Grey’s Anatomy – “Haunt You Every Day”

Season 4, Episode 5
Original Air Date: October 25, 2007

So after mostly reviewing shows I was familiar with for this year’s slate of Halloween episodes, I decided to take a less familiar swing with a show that I have barely any familiarity with, despite being probably the second most iconic TV show set in Seattle. Grey’s Anatomy is the show that started the whole Shondaland empire and is somehow, miraculously, still airing new episodes despite starting its run during my first year of high school. Yet despite its popularity and longevity, it’s a pretty easy show to avoid if you’re a snob like myself, and watching this episode out of the context of all the show’s various romantic drama, it’s easy to see both why it has its fans as well as why it never racked up tons of Emmys or anything. Continue reading →

My So-Called Life – “Halloween”

Season 1, Episode 9
Original Air Date: October 27, 1994

Halloween is a pretty wondrous time when you’re a young kid, what with all the candy, Halloween parades at school, and perfectly innocent mischief. When you’re a teenager, it’s not quite as clear what you should be getting out of Halloween. You’re a little too old to be trick or treating, you’re not quite old enough for Halloween parties where drinking is involved, and you’ve got enough problems to make it through the school week to care what you should be dressing up as. The Halloween episode from the lone season of My So-Called Life digs into this to some extent, since all of its various characters approach Halloween differently, but the episode also takes a little bit of a detour from its usual clear-eyed honesty. Continue reading →

Beetlejuice – “Laugh of the Party”

Considering this year saw the reemergence of Mr. Betelegeuse in movie form, it felt appropriate to talk about the late ’80s/early ’90s cartoon show that bore the ghost with the most’s rarely repeated name. This is one of those Halloween episodes (like say, The Addams Family) that feels a bit redundant, since Beetlejuice’s vibe has always been particularly geared toward this season, hence the release of the recent sequel in September. So I’m not sure that this was a standout episode of the TV show, but I’m also not sure that this was a standout show in general, since the fact that the first episode aired barely a year and a half after the film was released makes it feel a bit like a cash-in. Still, it does capture how fun of a guy The Juice is to hang out with, especially when you take away a bit of the scummy menace he exudes in the movies. Continue reading →

The Brady Bunch – “Fright Night”

Season 4, Episode 6
Original Air Date: October 27, 1972

Here’s the story… of how I watched an episode of The Brady Bunch for the first time in 25 years.

This a show that I’m sure people of a certain age probably have a fair amount of nostalgia for, but I’m not quite of that certain age. That said, I do have memories of The Brady Bunch reruns airing on Nickelodeon in the late ’90s for reasons that aren’t terribly clear to me. At the time, I thought the show was passible entertainment, but even then felt of a different time, despite the most topical thing about the show being its garishly groovy fashion. I was a bit surprised to read that The Brady Bunch wasn’t one of the more popular shows on television when it was airing, but instead earned its cultural ubiquity in syndication. I’ll get into my theories as to why this show became so popular later, but let’s get into this spooky episode that much like the episode of Dick Van Dyke I reviewed, aired early in the fourth season of a five-season run. Continue reading →

The Dick Van Dyke Show – “The Ghost of A. Chantz”

Season 4, Episode 2
Airdate: September 30, 1964

As was my strategy the last time we did a month of reviewing Halloween episodes of TV shows, I’m inclined to watch shows that I have at least some familiarity with. After all, a Halloween episode isn’t going to be that great of an introduction to a show you’ve never seen an episode of, since it usually leans into a horror-esque tone that the show isn’t necessarily known for. That’s the case with this season 4 episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show, which has plenty of the witty banter and wacky situations that I associate with this show, but places these characters in a haunted house setting. Continue reading →