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The Magic of Halloween Specials.

Okay, so I had a total markout moment this morning.  As I'm walking to work, I notice people setting up a makeshift stage with banners for Duran Duran -- for Good Morning America or something, I think -- so I'm like, "oh shit, I'll be twenty feet away and still not able to see this."  But whatever, I go into my building, head up the escalator, and there they are.  Just said "good morning" to Simon not wanting to look like a total geek (and not wanting to bug the guys in the temporary sanctity of our building), but yeah, technically, I met Duran Duran this morning and I am tha-rilled. I'm allowed to be lame.

The entry for Tuesday, arriving very close to Wednesday, is my short tribute to magic of Halloween television specials. To appease the brevity haters, I've also included three commercial downloads -- two teasers for Charlie Brown and Garfield's respective Halloween specials, and the McDonald's McBoo ad that you might've noticed on the main page for a day or so a few weeks ago. Day or so few weeks ago. As one of the guys who played Blanche's father said, it has all the makings of a great country song. Before I go, has anyone picked up the Friday the 13th box set yet? I've got the Elm Street set and it's pretty amazing, but I've heard a lot of terrible things about Jason's version. Making matters worse is that I already own most of the F13 flicks on DVD, so without any good extras, I'm going to have a real hard time justifying the purchase unless the set includes free trading cards or a half-off coupon for waffles. Still, huge recommendation for the Elm Street collection if you haven't picked it up yet. The extras are incredible, running the gamut from commentaries to behind-the-scenes footage of Englund dressed as Freddy but just hanging around drinking coffee. And everyone involved with Elm Street 2 openly admitted how much it sucked, so you know the commentaries aren't fluff.

Posted by Matt on 10/12/2004. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 71 comments

I know, I miss the holiday specials on TV myself a lot. It’s just that the networks don’t advertise them that much like they used to. Actually, ABC nows holds the broadcast rights to the Peanuts specials, not CBS which ran them for years.

Garfield’s Halloween Adventure was fun, but I think that the Peanuts one was much better. I still feel sorry for Charlie Brown. Why the hell did those people give him rocks? Was this payback for Charlie Brown doing something to them? (Maybe a bad lawnmower job?) Did you know that the first year this aired, so many people felt sorry for the round-headed kid that they sent bags of candy to Charles Schultz for him to "give" to Charlie Brown? Now that’s fandom!

Chestnuts roasted by Bert Raccoon @ 10/13/2004 11:35 PM

It is reviews of things like these beloved Halloween specials that make me love X-E as much as I do (and I love it a friggin’ LOT!) Thanks, Matt!

Chestnuts roasted by Muppet Baby @ 10/13/2004 11:50 PM

Wow, by randomly choosing to search for "cheese" I managed to come across an article I can’t recall ever seeing! Whatta find!

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 10/14/2004 12:16 PM

Matt,
The Friday box set actually has more to offer as far as extras. The Nightmare boxset is generally considered better because they are better films. The Friday box has 4 commentaries, while Nightmare only has 2. Plus Friday’s set has alot more deleted scenes. Both sets are good. Friday fanboys hate the set because the films are the same R-rated cuts from the DVDs you already own. Sell you old DVDs on Ebay or to a pawn shop and get the set.

Chestnuts roasted by JAY @ 10/14/2004 12:17 PM

Gwen brought up a good point. The Simpsons Treehouse of horror special now comes on in November, and that stinks. Why did they have to add divisional playoffs to baseball? It just drags things out longer than it should.

When I was a kid, we had the NLCS, The ALCS, the World Series, and that was it! God, I hate baseball today.

Chestnuts roasted by Number 5 @ 10/14/2004 8:05 AM

You know what will be stuck in my head until the end of time? Garfield singing in that Halloween special,

"Or I could put on some black pajamas. And go as a Great Big Halloween Cat."

Chestnuts roasted by Gordon @ 10/14/2004 12:10 PM

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen teh Garfield special but I do remember getting freaked out as a kid to Disney’s ‘Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ with the headless horseman. Does anyone remember that one?

