A Look at Sitcom Halloween Episodes

I have always loved the way sitcoms celebrate Halloween. It’s one chance a year to get silly, dress up, and have some fun. Since Halloween is just two days away, this seemed like he ideal time to take a look at some of my favorites.

The 80’s Halloween show’s were always cute, but there was always something missing. They never went all out with things like decorations, for example. They would be light and silly, not scary or creepy. Take The Cosby Show Halloween episode as a good episode. This is a good episode, but it feels so fake. In fact in the first scene of the episode about a Halloween party we see Clair telling Cliff he can’t put a pumpkin out that Cliff had carved a typical jack-o’-lantern face into. The argument being that their daughter wanted this party to be “adult”. Ok, what teenager wants a Halloween party with no decorations? In the episode the lights are always on, the costumes are generic, and all the kids do is dance to some bland music. What kind of Halloween party is this exactly? I don’t mean to pick on this show because I liked it, but it is a great example of Halloween in the 80’s on TV.

Show’s that weren’t centered on a family tried harder. Take the Benson episode about a strange person visiting the mansion. They tried to make it scary, but it’s more depressing (though William Marshall is great in this episode). Though for an early 80’s show it was good, at least it tried. What was it about the family shows from that time? Even if they did do scary they always had to have it be a dream, like Perfect Strangers when they did an episode about Balki becoming an alien, or they use Halloween as dressing for a larger story like Punky Brewster which started as a good Halloween show but turned into another story altogether about seeing the good in people, or they would have to do the whole show as a silly made up ghost story or in a haunted house.80's saw Halloween episodes for Alf, Facts of Life, even Mr.Belvedere and they all fell into this same formula.

Even Night Court had this problem. For a program which could have had great Halloween shows, the few it had were bland except for one really good Halloween episode; it was the 1989 episode involving a ghost haunting their courtroom. This was above average considering the horrible Halloween shows they had done the previous years. Basically those shows would be set on Halloween, with a few jokes thrown in, but the basic show episode was just a typical episode, nothing unique. Their final Halloween show was an episode written by star Harry Anderson himself, and was boring (which the show was anyway at that time). It also wasn’t the best written show, in the episode Harry had locked away a man claiming to be “death”, and then we see Dan’s name in the obituary meaning if they release “death” then Dan would the next victim. While the story about the man named “death”, a doctor it turned out who had just seen too much suffering, the B story about Dan just turns out to be practical joke by Mac, another character. I could do a list of the plot holes, but let’s just say that there is too much left unexplained which spoils the episode.

Fresh Prince of Bel Air did an hour long episode in its first season about a Halloween party which was stuck in the 80’s formula. What was worst, it was mostly flashbacks. (the show had only been on a few weeks, and you though “Shades of Gray” was bad). A few seasons later they did a better episode about a curse being put on Will.

I’m not saying that 80’s shows weren’t scary, there were some good scary episodes I am just talking about the Halloween shows which never quite made it in terms of being scary, and they just always seemed to play it safe or be silly. Then as the 80’s became the 90’s that started to change. Even Cheers tried to do a scary Halloween show (which failed, but that’s ok). Some series made Halloween an annual affair, trying to top themselves ever year. These shows in the late 80’s and 90’s changed the way television portrays Halloween, and it’s these show’s I want to focus on.

Roseanne. This is the program which really started the change I spoke of. Of course, the whole point of this show was to change the way families in sitcoms were portrayed, so why would Halloween be an exception. This show about a blue collar family was a big hit. It showed a genuine family, struggling to get by day in and day out. When Halloween came around, they put the stress and difficulties of their lives aside and just had some fun. Every year Roseanne did a Halloween show, which almost always involved playing pranks on each other. The first one went all out, they turned the house into a haunted hour of horrors and every member of the cast had a scary costume. Roseanne was a witch; Dan had an axe in his head, and so on. My favorite was the episode around the 5^th season where Roseanne is visited by the ghosts of Halloween past, present, and future. As the show went on the Halloween episodes kind of got silly, and I liked the one about Jerry Garcia about as much as anyone else did. That episode was a badly written mish-mash. However, the earlier shows are still classics and I enjoy them every year.

