From Gilligan's Island to Community: our favourite Halloween-themed TV episodes of all time
Halloween: time to stock up on candy, watch some spooky shows and feel queasy from one or both of those things.
Halloween, much like Christmas, is a holiday commonly highlighted on TV shows. It's a time when darker themes can be explored, one-off nightmare scenarios are acted out and regular characters can dress up and take on some supernatural monsters.
Below, staff members at q share their favourite Halloween-themed TV episodes of all time. If you have some time, between taking kids treat-or-treating and scooping up discounted chocolates, put these classic Halloween episodes on and enjoy!
Garfield's Halloween Adventure
Taking something innocent that kids enjoy, like a popular comic strip, and then adding enough scares to make a child never look at that popular comic book strip the same way again is.... a strange creative choice. That's what happened when Garfield's Halloween special was released in 1985. What began as a hilarious trick-or-treat outing with the titular cat and his dog pal Odie, ended on a nightmarish island plagued by skeleton pirate ghosts and what might be the creepiest old man ever put into animation. It's that abrupt left turn into despair that made Garfield's Halloween Adventure so memorable and also helped in grabbing it an Emmy Award for outstanding animated program. But, it sure scared the hell out of this writer as a child. — Mitch Pollock
The Simpsons, 'Treehouse of Horror V: The Shinning'
As of 2017, The Simpsons have a whopping 28 Treehouse of Horror episodes, which plunge North America's top cartoon family into the world of horror, sci-fi and the supernatural. Each one is divided into three segments, and they're known for spoofing top films and TV shows, from The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (it became The Diving Bell and the Butterball) to Four Weddings and a Funeral (Four Beheadings and a Funeral). It's tough to choose just one, but perhaps the most memorable is 1994's Treehouse of Horror V: The Shinning, which parodies the horror classic The Shining, and also delves into Springfield Elementary's cannibal teachers. "Mom, is dad going to kill us?" asks Lisa. "We'll just have to wait and see," answers Marge — before she discovers walls scrawled with "No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy." Honourable mentions to Treehouse of Horror VI: Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace, where Homer ends up in the live-action world, and Treehouse of Horror I: The Raven, which hilariously spoofs the Edgar Allan Poe classic. — Jennifer Van Evra
Community, 'Epidemiology'
The Simpsons' Halloween specials aside, I've got to go with the Community zombie episode. Attendees of a Halloween party, hosted in a college library, become infected with military-grade beef rations, turning the party into an ABBA-soundtracked, Halloween-costumed zombie attack — MC'd by George Takei! Best of all, it wasn't some nightmare or ghost story. It was all part of the show's continuity, with consequence spinning into the rest of the season, even if none of the characters could remember exactly what happened. — Steve Johnston
Gilligan's Island, 'Ghost-a-Go-Go'
Even though this episode of Gilligan's Island originally aired on March 24, 1966, it was often rerun around Halloween. One night, a ghost disturbs the castaways with the aim of scaring them off the island. He even provides them with a boat for this purpose, but the Professor smells a rat and they load the boat with decoys instead. When the boat explodes, the ghost (actually a Russian agent intent on using the island as a base for offshore oil production) thinks he has won, but the castaways get revenge by donning sheets of their own — Mrs. Howell's ghost wears a hat — and the intruder flees. And guess what? The castaways don't get off the island! Fun fact: the ghost was played by seven-foot-two actor Richard Kiel, better known as Jaws in some James Bond films. — Robert Rowat
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 'Hush'
"Hush" isn't officially a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Halloween episode — it aired on Dec. 14, 1999 — but it's arguably the most ghoulish, thematically appropriate one that creator Joss Whedon ever wrote or directed.
The 10th episode in Season 4, "Hush" was a mostly dialogue-free episode, clocking fewer than 20 minutes of talking. In it, the Gentlemen (a group of pale-faced, floating villains played by mimes) steal everyone's voices overnight in order to hush the town and steal seven people's hearts — not in the love way, but in the rip-them-out-of-their-chests way. Featuring a perfectly timed airing of Camille Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre — during Giles' explanation of who the Gentlemen are, also known as the scene of Buffy's masturbatory stabbing motion — "Hush," its villains and its silence were nightmare-inducing. The episode also marked the real beginnings of Buffy and Riley, as well as Tara and Willow — and the beginning of the end for Xander and Anya. — Holly Gordon
Modern Family, 'Halloween'
I always found the best single episodes of television to be, deep in their core, morality lessons. Whether they were funny or serious, at the end the viewer always learned something without the show writers having to beat it over their heads. For some reason or other, Halloween specials always excel at this. Of course, not all the morals at play are life-altering, as is the case with the 2010 Halloween episode of Modern Family. At it's core was one simple lesson that can apply to everyone: unless you're a teacher, don't dress up for Halloween at work. And if you do, make sure your costume is really easy to change out of on the fly. Unfortunately for Mitchell Pritchett, portrayed by Jesse Tyler Ferguson, that lesson had to be learned the hard way. — Jesse Kinos-Goodin
Brooklyn Nine-Nine, 'HalloVeen'
Yes, this episode aired only a week ago, but my vote really goes to all of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Halloween-themed episodes. See, each year, Halloween marks a very special occasion for the 99th precinct: it's the annual Halloween heist. Everyone involved — its core competitors being Jake, Amy and a hilariously over-committed Captain Holt — aims to take possession of a prize and whoever holds it at the stroke of midnight is deemed the winner. The winner primarily gets bragging rights, but it's a prize that everyone wants. It's always an elaborate episode filled with alliances, backstabbings and twists; a marathon of tricks and deceit that is jam-packed with laughs in between. I'll admit I have a particular soft spot for this year's edition because its biggest twist, surprisingly, had nothing to do with the game at all. [Spoiler alert] This time, Jake used the occasion to set up the ultimate twist: a proposal to Amy. Grab some Halloween candy and some tissues. You'll need them. — Melody Lau
Pinky and the Brain, 'A Pinky and the Brain Halloween'
This show follows the fortunes of two genetically modified lab mice who spend every night plotting to take over the world, and this Halloween special is a fairly significant one in the series because we finally find out what happens when they do. Well, sort of. The episode starts with the Brain's thwarted plan to control the minds of children via a jack-o-lantern broadcasting system, Pinky selling his soul so the Brain can rule the world, and a trip to Hades where the Brain tries to win Pinky's soul back by challenging the devil to a rhythmic gymnastics competition. This episode is special because, in watching, we realize that the Brain is willing to give up world domination to save his friend, and it's kind of a beautiful thing. — Andrea Gin