980s Halloween TV greatness. Today I present the 8pm to 9pm programming block from CBS on October 30, 1985. What makes this hour so special? Because it contains two Halloween heavyweights.

The 8 to 8:30pm program is the debut of Garfield's Halloween Adventure! Yes, this is the very first time the special aired. It's becomes highly revered by GenXers and millenials in recent years, so this is a big deal!

But that's not all.

In the 8:30 to 9pm slot--It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

I KNOW, RIGHT???

And if that wasn't enough--the hour includes commercials.

HOLY HALLOWEEN!

Sit down in a comfortable chair, take a deep breath, relax and---enjoy!

You can watch this awesomeness embedded below and directly on Dailymotion here.

The Real Ghostbusters, "The Halloween Door"

 

And we are at Week 4 of the Countdown to Halloween 2023! This is the last full week of the season, so it's crunch time. If you've been holding off on certain activities because the time didn't feel "Halloweeny" enough, stop procrastinating NOW!

Today I present a Halloween episode of The Real Ghostbusters, "The Halloween Door." Of course, every episode of The Real Ghostbusters is Halloweeny, but this time it's right there in the title. According to the description on the Official Ghostbusters YouTube page, "Crowley is the chairman of Citizens United Againt Halloween. When the Ghostbusters refuse to join forces with him, Crowley by mistake opens the Halloween Door and breaks the underworld's ancient contract of imprisonment."

In short, a ton of ghosts are released to the world by some stick in the mud. You know, basically the plot of every Ghostbusters story that's ever existed. But as a diehard Ghostbusters fan, I ain't complainin'!

Enjoy!

Ghostwatch (1992)

 

Today we put Week 3 of the Countdown to Halloween to rest with the 1992 BBC production Ghostwatch.

This is an original production that aired on Halloween night 1992 in the UK, and although it was presented as a "live" presentation, it was produced and recorded weeks earlier. The program is a scripted feature structured as a live documentary into the supposedly haunted house in a fictional town in England inhabited by a woman and her two daughters. Several people are included in the "investigation," including parapsychologists, journalists, etc. Scary stuff ensues.

The program proved to be quite controversial in the UK, spawning many irate calls to the BBC. It was shown in the UK only that one time, but it has aired in other countries since.

Submitted for your approval is the program. 

Enjoy! Have a great spooky weekend!

Love, American Style, "Love and the Haunted House"

 

Today I have what might be an unusual pick for the Countdown to Halloween on the surface, but I think it works just fine. For this blog, anyway.

Love, American Style was a TV comedy anthology series (I don't know of many comedy anthologies!) that aired in the early 70s on ABC. Each half-hour episode featured one or two stories of people falling in, out, or around (?) love. The series was light as a feather, and even spun off one of its episodes into a very successful series of its own---Happy Days!

In this episode, an engaged couple, played by Frank Sutton (Gomer Pyle, USMC) and Ruth Buzzi (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In), run out of gas along a highway during a thunderstorm and reluctantly spend the night in a seemingly abandoned cabin. The couple sleep in separate rooms at Buzzi's insistence, as the couple are not yet married, much to Sutton's chagrin. However, the cabin seems to have a mind of its own, disturbing the couple's sleep. Creepy for them, laughter for us!

The episode is only 15 minutes long, so you can watch it in no time, and at the end, a very special someone (something?) appears, a someone I try to fit into the Countdown every single year if possible. The best part, I didn't even know this about the episode when I selected it!

Enjoy! Watch it with someone you love!