The Last Halloween (1991)

By 1991, the Halloween special was a dying breed. But Hanna Barbara made a stab at one with this - "The Last Halloween," one of very few such specials to feature space aliens. William Hanna himself does the narration.

Our hero here is furious, for some reason, that his sister always wears the same costume for Halloween (it was made by her late mother). After nearly getting killed herself by a car after leaving her candy in the street (for some reason), the two kids are terrified by an old lady (Rhea Perlman) who warns them not to be seen trick or treating near her place that night. Naturally, she lives is a crumbling old Victorian.

Now, the town looks great. There are brown leaves and Halloween decorations and kids everywhere. Just watching it makes me thirsty for a good cup of cider. A few minutes in, i looks like we're in for a painstakingly standard "spooky old lady' special with above-average visuals. But then the flying saucer shows up.

After teasing with the saucer, we find out that the candy store owned by the kids' family is about to close, which will make it the last halloween in town (for some reason). But their grandfather, the owner, tells them that their late mother believed that anything could happen on Halloween (perhaps she was a fan of "The Wickedest Witch.")

Then come the aliens, which look ALMOST cgi. I'm very impressed. This special represents a colossal leap forward in special effects. Unforunately, the special starts to go down hill, plot-wise, once they show up. As is common in these things, they wander through the streets among people who assume they're just kids in costume. This guys do NOT look like kids in costumes. They look like miniature clay dinosaurs and talk like they were written by guys who wanted to steal some of the Ninja Turtles' thunder. The martians have come to collect candy. They help the kids to save Halloween, both from the candy company closure AND the creepy old lady (who, at least, turns out to be just as creepy as she seems, though she doesn't get enough screen time for me to figure out what the point of having her around was or what the deal was with her, other than wanting to write in a part for Rhea Perlman).



This probably SOUNDS awful. And in some ways, it is - every time anyone mentions the dead mother, you can prepare yourself for a really sappy speech about motherhood. "Mothers are more beautiful than fairies." Stuff like that.

However, if you can ignore he bad parts, there are plenty of genuinely funny moments here - even the line about fairies sets the martians up to think a boy dressed as a fairy (for some reason) must be a mother. People who saw it in the early 90s remember it fondly, and kids today would probably enjoy it if they were to release it on DVD. Even as an adult watching it for the first time, I got a kick out of it. This is not one of those specials you'll track down only to marvel at how easily amused you were in 1991. It's very much a "kids" show, but there's no shame in that. Outside of the sappy stuff (did they plan to make this both a special for Halloween AND Mother's Day?), the worst I can say is that this whole story feels rather rushed - I would have liked to see more of the creepy old lady and get a better feel for her backstory, motivations, and all of that. It's a shame it wasn't an hour long - and there are plenty of specials I wouldn't say that about. Some of them could've stood to be a lot SHORTER.

This was REALLY rare for years, as it was never released on video. Thank goodness for youtube!

Halloween Hall of Fame (1977)

Before there was Disney's Halloween Treat (or it's later incarnation, A Disney Halloween), there was a mid-70s attempt at a Disney anthology Halloween show - an episode of the ongoing "Wonderful World of Disney" show called "Halloween Hall o' Fame." It featured Jonathan Winters, a mainstay of 1970s comedy variety shows, as a security guard at Disney. At the beginning of the special, he and his dog wander into a prop room and Winters does am engaging little prop comedy routine with all the stuff he finds there. It's all fun and games until Winters comes across a crystal ball housing a live action talking pumpkin (which is also Winters in a pumpkin suit that reminds me of the moon from that old silent "Voyage to the Moon" flick. Winters seems somewhat unfazed to find such an entity.



This talking pumpkin has some eerie powers and threatens to "turn the place into a vacant lot" if Winters doesn't let him hide out until midnight. After all, it's Halloween, which, the pumpkin describes as "just the dumbest thing I ever saw....there's nothin' scary about it." But in the old days, he says, they had REAL ghosts and goblins.

The debate between Winters and Pumpkin Winters acts as a framing device (not the worst in the business, but far from the best) for the Halloween shorts - fully half of the special is taken up by Disney's take on "Legend of Sleepy Hollow," which is shown nearly in its entirety. The other three shorts, "Lonesome Ghosts," "Pluto's Judgement" and the one with Donald Duck and the witch, also appeared in both variations on "Disney's Halloween Treat"

This is one of those things where, if you loved this as a kid, you'll probably like seeing it again. If not, the prop comedy routine is very funny, but if you want a Disney Halloween anthology, the other two are a better bet. No offense to Jonathan Winters, but there's no shame in coming in second or third when when one of the OTHER narrators in a framing device is Hans Conried.













