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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

well I certainly didn’t expect to be the first in here…I guess i might be a nice pumpkin!

shame in spain we have no creepy Halloween…sniff…

Chestnuts roasted by melonian @ 10/12/2004 9:56 PM

Bravo on the article Matt. It isn’t really any holiday without some corny TV special. Garfield’s specials(Halloween and Christmas) being two of my all time favorites. I haven’t seen either on stations by me for several years now. I still have vivid memories of sitting down Halloween night after trick-or-treating to watch the Garfield special. At the time it was pretty scary stuff.

ps- so is X-E gonna have a costume contest?

Chestnuts roasted by Don't Touch, Willy. @ 10/12/2004 10:07 PM

"Port Wine nut-enhanced fucking cheese logs."

Blahahahahahaha, I’ve gone and soiled myself!!!!!!!!

Chestnuts roasted by Don't Touch, Willy. @ 10/12/2004 10:11 PM

I have never seen the Garfield special. Guess I missed out. Oh well, now we can look forward to Matt giving us new shit to read everyday during these holiday extravaganzas. That’s close enough.

Chestnuts roasted by Jim Davis @ 10/12/2004 10:19 PM

I was trying to to load the Peanuts "It’s the Great Pumpkin" commercial. But im always going to the home page and it won’t load. Matt could you fix this problem i really want to see it. Plus, What’s the deal with the Mcboo pails commercail. There’s no sound! Make sure you fix that too.

Chestnuts roasted by Kevin @ 10/12/2004 10:19 PM

Great Pumpkin link fixed. McBoo’ll have to wait till later. Silence is fun tho.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 10/12/2004 10:23 PM

How does it feel Matt, to know that your website has become just as much a holiday tradition to some of us as the cartoons you wrote about used to be? Keep up the great work!

Chestnuts roasted by bdsghost @ 10/12/2004 10:30 PM

I have a friend that insists Garfield is the most brilliant comic strip in the newspaper. We have Garfield vs. Dilbert debates. I know its pretty sad. Let the parade of people that hate either Garfiled/Dilbert begin.

Chestnuts roasted by Jason @ 10/12/2004 10:31 PM

Up next… A video from Los Lobos. Matt, I couldn’t resist buying the new Friday Collection because I’m such a sucker for anything Jason. Its not that bad. Included with the extras are the great cut scenes from part VII which I’ve been wanting to see for a long time.

Chestnuts roasted by bob genghis khan @ 10/12/2004 10:40 PM

Thanks for the clips Matt!
I loved that Garfield special… I still quote it to this day.
Garfield wanting all that "CANDY, CANDY, CANDY!"

Chestnuts roasted by Croww @ 10/12/2004 11:04 PM

When I was a kid I couldn’t go through Halloween without watching the Garfield Halloween special. I learned how to read because of that great fat cat!

Chestnuts roasted by Mattallica @ 10/12/2004 11:31 PM

I don’t own either, but Sunday I checked out both at [overpriced book chain] and on aesthetics alone, the Freddy set is a much better buy. (The Amazon reviews seem unimpressed with the extras on Jason, as well) I put a lot of importance on how that set’s gonna look up on the shelf, especially if they’ve already suckered you into paying for a previous DVD version. Which is why I’m not shelling out for Kill Bill until they put out a http://www.livejournal.com/users/squee4242/49883.html">box set.

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 10/12/2004 11:41 PM

Aww great, now I can’t get "The Reflex" outta my head, Matt! :D You lucky bum, you…

Chestnuts roasted by Ryane @ 10/12/2004 11:44 PM

The networks may have given up on the kiddies in regards to holiday specials (like they’ve done to Saturday mornings),but the cable kid networks like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network have picked up the slack. The latter has Scooby Doo marathons and such,but Nick has had special Halloween episodes of their shows that are pretty imaginative,like the Fairly Oddparents special where Timmy makes a wish that whatever you dress up as,you become that thing.

