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‘Tis the Spooky Season! Many of us have very fond memories of watching special Halloween cartoons in primetime. There was something exciting about seeing our favorite characters animated at night, and it made me look even more forward to the actual day of Halloween. There were even special creepy Halloween cartoons for the daytime crowd as well that fed into the spirit of this time of year. Here, I am going to take a look back at some family favorites.
7. A Disney Halloween Hosted by Snow White’s Mirror (1983)
Image Source: Disney Wiki
I remember watching this when I was little, and the in-between scenes of the mirror were the ones that creeped me out! The voice of Hans Conreid is truly a treasure that fit in perfectly with the premise of this show. There was also an off-screen narrator for some of the show as well, voiced by Hal Douglas. It was a compilation of older Disney cartoons that fit into the “scary” Halloween theme. These included classic scenes from Fantasia and The Sword in the Stone. There are also clips from Disney’s villains, including Captain Hook from Peter Pan, the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, and Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians.
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The special closes with Lonesome Ghosts from 1937 and Trick or Treat (1952). I searched on my Disney + account for this special, but while I can find some of the separate sources for the clips used in the original 90-minute special, I cannot find the actual special streaming on this site. A Google search told me that since it is a compilation, the music, syndication, and animation licensing rights are too complicated for this to happen. Below is a link to “Trick or Treat”, a short cartoon that was featured in the original.
6. Bugs Bunny’s Howl-oween Special (1977)
Image Source: Looney Tunes Wiki
This originally aired October 26, 1977, and features Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, and Witch Hazel. Like the Disney special, this Looney Toons episode is a compilation of different shorter cartoons that comprise the plot of the Halloween special. Unlike the Disney counterpart, the Looney Tunes special has a cohesive plot that binds the shorts together: it involves Bugs Bunny and Witch Hazel chasing after each other with a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde potion.
Bugs takes the potion, which turns him into a monster. Witch Hazel switches Speedy Gonzales into her look-alike, and even Daffy gets changed into a monster. Simultaneously, Sylvester and Porky have their own supernatural issues to work through. At the end, both Bugs and Witch Hazel are happy bunnies and they end up enjoying a Halloween feast together. All’s well that ends well! This special can be found on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video.
5. The Flintstones Meet Rockula and Frankenstone (1979)
Image Source: World of Retro Pop Culture / Facebook
This Hanna-Barbera special aired October 30, 1979 (exactly one month before my sister was born!). Although the original Flintstones cartoon originally aired on ABC from 1960-1966, this special aired on NBC. It brought back the original Flintstones voice actors, including Henry Corden, Mel Blanc (who also did 99% of the voices in the aforementioned Looney Tunes special, with the voice of Witch Hazel belonging to June Foray), Jean Vander Pyl, and Gay Autterson. Fred, Wilma, Barney, and Betty are on their way to Rocksylvania, courtesy of Fred’s winning the trip on the game show “Make a Deal, or Don’t” to stay at Count Rockula’s Castle, which has been turned into a resort. On their way, they stumble into Count Rockula’s hidden laboratory, where they inadvertently wake up Count Rockula and his creation, Frankenstone, who is supposed to protect Count Rockula from werewolves.
Count Rockula is voiced by John Stephenson, and Frankenstone is voiced by Ted Cassidy, famously known for portraying Lurch in “The Addams Family”. Sadly, Mr. Cassidy passed away a mere ten months before this special aired, making it one of his last projects. Rockula and Frankenstone chase the friends around the castle, as Rockula mistakes Wilma for his long-lost bride (could it be her updo?). They get back to Bedrock, but Rockula has followed them there. Wilma talks Rockula out of wanting to marry her, or anyone else, after telling him “the real truth about married life”. (Good thing my husband doesn’t feel the same way!) This show was rebroadcast on MeTV in 2020, and can now be found on Amazon Prime Video, Fubo, Apple TV, and Google Video.
4. Fat Albert’s Halloween Special (1977)
Image Source: IMDb
According to Memories of Metro Detroit on Facebook, this Halloween special aired on October 14, 1977, two weeks before Halloween. The Fat Albert & the Cosby Kids cartoon always had a moral life-lesson built in, and the Halloween special was no different. In this outing, the gang goes to the store to get Halloween costumes, then to the movies and then trick-or-treating. Sounds innocent enough, but another character, Devery, comes along with the objective of scaring the old people, namely the usher at the movie theater, Searchlight Johnson, Mudfoot Brown, who appears in other episodes and lives on his own in an eccentric house that matches his personality, and Mrs. Bakewell, who lives by herself in a stereotypical large, imposing house by the cemetery. Fat Albert tries to talk his friends out of doing such dastardly deeds, but they get what they deserve when each prank backfires on them, as they are subsequently kicked out of the movie at the good part, and Mudfoot Brown eats all of their trick-or-treat candy. But, the friends get their real comeuppance when Devery’s sister Melba and Russell go inside of Mrs. Bakewell’s house. After they have been inside for fifteen minutes, the gang and Devery get anxious and the gang goes to rescue them. They see Mrs. Bakewell giving delicious treats and giving them a good time. The gang promises Mrs. Bakewell that they will come back and help her with chores free of charge. Devery is in disbelief, but then gets his as his father descends upon him - he was supposed to have been home, grounded, this whole time! You can stream this on Netflix, Vudu, Google, and Plex.
