The spirit of All Hallow’s Eve taking over your ordinary television show has a strangely unnerving quality. Even if Halloween horror movies may transport us to unfamiliar, terrifying worlds, it’s still odd to see on your weekly watch-through of a favorite show. Seeing our beloved characters in a frightening context is like running into old friends in disguise. In certain circumstances, it could be endearing, humorous, or just plain unpleasant. Halloween TV specials are a fantastic way to inject some festivity into your daily routine, regardless of the genre you’re yearning for. In a show’s storyline, there’s always room for a trick or a treat. These are among the finest Halloween TV episodes of all time.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
12 Parks and Recreation — Halloween Surprise
NBCUniversal Television
“Halloween Surprise” is the fifth episode of Parks and Recreation’s fifth season. In the episode, Andy (Chris Pratt), Diane (Lucy Lawless), and Ron (Nick Offerman) all go with their kids trick-or-treating. After a fight between Diane and Ron, Ron spends the majority of the night by himself. A week after Halloween, the cast of characters attempts trick-or-treating once more.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
11 How I Met Your Mother — The Slutty Pumpkin Returns
20th Television
“The Slutty Pumpkin Returns” is the title of How I Met Your Mother’s Season 7, Episode 8. Every year when the group attends a Halloween party, Ted (Josh Radnor) searches for the long-lost Slutty Pumpkin, a lady (Katie Holmes) he spotted at the same gathering ten years ago while she was dressed as a provocative jack-o-lantern.
10 Stranger Things — Trick or Treat, Freak
Warner Bros Television
Netflix’s Stranger Things is one of the few television shows that perfectly captures the wicked and terrifying enchantment of ghost stories from childhood. “Trick or Treat, Freak” is Season 2, Episode 2 of the show, and the characters all dress up for Halloween, embracing the eerie season. On trick-or-treat night, Will (Noah Schnapp) witnesses a tragic incident, and Mike worries whether Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) is still among the living. Nancy (Natalia Dyer) struggles with Barb’s (Shannon Purser) truths.
9 Sabrina: The Teenage Witch — A Halloween Story
Paramount Television
Sabrina the Teenage Witch has seven Halloween episodes, but we’ll focus on the very first one, “A Halloween Story” from Season 1, Episode 5. When her calendar is double-booked, Sabrina (Melissa Joan Hart), in the episode, duplicates herself, making a humorous witchy mistake. Trying to decide between a party with friends that also happens to be attended by her crush, Harvey (Nate Richert), and a family gathering that her aunts Hilda (Caroline Rhea) and Zelda (Beth Broderick), had prepared, Sabrina learns a quality life lesson with all the Halloween holiday-themed spookiness fans of this time of year crave.
8 Euphoria — The Next Episode
HBO
“The Next Episode,” the sixth episode of season one of Euphoria, has a lot of intriguing information as Halloween approaches. Fortunately for fans, Halloween does have a tendency to highlight Euphoria’s preoccupation with makeup and adolescent parties. In this episode, we find out that Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi) has been using his abuse victim Maddy Perez (Alexa Demie) as his own intimate psychologist. This has led to a detainment, but he appears to have been exonerated and is now free to attend Daniel’s (Keean Johnson) Halloween party while dressed as an ironic career criminal. Rue, played by Zendaya, who recently won an Emmy for her performance, recognizes something really horrible is happening when she observes how Jules (Hunter Schafer) and Nate gaze at each other during the party.
7 The Vampire Diaries — Haunted
Vicki’s (Kayla Ewell) behavior after being turned into a vampire worsens in this episode, as Stefan (Paul Wesley) attempts to help her. “Haunted” is the seventh episode of The Vampire Diaries’ first season, which had the tagline, “A Halloween Vicki Can Sink Her Teeth Into.” Elena (Nina Dobrev) attempts to persuade Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) to avoid Vicki but ultimately fails. When Damon (Ian Somerhalder) tries to take back the necklace Caroline (Candice Accola) gave Bonnie (Katerina Graham) to go with her Halloween costume, he is shocked by Bonnie’s paranormal prowess. Matt invites Vicki to the high school’s haunted house in an effort to cheer her up, but the evening quickly takes a horrific turn for everyone.
