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The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t!

It's October! Kind of feels like September flew by. I don't know if I'm ready for this. I often have trouble persuading myself to have fun, but this is the time to do it. I spent the morning scouring the web for semi-local pumpkin patches and hayride places, and even if I never make it to them, at least I got to see a ton of hijacked Halloween clipart, oftentimes animated with crude lightning bolts. Is it some sort of prerequisite for any pumpkin patch or hayride place with an Internet connection to make their homepage look like complete shit? I'm not complaining, though. It's part of their charm. Plus, I get paid a dollar every time I set eyes on the image below, and today, I saw it like 9,000 times:

Now, if only it wasn't still so damned hot outside. I haven't heard wind in the trees around here since 1957. I don't get it. It's sort of like how I can just never understand Christmas in Australia. October doesn't feel right unless I'm getting blown all over while clouds piss on me. Whatever, October 1st is an important day, as it marks the exact moment that we can openly gush about Halloweeny things without anyone yelling at us because "it's too early." Let us celebrate with this review of The Halloween That Almost Wasn't, later retitled, The Night That Dracula Saved The World. Originally airing in 1979 and starring Judd Hirsch as Dracula, it's a nice, quiet, fun little Halloween special that reminds us to love our mummies and witches just as much as all of the sleeker horror movie characters who stole their place later.

Also, I didn't touch on this in the article, but I need to get it off my chest. I have no idea why they renamed it The Night That Dracula Saved The World. Number one, the world is never in any danger and thus is not in any need of saving. There is no "world saving" to speak of within this special. Two, even if you had an argument against what I just wrote, it isn't Dracula who actually does the saving here, but rather THE WITCH! SO many things wrong with that title! Why did they change it?

Posted by Matt on 10/01/2007. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 166 comments

Matt, do you sleep in October or December? Don’t kill yourself, man.

Chestnuts roasted by Bill @ 10/02/2007 11:12 PM

Wow, I finally got on here again today. My last post was made this morning before I left for work, and here it is after 1:00am and I’m just about to go to bed and this is my first chance to sit down in front of the computer all day…ok, now to respond quickly to a whole day of posting before I go off to a much needed visit to sleepytown…

Jedoc: See, that’s exactly what I thought at first too, and I could never pull it off. I would spend too much time fortifying and not attacking so that by the time I was ready to spread out everyone else had fortified their borders pretty well and would gang up on me, OR, I would try to get too ambitious too soon, and spread out too thin and conquer nothing. I just couldn’t hack hanging onto Europe. I did really well with the Americas though. My favorite times in the game are in the beginning when it’s all building fairly quickly and you can kind of see where people are settling down and where the lines are being drawn, and then later about three-fourths of the way through when everyone’s at the peak of their strength and the shit starts to really go down.

Ann: I fully intend to see more of Jersey one day when time and money permits. I only wish I could have seen more of it at the time other than the inside of an airport and the view from out of the window of the plane. No offense or anything, but that was the craziest airport experience I’ve ever had. After I arrived back from London, everyone was told to literally throw our baggage into a pile and it would all be returned to us later cause our next flights were coming. No security check, no scanning, no nothing. Just throw your bags in this pile here and run (this was all pre-9/11 by the way). I hauled it across the airport cause of course my gate was all the way at the other end, and got there with about a minute to spare for my next flight from NJ to Charlotte. My bag never showed up to Charlotte when I got there, and instead showed up on my doorstep about a week later in SC.

FeedMyFrankenstein: I LOVE The Midnight Hour. I used to have a ritual of watching that every year around Halloween. I even like the random, completely unnecessary musical number that comes out of nowhere in the middle of the movie. And yeah, the part where the zombies show up along with a random werewolf used to scare the pants off of me. I never did understand why all the undead looked like the undead except for the one hot, blonde ’50′s girl. How did she get a pass? I mean, surely some of those other guys had unfinished buisiness too. Great movie, though.