3. Garfield’s Halloween Adventure (1985)
Image Source: Prime Video
I most certainly remember watching this classic which first aired on CBS on October 30, 1985. It was written by Garfield’s creator, Jim Davis, and won a Primetime Emmy Award. This special combined the humor of the Garfield comic strip, musical numbers, and then actually jump into something scary. Jim Davis is quoted as saying that he wanted to start out in familiar territory, and then "go somewhere that would at least scare 4-year-olds". The cartoon starts off with Garfield waking up and realizing that it is Halloween. He convinces Odie to go trick-or-treating with him with the promise of one piece of candy from what they will get that night. Odie, agreeable as he is, goes along with this, and he and Garfield find pirate costumes in the attic. The pair venture out and start their trick-or-treating adventure. Odie is scared of the other kids’ costumes, so Garfield shows him that they’re just costumes - or are they?
Garfield lives up to his gluttonous nature as he finds a rowboat and figures he and Odie can use it to get to more houses on the other side of the river for more trick-or-treating, despite the late hour. Unfortunately, Garfield’s laziness gets the best of him, and they end up up the creek without a paddle, drifting to an old mansion on an island. Despite the creepiness, the duo go into the house where they find an old man who tells them that at the stroke of midnight, pirates will return to find their treasure. The old man steals their rowboat, trapping Garfield and Odie in the house when the pirates do indeed arrive for their lost treasure. Desperate, the friends run to the river and attempt to swim home, but, Garfield, being a stereotypical cat, cannot swim, and is saved by Odie. They make it home, where Garfield gives Odie his fair share of the candy. Turning on the TV, Garfield sees the old man - in HIS pirate hat - hosting a late-night pirate show. He promptly calls it a night. With five performed songs in the half-hour special, featuring Lou Rawls and Lorenzo Music, this was always one of my favorites that I looked forward to every year, and I remember being wistful when I realized that it wasn’t on anymore. Luckily, Garfield’s Halloween Adventure can be found on Paramount + and Amazon Prime.
2. The Simpsons Tree House of Horror (1990-Present)
Image Source: Animation Sensation
Starting with its second season, the long-running Simpsons have been putting out a yearly Halloween special that audiences look forward to now for the past 36 years. There’s even a special-edition comic book put out by Matt Groening’s Bongo Comic Group every September for the past 13 years in advance of the TV episode. Originally, it got its title from Bart and Lisa up in their tree house telling scary stories to each other (I wonder if PBS’s Arthur got its Halloween episode idea from this?), but as the years went on, the scary episodes were created without the tree house storytelling framing. It’s pretty amazing that after all this time, the writers have been able to come up with fresh material year in and year out. The Tree House of Horror episodes are stand-alone episodes, so the writers do have more freedom to kill off main characters multiple times and turn other characters into various types of monsters. There are also cameos by alien observers, Kang and Kodos, who are very amused by the goings-on in the Earthlings’ stories below. There are many allusions to horror movies and creepy TV shows, such as "Citizen Kang" (Citizen Kane), "Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace" (Nightmare on Elm Street), "The Thing and I" (The Thing and also The King and I), "Hex and the City" (Sex and the City), "House of Whacks" (House of Wax), "I've Grown a Costume on Your Face", "The Ned Zone" (The Dead Zone), "The Shinning" (The Shining) and "Reaper Madness". The 2026 Tree House of Horror episode just aired this past Sunday, exactly 36 years to the day the first one premiered. It included parodies of Freaky Friday, Pet Sematary, and the novel The Husbands. It also had a story about Selma and Patty running a driver’s ed school. If you missed it, you can still see the episode on Hulu and Disney +.
1. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)
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Seriously, what other Halloween special would go in this spot? Celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, the Peanuts gang made its Halloween debut on October 27, 1966 on CBS. From that point on, The Great Pumpkin became a Halloween tradition for many families for decades. It follows the misadventures of Charlie Brown, who cannot kick the football, has a rather holy bedsheet for his ghost costume, and his observation of trick-or-treats - “I got a rock” - has endured through the years and is a favorite meme.
Along with Charlie Brown’s plot, there is Linus’s, and where the special gets its name. Linus has perfect faith that The Great Pumpkin will rise from the most sincere pumpkin patch and fly through the air to deliver presents to all the good boys and girls. Linus believes this so much that he is willing to forego trick-or-treating and the Halloween party to sit in the pumpkin patch so he can witness The Great Pumpkin’s arrival. Sally, agrees to sit in the pumpkin patch with him. However, when the festivities are over, she realizes that she has missed out on the trick-or-treating and party and throws a fit at Linus. Linus refuses to abandon his post, and falls asleep in the pumpkin patch until big sister Lucy gets him at 4:00 AM and puts him to bed. As Linus and Charlie reflect on the previous night, Linus declares that he will do it all again next year and everyone will see and believe. In the midst of it all, Snoopy transforms into the Flying Ace and crashes Lucy’s Halloween party. The Great Pumpkin has flown from CBS to ABC and now to streaming, where it can be seen on Apple TV +.
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Sources: Wikipedia (1), (2), (3), (4), Blogspot.com, Facebook, Simpsons.fandom.com, TV Insider
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