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09/26/2005: Rue McClanahan in… The Wickedest Witch!

She's only gonna sit in an inch of water? Got a good one for you tonight. In 1989, Rue McClanahan fulfilled the naughtiest clause in her Golden Girls contract by starring in NBC’s The Wickedest Witch, a very rare Halloween special that only aired once, maybe twice. It’s thirty minutes of Blanche dressed as a bitch witch hag, fiddling around with little reptilian Muppets as she quests to take over the universe. The silly but inoffensive special is a must for Rue fans, and since you’ve got no chance of seeing the thing if you haven’t already, the review includes several video clips. Enjoy.

Posted by Matt. E-mail me!

Discussion Thread: 113 comments

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I remember watching this. I have no idea why but I do. Great review!!!

Ghosted by Weredog @ 09/26/2005 8:08 PM EDT

baaaaaaaaaahahahahahah! I used to have that on tape once hahaha. i remember it cuz it would be RIGHT after Garfield’s Halloween Special and i’d turn it off cause it was boring haha.

Ghosted by Willem @ 09/26/2005 8:09 PM EDT

Geez, now I wish I wasn’t devoted to ABC back in the day. This sounds like fun, if unmemorable, Halloween entertainment.

Ghosted by starwenn @ 09/26/2005 8:19 PM EDT

best show ever

Ghosted by the80sruled @ 09/26/2005 8:29 PM EDT

Anyone else questioning whether or not Schtick is related to Jambi in any way?

Ghosted by WonKa @ 09/26/2005 8:45 PM EDT

Wow, those clips were pretty good quality, considering. I wonder if this still sits in NBC’s vaults, locked up Animaniacs-style?

Ghosted by Jeff Mack @ 09/26/2005 8:49 PM EDT

I remember this, barely, it’s in the fuzzy part of my memory. The pic’s n the review remind me of the Fraggle Rock halloween special from the 80’s.

Ghosted by kb @ 09/26/2005 9:14 PM EDT

Good ‘ol Rue.

You know, she played the biology teacher in Starship Troopers, one of my all-time favorite movies.

God, I’ve seen it so many times… lol

Ghosted by Chilipeppers @ 09/26/2005 9:18 PM EDT

I have to admit, when I saw the article on the front page, I kinda hoped the article was about a previously unheralded sequel to "The Worst Witch." But then I felt terrible, because wishing for a sequel to such a bad, awful movie is against all common decency and sense. Much like "The Worst Witch."

Ghosted by Jedoc @ 09/26/2005 9:25 PM EDT

Seeing that little Grievel get turned to stone made me cry. Why couldn’t you just let this special be forgotten by humanity? Poor little Grievel. Poor poor little Grievel.:(

Ghosted by Darth Poop @ 09/26/2005 9:31 PM EDT

Wowee. That looks like one shitty movie, but prob. better than The Hogan Family by far!!

I too am a big Rue mark, so this is a great article!! As cool, if not more so, than Bea doing the Urkel!!

Ghosted by kidneyboy @ 09/26/2005 9:56 PM EDT

Cool. Being three years old when that came out there’s no way I’d remember it even if I did watch it. But i’m glad that I now know about it. Thanks! And that kid looked like a jack-ass in the last clip. Hahaha, I can’t stop the laughter… Good Stuff.

Ghosted by Mattman @ 09/26/2005 10:02 PM EDT

I wish they would’ve found a way to insert this into Golden Girls continuity.

Ghosted by The Wukong Effect @ 09/26/2005 10:08 PM EDT

I can’t believe with my love of muppets and Golden Girls and holiday specials in general during the late 80s, I didn’t see this one… Frig!
Musn’t have been carried by the US station the local cable provider carried.
I do remember seeing that stupid one with Judd Hirsh far too many times.

Ghosted by AlphaCentaurian @ 09/26/2005 10:09 PM EDT

OK, it wasn’t that stupid, but seeing something 12 times in one season dulls things

Ghosted by AlphaCentaurian @ 09/26/2005 10:10 PM EDT

Gotta chime in and say, this has been a great countdown so far. I can’t believe how much great stuff has been tackled, and it’s not even October.

Ghosted by James @ 09/26/2005 10:19 PM EDT

man…rue looks totally hot with her hair down like that…

Ghosted by gerv @ 09/26/2005 10:20 PM EDT

I’m waiting for the day to arrive when that whole trend of making real-world references in fantasy movies will be funny again. "Create and destroy matter… buy anything wholesale." What? No.

Was it just me, or did Rue’s underground lair look like a warped version of Beast’s castle in the Disney movie?

