Top 5 Halloween TV specials

Top 5 Halloween TV specials

31st October 2016 Off By Paul Farrell

Halloween is one of Northern Lights’s favourite holidays, originating in Ireland as a means of warding off spirits and unsavoury creatures it has now evolved into a holiday where kids get free sweets. Movies, TV and games all recognise this as there are so many great Halloween specials and here are 5 such examples, but beforehand I should make some honourable mentions, ones that I found good but not great enough to make the top 5:

  • Operation T.R.I.C.K.Y – Codename KND
  • Halloween on Spooner Street – Family Guy
  • Ghosts – Law And Order
  • In the Blood – Criminal Minds
  • Draculee Dracula – Animaniacs

Without further delay, let us begin!

5. About Face – Criminal Minds (Season 3, Episode 6)

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via GIPHY

Kicking off this list is the BAU’s first Halloween themed case. I personally really love Criminal Minds with its batch of loveable investigators from the FBI’s Behaviour Analysis Unit, this episode marks the show’s first Halloween special airing on October 31st  2007. The BAU is called out to Dallas, TX to find a serial killer who scares his victims by posting missing flyers before killing them, meanwhile Vietnam war veteran SSA David Rossi (played by Joe Magenta) comes out of retirement to aid the team. For a first Halloween special this is a good first attempt, especially given the fact that two seasons later the team would suffer their first defeat with the death of Aaron Hotchner’s (played by Thomas Gibson) ex-wife, and the fact that the killer uses the missing posters to psychologically toy with his victims. Think about it, what would you think if you saw a missing poster with your face on it? You’d know someone was after you.

4. Ed, Edd n Eddy’s Boo Haw Haw (2005)

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via GIPHY

Ed, Edd n Eddy was an animated series about the three titular characters trying to swindle other kids in their neighbourhood out of their money. This Halloween special is by far one of their greatest Ed-ventures (sorry couldn’t resist). This episode starts off with Eddy (voiced by Tony Sampson) receiving a map to Spook-e-ville from his brother, while Ed (voiced by Matt Hill) had been marathoning monster movies all day and so he often sees the other kids as monsters. Ed’s monster movie hallucinations are the driving force behind most of the episodes plot and comedy, especially considering that he dresses as a viking and uses a spatula as a weapon.

3. Dawn of the Driscoll/Night of the Living McFizzles- Randy Cunningham 9th Grade Ninja

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via GIPHY

An episode double bill of this series, the first involves the titular character facing off the reanimated skeleton of a teacher’s husband, and the second involves a full blown zombie apocalypse involving weaponised candies. What I personally love about this is that during the first episode it is entirely Randy’s fault for trying to use the ninja art of healing to cheat in science, and the second involves Randy trying to stay alive while the main series villain McFist and his assistant Viceroy prepare to destroy Norrisville to prevent the infection from spreading, I never get tired of reanimated dead and as a result I can firmly put these two at number three.

2. Treehouse of Horror IV- The Simpsons

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via GIPHY

The Treehouse of Horror episodes are a staple of The Simpsons, and I personally feel that number four is the best, with the usual three short story formula, the stories this time around are The Devil and Homer Simpson, where after running out of donuts at work, Homer sells his soul to the devil for a donut. Terror at 5 and a Half Feet involves a deadly journey to school for Bart when a gremlin begins to follow him and puts his and everyone on the school bus (including Principal Skinner and Groundskeeper Willie)’s lives at risk. The final story is Bart Simpson’s Dracula, where The Simpsons are invited to Mr. Burns’ castle when Bart and Lisa begin to suspect that Burns is a vampire. This was the first and by far the best Treehouse of Horror episode.

1. Underfist! Halloween Bash

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via Twitter

I loved the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and Underfist Halloween Bash is by far one of the best Halloween specials ever to be conceived where Irwin the resident wimp and a Half Mummy Half Vampire must assemble a team in order to stop an invasion of candy monsters from the underworld. The episode is filled to the brim with action and the same humour that made Billy and Mandy a classic cartoon.