Halloween Mixtape

Okay, the title is a little misleading. But "mix DVD" doesn't have the same ring.

About 20 years ago, back when DVD burners were still standard computer hardware, I made my own two-disc compilation of some of my favorite Halloween TV episodes. Most of the episodes were ones my family had recorded off television onto VHS, and I converted them to digital video. I should add that this was probably a year or two before YouTube even existed.

The first disc contains full episodes while the second is a mix of full episodes with various Halloween-themed segments from other programs.

Disc 1 (menu music: Theme from Disney's Haunted Mansion)

1. Three Stooges: "If a Body Meets a Body"
2. Bewitched: "Safe and Sane Halloween"
3. Brady Bunch: "To Move or Not to Move"
4. Brady Bunch: "The Slumber Caper"
5. Brady Bunch: "Fright Night"
6. Happy Days: "Haunted"
7. Happy Days: "The Evil Eye"

Disc 2 (menu music: "The Skeleton Dance")

1. Little House on the Prairie: "The Monster of Walnut Grove"
2. That's Incredible: Haunted Castle in New Jersey
3. That's Incredible: Haunted Toys R Us
4. Eye on L.A.: "Halloween 3-D"
5. Jack White at the Old Margo Theater
6. Saturday Night Live: Halloween with Matt Foley
7. Our Gang: "Shivering Spooks"
8. Mickey Mouse: "Haunted House"
9. Silly Symphonies: "The Skeleton Dance"
10. 1984 McDonald's Commercial
11. 1985 Vincent Price Commercial
12. McDonald's Commercial: "Scared Silly"
13. Brady Bunch: "Out of This World"
14. Brady Bunch: "Two Petes in a Pod"

In its own way, my amateur DVD compilation helped inspire this blog, The Ghosts of Halloweens Past, which I initiated several years later with posts about many of these same programs. I appreciate the low-fi quality to the VHS transfer, and the fact that I can watch these programs on a TV screen and not have to be connected online. Makes the experience a little more old-school, like when mixtapes were a thing.

What would be on your Halloween DVD compilation?

Bug (1975)

If you enjoy scary movies about killer insects, then you'll love Bug, from 1975. An earthquake releases a strain of mutant cockroaches with the ability to start fires. Eventually most of the bugs die because they cannot survive in the low air pressure on the Earth's surface, but a scientist keeps one alive in a pressure chamber. He successfully breeds the cockroach with a modern bug creating a breed of intelligent, flying super-bugs. This particular scene is interesting, because it was filmed using the living room and kitchen set from The Brady Bunch, which had ended its run the previous year. Here's a clip:

Brady Bunch: Out of This World (1974)

From Season 5, this episode originally aired January 18, 1974. I have never really associated UFOs and space aliens with Halloween, but there are plenty of sci-fi movies shown on TV around the holiday and alien masks sold in costume shops. And UFOs will be forever linked to Halloween because of Orson Welles's October 30, 1938 radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds, which sent many people into a panic across the U.S. I would like to include this episode on my Halloween blog because I really enjoy The Brady Bunch, and because this episode has a similar feel to "Fright Night," a true Brady Bunch Halloween episode. Motivated by his younger brothers' interest in space exploration and stories of UFOs, Greg plays a trick on them by projecting a flying saucer image out of the attic window. The boys are able to capture pictures and develop them, with Mom's help, which leads to a government investigation. There is also a dream sequence in which the UFO lands in the back yard and Bobby talks with the pint-sized aliens.

The Brady Bunch: Two Petes in a Pod (1974)

"Two Petes in a Pod" originally aired 8 February 1974; sure, a few months after Halloween...but that didn't keep the writers from having Peter dress up for a costume party as Dracula. The plot is a bit of a stretch: one day at school, Peter runs into a student that looks exactly like him (except with glasses). Thinking about the fun he could have with an identical twin, Peter has the guy, Arthur, go inside his house to see if he can fool his family. Arthur pulls it off, except that Mr. Brady (thinking Arthur is Peter) asks him if he can take out his boss' niece, Pamela, Friday night. Not knowing that Peter had already made a date with Michelle for that night, Arthur agrees. So this obligates Peter to secretly entertain both Michelle and Pamela...at least until Arthur can show up. We see Peter changing in and out of his Dracula costume multiple times as he runs back and forth between the two dates. The tag at the end of the episode also has some Halloween-related dialog between Mrs. Brady and Alice. Incidentally, after this one aired there were only four more Season 5 episodes before the series was canceled. Denise Nickerson, who plays Pamela in this episode, appeared later in the movie Child of Glass.

By the way, while watching this episode I noticed a certain "ghostly" apparition after Peter runs into his double in the school hallway. As Arthur rises into frame, you can see an old man's profile rising with him, just peeking past the split-screen line. Apparently, this was a stand-in used to match the actor's movements between the two exposures. The fact that it's an old man's profile adds an eerie quality to it, and I bet if VHS had been available back in 1974 that more people would have noticed and possibly concocted stories about the ghostly image (like what happened with the unintended appearance of the cardboard stand-in from Three Men and a Baby). Here are a couple of stills of the profile from the video. (The extra profile does not appear on the DVD version of the episode.)




Don't miss the other Brady Bunch episodes: "To Move or Not To Move", "The Slumber Caper," "Fright Night," and "Out of This World."

The Brady Bunch: The Slumber Caper (1970)

"The Slumber Caper" is one among a handful of Brady Bunch episodes that had a Halloween feel, even if the holiday was not specifically mentioned. Originally aired 9 October 1970, the episode contains many examples of spooky fun: the Brady boys in Halloween masks (Frankenstein monster, Phantom of the Opera, Creature from the Black Lagoon), fake spiders, a flashing skull in the refrigerator, ghost stories, howls outside the window, itching powder in the sleeping bags...

All of this Halloween fun doesn't begin until halfway through the episode. But be patient...it is worth the wait!

The Brady Bunch: To Move or Not To Move (1970)

While technically not a Halloween episode, this Brady Bunch story involves the kids trying to keep their parents from selling the house by scaring away the potential buyer. "To Move or Not To Move" will satisfy your cravings to see children posing as ghosts under bedsheets, to hear strange creaking noises throughout the house, and to see Alice holding up an amulet to protect herself from evil spirits. From the show's first season, the episode originally aired 6 March 1970, which is why the character Mrs. Hunsaker quips, "I must say, you people celebrate Halloween at a strange time of year." Here is the episode's key scene:


Other Brady Bunch episodes that could be categorized as Halloween-related are "The Slumber Caper" (1970), "Fright Night" (1972), "Two Petes in a Pod" (1974), and "Out of This World" (1974), which is similar to "Fright Night" but involves a UFO instead of a ghost.

The Brady Bunch: Fright Night (1972)

"Fright Night" is another one of my favorite Halloween episodes. The Brady boys and girls take turns scaring each other with Halloween pranks, and after the parents are awakened in the middle of the night for the second time, they make the kids promise not to scare each other anymore. Taking advantage of the oath's loophole, the kids conspire to scare Alice, who has made it known that she isn't scared by characters like Dracula and the Wolfman. The kids plan to surprise her one night when Alice returns home, expecting her to arrive well before Mr. and Mrs. Brady come back from a sculpture competition. Needless to say, things don't go quite as planned, and poor Mr. Brady's head ends up in pieces. This episode from Season 4 originally aired 27 October 1972.


Other Brady Bunch episodes that involve the kids planning to scare someone are "To Move or Not To Move" and "The Slumber Caper," both from 1970.

See a scene-by-scene breakdown of these three episodes at The Haunted Closet