See also: Monster Memories, which has a shot of Winters getting into makeup (and looking just THRILLED).

Halloween is Grinch Night

This fairly little-known sequel to the much-better-known "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" came out in 1978 as a TV special, featuring Hans Conried as the voice of the Grinch - Seuss fans might recognize his voice from his role as Dr. Terwilliger in the Suess-written film from 25 years before: The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T. The Grinch here sounds EXACTLY like Dr. T, and it works. Incidentally, Hans also appeared in The Great Bear Scare, a rather inferior Halloween special, a few years later, and was the voice of the magic mirror in the later versions of Disney's Halloween Treat - truly, this man was an icon of Halloween Specialdom. If I ever start a religion based around this stuff, there'll have to be a Feast Of St. Hans.

Anyway....it's worth noting that the only mention of Halloween in "Halloween is Grinch Night" is in the title (indeed, starting in the late 90's, it was released under the name "It's Grinch Night," leaving Halloween out altogether). However, the events portrayed here clearly take place in autumn. Grinch Night, perhaps, is the Whoville equivalent of Halloween. Pardon my lack of knowledge of the Who culture.

Apparently, every now and then, environmental evidence points to a coming "grinch night" in Whoville. A soursweet wind is in the air, the gree grumps are a-growlin', the hackencracks are yowlin', and every one knows to stay indoors, for the Grinch will be coming down from Mount Crumpet (alias "The Euphemism") in his "paraphernalia wagon" (boy, don't you wish you had one of those?).

Exactly what will happen when the Grinch gets there is not clear, but you can't bet your sweet bippy it ain't gonna be pleasant. In one song, Whos claim they wouldn't go out on such a night for a dollar and fifty cents (which was more back in the late 1970s than it is now, of course).



Eucharia, a young bespectacled Who, decides to take matters into his own hands, and enters the Grinch's wagon to see a real freak-out of a spook show with cool music to match.


The visual style of this is a bit more sophisticated that the Christmas special (albeit a bit less stylized, perhaps), but unmistakably Seussian. The music, while not spawning any hits that still get a lot of radio play nowadays, is pretty catchy, too. It was written by the great Joe Raposo, who is best known for his work on Sesame Street in the 70's. Most of it is sung by those same studio singers who appeared in just about every animated special and movie in the 1970s (or, anyway, it SOUNDS like the same group).


The special may not be as well-known as its predecessor (we will surely not be seeing a live-action version any time soon, which is our loss), but it's as watchable today as it ever was, and deserves to be re-discovered. It may very well be my favorite Halloween special. My first band named its album Grinch Night Wind, and I was still mentioning "sour sweet wind" in songs I wrote a decade later. That's how much I like it.


This was aired on TBS, TNT and the Disney Channel many times over the years, up until about the mid-to-late 90's, but it hasn't been aired in a while, to my knowledge, and hasn't yet seen release as a DVD. Finding a video copy shouldn't be that hard, though (see link at left), OR you can watch it all here, thanks to youtube:

PART 1:


PART 2:


PART 3:

Doug's Halloween Adventure

"Doug" was a cartoon that lasted for most of the 1990s, first on Nick, and then on Disney, who gave it a bit of a revamp. It wasn't side-splittingly funny, or edgy, or particularly creative, and it wasn't loaded with pop culture references for the adults, and has never really become one of those "cult" cartoons. But there was also nothing offensively bad about it, and I imagine that, as 90s stuff becomes as big as 80s stuff in a few years, there will eventually be a minor Doug revival. There are worse things that could be revived; "Doug" was always entertaining, in a not-too-challenging sort of way, and was occasionally very funny. I enjoyed watching it all through the 90s, though re-watching a few episodes lately didn't really do much for me. It hasn't aged as well as some of its "classic nick" contemporaries, like "Pete and Pete."

The Halloween episode is said to have been advertised as a regular Halloween special. It concerns Doug and his blue friend, Skeeter, going to Funky Town, the local amusement park, to ride Bloodstone Manor, a Haunted Mansion-type of attraction that is rumored to be so terrifying as to be dangerous. Rumor has it a couple of guys rode through once and all that came back was their shoes.

Doug, Skeeter and local no-goodnik Roger get stuck in the ride and Doug has to overcome his own fears to help Roger, escape. It's not a bad episode, but I would have frankly preferred just to have a detailed walkthrough of Bloodstone Manor, which looks like a really bitching ride.