Ghosted by Jessica Marie @ 09/26/2005 10:37 PM EDT

Rue tried so hard with the "wholesale" line, too. She really wanted to make it work.

Ghosted by Matt @ 09/26/2005 10:38 PM EDT

I would have prefered a Hogan Family Halloween Special where good old Val comes back from the dead to slaughter her annoying family…including Miss Pool!

Ghosted by Kevin @ 09/26/2005 11:08 PM EDT

Matt, you never cease to amaze me. You are able to reconstruct every piece of my holiday memories. Growing up, my family was big into recording every holiday special that ever aired, and watching them year after year. This one was in heavy Halloween rotation. I had forgotten it even existed until I clicked onto X-E tonight.

Amazing job at bringing everyone back to a time when holidays made us even more giddy than they do now (if that’s possible)!

Incidentally, I’d give up a testicle for one of those wishing rocks

Ghosted by Mr. Boligarky @ 09/26/2005 11:08 PM EDT

Oh man poor Rue. This thing sounds terrible.

Ghosted by squee4242 @ 09/26/2005 11:18 PM EDT

Since this subject has *however tenuous) ties to the word Muppet, I thought I would share that I just discovered that they’re making a new Fraggle Rock movie to be released in 2006.

Or perhaps everyone already knew this, and I’m a Johnny Come Lately.

But I refuse to be one of those.

Ghosted by The Wukong Effect @ 09/27/2005 12:21 PM EDT

FRAGGLE ROCK MOVIE!!! OMFG!!

Seriously, I didn’t know that, and it is cool. That is one cool ass show, I remember when we first got cable, and watching it on HBO was one of the first shows my family got into! I also remember the little cars from Happy Meals with the Fraggle Rock characters.

I might be jaded, but Skinemax just doesn’t do it for me anymore.

Ghosted by kidneyboy @ 09/27/2005 12:26 PM EDT

Ima kinda ghosted :0 arr

Ghosted by kidneyboy @ 09/27/2005 12:29 PM EDT

I don’t remember this one, but I have vauge memories of a show that was on probably 1990-1992. It was a sitcom and only aired on halloween or a day or two before. I remember a family, a house…a haunted house and bats, skeletons…etc. I thought it would become a regular show, but sadly it was just a one time show. I have been haunted by the name of this show. HELP ME INTERWEB!!!

Ghosted by tikihunter @ 09/27/2005 12:48 PM EDT

Great to see you did an article on this ‘un, Matt! It is truly one of the oddest made-for-T.V. Halloween specials I’ve ever seen. Excellent article!

Ghosted by EtHM @ 09/27/2005 12:59 PM EDT

Wow.

Those clips were amazing.

I think it’s possible Rue paid someone to destroy all copies of that video. She acted her ass off but… those clips prove it would have been a wise investment on her part.

Ghosted by Night_Trekker @ 09/27/2005 1:21 AM EDT

I’m torn between being kind of glad I don’t really remember that, and wishing I’d seen it in it’s entirety.

Ghosted by Diana @ 09/27/2005 3:22 AM EDT

Did you know there was a "Worst Witch" TV SERIES?? Matt hasn’t gotten to that yet, I guess…..

Ghosted by Mars @ 09/27/2005 3:28 AM EDT

HOLY CRAP…I remember this TV special! O_O!

I saw it, like once when I was a kid & remembered it years after but didn’t know the name of it.

Thanks for finally shedding light on that mystery for me duder.

-Boglin

Ghosted by Boglin @ 09/27/2005 3:55 AM EDT

Yup, I saw this, had to been right after my first highschool dance. Return of the Living Dead showed after this and I swear Rue was beggin for brains!

Ghosted by Dragula @ 09/27/2005 4:24 AM EDT

best clip: the hogan’s family one. And no I don’t remember this special. And why do they think it’s amusing when they take a clip out of a show to go with what the narrator is talking about. It’s like trying to get a celebrity to endorse your product by filling in holes with words taken from the person’s mouth. Very tacky. It’s not amusing at all.

Ghosted by Goob @ 09/27/2005 4:38 AM EDT

The review is just wonderful. I just love this!!!

Ghosted by garry @ 09/27/2005 7:57 AM EDT

I echo anyone’s sentiments that this is the best countdown ever. Holiday anticipation is all about the camaraderie, so when I come here and know that everyone else is getting geeked about Jones Halloween soda and perhaps popping in their Halloween special tapes just a bit early, it makes the anticipation all that much juicier. I love it, Matt!