6 The Simpsons — Halloween of Horror
The lone animated item on this list is the now iconic “Halloween of Horror” episode from The Simpsons. When Lisa, voiced by Yeardley Smith, gets frightened during Krustyland Horror Night, she believes she cannot endure Halloween any longer, and Season 27, Episode 4 becomes simply an animated masterpiece of Halloween mayhem. The Simpsons’ proud history of having the neighborhood’s best holiday decorations is destroyed by all of this.
5 Friends — The One with the Halloween Party
The sixth episode of Friends’ eighth season is titled “The One With The Halloween Party.” The decision of Monica (Courteney Cox) and Chandler (Matthew Perry) to host a Halloween costume party causes a variety of issues. Jennifer Aniston’s character, Rachel, tries to be a good person by giving candy to trick-or-treaters, but she fails after boring the first one with a narrative about fashion. Monica and Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), dressed as Catwoman and Supergirl, disagree about Chandler or Ross (David Schwimmer) winning in a fight.
4 Degrassi — The Curse of Degrassi
Entertainment One
The second Halloween special for Degrassi, aptly named “The Curse of Degrassi,” aired during the eighth season. Some characters remain around after class in one of the show’s most meta episodes yet to help prepare for the Degrassi Harvest Dance, which is taking place on the third anniversary of the shooting incident. The person in charge, Holly J. (Charlotte Arnold), goes to her locker to fetch the raffle tickets and discovers Rick Murray’s spectacles, which are still covered in yellow paint. Rick’s (Ephraim Ellis) ghost enters her body as she scoops them up. After using Holly J to murder a number of the other kids, Rick overhears Spinner’s (Shane Kippel) apology for having mistreated him in the past. In effect, the entire episode is retconned immediately when Rick discovers he is dead and resets everything before he murdered the students. Only Holly J. recalls what happened, as we get one final glimpse of Rick at the end of the episode. Fans of the show will be thrilled to hear a new iteration of Degrassi is being produced for HBO Max to be released in 2023, per Deadline.
3 Glee — The Rocky Horror Glee Show
This Glee Season 2, Episode 5 special is a must-see television episode, “Rocky Horror Glee.” Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison), hurt that Emma’s (Jayma Mays) new boyfriend, Dr. Carl Howell (John Stamos), is letting her loose, orders the club to perform The Rocky Horror Picture Show as the school play in an effort to win her over. The Glee Club adapts the original, with Kurt (Chris Colfer) playing Riff Raff and Mercedes (Amber Riley) as Frank N. Furter. On opening night, Sue plans to publicly humiliate Will and the club in her monthly Sue’s Corner comments, so she supports the play. Even though the production is ultimately canceled, the kids decide to go ahead and perform it anyway.
2 Buffy the Vampire Slayer — Halloween
CBS Television Distribution
In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 2, Episode 6, simply named “Halloween,” Buffy, Willow, and Xander (Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, and Nicholas Brendon, respectively) are persuaded by Principal Snyder (Armin Shimerman) to go trick-or-treating with the local children, but the evening doesn’t go as they had hoped. Mayhem occurs as the other Sunnydale residents actually transform into their own Halloween costumes. With goblins, ghosts, demons, and more running rampant, Buffy’s outfit renders her incapable of killing and swooning over Angel (David Boreanaz). Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) starts to piece together what happened this night and realizes that the person is someone he knows as Ethan from his past, making this a very spooky Halloween. One of the most poignant things about specific episodes of Buffy, like this one, that are so unique is how they alter her perceptions of herself to prove she’s a great Slayer.
1 Charmed — All Halliwell’s Eve
“All Halliwell’s Eve,” the fourth episode of Season 3 of Charmed, is the only one in the whole series to have a Halloween-related narrative, making it an instant classic. On All Hallow’s Eve, also known as Halloween, the witchy sisters Prue (Shannen Doherty), Piper (Holly Marie Combs), and Pheobe (Alyssa Milano) are suddenly transported back in time to the 1600s to save a coven that is in danger of extinction by preventing a baby from being delivered into the hands of evil. They are unaware that they are also there to safeguard the continuation of magic as they know it. Sadly, a pair of Grimlocks attacked just as the portal was about to take the Halliwell sisters into the past. Grimlocks are warlocks that strengthen themselves by stealing the auras of the virtuous or innocent. Whitelighter Leo (Brian Krause) and Policeman Darryl (Dorian Gregory) are left alone at Halliwell Manor and forced to get inventive to keep the Grimlocks occupied until the sisters can return. The episode is a great choice to watch in October for those spooky Halloween vibes since it is adventurous without being overly frightening or gory.