Once Upon a Midnight Scary (1979)

Vincent Price in a Halloween special. Man, what a wonderful idea! Why weren't there more of those? Nobody ever played "evil" quite like Vincent Price. Unfortunately, he never seemed shy about attaching his name to inferior products and films. When asked why, he once said "because I am tremendously fond of eating." Gotta respect the honesty. Our sensibilities regarding what's scary and what isn't have changed over the years. You never see guys in cowls and capes with cartoonish evil laughs in scary movies any more. In fact, half the time, Price's mannerisms come off not so much spooky as, well, really, really...flamboyant. You know what I mean.

Here, in this made-for-TV late 70s special, he sort of splits a difference between evil and flamboyant as the between-segment narrator, introducing three stories based on books and making a few subtle suggestions that the viewers go read the books on which the segments were based. Each segment ends with Price saying some variation of the phrase "was the ghost real? You'll have to go read the book!" Even Ramona Quimby, Age 8, thought THAT was a pretty lame way to get someone reading.

In many ways, this thing plays like one of those after-school specials that were common at the time; visually it looks very much like them, in fact, and the lessons about reading are so pervasive that I half-expected Captain O.J. Readmore to show up.

Anyway, there are three segments. The first is a scene from "The Ghost Belonged To Me" by Richard Peck. It's a rather unsuccesful piece; it's clear they're trying to cram a lot of story into a five minute slot. It does have one thing going for it, though - when the ghost first shows up, she's awfully spooky. However, as she whines and acts emo enough to give Moaning Myrtle a run for her money, she loses some of her spookiness.

Next up is perhaps the clumsiest of all takes on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Ichabod looks as though he was supposed to be playing Riff Raff in Rocky Horror, but someone ended up in a community production of Legend of Sleepy Hollow by taking a wrong turn at the intersection and going to the wrong theatre. He acts really, really spastic. And, while most adaptations have to expand on the story, this one trims it down. There's a short scene where Ichabod flirts with Katrina and gets threatened by Brom Bones, then a LONG scene where Ichabod rides home, talking to his horse, giving a sort of play-by-play of the ride (which is not that exciting). Then the headless horseman shows up and ends up throwing his head (a regular, flesh and blood head) at Ichabod. But was it a real head? All they find the next morning is a smashed pumpkin. What happened to Ichabod? You'll have to read the book!

For the record, the book won't tell you, so Price is sort of being a dick here by implying that it will.

Both of these short pieces are pretty bad. I would say that the acting was bad, but that isn't really fair - the actors simply play as through they're on stage, not TV, with exaggerated voices and gestures. Still, a lot of this reminds me of nothing so much as Troll 2.

The real showpiece of the special is the long(er) adaptation of John Bellair's perennially popular "The House With a Clock In Its Walls." It, too, sort of seems to be skimping around on plot, atmosphere, and the script. As with the others, they spend a lot of time showing the characters talking to themselves. It's better than the others, mainly on the basis of being MUCH longer, giving it a bit more breathing room. Still, this cool book deserved better. Some studio with a big budget could probably do a really cool version of it.

I've had a few emails about it, but this is not one of those specials that spawned even a minor cult following; it never had a very wide release as a video, and probably won't be on DVD any time soon. There's a reason for this, of course: it's just not very good. Even at its best, it tends to seem like b-rate community theatre. It's a shame, really - a Vincent Price Halloween special OUGHT to be one for the ages. But this gives the impression that it was thrown together very quickly on very little budget; most of the budget was probably spent on the handful of blue screen effects.

The (somewhat rare) VHS version includes a few previews for other shows, mostly in the form of what appears to be just the opening couple of minutes. Most of them look distinctly unenticing. Some look okay, actually, but I imagine they were made by the same place that did this one, so I won't be buying them.

Still, it's probably good for the nostalgia factor, even just on the basis of having that "after school special" vibe. Just seeing things in that style can bring back memories for those of us who grew up watching them. There's not a lot of this one on youtube, but here's what there is at the moment:

Intro:

The New Misadventures of Ichabod Crane

Well, heck. I don't know what to do with this. It's a 25 minute cartoon from 1979. It was made before the video market really existed, but was never aired on TV, as far as I can tell. For lack of a better idea, I'm going to list it as both a Halloween Special and a Sleepy Hollow variation. It's one of the strangest variations on the the story I've ever seen.

It's not really a sequel, as the title implies, as there's no hint that the events of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow ever happened. I suppose I should call it a "re-imagining." When the Headless Horseman steals a chest full of gold coins at the beginning, the town of Sleepy Hollow elects Ichabod Crane, local supernatural expert, to find the Horsesman and get rid of it. Crane sets off, with Rip Van Winkle in tow (bringing in the protaganist from Washington Irving's other enduring hit, who here looks and acts about like Yosemite Sam). Together, along with a talking horse who sounds like the bloodhound from "101 Dalmations," they find out that the horseman is actually a witch named Velma Van Dam in disguise. Plot-wise, it kinda reminds me of the 1999 Tim Burton version.

