Jem And The Holograms: "Trick Or Techrat"

Premiered October 30,1987

Jem and her band mates are hanging out Starlight House (the home for foster girls Jem operates) watching a scary vampire movie.  Suddenly, two girls run in wearing Halloween masks, scaring everyone.


Most of them laugh it off, but Terri (one of the girls who is in foster care) is more scared than anyone else.  She is absolutely terrified and takes a few minutes to calm down after realizing the "monsters" are just kids like her.

The Holograms' manager Rio shows up late at night and takes them for a ride to an old opera house. He tells them it is being threatened with demolition, but could be saved if the Holograms play a benefit concert.


They meet Frederick Vincent, the nice but eccentric owner of the opera house.  Vincent is grateful for the Holograms offer to help the opera house, their benefit concert will be held on Halloween Eve.

Frederick Vincent greets the Holograms in a Dracula costume!

Later, Jem and the residents of Starlight House start preparing for Halloween.


Terri is carving a pumpkin when she is suddenly scared again by a Halloween mask.  This causes her to accidentally smash her pumpkin.


She cries and declares "I hate Halloween".  Jem consoles her, saying that it can be fun to be scared at Halloween, since it's all just pretend.

Terri gets scared by a mask

Terri accompanies the Holograms to the opera house.  She gets scared once again when she sees the venue's address is 1313.

Elsewhere, the Misfits (a rival band and the Holograms' arch nemesis) are angry and jealous when they learn that the Holograms are holding a benefit concert.  The Misfits' leader Pizzazz decides to stage their own concert billed as "The Misfits Present:Midnight Madness".

The Misfits,L-R:Jetta,Pizzazz,Roxy

Their manager Eric sends them to real estate mogul Terrence Landau.  Landau says he'll finance the Misfits concert.  He wants the opera house to close because it gets in the way of his "beautiful skyline". Landau will by the site of the opera house when it closes, then he plans to demolish it.

Pizzaz and Terrence Landau plot the destruction of the opera house

The Holograms are rehearsing for the concert. Their choreographer Danse is onstage, when suddenly a giant jack o'lantern falls on her.  She survives, but Terri is convinced the opera house is haunted. Vincent agrees with Terri and says the concert must be cancelled.

The Misfits call the local building inspector to the opera house, they tell him it's in violation of safety codes.  During the inspection, an arm reaches out from a cabinet, frightening the Misfits. They're also convinced the venue us haunted.

A black cat (it turns out to be Vincent's cat, named Phantom!) runs past Terri, she gets scared again. Right after that, a chandelier falls from the ceiling.  It nearly lands on Terri, but Jem saves her.



The night of the concert finally arrives. Jem & the Holograms are dressed in Halloween costumes, the Misfits have set up a tent across from the opera house to stage their show.

In the Holograms dressing room, a talking skeleton appears in the mirror and says if they take the stage, it will be their last concert. The skeleton disappears, then the mirror cracks. Jem is angry and sick of all these strange happenings, and she doesn't think the Misfits are capable creating these horrors.



Vincent tells them they must leave.  Jem is perplexed and wonders why Vincent wants them to leave, since they're trying to save the opera house.


The opera house starts shaking, the lights start flickering and evil laughter can be heard throughout the building.  Terri freaks out and says "it's the ghost!"  She runs away, falls through a trap-door and disappears.

Frederick Vincent,Terri(in a Raggedy Ann costume) and Phantom the Cat run from the bad guys!

Will Jem and the Holograms survive the haunted opera house?  Even if they do, can they save the opera house from demolition?   Will Terri survive long enough to overcome her chronic fear of everything?



J.A. Morris says:
I've never watched a full episode of Jem and the Holograms until now, but I remember when it was on the TV in the 1980s.
"Trick Or Techrat" succeeds in creating a nice seasonal atmosphere, with lots of jack o'lanterns and black cats popping up throughout.  And there's just something inherently funny about 80s cartoon glam rockers wearing Halloween costumes!.

But it's not something I see myself watching every year, nor do I see myself watching other episodes of Jem.  If you watched it as a kid, this episode might be a nice nostalgia trip to watch around Halloween.

My rating:
2 jack o'lanterns

The Simpsons: "The Simpsons Halloween Special II"(A.K.A. "Treehouse Of Horror II")

Premiered October 31, 1991

Dammit, Smithers, this isn't rocket science, it's brain surgery!

- Mr. Burns

I wish for a turkey sandwich on rye bread with lettuce and mustard. And... and I don't want any zombie turkeys, I don't want to turn into a turkey myself, and I don't want any other weird surprises, you got it?
-Homer Simpson

We open with a special "warning" from Marge Simpson that the Halloween episode isn't suitable for younger viewers.

