Happy Halloween! (Also, Halloween is over.)
Halloween may be over, technically, but it’s still Halloween night, baby!
Hope everyone had a great season ending with a great day. My season was hit-or-miss for reasons beyond Halloween’s control, but I’m not too upset about it. This season, I got to eat an official Ghostbusters cheeseburger, bought a vintage My Pet Monster doll, and finally got to retell my old ALF costume story. Those are some big plusses!
So, question for you:
What was the #1 highlight of YOUR Halloween season? Tell everyone, in the comments!
Tonight’s movie is Don’t Go To Sleep, from 1982. I don’t know much about it, but an old coworker used to rave (well, rant and rave) about it, and she actually emailed me the YouTube link just a few days ago. Spooky old TV movies are never all bad, even when they’re 100% bad. (I don’t know how that math works. It just does.)
As a reminder, we’re gonna see if Dino Drac After Dark has enough steam to survive without the Halloween crutch, so you can keep coming back here every night for more of God knows what. We’ll see how that goes, but if nothing else, it certainly was a nice addition to the Countdown! 🙂
Ice Cream Man!
Happy Halloween, everybody!
The fact that it’s happening on a Monday kinda sucks, but we can make the most of it, right?
Here’s Ice Cream Man, from 1995, starring Clint Howard as a… psychotic ice cream man. Seriously! It’s goofy fun, and the filmmakers knew exactly how to treat it.
Fun fact: I once had a phone conversation with Clint Howard that lasted for the better part of two hours. This was during the very early 2000s. He was looking to build an online presence, and a mutual friend put us in touch, thinking I could offer him some assistance. I couldn’t, really, but he sure was fun to talk to. Nice guy, too.
I’m not sure what shocked me more: Talking to Clint Howard for that long, or finding out that me and Clint Howard had a mutual friend.
Celebrity Ghost Stories!
I used to watch Celebrity Ghost Stories all the time. It started at an old friend’s apartment where my crew often drank into the wee hours, leading to a lot of inadvertent sleepovers. Celebrity Ghost Stories, which was always on his DVR, was our go-to-bed show of choice.
Here are a few segments that I’ve never forgotten. Since one of them features Rue McClanahan, yeah, these are pretty damn old!
If you get hooked, there are TONS more on YouTube. Some of the stars seem to believe their stories, but there are admittedly a number that are obviously bullshitting. (It’s also a little too “neat” that so many faded celebrities just so happened to have personal ghost stories, but hey, figuring out which ones are just making stuff up as they go is half the fun!)
Real Ghostbusters: The Halloween Door!
It’s safe to say that this one’s gonna be a crowdpleaser. Get set for the 1989 Halloween special from The Real Ghostbusters!
Still amazed that this happened in prime time, and equally amazed at the flawless execution. It’s a distinct Halloween special in every respect, but it still totally works as a “regular” RGB episode. I wouldn’t call The Halloween Door one of the smartest episodes in the series (tall order, there), but in terms of just being fun, there aren’t many eps that can top it.
…and this particular upload is especially awesome, because it still has all of the original commercials from the 1989 broadcast!
PS: If I have it right, this debuted on the same night as The Wickedest Witch.
Enjoy! It’s Halloween weekend, after all!
