1997 You Wish - Halloween

You Wish is a comedy that ran from September 26, 1997 to June 23, 1998. It started as part of ABC's TGIF programming and was a 1990s version of "I Dream of Jeannie." But in this situation, a single mother and her 2 kids release a male genie who's been imprisoned in a magic carpet for 2,000 years. The Mother reluctantly accepts the services of the genie who begins to live with the family. The genie's name is simply "Genie." Jerry Van Dyke was introduced to the show in the third episode as Genie's Grandpa Max.

The Halloween episode originally aired on October 31, 1997 and was the 6th of a total of 12 episodes made. In this ep, Genie turns the daughter into a witch, the son into a road warrior and helps with the Halloween decorations. Mom makes a wish for Genie to be human for just one Halloween night. All while Grandpa Max loses his hand, and conjures up Frankenstein's monster, Count Dracula and the Mummy. Then a Werewolf and the Bride of Frankenstein make an appearance.

Part 1:


Part 2:

1997 Disney's Quack Pack - House of Haunts

Quack Pack was a short-lived but excellent '90's afternoon animated series from Disney. Donald Duck is still living with his mischievous nephews Huey, Louie, and Dewey, but they're now teenagers. Donald works as a camera man and Daisy is a TV reporter for a tabloid news show. Together the group of ducks get into crazy adventures they constantly have to get themselves out of. It was a well animated and very entertaining series.

This VHS video was released in 1997 and is called House of Haunts. It features 2 spooky Quack Pack episodes. The first is called "The Boy Who Cried Ghost," Dewey's practical jokes gets on everyone's nerves when the Ducks have to spend the night in a deserted mansion on Halloween, but when he tries to convince the others he's really seen a ghost no one believes him. And in "Cat and Louse," Huey has to ask his family to help him face his fears when he finds he's terrified of black cats.

Quack Pack - The Boy Who Cried Ghost:


Quack Pack - Cat and Louse:

1988 Grampa Munster's Monster Movies

Another video of Al "Grampa Munster" Lewis as he hosts a collection of film clips and the original theatrical trailers of Universal's classic horror films staring Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, the Wolfman plus others. The comedy bits in between the film clips were a little funnier than the Silly Scaries videos that I posted here but like the Silly Scaries videos, this is a very low budget production. A collection of great classic horror trailers hosted by Grampa Munster, what more would you want to watch on Halloween?

1999 The Scooby-Doo Project

The Scooby-Doo Project was a collection of animated/live action segments that spoof the horror film The Blair Witch Project, It featured those meddling kids arriving in the woods to investigate strange events only to have things start to go wrong. Originally aired during the Cartoon Network's 24hour marathon of Scooby-Doo episodes on Halloween 1999.

At the end of the marathon, all the segments were then supposed to be shown in its entirety but for some reason the network did not include all of the filmed clips. Below is a fan edited full version. I love Scooby Doo and The Blair Witch Project and I think this is an amazing parody of the horror film. It's funny and a little creepy. I really wish they would release this on dvd.

The Scooby-Doo Project (full version):

2000s Real Scary Stories - Scary...But True

Real Scary Stories was fantastic paranormal show that debuted on FOX Family channel in the early 2000's and aired during the "13 Nights of Halloween" programming block. It was about real kids telling real scary ghost stories and also featured kids investigating locations across the country that are reported to be haunted. The show was canceled soon after the FOX Family channel switched owners and became the ABC Family channel. SYFY channel aired reruns of the show a few years ago, but they renamed the show to Scary...But True and only a couple episodes were shown. I have wanted this program to return to air for the past 10+ years. I remember watching on Saturday mornings on FOX Family. I'm not sure how many episodes were made but here are 4 episodes that were recorded off of ABC Family in 2002:

Agnes in the Wall, Room 347, Bodie's Curse:


The Lady in Gray & The Deacon:


Danny's Bed, Haunted Home Video, Green Man Tunnel


Part 1 Gurdon's Light & Condie's Ghost:


Part 2 Condie's Ghost:

1988 Grampa Munster's Silly Scaries - 1989 More Silly Scaries

Here we have two videos starring Al "Grampa Munster" Lewis hosting a collection of classic animated shorts from 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. The first 60 minute video is called Grampa's Silly Scaries and contains the following eight shorts:

1. "A Haunting We Will Go" (1949) staring Casper the Friendly Ghost.
2. "The Cobweb Hotel" (1936) about a spider catching flies.
3. "The Mad Doctor" (1933) starring Mickey Mouse.
4. "The Impatient Patient" (1942) starring Daffy Duck.
5. "Hollywood Capers" (1935) staring Beans, with a caricature of Frankenstein's monster.
6. "Mummies Boys" (1965) starring The 3 Stooges animated.
7. "Fright To The Finish" (1954) staring Popeye, Bluto and Olive on Halloween.
8. "The PincushionMan" (1935) about balloons terrorized by pins.