Visually, and sound-wise, this thing reminds me of one of those first couple of Care Bears specials - The Land Without Feelings and The Care Bears Battle the Freeze Machine. The characters kinda have the look of the humans in "Freeze Machine," and it has that weird organ music that you always hear in late 70s/ early 80s cartoon. The jokes here aren't very funny, with one major exception: when Velma says "I haven't had this much fun since last Halloween, when I turned the trees to stone and watched the woodpeckers beat their brains out!"

The Headless Horseman himself (herself?) looks particularly cool, though, and the opening sequence is terrific. If you dig Halloween cartoons, pick this up - you can usually find it cheap on VHS - just for the opening sequence. No one will blame you if you skip minutes 3-25, though.

Now on youtube!

Tales from the Far Side

In 1994, Gary Larson's comic strip "The Far Side" got its first TV special outing, Tales from the Far Side, which was shown as a Halloween special on CBS. True to the nature of the strip, it's bizarre, surreal, and funny.

More than perhaps any other special on this site, "Tales from the Far Side" is really more for adults. There's almost no dialogue in the whole thing, just a series of sound effects, spooky music and barnyard animal noises. As one would expect from The Far Side, there are plenty of cows, farmers, personified insects, and kids - the stuff that formed the "cast" of the comic strip.

There's no plot, per se, just a series of short vignettes featuring a lot of gags taken right from the strip - a bird scoops some roadkill off the street with a spatula, a gang of rowdy butterfly hunters drive by with a giant butterfly tied to the windshield, etc. The first vignette, after the title sequence, features insects watching "The FLy" as the in-flight movie on a doomed airplane. Others include "The Bacon Bunch," a Brady Bunch parody that's MUCH funnier than The Brady Bunch. Some are Halloween themed, and nearly all at least feature SOMETHING getting killed. I have to wonder how outrageously bizarre it would seem to people who had never seen the comic strip and didn't know what sort of humor to expect.

This special, moreso than any other on the site, is a true original, and a real work of art. Hard to find for years, it became a sort of a cult film for a while there (and still is, though it's easier to find now). A longer follow-up was screened at several film festivals in 1997 (after the strip had been retired) but never got an airing in the US.

It can be purchased on DVD, along with its 1997 follow-up on The Far Side Website.

Bugs Bunny's Howl-o-ween Special

Loony Tunes must have been hard up in the 1970s, what with Chuck Jones off working on things like "Raggedy Ann and the Pumpkin Who Couldn't Smile" and all. Throughout the 70s and 80s, they released a whole bunch of "specials" that chopped together bits and pieces of old cartoons and used a little bit of new footage in attempt to make one big new cartoon. This 1978 special is one of those.



None of these cut-and-paste specials are THAT fondly regarded by Loony Tunes fans, but Bugs Bunny's Howl-o-ween special seems to be regarded as particularly awful. Cut and paste jobs are never that good of an idea; the old Looney Tunes shorts were quite ridigly 6 minutes long, and were built to work as 6 minute shorts. Cut 'em up, and you lose the whole rhythm. One of the beautiful things about Looney Tunes, and most great comedy, is the way it all flows together.

It wouldn't be so bad if they just played the shorts on their own terms and presented them as separate shorts, like Disney's Halloween Treat (which was also cut up some of the clips, but doesn't suffer as much for it). Instead, they tried to use the new footage to edit the clips into one big movie - one big movie where the characters' appearances change from time to time, and Broom Hilda's house rarely looks the same twice. I SUPPOSE I can just say that witch's houses were probably known to change shapes at random from time to time, but, still. I hate to think the Warner execs were sitting at their desks, chomping cigars and saying "they'll never notice!"

Featured cartoons include "A Haunting We Will Go," "Transylvania 6-5000," "Bewitched Bunny," "A Witch's Tangled Hare," "Hyde and Tweet" and "Hyde and Hare." If you used to watch this all time and feel nostalgic watching it now, then don't let me stop you, by any means. But as specials go, it's hard not to wish they'd just show the originals uncut. The easiest way to watch this is just to ignore the fact that there's supposed to be an overall storyline and enjoy the gags on their own terms. I will, however, give some props to introduction, which is pretty cool and has that "halloween atmosphere" that I prize so highly on these things. Other than that, if you're not nostalgic for this particular special, just go find the original shorts.

It can now be watched online right here.