TV special from Dick Clark Productions, hosted by Fred Travalena and included guests William Shatner (who hosted 1987's The Search for Houdini), Jermaine Jackson, magician Larry Wilson, and escape artist Steve Baker. These clips from YouTube are not necessarily in order.
Originally aired February 5, 1983. As part of a club initiation, Bill and Todd have to enter an old house haunted by the ghost of Jamie Bly. Soon the boys encounter a slew of ghosts, and they get trapped inside of a red, glowing room. (Synopsis from Retrojunk.com)
Two Pee-Wee appearances on Late Night with David Letterman. Letterman is pretty much speechless throughout as his bizarre guest takes control of the show.
Originally aired October 29, 1983. A miser taunts his neighbors by daring them to send their children in to find their debt records inside of his "haunted house," but he gets some unusual late-night visitors.
This music video was released December 2, 1983, and I probably saw it for the first time in 1984 or 1985, when we rented it from a local store, Video Biz. The VHS release also featured a making-of documentary, where I recall Michael Jackson saying it felt like Tobasco sauce being poured in his eyes while he was wearing the cat-eye contact lenses. Somewhere there is a picture from the mid-80s that shows me mimicking Jackson as the werewolf character, with half of a yellow plastic Easter egg over each eye.
In 1983 or 1984, my family rented Scary Tales from a local video store called Video Biz. It was a compilation of darker-themed Disney cartoons that made for some good Halloween entertainment. Here is the intro video, followed by the six cartoons from Scary Tales:
Donald Duck and the Gorilla
Duck Pimples
The Skeleton Dance
Haunted House
Donald's Lucky Day
Pluto's Judgement Day
Here is a website that reviews Scary Tales, describing aspects of each part of the video, including the promotional segment at the end of the main program.