1988 Grampa Munster's Silly Scaries:

The second video, which is a sequel to the first, is called More Silly Scaries. It contains the following six shorts:

1. "I Don't Scare" (1956) starring Popeye, Bluto and Olive on Friday the 13th.
2. "The Friendly Ghost" (1935) starring Casper.
3. "Magic Mummy" (1933) starring Tom and Jerry (not the cat and mouse).
4. "The Raven" (1942) based on Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem.
5. "Gypped In Egypt" (1930) starring Waffles the Cat and Don the Dog.
6. "Is My Palm Read?" (1933) starring Betty Boop.

1989 More Silly Scaries with Grampa Munster:

The Munsters was one of my favorite shows and even though he appears in poor white face powder, cheap costumes and a blue screen set with horridly made backgrounds and effects, it was a real treat to see Al Lewis as Grampa Munster once again.

1987 Werewolf - All Hallow's Eve

Werewolf was one of the original shows created for the FOX network in the 1987-1988 season. It's about the adventures of a young man, Eric Cord, who is inflicted with the werewolf curse after he is bitten by his friend Teddy who is a werewolf. To rid himself of his curse, Eric must find and kill the apparent originator of his "bloodline," a drifter named Janos Skorzeny, all while being chased by a persistent bounty hunter called "Alamo" Joe Rogan.

A two-hour pilot, which is better than most big budget werewolf movies, and 28 half-hour episodes were created before the show was cancelled in 1988. The show featured great real make up and special effects (not fake CGI) by monster master, Rick Baker. The complete series was to be released on DVD in 2009 but was canceled when an agreement could not be reached with the artists for the rights of the songs used in the series.

The Halloween episode takes place on All Hallow's Eve, Eric finds an abandoned house to lock himself up in on the night of a another change, not realizing that a disfigured man with a sad backstory lives/hides in the old house because of his appearance. To watch other episodes of this show click here and here.

2000s Cartoon Network/Adult Swim Halloween bumpers

From 1999-2003 Cartoon Cartoon Fridays was a 4-hour block of programming in which Cartoon Network aired all of their original "Cartoon Cartoons" series. The on-going series slowly changed from a series of cartoon injected parodies (such as fake cooking shows and weather forecasts), which were used from 1999-2000, into a full series of segments and bumpers hosted by one of the network's animated stars.

Each week, a new character such as Bubbles (The Powerpuff Girls), Eustace (Courage the Cowardly Dog), Edd (Ed, Edd n Eddy), or Johnny Bravo (Johnny Bravo) would actually host the program by announcing upcoming episodes and interacting with other random cartoons on the set. To tie this all together, there was an off-screen announcer that introduced each host as well as the weekly commercial ads.

Here are the bumpers and segments from the Cartoon Cartoon Fridays Halloween Party that originally aired on October 27th, 2000. This is hosted by "Cartoon Cartoons" characters dressed in Halloween costumes of other "Cartoon Cartoons" characters:


Starting in 2003, the Cartoon Cartoon Fridays block was simply called Fridays and was hosted by 2 live hosts, Tommy Snider and Nzinga Blake in 2003-2004 with Nzinga being replaced by Tara Sands in 2005-2007.

Here are bumpers and segments of Fridays from October 2004. This also has both versions of the Fridays opening, one at the beginning, and another at the end of this video:


And finally here are Adult Swim Halloween wraparounds from 2003 starring Brak's Dad. These were shown during the airing of "The Brak Show" and "Aqua Teen Hunger Force":

Misty Brew's Creature Feature presents 1975 The Night That Panicked America

The Night That Panicked America is a made-for-television movie that dramatizes the events surrounding Orson Welles' famous - and infamous - War of the Worlds radio broadcast (based on the novel of the same name by English author H.G. Wells) of October 30, 1938, which had led some Americans to believe that an invasion of Martians was occurring in New Jersey.