Marge (dressed as the Bride of Frankenstein), Bart (an executioner), Lisa (a totem pole) and Maggie (a witch) have come home after night of trick or treating. Marge says they can have only one piece of candy, because eating candy late at night causes bad dreams. The kids (and Homer) ignore her, all the candy is gobbled up in seconds.



We get a series of vignettes, each representing one of their nightmares:

Lisa dreams that her family is vacationing in Marrakesh, Morocco, where Homer approaches a street vendor. He sees a monkey's paw and wants to buy it. The paw will grant its owner four wishes. The vendor cautions him, saying it will bring misfortune to the Simpsons.

Homer ignores the warning and buys the paw, they bring it home and they all take turns making wishes:Maggie wishes for a new pacifier and gets it. Bart wants wealth and fame for the Simpsons, the wish is granted. Suddenly, they have cash appearing all over the house and the Simpsons are best selling recording artists.

They're given VIP treatment wherever they go, but many citizens of Springfield quickly get tired of hearing about the Simpsons. Lisa wishes for world peace and gets it. Soon, all nations are working together and all weapons are destroyed. This lack of weapons is noticed by Kang and Kodos, two aliens who are monitoring Earth. They decide that the lack of weapons makes Earth the perfect planet to conquer! The monkey's paw has doomed the world! But Homer has one more wish. Will he use it to save the world or waste it on something selfish?


In Bart's dream, a Rod Serling-esque narrator tells of an omnipotent being who rules Springfield and the world. The being turns out to be Bart Simpson! Bart can read their minds and everyone is forced to cater to his every whim, especially Marge and Homer. His parents finally tire of Bart's oppression and Homer tries to kill him. Before he can do so, Bart
transforms Homer into a jack-in-the-box. Marge decides Bart has gone too far and takes him to Psychiatrist Marvin Monroe. Dr. Monroe says the root of Bart's evil is Homer's failure to bond with his son. Can Homer be a better father as a jack-in-the-box than he was as a human being?

In Homer's dream,he's caught sleeping on the job. His boss Mr. Burns directs his toady Smithers to fire Homer immediately. Burns thinks Homer can be replaced with a robot he's been (secretly) constructing. But he needs a brain to place inside the robot body.
Desperate for work, Homer gets a job as a grave digger. After hours of digging, he falls asleep in the grave.



Burns and Smithers are out grave robbing and mistake Homer for a corpse. When they notice he isn't dead, Smithers bludgeons him to death with a hammer. They cut open Homer's head and place his brain inside the robot.


But Burns' plan backfires, the robot still retains all of Homer's bad habits, like laziness and an obsession with donuts. His robot is a failure, Burns decides to return the brain to Homer (who isn't dead) and kicks the robot...which has disastrous consequences!

J.A. Morris says:
In case anyone who reads this hasn't seen "The Simpsons Halloween Special II", I  didn't want to spoil the endings of any of the nightmares.
For two decades running, The Simpsons Halloween episodes have been highlights of the Fall TV season. Some of the best episodes of the series have been Halloween shows, this one is no exception. It's filled with nice homages to classic horror and scifi. Bart's nightmare is a parody of a "Twilight Zone" episode, as is Lisa's wish that all wars come to an end. Mr. Burns' screams "it's alive" when his robot moves, an obvious (but fun) reference to Universal's "Frankenstein" movie.
The fame and fortune followed by a public turning on the Simpsons (in Homer's nightmare) is a parody of the Simpsons mania of the early 90s (the Simpsons were "meta" before most of us knew what "meta" meant).

And the opening credits show the Peanuts gang in their "ghost" costumes from It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.



But "The Simpsons Halloween Special II" is more than just a collection of pop culture references, it's a classic in its own right.

My rating:
4 jack o'lanterns





RigbyMel says:

One cannot possibly go wrong with a Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror" Halloween episode at this, the spookiest time of the year.  I always enjoy each new installation of the "Treehouse of Horror" every year,  but I find that my favorite installations tend to come from the early years of the series, such as this one.  (Whether this preference is due to being younger and more impressionable when the earlier episodes first aired, I do not know.)  
I think my favorite vignette from this episode is Lisa's nightmare, which is based on "The Monkey's Paw", a famous horror story by W.W. Jacobs.   Huzzah for intelligent, spooky television fun!