Wenthral: The Halloweentown movies are some great fun. I would think those would be totally up Matt’s alley and a perfect addition to the site. Good suggestion, that…I actually spent an entire Saturday last fall watching all 4 of them in one go. How come “Darcy’s Wild Life” had to star in the last one? I guess they wanted to go with a bigger star. But did you notice the budget kind of got bigger as they went along? The skeleton cab driver guy looked a lot better in the 4th one than he did in the first one.

diamonds: At the radio station where I have my show I used to work with a guy who did a J-Pop show. He went by J-Poppa on the air, and he was obsessed with Japan. I truly feel was just a reincarnated Japanese guy stuck in a white guy’s body. He was way into anime and manga, listened to nothing but J-Pop, spoke Japanese, and had a Japanese girlfriend. Last I heard, he moved there. Good for him. He should be right at home now.

Ok, that’s it. I’m off to bed. I might check in in the morning before work…Just 2 more days left at that job! Woo-doo! Too bad I won’t be around to catch the premiere of today’s new article if it’s posted in the next hour so. Guess I’ll catch it tomorrow. Later, folks.

Chestnuts roasted by DJ D @ 10/03/2007 1:46 AM

So in australia, sweet nothing is done here for halloween, maybe a few kids in a bed sheet or a fairy outfit but thats it.

ANd I like a hot Christmas, nothing like a nice christmas dinner then a few beers and in the afternoon a swim in the pool

Would like some of those halloween reese’s though, love my reese’s pieces

Chestnuts roasted by AUssie ROck @ 10/03/2007 2:16 AM

How come nobody’s mentioned the Halloween Tree movie yet? That’s one of the best specials out there, and certainly needs more air-time.

Chestnuts roasted by DocDragon @ 10/03/2007 4:08 AM

I’ve got nothing to say but it’s okay

Good morning, good morning

Chestnuts roasted by The Manimal @ 10/03/2007 6:14 AM

It’s great to stay up late.

Chestnuts roasted by Jedoc @ 10/03/2007 7:28 AM

Kinda random post here, but I thought I’d bring something to the attention of “Halloween” movie completists out there: If you don’t own a copy of “Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers” (part 6) on DVD and don’t feel like dropping at least $40 for a new copy on amazon or eBay, right now most Blockbusters are carrying it for $8.99. (Must be overstock or something since I’m pretty sure this one’s out of print.) Just go to their handy “$8.99 New DVDs” section at the front of the store; they’re all arranged alphabetically. Commander out.

Chestnuts roasted by Commander Awesome @ 10/03/2007 10:36 AM

Thanks Manimal, that’ll be in my head all day :)
I would love it if the Caveman show was any good, but everything I’ve heard and seen has indicated otherwise. I didn’t even realize it was on last night. I want details too!

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 10/03/2007 10:44 AM

“October 1st is an important day, as it marks the exact moment that we can openly gush about Halloweeny things without anyone yelling at us because ‘it’s too early.’”

Screw the nay-sayers. For god’s sake, some stores already have Christmas decorations out alongside the Halloween stuff. FREAKIN CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS. That, my friends, is exemplary of the statement “it’s too early.”

Chestnuts roasted by Cheetara @ 10/03/2007 11:38 AM

The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t is part of the great canon of Disney Channel Halloween specials, from back when it was a premium channel. Other, similarly pricey specials included:

Mr. Boogedy
Witch’s Night Out
Halloween Is Grinch Night
Casper’s Halloween Special
Raggedy Ann & Andy In: The Pumpkin Who Couldn’t Smile
and, of course, Disney’s Halloween Treat.

The line that has forever haunted me from The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t: “Illusion?! Then who did that, a termite?”

Chestnuts roasted by G'Tron @ 10/03/2007 5:26 PM

G’Tron: I’ve been trying to remember this movie that I watched in elementary school for years, and I think it might be Mr. Boogedy. Please tell me it so this thing that’s been bugging me for nigh on 20 years now can finally be settled. It was about a family or some kids who I think moved in to a house and heard stories about it being haunted by somebody. I seem to remember that he was dressed up in a devil costume or something red. It’s all really foggy though. Does any of this sound like Mr Boogedy at all? I guess I could just Google it or something but asking you is a lot more interesting.

Chestnuts roasted by DJ D @ 10/03/2007 8:31 PM

Man, I hope Martha Stewart shits herself in jealousy.