The film tells the story of the 1938 broadcast from the point of view of Welles and his associates as they create the broadcast live, as well as from the points of view of a number of different fictional American families, in a variety of locations and from a variety of social classes, who listened to the broadcast and believed the imaginary Martian invasion was actually occurring, with some people even committing suicide.

It premiered on the ABC network on October 31, 1975 and starred Michael Constantine, Meredith Baxter-Birney, Tom Bosley, Eileen Brennan, Vic Morrow, Will Geer, and John Ritter. Paul Shenar played Orson Welles. Some local stations in various areas of the United States have annually rebroadcast the movie on October 30, the anniversary of the original radio broadcast or on Halloween itself, October 31.

The movie has never been officially released on VHS or DVD, but you can find bootleg DVDs online of an old VHS recording. The version below was hosted by Misty Brew's Creature Feature:

1970s-2000s Monster Cereal commercials

Count Chocula was my favorite Monster Cereal growing up, my sister loved Frankenberry and Boo Berry was bought every once in a while. Never got the chance to try Fruity Yummy Mummy and I don't remember Fruit Brute. And I always loved the Monsters commercials just as much as the cereal. I grew up watching the commercials of the 1980's, but after watching a few on youtube, the 1970's commercials are my favorites.

For Halloween I created this as a tribute, a 28 minute video of 58 Monster Cereal commercials from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s staring Count Chocula, Frankenberry, Boo Berry, Fruit Brute and Fruity Yummy Mummy. The video and sound quality of each ad varies from good to better to worse and there are a few duplicate ads that have different endings. I also tried to put them in the order they aired on TV, which I just guessed at. Enjoy!

58 Monster Cereal commercials - 28 minutes:

1988 Unsolved Mysteries - Halloween Ghost Special

The special Halloween edition of Unsolved Mysteries premiered on October 26, 1988 and was the first episode to feature segments about ghosts. The four classic ghost stories, as told by the people who experienced them, include: "Queen Mary Ghosts," "Tallman's Ghost," "General Wayne's Inn" and "Tatum's Ghost." Hosted by the late Robert Stack and featuring the expertise of Dr. William Roll.

I was 12 years old when I first saw this episode and I remember it really freaked me out. Especially a scene from "Tallman's Ghost" story, when Mr. Tallman arrives home from work at 2am, he hears an eerie howling wind and a voice that says "come here" he looks back and notices his garage on fire, he runs inside with fear and then his lunchbox fly's out of his hands. I was so scared, this episode definitely left me with many sleepless nights.

2003 Looney Tunes - Twick or Tweety

This 4 minute Halloween-themed animated short is called Twick or Tweety and is one of 18 shorts on a DVD released in 2003 called "Looney Tunes - Stranger Than Fiction." It stars Witch Hazel, Sylvester and Tweety as they parody old horror movies on All Hallows' Eve. All 18 shorts were originally released online as flash webtoons so expect a choppy animation style that isn't that great compared to the classic WB shorts. But it does have a couple of funny lines. Note: this video is incorrectly named "8 Loch Ness Mess" on Youtube.

Twick or Tweety:

1990s Elvira, Rick Dees and Halloween

Rick Dees interviews Elvira in this Halloween episode of a short-lived late night television talk show called Into the Night. Rick Dees hosted from 1990 to 1991 but he was replaced by a new celebrity guest host every week by the end of 1991. Some of the guest hosts included Joy Behar, Richard Belzer, Tony Danza, Suzanne Sommers and Brad Garrett. With new hosts, the show was also reformatted from a largely interview based program, to a sketch comedy show called STUDIO 59. But due to abysmal ratings the show was canceled soon after.



In this second video from Halloween 1997, Rick Dees incorrectly introduces Elvira as the Mistress of the Night (it's Dark) and she performs a spoof of the "Sweet Transvestite" song from "Rocky Horror Picture Show" called "Sweet Elvira" live from Knotts Scary Farms.

1983 Son Of Svengoolie - The Worst Of Svengoolie

Son of Svengoolie was a series that aired on WFLD 32 in the Chicago area which featured a horror host of the same name hosting low budget Sci-Fi and Horror movies with wisecracks, song parodies and various sound effects thrown in. The original weekly TV show ran from 1978 to 1986. The series and host returned to the air on December 31, 1994 on WCIU (Channel 26), using just Svengoolie as his name. New episodes featuring Universal's classic monster movies have been airing on the Me-TV Network here in MA.

