List of Halloween television specials

Children and family

Cartoon Network

Disney Channel and Disney XD

Goosebumps

Nickelodeon

Scooby-Doo

Winnie the Pooh

American drama

Desperate Housewives

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

ER

Grey's Anatomy

Hart of Dixie

Lassie

Little House on the Prairie

Our House

St. Elsewhere

Action

Chuck

The Dukes of Hazzard

The Fall Guy

MacGyver

Relic Hunter

Crime and mystery

Castle

CHiPs

The Commish

Criminal Minds

CSI (franchise)

The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries

Hawaii Five-0

Law & Order (franchise)

Murder, She Wrote

NCIS (franchise)

The Wild Wild West

Supernatural, fantasy and sci-fi

Amazing Stories

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Charmed

Ghost Hunters

Ghost Whisperer

The Greatest American Hero

Haunted Lives: True Ghost Stories

Highway to Heaven

Knight Rider

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman

Quantum Leap

Smallville

Tales from the Darkside

Touched by an Angel

Unsolved Mysteries

The Vampire Diaries

Teen drama

ABC Family

The TV channel ABC Family annually presents their special called 13 Nights of Halloween where specialized Halloween episodes of regularly scheduled programs, as well as specified Halloween specials and movies to play for the 13 nights leading up to October 31.[2]

Beverly Hills, 90210

Dawson's Creek

Degrassi: The Next Generation

Gossip Girl

One Tree Hill

Pretty Little Liars

Comedy-drama

Teen and adult sitcoms

8 Simple Rules

According to Jim

The Addams Family

Alice

America's Funniest Home Videos

American Dad!

The Beverly Hillbillies

Bewitched

The Big Bang Theory

Bob's Burgers

Boy Meets World

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Cheers

The Cleveland Show

Clueless

Community

The Cosby Show

Dave's World

Dharma & Greg

The Drew Carey Show

Ellen

Family Matters

Family Guy

Frasier

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

George Lopez

Gilligan's Island

Girlfriends

The Goldbergs

Happy Days

Home Improvement

The Honeymooners

Hope & Faith

How I Met Your Mother

The Hughleys

The Jeffersons

Last Man Standing

Life with Bonnie

Malcolm in the Middle

Martin

Melissa & Joey

The Middle

Modern Family

The Neighbors

New Girl

Night Court

The Office (US)

One on One

Parks and Recreation

Perfect Strangers

Power Rangers

Punky Brewster

Raising Hope

Reba

Rodney

Roseanne

Sabrina, the Teenage Witch

The Simpsons

South Park

Step by Step

Suburgatory

That '70s Show

Two Guys and a Girl

What I Like About You

Will and Grace

Sketch and variety shows

British Halloween themed TV

In the UK, Halloween has to compete with Bonfire Night hence is not as big as an occasion as in the USA. British Halloween themed television programmes are few and far between (in year order):-

Children's

Documentaries

Drama

Reality

Shows

Teen and adult sitcoms

Others

All Saints (Australian medical drama)

The Canterville Ghost (1986 film)

The Canterville Ghost, based on the novel The Canterville Ghost, is a 1986 made-for-television film starring John Gielgud and Alyssa Milano.

The Halloween Tree (1993 TV film)

In 1993 Hanna-Barbera produced a made-for-television animated adaptation of Ray Bradbury's classic novel of the same name. Featuring narration by the author himself, the movie explains some of the history of the holiday as experienced via an across-time adventure with a group of trick-or-treating kids. The hand-painted backgrounds, haunting music of John Debney, and Bradbury's narration elevate this to much more than a children's Halloween special.

The Midnight Hour

The Midnight Hour (also known as In the Midnight Hour) is a 1985 comedy/horror television movie which aired on ABC on Friday, November 1, 1985 at 9:00-11:00 PM EST and stars Shari Belafonte-Harper, LeVar Burton, Peter DeLuise, and Dedee Pfeiffer.

Neighbours

Once Upon a Midnight Scary (1979)

A 1979 television anthology Halloween special that was hosted by Vincent Price. The stories featured were The Ghost Belonged To Me, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and The House With a Clock In Its Walls.

The Price Is Right

Starting in Season 36 (2007), when Drew Carey began hosting the show, each season of the popular US game show has featured a full Halloween episode, with the host, announcer, models, set, and Showcases decorated for this holiday.

The Season 36 and 37 episodes featured models in costume during all One Bids and prize presentations (in 2008, models presented cars as police officers and carhops), and monster-themed Showcases. Drew Carey has appeared with fake fangs (2007) and a hatchet (2008), and Rich Fields appeared as Zorro in 2008.

The Season 38 episode featured contestants and the show's host, announcer, and models in costume (traditionally prohibited), and debuted the annual Halloween theme, with the show's game props being the theme. The entire set was decorated for the holiday, with many of the set's changes in 2009 playing key roles. A "haunting" arrangement of the show's theme was played during the introductions, Carey introduced by his costume, and Halloween-themed decorations around the set, including appropriate colors replacing the show's usual colors. The new Showcase podiums were covered with tombstones featuring a door that opened to unveil the price (without the prize description screen), with different fonts used for both Grocery Game price cards and the Showcase video screen. Also, the traditional buzzer and losing horns (except in Plinko) were replaced with screams.

The following was how the show's major figures were dressed:[3]

Season 39's Halloween theme was The Wizard of Oz. The studio was decorated as The Yellow Brick Road (renamed Golden Brick Road for the show, which also included renaming Golden Road as "Golden Brick Road") and The Emerald City.

The following was how this show's major figures were dressed:

Season 40's Halloween theme was a 1970s Dance Party, in celebration of the show's 40th anniversary. A disco theme was announced, with the staff in costume of the era, disco balls on the set, and disco-style remixes of the show's cues are used.[4]

Season 41's Halloween theme is a Carnival, with the following figures:[5]

Season 42 featured a generic Halloween Haunted House theme, with the curtains replaced for the episode, and the One Bid podiums featuring a haunted house theme:

Three pricing games (Lucky $even, Rat Race, Switch?) had their names changed for the occasion (Yucky $even, Bat Race, Witch), and in Cliff Hangers, the mountain climber was the Grim Reaper.[6] Geoff Peterson from The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson also appeared on the show.

No episode was done in Season 43 because of extenuating circumstances; taping assignments were cancelled when host Carey was not cleared following surgery to repair a herniated disc.

The Wickedest Witch (1989)

A made-for-television film that aired on NBC on October 30, 1989.

AMC Halloween movie specials

AMC broadcasts many of the Halloween classics including the Halloween (1978 film) series, Friday the 13th (1980 film), Nightmare on Elm Street, and An American Werewolf in London during the month of October.

See also

References

External links