TV shows with two or more Halloween episodes?

[Dewey_Finn]

@BrotherCadfael

I was always amused at Rosanne’s Halloween parties, with costumes and decorations which would have cost thousands - on a family income of around $40K. Inappropriately opulent Halloween parties are common enough on series television that I would have thought that TV Tropes would have an article on them, but they do not.

It used to bother me that the costumes worn by television characters were so elaborate that they were clearly the product of the studio makeup and costume department. This was especially annoying when it was supposed to be a costume someone put together at the last minute or something worn by a lower-middle-class or poor character. (My annoyance was triggered mostly by the fact that what I could come up with always looked like shit.)

It’s been decades since I was a kid but the costumes then were these cheap plastic things you wore over your torso and a sweaty plastic mask held in place by an elastic band. Perhaps today you can easily buy better costumes?

And BTW, on the most recent episode of The Conners, one of the daughters said something sarcastic about how the family tradition was to blow all the money on Halloween leaving nothing for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

[Thudlow_Boink]

@Dewey_Finn

It used to bother me that the costumes worn by television characters were so elaborate that they were clearly the product of the studio makeup and costume department. This was especially annoying when it was supposed to be a costume someone put together at the last minute or something worn by a lower-middle-class or poor character.

Peanuts got this right.

[silenus]

@Kimballkid

I was really surprised to see that MASH had only one Halloween episode in it’s entire 11 year run and it was toward the end (Trick or Treatment in 1982).

Well, they could have had three Halloween episodes at most, so 33% coverage is pretty good!

[Jasmine]

“Married with Children” had two Halloween episodes in its 11 year run. I’m surprised it wasn’t more.

[Dewey_Finn]

@Thudlow_Boink

@Dewey_Finn

It used to bother me that the costumes worn by television characters were so elaborate that they were clearly the product of the studio makeup and costume department. This was especially annoying when it was supposed to be a costume someone put together at the last minute or something worn by a lower-middle-class or poor character. (My annoyance was triggered mostly by the fact that what I could come up with always looked like shit.)

Peanuts got this right.

I think I did the bedsheet-as-ghost costume one year. I wasn’t a very imaginative kid nor was I very good at crafts, so making something really cool myself was unlikely and things got really desperate as the end of October approached.

[nightshadea]

t know theres tons of shows that had only 1 holiday show or “special” for each that ran for years because they tended to get preempted by specials or they weren’t “appropriate” for them

now days many have mid season finales in oct/nov and don’t come back for 6-8 weeks and just avoid holiday episodes

[That_Don_Guy]

@Chronos

I think that the reason they wouldn’t is for purposes of syndication. It used to be that, after the first run of a show, re-runs could be shown in any old order. So you didn’t want too much continuity to get tangled up, and you didn’t want particular episodes tied to particular times of year. Nowadays, though, the way people watch TV has changed, and re-watches are likely to be binges, so it doesn’t matter as much.

I don’t remember very many older shows airing their Christmas episodes in syndication outside of Christmas itself. (I had been watching The Flintstones for something like 10 years before I realized it had a Christmas episode - because on the only day it would air each year, I was always at a Christmas dinner somewhere and unable to watch it.) I have a feeling, especially with cartoons, that the reason is, they don’t want to give younger kids the impression that it’s almost Christmas when it’s, say, the middle of April. I assume the same thing was done with any shows that had Halloween episodes.

[Tapiotar]

NCIS (the original) had several Halloween episodes, and some were quite good. Don’t know if any of the spin-offs did, since I never watched them.

[Chronos]

Quoth Dewey Finn:

It’s been decades since I was a kid but the costumes then were these cheap plastic things you wore over your torso and a sweaty plastic mask held in place by an elastic band.

What always bugged me about those was that the torso-piece never looked like the character’s torso. Instead, it had a picture of the entire character on it. So a kid dressed as Optimus Prime, for instance, wouldn’t have a couple of big semi windows, a radiator grill, and a bumper on his chest: He’d have a picture of Optimus Prime.

[notfrommensa]

@elfkin477

I know. I’ve been one of the page’s editors. It’s not nearly all-inclusive, however.

Guess I should have known that. But I don’t see how.

[Annie-Xmas]

Criminal Minds does one every year.

[Thudlow_Boink]

@Chronos

What always bugged me about those was that the torso-piece never looked like the character’s torso. Instead, it had a picture of the entire character on it. So a kid dressed as Optimus Prime, for instance, wouldn’t have a couple of big semi windows, a radiator grill, and a bumper on his chest: He’d have a picture of Optimus Prime.

Bad Halloween Costumes of the 1970s and 80s

[cochrane]

South Park has done several, including last night’s episode, which was new.

[terentii]

@silenus

Well, they could have had three Halloween episodes at most, so 33% coverage is pretty good!

How many Christmas/New Year’s episodes did they have? :dubious:

[terentii]

CSI had at least a couple. I remember Las Vegas had the one with the midget (sorry, “little person”) in the warehouse.

New York had the two-parter with the RPG Killer who disappeared down a laundry chute. The cliff-hanger resolution was a great disappointment.

[Skywatcher]

@Thudlow_Boink

Bad Halloween Costumes of the 1970s and 80s

Skip the poncho and that Jaws mask could’ve been the start of a Landshark costume.

I’m thankful that my parents didn’t really bother with the cheap things. Mom’s costume trunk did have some masks but no plastic ponchos; we relied on old clothes. When I was 10 and 11 (we moved right after my 11[sup]th[/sup] birthday), I dressed as Captain Hook: old yellow & black vertical striped puffy shirt and a pair of leather pants, both of which had belonged to one of my sisters at some point, a "sword’ made of heavy cardboard covered in aluminum foil and a “hook” made out of a bent clothes hanger covered in aluminum foil and attached to a handle. One of my sisters made the sword & hook.