Chestnuts roasted by Jen @ 10/14/2004 4:49 PM

Speaking of Simpsons, I heard that the last season will be in 2009. How depressing is that? I mean, yeah, now the movies will come out sooner, but still…I can’t remember a time without them.

Chestnuts roasted by Sara @ 10/14/2004 7:41 PM

one year i made it my goal to collect ALL of the halloween mcnugget toys and i did just that. i had all 57 of them and they lived on top of my VCR. they stayed on that VCR for a few years collecting dust and cigarette smoke stains until one fateful day that VCR caught fire and burned to the ground (read: endtable surface) taking all 89 mcnugget figures with it. it was a sad day when i came to discover my VCR crispified with 176 little crunchy solidified plastic puddles baked into it’s soot encrusted surface, a single blackened mcnugget eyeball staring up at me from amidst the rubble.

aside from the eye chunk, the only thing that survived the great table fire was half of my natural born killers director’s cut VHS. you’d think the only thing that could play melted video tapes would be scorched VCRs…

Chestnuts roasted by eric-the-ded @ 10/14/2004 7:49 PM

You are SO RIGHT! BRING BACK THE SPECIALS! I’m suprised that at least Cartoon Network or something doesn’t play these.

Chestnuts roasted by The Dragonrider @ 10/14/2004 8:02 PM

Oh man, I’m so jealous Matt. Those guys are my heroes, next to The Cure. I wouldn’t have my ears pierced if not for Duran Duran. I wouldn’t be begging anyone and everyone for an Armani suit if not for those guys. I wouldn’t be in a band anymore if not for them…My old band covered "The Chauffeur" and from that moment on, I knew it was something I had to do for the rest of my life.
Cheers to you friend…cheers to you.

Chestnuts roasted by Myke @ 10/15/2004 12:04 PM

Thanks for the heads-up on the GARFIELD DVD. I never thought I would see that scary old man and pirate ghost again. I have the Garfield Christmas taped from T.V. circa ’92 with the Claymation Christmas. Still waiting on that one……

Chestnuts roasted by manimal789 @ 10/15/2004 6:45 PM

hey, i’m new here and after reading ur article i wanted to ask u if u’d marry me! Finally, someone who feels the same way i do about holidays specials and the like! Thank you!

Chestnuts roasted by Maria @ 10/16/2004 12:41 PM

OMG, you met Duran Duran? *goes all 80′s fangirl*

Chestnuts roasted by Syntania @ 10/18/2004 7:15 PM

JUST as classic as garfield and charlie browns specials is the cbs teaser right befor each one!!!! also not an official thanksgiving classic but it originally aired on the 24th of november 1989 "garfields nine lives" my thanksgiving classic!! seen it matt?…….god i cry like tammy fay evry time i watch life number 5 or six? titled dianas piano!! grab a hankie and watch all the testosterone flow out of your eyes!! i dare ya! and go find mad monster party!

Chestnuts roasted by JAY B! @ 10/20/2004 4:34 AM

Now, when you say "special"……

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 10/23/2004 3:49 PM

Major markout moment: when Garfield goes to his first house on Halloween night, and when it’s answered, he of course says…"GIMME!" And then threatening to cut up the lady’s curtains with his broadsword :-)

Chestnuts roasted by James Fabiano @ 11/06/2004 9:14 AM

One more note…how about the Beavis and Butt-head Halloween? Memorable mostly for Beavis/Cornholio yelling, "Trick or treat, son of a bitch!"

Chestnuts roasted by James Fabiano @ 11/06/2004 9:15 AM

What about ” The Treehouse of Terror!”?!

Chestnuts roasted by human fly @ 10/13/2006 2:56 AM

HEH I Heart Garfield’s Halloween. ” They knooow who you ARE!!” nyah nyah nyah nyah!!!!

Chestnuts roasted by byaaah @ 11/25/2008 2:15 AM

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 12th, 2004 at 9:51 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.