Growing Pains. Now, I know what you’re all thinking. What???  However back in 1990 they did a one hour Halloween special that, for sitcoms of the time, was pretty impressive. The concept was simple, one rainy and stormy night the family tells scary stories. I know what I said before about “silly ghost stories” but these were a bit better than average for a sitcom. The first is a bodysnachers rip off, except they tried to play it straight. After couple silly stories from Carol, Ben, and Maggie we are treated to Mike’s story. This story takes up the whole second half and is a basic ghost story. They did a good job balancing the creepy with the silly, so you get some laughs while also been creeped out. A lot of work was put into this and while it may not hold up to later shows, it was a very good Halloween show.

Home Improvement. Tim Allen starred in this show about Tim Taylor, who had a mildly successful local access cable tool show. He also has a loving family which really drove the show. Every year they did a Halloween episode, and some were better than others. The episode around season 3 where everyone convinces Tim he has an obsessed fan after him is one of my favorites. There was another episode involving pranks, and one about the youngest son making a horror movie. The only one I didn’t like was the final Halloween episode, the idea was to trick Tim into thinking his neighbor had been killed by a woman he had been dating, and the episode seemed to stagger the line between friendly prank and mean spirited. However, that doesn’t take away from the great episodes they did do.

Family Matters. This show started out as a show about a typical American family, it became the Urkel Show. Nevertheless, they did a couple Halloween episodes. The first was pretty basic, Steve and Laura get stuck in bank holdup on Halloween. As the series progressed the Halloween episodes got more and more daring leading up to one episode called “Stevil”. A horror movie knock off, Steve dreams his ventriloquist dummy (who looks just like him) has come to life and started picking off the Winslow family. This was pretty scary, and the amount of work they put into it is impressive. They kept the murders over the top, but that was probably due to the fact that it was still a TGIF show and there were little kids watching. The episode actually begins with Steve warning the audience that this episode may be a little bit on the scary side for younger kids. Not to be outdone they did a sequel the next season, which wasn’t quite as good.

The Simpsons. How could I not talk about this show? Technically a sitcom though it’s an animated one, this show has been on the air for 23 years. Every year they do a crazy Halloween show called “Treehouse of Horror”. The reason they are called that is because the very first one had Lisa and Bart telling scary stories in a tree house (we see Homer overhearing them and being scared to death). They kept the concept of 3 scary stories per episode but lost the tree house angle. The amazing thing is that the creators don’t put these shows in the timeline of the series (does Simpson’s have continuity?) which gives them license to come up with any crazy story or concept they want. They can make characters get turned into creatures, shatter the time barrier, or just get killed off. I am not sure but I think they have killed off every character at one time or another. They did vampire stories, monster stories, and a lot of these are parodies of movies and even news events such as the Y2K episode where Homer didn’t adjust his computer so the world ended. Of course not every one of these is great, but the good ones are very good and even though I am not a regular Simpsons watcher I do enjoy turning the show on this time of year.

Sabrina, The Teenage Witch. The show was about a witch, so an annual Halloween show was a given. They did a better job year after year too. In a second season episode they had talking furniture and a river of candy corn. The third season while Sarbina and her friends were being chased by monsters led by a talking doll; the aunts were trapped in an insane asylum. The fourth season, Sabrina was hunted by zombies. This show did a great job with these episodes, not being afraid to be a little scary.

There were other series with good single episodes, including 3^rd Rock from The Sun, Blossom (believe it or not), and Frasier. Finally, how can I not mention the Everybody Loves Raymond episode where Frank hands out condoms to trick or treaters. I love how they take a typical “Ray is horny” episode and make a cute Halloween show out of it. Yes there is nothing scary in this show, but it is good for a laugh and unlike that Cosby Show episode, feels like a real situation.

So, while the 80’s had Halloween episodes it was the 90’s where they started to be better. I want to end this by talking about one of my favorite Halloween show’s ever. You Can’t Do That On Television had a Halloween episode which was great, problem was it was only shown once a year. Thankfully, I managed to record it ages ago and have enjoyed it every year since. The episode makes fun of everything and while I know it is corny I don’t think it would be Halloween without it.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!