Happy Halloween! Samhain is upon us, and so I have curated a list of my favourite Halloween Episodes. Being the millennial that I am, many of these are from 90s or 00s television shows, so I shouldn’t really need to give a *spoiler alert* but here it is. I have tried to be vague enough not to spoil it for you if you like the sound of any of these and are watching for the first time. Many of my favourite shows / sitcoms have more than one fantastic Halloween episode so it was extremely hard to chose just one, but here it goes…
1. Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) Halloween, S2 EP6
“Who died and made her boss?” Confidence in who you are and becoming who you want to be seen as and realising it’s not all you think it will be. The dialogue is super sharp with many funny quips, possibly the best Halloween episode of TV ever! Fear Itself (S4 EP4) is such a close second I almost put both!
2. Community (2009-2015) Epidemiology, S2 EP6
Zombies at an adult college Halloween party caused by surplus army supplies in the food, against a backing track of Abba songs on a loop. Funnier than it sounds I promise!
3. Charmed (1998-2006) All Halliwell’s Eve, S3 EP4
An extremely fun romp into the past with pilgrims and witches galore – finding the power within, even in a world they don’t recognise or understand.
4. Raising Hope (2010-2014) Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Me What to Do, S3 EP5
Gay curious father and son visit a gay bar and we laugh at their ignorance of a different culture and lifestyle – only half of this episode is ‘Halloween’ but for expressions of gender in a sweet way, this makes my list.
5. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015-2019) I Am Ashamed, S4 EP2
“Death camp.” “That’s so offensive. Don’t call it that. It’s called a concentration camp.” Not your typical Halloween fare, Rebecca subconsciously invents a ghost who needs her help, in order to support her agoraphobia and ‘need’ to stay inside her flat.
6. 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996-2001) Scaredy Dick, S3 EP5
“Who you gonna call Ghostbusters?” “What are you crazy?…It’s their busiest night of the year!” Aliens’ reactions to an American Halloween in the 90s, what’s not to love?
7. Brooklyn 99 (2013-2021) Halloween Part III, S3 EP5
Although this is my favourite, I do love all of the Halloween Heist Episodes! This one wins because – Girlpower! Amy is left out by both Holt and Peralta so she plays them both at their own game and wins the heist.
8. Modern Family (2009 – 2020) Open House of Horrors, S4 EP5
The Halloween episodes throughout Modern Family offer the most exploration of Claire’s character and give her a more interesting arc than the ‘nagging wife’ troupe she often gets stuck in. I love that in this episode she chases Phil all round the house trying to scare him but he’s so into his phone call he doesn’t notice
9. Gravity Falls (2014 – 2016) Summerween, S1 EP12
The residents of Gravity Falls love Halloween so much they celebrate it in the summer too! Zipper is forced to Trick or Treat by a scarecrow and Mable uses her overwhelming positivity to rally the troupes. “I’ve been traumatised!”
10. Bob’s Burgers (2011 – present) The Hauntening, S6 EP3
“Let’s turn our parents into scarents” Tina, Louise and Gene decide to make the hired haunted house their parents set up for them more scary, but as it turns out, the locals are scary enough!
Special mentions…
I really wanted to include a South Park (1997 – present) episode but found it too hard to choose which out of – A Nightmare on FaceTime (2012), Hell on Earth (2006), Korn’s Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery (1999), Pinkeye (1997).
And we couldn’t do a Halloween TV episode list without mentioning The Simpsons’ (1988 – present) Treehouse of Horrors. There are so many brilliant episodes of this I don’t even know where to start!
And the Halloween episodes I remember enjoying at the time but didn’t quite make the top ten are:
I wanted to include That ’70s Show (1998 – 2006) – Too Old to Trick or Treat, Too Young to Die (2000). For its comic take on some of Hitchcock’s greatest movies, however the humour falls short with that 90’s American comedy style that was seen as ‘woke’ then and it’s rather offensive at times now.
Glee (2009 – 2015) – The Rocky Horror Glee Show (2010) “Just be you and the sexiness will show through”. If you can ignore the fact that no school in their right minds would put on The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and if you were the type of teen that wished your school would, then you’ll probably enjoy this Glee tribute. This didn’t make my top ten due to the ignorant terms used by some of the characters, it’s another one that is of its time. Plus I didn’t find the ending satisfactoryI wasn’t able to include
Sabrina: The Teenage Witch (1996 – 2003) A Halloween Story (1996) for a different reason. I remember it being a fun and relatable teenage romp where Sabrina is torn between a fun party and a family social so she makes a clone of herself. But it’s not currently available on any of the streaming services in England.
