I scream, you scream…

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/10/2022 (1077 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While the classic Holiday Episodes are usually reserved for the shows in November and December, let’s not forget the true comedic magic of the Halloween Episode.

The Halloween Episode can be a one-off that allows a sitcom to colour way outside the realism lines in terms of plot, or dip its toes into parody — which makes it perfect for stand-alone viewing. Or, it’s just an excuse to put beloved characters in costumes that usually reveal something about their personalities. Either way, the Halloween Episode is reliably ridiculous fun.

Here, we offer a treat bag of streaming sitcom classics — arranged alphabetically, because who doesn’t sort their candy? — to binge with a pumpkin pail full of mini chocolate bars. Caution: there may be a couple of light spoilers ahead, but you can’t blame us if you’ve yet to watch Friends in the year 2022.

 

Blackish
“Jacked o’ Lantern”
Season 2, Episode 6
Streaming on Disney+

The Johnsons prepare for the arrival of Dre’s (Anthony Anderson) nieces and nephews, who have an annual tradition of tormenting his “soft” kids on Halloween — but Dre must face his own cousin, Junebug (Michael Strahan), who used to to the same thing to him when they were kids. Strahan is excellent as Junebug — who comes dressed as “In Da Club 50 Cent” — as is Nicole Sullivan as the meddling next-door neighbour Janine, who hires a “safety ambassador” for the neighbourhood (“as it gets later, the kids get older”). This episode has the kind of feel-good message that would be right at home in a Christmas special: “Family toughens you up — but they also have your back.”

 

Bob’s Burgers
“Tina and the Real Ghost”
Season 5, Episode 2
Streaming on Disney+

The Belcher family uses a Ouija board to summon a ghost named Jeff that’s been haunting their burger restaurant and traps him in a shoe box — and the eldest Belcher kid, Tina (Dan Mintz), ends up falling in love with him. But when Tina brings the box to school, popular girl Tammy (Jenny Slate) steals it — “I guess now I have a hottie without a body” — and Tina schemes to win him back. This episode contains many genuinely LOL moments — including the youngest Belcher, the precocious nine-year-old Louise (Kristen Schaal), dressing up as “Ryan Gosling from the major motion picture trailer Drive” — but it’s also a tender rumination on rites of passage and growing up.

 

Community
“Epidemiology”
Season 2, Episode 6
Streaming on Netflix

A mysterious zombie virus is infecting the students of Greendale Community College after the Dean (Jim Rash) serves up what he thinks is taco meat at a Halloween mixer. Our intrepid Study Group tries to survive, with besties Abed (Danny Pudi) and Troy (Donald Glover) having a surprisingly heartstring-tugging moment after Abed encourages Troy to “be the first Black man to make it to the end.” But what makes this episode of Community a Halloween canon classic is the fact it’s essentially a zombie movie soundtracked entirely by ABBA, thanks to the Dean’s personal playlist. Seeing the undead gruesomely attack their victims to the relentlessly upbeat Swedish pop jams Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) and Waterloo? Perfect, no notes.

 

Friends
“The One With the Halloween Party”
Season 8, Episode 6
Streaming on Crave

This episode has everything: Chandler (Matthew Perry) dressed as a giant pink bunny, Phoebe’s (Lisa Kudrow) twin sister Ursula (also Lisa Kudrow), Ross (David Schwimmer) in a punny potato-based costume that looks like something else. Monica (Courteney Cox) and Chandler decide to throw a last-minute Halloween party, and Phoebe invites Ursula, who is getting married (to a guy played by Sean Penn, terrifying) but has been lying to him for their entire relationship (“there’s no such thing as the Top Secret Elementary School for the Children of Spies!”). Elsewhere, an expectant Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) fears she’s terrible with kids after some unfortunate run-ins with trick-or-treaters.

 

How I Met Your Mother
“The Slutty Pumpkin”
Season 1, Episode 6
Streaming on Disney+

In a wink to It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) makes his annual pilgrimage to a rooftop Halloween party to wait for “the Slutty Pumpkin,” a costumed woman he met years ago. Meanwhile, Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan) try to win a costume contest at their local bar while Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) tries to pick up the same woman by changing into different costumes. There are a few jokes that have not exactly aged like fine wine, but the episode does offer a light skewering of the sexy Halloween costume industrial complex — and has a sweet ending.

 

The Office
Here Comes Treble
Season 9, Episode 5
Streaming on Netflix

While The Office has done several Halloween episodes, this is the one that gave us the now-iconic Dwight Pumpkin Head meme. Dwight (Rainn Wilson) getting his head stuck in a jack o’ lantern in the weeks leading up to Oct. 31 isn’t the only good costume moment from this episode; Pam (Jenna Fischer) dressed as “Dr. Cinderella” — in order to give her daughter a positive role model — is also worth a shout-out, as is Nelly (Catherine Tate) dressed as Sexy Toby, which leads to an awkward moment with the real Toby (Paul Lieberstein). Elsewhere, Andy (Ed Helms) delivers additional cringe trying to cling to his college a cappella days.

 

Parks and Recreation
Greg Pikitis
Season 2, Episode 7
Streaming on Prime Video

This is the first Halloween episode in the series and it’s arguably the best one. We find out that our optimistic, good-in-everyone protagonist, Pawnee, Ind., parks department deputy director Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), has an arch-nemesis, and that arch-nemesis is a teenage boy named Greg Pikitis who, every Halloween, vandalizes the statue of Mayor Percy. Well, not this year. Not on her watch. She goes on a stake out with her police-officer boyfriend (played by Louis C.K., creepy) determined to catch him in the act. Elsewhere, Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) hosts a boring Halloween party. Bet you can guess which childhood doll she dressed up as.

 

The Simpsons
“Treehouse of Horror III”
Season 4, Episode 5
Streaming on Disney+

Any of the annual Treehouse of Horror episodes from the early seasons are worth your time, but the third instalment from 1992 is an oft-quoted classic (“my bologna has a first name, it’s H-O-M-E-R…”). In an attempt to liven up a boring Halloween party — at which Bart is dressed as Alex from A Clockwork Orange — various members of the Simpson family tell a trio of scary stories: an evil pull-string Krusty the Clown terrorizes Homer in riff on the possessed-doll trope; Homer is recast as a giant ape in a parody of 1933’s King Kong; and Lisa and Bart accidentally inflict a zombie apocalypse on Springfield in a nod to Pet Sematary-meets-Night of the Living Dead. It’ll have you laughing right from the opening Alfred Hitchcock Presents gag.

 

jen.zoratti@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @JenZoratti