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7 Halloween Episodes Worth Staying In For

Graham Clark |
October 31, 2013 | 7:58 p.m. PDT

Editor-At-Large

A still from X-Cops, a must for any halloween TV-show enthuasist. (via Hulu.com)
A still from X-Cops, a must for any halloween TV-show enthuasist. (via Hulu.com)
Since Halloween falls on a school night this year, the likelihood that the average joe will be hitting the streets for dramatic revelry is at an all time low. More folks will take the evening as an opportunity to engage in a tradition even more American than burning witches: spending an evening plunked down in front of the boob tube.

Here are seven of the greatest halloween-centric spectaculars for your viewing pleasure. If they're available on Hulu or Netflix, that's noted for each episode. If not, there's a slew of other ways to gain access to these shows—I'd go into more detail, but I don't want to really spook any copyright lawyers.

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7) Treehouse Of Horror II, "The Simpsons"
There have been 25 seasons of glory for this Halloween tradition. But the second installment sf the Treehouse Of Horror series brought such moments of glory into the world as Homer's cursed wish-granting monkey paw. A stellar achievement in the field of Rocktober silliness.

6) The Tale Of The Final Wish, "Are You Afraid Of The Dark?"
The spooktacular Nickelodeon program brought bed-wetting levels of fear into the lives of American children for years. While it didn't premiere on Halloween, this edition stars Bobcat Goldthwait in a bizarre turn of casting, making it a fitting media experience for any evening of kitchy couch potatoing. It can be streamed on Youtube.

5) Catspaw, "Star Trek"
Almost as scary as Shatner's acting style are the nightmare-based aliens in this episode of Star Trek, the original series. The "Next Generation" was packed with tons of moments appropriate for viewing on Halloween, including plenty of costumed dress up ventures into the holodeck. But the original enterprise where no one's gone before has got an unironic heart that can't be beat, and is available on CBS.com.

4) The Blood, "Seinfeld"
As with "Are You Afraid Of The Dark?" this half-hour of TV wasn't explicitly marketed as being Halloween material. But there's no reason it's not fit for viewing on the dark night. While Larry David never veered far from the macabre when plotting out episodes of his shows, this one came out particularly weird. How many other sitcoms climaxed with a sedan pumped full of human blood?

3) Headless Cabbie, "Hey Arnold!"
A Sleepy Hollow spinoff is the biggest thing on FOX right now. But long before that, everyone's favorite football-headed hero tracked down the specter of a spooky urban legend in this episode, available on YouTube.

2) Fort Night, "Bob's Burgers"
The laughs come hard and fast, with a deeply engrained twist of psychological brutality from the episode's first moment. The shop next to Bob's is Johnny's Razors, advertising "Mostly Normal Candy." Things just get darker from there. Watch it on Hulu to see why The Onion's A.V. Club gave the episode an A rating.

1) The X-Cops, "The X-Files"
Same as "The Simpsons," the 90s' favorite edgy space-alien show took advantage of the holiday to annually make an unusually weird episode. This send-up of COPS effectively took advantage of the times by employing the actual production team that shot the convict-exploiting reality show. The result is a exceptionally weird delight, that can be viewed via Netflix.

Reach Editor-At-Large Graham Clark here. Follow him on Twitter here.



 

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