Ghosted by Jessica Marie @ 09/27/2005 8:58 AM EDT

About that Worst Witch Tv series: They used to show that on YTV(Canada’s Children’s network) all the time. I remember because I was systemically tortured with forced watching of it. I hate my sister. I’m pretty sure that Tim Curry starred in the TV version as well. Or at least some poor bastard who looked like Tim Curry who was put under devious Britsh Government hypnosis, forced to star in the world’s shittiest show ever……I need to lay off the drugs.

Ghosted by TheJuggalo @ 09/27/2005 8:58 AM EDT

Did anyone ever see the computer animated Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow that was on about a decade ago? I always thought that it was good enough to be a yearly special. It was when CA was new and I thought it was so bad ass, now it probably looks like shit in a sugarcone.

Ghosted by Funky Boo Berry the 70's Ghost @ 09/27/2005 9:16 AM EDT

Great. Now I’m going to have Evil Blanche calling out "I-17!" in my head all damn day.

Ghosted by Mike Fireball @ 09/27/2005 9:24 AM EDT

holy crap I totally remember watching this as a kid. What a way to bring back the past heh. Ill probably be reminising about this friggin show for the next 2 hours.

Ghosted by erik @ 09/27/2005 9:36 AM EDT

I only wish I could’ve seen "The Wickedest Witch", even if it’s only a half-assed attempt at a halloween special. My family would watch re-runs of the crappy "Saturday the 14th" movie, "Friday the 13th’s" evil twin sister. My parents felt that the classics "Halloween", Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Friday The 13th", were way too violent for me and my brother to see. Oh well, I guess we all suffer in one form or the other.

Ghosted by Texican @ 09/27/2005 9:36 AM EDT

That kid looks like someone I should know, but I checked him out on imdb and I don’t see anything there that I would have recognized him from. One thing’s for sure, that guy is doing something else to pay the bills. There is an updated picture, though, if anyone’s interested.

I agree that, even at 26, the scene where she turns that sweet little Grievel to stone was really sad. At 10 I would have never made it to the end of the special. That would have been it for me.

Oh, and that music in the third clip wants SO badly to be "Phantom of the Opera".

Ghosted by Lori @ 09/27/2005 10:02 AM EDT

I don’t know much about this Rue , but in re: to a previous entry on Pitch Black II. . .ugh! Not a fan. I’m only halfway through my first bottle, though. Maybe it will grow on me.

Ghosted by Chris Martin @ 09/27/2005 10:34 AM EDT

Excellent as always Matt! heh

I love the countdown, I love that you start absurdly early and hit it hard. Nice to know I aint the only one out early looking for new Halloween thrills. And your countdown is da thrillz baby. Da thrillz.

Ghosted by dj BC @ 09/27/2005 11:30 AM EDT

-?-
I can’t believe I know not of this special! Even if it aired only once, how could I have missed it? My Hallow-world is shattered. Where’s my bucket of candy corn….

Ghosted by kingklash @ 09/27/2005 11:54 AM EDT

Not to nitpick (well, a little), but in the third paragraph, shouldn’t it be members of her own coven, not cove?

I’m sorry, I’m sorry; I’m a copy editor and can’t help myself!

Ghosted by purplegirl247 @ 09/27/2005 12:14 PM EDT

If it’s half as good as The Worst Witch than it can’t be that bad.

Ghosted by Review the World @ 09/27/2005 12:40 PM EDT

I remember that the Hogan Family did an Halloween episode that for some reason gave me nightmares.

I also remember there was a short-lived Jim Henson HBO show that was set in an haunted house or castle "The Ghost of" is all I remember.

Anyone else remember the short-lived Munsters revival "The Munsters Today" That was a fun show.

Ghosted by JLAJRC @ 09/27/2005 1:08 PM EDT

I thought "The Munsters Today" was all right. Good casting picks for Herman, Lily, and Grandpa.
With long hair, Rue looks kinda like Susan Sarandon.
Matt, you ever review that Addams Family Hallowe’en special? The one about Cousin Shy?

Ghosted by kingklash @ 09/27/2005 1:15 PM EDT

Matt,

Have you had any good encounters with Advertising Week in NY this week? I love the creepy looking Burger King character.

Ghosted by King Chachi @ 09/27/2005 2:14 PM EDT

If I had a magic wishing rock I’d make Matt program director of holiday lineups for a major cable company.

Good article. Either I didn’t watch this or forgot all about it. Maybe someday it will air again.

Ghosted by Carri @ 09/27/2005 2:24 PM EDT

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