Chestnuts roasted by Knegative @ 10/03/2007 11:31 PM

After over a day of knowing it needed it, I’ve finally gone back through this article to clean up some of the editorial messes. So, if you feel like reading it again for approximately three changed words, by all means…

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 10/04/2007 1:18 AM

The mood table concept is, by the way, one of the best holiday-decorating ideas ever, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it starts to catch on.

Chestnuts roasted by Monte @ 10/04/2007 7:20 PM

so i turned on the local news for once (cleveland, OH area) and definitely they just said that one of the local communities is “CANCELLING HALLOWEEN” WHAT THE FUCK……i am now certain that Dracula (or the witch for that matter) did not save halloween.

Chestnuts roasted by Leigha @ 10/04/2007 10:26 PM

ok, so they just ran the story, apparently its not cleveland, its somewhere in colorado. they dont want kids dressing up at school because they deem halloween costumes as “violent” and say that they dont want kids left out who come from poor families who cant afford costumes…..whatever happened to the good old standbys like a ghost….everyone has sheets….. they said that the community is going to have a fall celebration or something…..LAME

Chestnuts roasted by Leigha @ 10/04/2007 11:00 PM

Is anyone else getting overly annoyed with today’s PC culture? I read the article out of Colorado where they are having a fall party on October 5th, but Halloween is forbotten. I also saw another article out of Chicago where one of the local schools were considering cancelling Halloween and Christmas, but instead decided to add a Ramadan festival inbetween the two.

It’s sad really, I’m sure most of us get a nostalgic feeling when we look through a lot of Matt’s awesome articles and I think a lot of kids are missing that these days. Sure, they’ll have their own memories but it may be of the year Christmas was canned in school or how they weren’t allowed to play tag or dodgeball. Most of us grew up looking forward to the yearly Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas specials that would be promenently featured on any given broadcast channel. Damn shame that some of that is going away. Hell, with the news Kids WB! is closing shop in favor of a 4Kids block at the end of this season, one could even wonder how much longer kids will be able to wake up on a Saturday morning and enjoy some good old (non-imported) toons.

Chestnuts roasted by jjwspider @ 10/04/2007 11:58 PM

Instead of getting rid of Halloween, there should be a money drive of some sort to help get kids costumes that cant afford them, and EVERY HOLIDAY known to human kind should be celebrated so no one is left out. Um, unless of course, their religion doesnt allow for any holidays??? Hmmmmm that would be tough to get around…

Chestnuts roasted by crazy_mainer @ 10/05/2007 12:29 AM

i guess my family did the right thing in not raising me with religion so i got to do all of the fun things i wanted to as a kid…..like worship satan….

Chestnuts roasted by Leigha @ 10/05/2007 11:47 AM

DJ D: I’m pretty sure you are thinking of Mr. Boogedy. There was a guy in a devil costume, although it wasn’t Mr. Boogedy himself, but The DEVIL, selling him his magic invisibility cloak. Mr. Boogedy was an evil pilgrim ghost with a face that was “all yucky like a grilled cheese sandwich.”

Chestnuts roasted by G\\\'Tron @ 10/06/2007 3:42 AM

Holy friggin’ crap! Man, I was wondering if you’d ever feature this thing on here. I’m 21 years old and I remember watching this thing on the Disney Channel around 1990-ish. I had it on tape for a few years, then it got lost in the shuffle. Sometime last year, it just popped up in my head, and thank god, youtube actually has it.

Chestnuts roasted by David R @ 10/09/2007 12:18 AM

Hey Matt! Did Judd Hirsch get you or what?

Chestnuts roasted by Trace @ 10/09/2007 9:51 AM

DocDragon: I’m SOO with you on the Halloween Tree. In fact, I’m going to have to go find it online and order a copy now that you reminded me of it. Does anybody out there remember the Olsen twins’ Double Double Toil and Trouble movie? Cloris Leachman is the best crazy old lady witch EVER.

Chestnuts roasted by Crystal @ 10/09/2007 7:45 PM

seriously…is anyone else starting to get worried about matt? hopefully he didn’t get eaten by a pack of rabid werewolves…

Chestnuts roasted by Leigha @ 10/13/2007 12:52 PM

Paging Matt. Matt, please pick up a white courtesy phone.

Chestnuts roasted by 180 @ 10/14/2007 5:09 AM

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