My rating:
4 jack o'lanterns

Merrie Melodies: "Transylvania 6-5000"

First released November 30, 1963

"Transylvania 6-5000" is a wonderful 1963 Merrie Melodies short directed by Chuck Jones.  (In fact,  according to Wikipedia, this was the last Jones-directed Warner Brothers short to feature the "wascally wabbit.") 

Bugs Buanny is en route to Pittsburgh, PA, but somehow winds up in Pittsburge, Transylvania instead.  (Presumably, Bugs should have taken that left turn at Albequerque!)   He stops to ask directions from a two-headed vulture lurking nearby - the two heads answer to "Agatha" and "Emily".  They seem more interested in making a meal of Bugs.   Bugs spots a spooky castle in the distance and, thinking it is a hotel, makes his exit to go see if said "hotel" has a phone.

When Bugs rings the castle doorbell, he is greeted and invited in by a vampire calling himself Count Blood Count.   Bugs just wants to use the hotel phone but the Count hungrily insists that he stay the night. ("Rest first, telephone tomorrow. Rest is gooood for the blooood.")

Yay funny titles!

Bugs is shown to his room where he  finds some light reading to help himself get to sleep.   He selects a book of "Magic Woids and Phrases" and reads aloud to pass the time.  Which proves fortunate for our hero.



A series of comedic transformations takes place as Bugs at first unwittingly and then knowingly changes the phrase "Abracadabra" (or "abacadabra" as Bugs puts it) around causing Count Blood Count to morph humorously back and forth between various permutations and combinations of his vampire and bat form.

Bugs dealing with the castle's bat problem

You'll have to watch this great short cartoon to discover whether Bugs Bunny escapes the castle unscathed.

Bloodcount: I am a vampire!
Bugs: Oh, yeah? Well, abacadabra! I'm an umpire!

RigbyMel says:

Like many people around my age, I was introduced to Bugs Bunny cartoons like this one through Saturday morning cartoons.   Although this is not an explicitly Halloween-themed 'toon in that Halloween is never mentioned,  the gothic trappings and the presence of an honest-to-goodness (albeit somewhat inept) vampire make it a Halloween seasonal favorite of mine.  

As a child, I liked that Bugs wasn't the least bit frightened by a situation that would have scared tiny me and in fact holds his own very nicely against the supernatural forces arrayed against him.   As an adult,  I still appreciate Bugs' unflappability as well as the cleverness of this cartoon  from the great sight gags to the fact that the title of the short is a parodic reference to a great Glen Miller tune.  I also love the great voice talent (Mel Blanc as Bugs Bunny,  Ben Frommer as the Count and Julie Bennett as Agatha/Emily) and Chuck Jones' directing style.

This is one short that I always feel like watching sometime around Halloween.  I consider it a seasonal classic!

RigbyMel's rating:
4 jack o'lanterns

Mad: "Halloween Episode"

Premiered October 24, 2011
"Kitchen Nightmare Before Christmas"

Network Executives are meeting with Gordon Ramsey to pitch yet another "angry chef" show. Ramsey says no, he's sick of doing the same schtick. He leans against the wall of the boardroom and falls through a trap door that leads to Halloween Town! Ramsey breaks into a (Danny Elfman-esque) song while trashing the cooking of the Halloween Towners. He is merciless in his criticism of baked brains and other ghoulish dishes.
Ramsey's presence attracts the attention of Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town. Jack is used to being the scariest creature in town, but Ramsey is threatening him on this front. So Jack seeks out Ramsey. Will he challenge him to a duel...or ask him for career advice?


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"How I Met Your Mummy"

A Werewolf tells his children the story of how he met their mother...a mummy. In the process, he tells them how he met their mother's sister, his dentist, and other mummies who aren't their mother.
We also get to see Barney the vampire's attempt to woo a woman who looks a lot like Medusa. He says "ladies love the cape".

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Additional stuff from this episode:

The "meddling kids" of the Scooby Doo gang ruin Halloween.

A moralizing rotten cucumber tells an anti-bullying story in "Veggietales From The Crypt".


The Black Spy from "Spy Vs. Spy" hosts a Halloween costume party.

J.A. Morris says:

If you liked Mad Magazine as a kid (I still pick it up now and then myself), you'll probably enjoy this series and this episode. "The Nightmare Before Christmas" parody was the highlight. And it's hard for me to say the phrase "VeggieTales From The Crypt" without laughing. But most of the jokes were merely "smile inducing". It's a good Halloween episode, and a good introduction to the series if you haven't watched it yet. But it's no classic. If I was a teen or adolescent, I'd probably rate this higher:

My rating:
2 and a half jack o'lanterns