I loved the Charlie Brown and Garfield specials too ("I got a rock!").

Chestnuts roasted by Overlord @ 10/13/2004 12:11 PM

Just a friendly reminder, Garfield’s Halloween Special–as well as his Thanksgiving and Christmas specials–are being released on a single DVD on Oct. 26th.

btw anybody remember the Halloween special "Raggedy Ann & Andy and the Pumpkin that Wouldn’t Smile"? There was also a Raggedy Ann Christmas special where the villain was Wile E. Coyote. Seriously.

Chestnuts roasted by Luap @ 10/13/2004 12:25 PM

During the last couple network runs, CBS would show both Halloween specials on Halloween night, which is odd considering any kid that was home watching it at 8pm, probably hadn’t been Trick or Treating. Once that DVD hits, I’m going to get it.

Chestnuts roasted by Dude McGuy @ 10/13/2004 12:36 PM

Does anyone know when Charlie Brown Halloween will be on this year?

Chestnuts roasted by Jeff Mack @ 10/13/2004 12:40 PM

Not only did I look forward to the Garfield special each year as a child but I also looked forward to CBS’ percussion driven bumper that featured the word "special" spiralling towards you like you were having an acid flashback that came on right before the program began. That shit fuckin rocked!!!! I’m sure all of you know what I’m talking about…

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 10/13/2004 1:41 AM

http://www.80stvthemes.com/promos/cbs.html

go here to see the what i was talking about above!!!!

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 10/13/2004 2:05 AM

Yeah, the Halloween programming these days sucks. All we get are the same Scooby-Doo reruns that CN loves to push on us year-round, totally ignoring the fact that Scooby stopped being even mildly amusic a long time ago. At least we have Homestar and the gang to keep the tradition alive.

Chestnuts roasted by TB Tabby @ 10/13/2004 2:42 AM

Not only did I look forward to the Garfield special each year as a child but I also looked forward to CBS’ percussion driven bumper that featured the word "special" spiralling towards you like you were having an acid flashback that came on right before the program began. That shit fuckin rocked!!!! I’m sure all of you know what I’m talking about…

Oh don’t we all, and so does Matt. Look at last year’s X-E Christmas Advent Calendar for a download of the spinny-thing.

You’d think with so many cable channels catering to extreme niches, at least one of them would be interested in airing numerous Halloween specials. I guess it doesn’t matter because I don’t get cable anyway, but still…bah.

Chestnuts roasted by Mars @ 10/13/2004 2:48 AM

Speaking of Duran Duran, a local 80′s radio station called them up for an interview today and mentioned the prize they were giving away: "a Pajama Party with Duran Duran," which was apparently something they were never told about themselves. "Oh, a pajama party, that…sounds good." The DJ woman asked them a couple more questions, then thanked them for their time and hung up. Actually, she pretended to hang up, and then broadcasted them talking to each other while thinking they were no longer on the radio.

"A pajama party?? Is she kidding or what?"
"I can’t believe it."
"What, do they have to see our underwears?"
"Or worse. Doi-oi-oing."
"Oh man, I’m gonna bloody hate it."
"This better not be true."

Heh heh.

Chestnuts roasted by Mars @ 10/13/2004 2:54 AM

16 years and 2 days ago, I went to america for the very first time. One of the highlights of the holiday was being around for halloween and picking up 2 of the 3 mcpails. I had mcpumpkin & mcwitch, or whatever they call them. They’ve since been thrown away I hate to say. Thanks for the flashback mat, you truely are a king amongst men

Chestnuts roasted by gaz @ 10/13/2004 4:44 AM

I think in Russia they combine Halloween and Christmas, but without the religious shit.

Chestnuts roasted by gfhfhh @ 10/13/2004 8:03 AM

Yay! Matt met Duran Duran!!!
Do ‘Union of the Snake’!!!! :P

Chestnuts roasted by AngeFaitore @ 10/13/2004 8:19 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.