This Halloween special originally aired on Saturday, October 29th 1983. It features Sven along with co host Jonathan Brandmeier ("Johnny B") throwing a Halloween party with many people who have attended wearing their Halloween costumes. The worst of everything the horror host has to offer is shown including the worst of his song parodies... clips of the worst monsters... the worst songs from the movies... and even the worst science fiction movie of all time. This could really be The Worst Of Svengoolie.

The playlist below contains 10 videos which add up to the 1h30min special with commercials. Full broadcast:


Or Click Here to watch the other parts on Youtube.

1987 Tom & Jerry Halloween Special

Tom & Jerry Halloween Special was a primetime special that originally aired on TBS in October 1987. The live action segments were hosted by Josh Jarboe and Audra Lee who appear in various costumes and are filmed in a haunted house as they tell spooky jokes, share safety tips, and detail the history of Halloween, all in between introducing the following six classic animated shorts:

1. "The Flying Sorceress" (1955) starring Tom & Jerry.
2. "Ghost Wanted" (1940) starring a spirit resembling Casper the Friendly Ghost.
3. "Haunted Mouse" (1965) starring Tom & Jerry.
4. "Hair-Raising Hare" (1946) starring Bugs Bunny and Gossamer.
5. "Ghosks is the Bunk" (1939) starring Popeye, Olive Oyl and Bluto.
6. "Fraidy Cat" (1942) starring Tom & Jerry.

UPDATE #2: Watch the full special with original commercials as it aired:


UPDATE #1: Here are the wraparound segments only featuring Josh and Audra (as well as the accompanying commercials):


The whole special was on Youtube but due to a copyright claim, parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 have been removed. Part 5 is still up, it contains "Ghosks is the Bunk" and you can watch below:


Here are videos of just the animated shorts that were shown during the special:

The Flying Sorceress (1955):


Ghost Wanted (1940) (Incomplete)


Haunted Mouse (1965):


Hair-Raising Hare (1946):


Ghosks is the Bunk (1939)


Fraidy Cat (1942)

1973 Sigmund and the Sea Monsters - Trick Or Treat

Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973–1975) was one of many shows created by television producers Sid and Marty Krofft. It's about Sigmund who is a sea monster who is a tremendous embarrassment to his family because, unlike a normal sea monster, Sigmund has no desire to scare anybody. He runs away from home rather than scare people, and meets up with Johnny and Scott. The three become best friends and Johnny and Scott keep Sigmund in their clubhouse. Johnny and Scott spend their time alternately (A) keeping Sigmund from being kidnapped by his family and (B) keeping him a secret from everyone else.

In this episode, It's Halloween and Sigmund, who everyone believes is a boy disguised in a sea monster costume, discovers the joys of trick or treating along with Johnny and Scott. Meanwhile the Ooze family learns that Sigmund has won a TV contest.

I was never a big fan of Sid and Marty Krofft's H.R. Pufnstuf (I despised it with a passion) but I always loved Sigmund and Land of the Lost and I read online that the Krofft siblings also designed the characters and sets for Hanna-Barbera's Banana Splits series which I also loved as a kid. I remember watching these shows in the early to mid 80's when I would stay home from school sick.

2012 Countdown to Halloween

October is a just few weeks away which means it's almost time for the 2012 Countdown to Halloween. For 31 days, starting on October 1st, I will post 31 videos of rare and not so rare Halloween-related cartoons, shows, specials and movies! Be sure to check it out, It's gonna be fun.

To see all the other great blogs that are also participating in the countdown, click on the badge below or go to CountdownToHalloween.com.

1968 The Monstrous Monkee Mash

In this episode of the 1966-1968 series The Monkees, Mike, Micky and Peter attempt to rescue Davy, who is being held in the basement of a creepy castle by Dracula, Wolfman, Mummy and Frankenstein's monster. This originally aired in January 1968 but I loved watching the show when it aired on MTV and Nickelodeon in the 1980's. This was one of my favorite episodes.

Full Episode:


Her is a music video of the song Monster Mash that uses spooky footage from the Monkees TV show: