Purple Stuff: CBS Halloween Specials, 1985!
It’s Halloween week, and we’re coming in with a big swing!
In this special edition of The Purple Stuff Podcast, me and Jay from Sludge Central are diving into the 1985 broadcasts of Garfield’s Halloween Adventure *and* It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!
They aired back-to-back on October 30th of that year, which also marked the world premiere of Garfield’s special. The podcast is as much about the old commercials as the cartoons, so get set for lots of talk about Toys “R” Us, Teddy Ruxpin and, uh, Mix ‘n Eat Cream of Wheat?
If you’ve been feeling like Halloween’s gotten crushed under the terrible weight of 2020, this show oughta be a major spirit boost!
Click here to listen to this week’s episode!
Oh, and you can watch all of the commercials we’ll be discussing in the above video. Some real home runs in that batch!
Huuuuge thanks to our pal Rabbi — aka The Haunted Drive-In — for donating his copy of the specials for use in this podcast. We couldn’t have done it without ya, bud!
As a reminder, The Purple Stuff Podcast is also on Patreon, where you can grab an exclusive bonus show each and every month. (October’s is coming soon, so you’d be getting in at the perfect time!)
As you’ve probably heard by now, Apple TV has locked up the exclusive rights to all of the Peanuts special, so this is the first time in forever that It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown won’t be airing on regular television. Definitely sucks to lose such a big tradition, but maybe we can take that as encouragement to start making some new ones?
Enjoy! Thanks so much for your eyes and ears, and for sharing the show around!
2020’s Best Halloween Junk Food, Part 4!
This will be the final edition of 2020’s Best Halloween Junk Food, but that’s just because I’m running out of time, not candy. I’m so impressed with the volume of snacks we got this year, especially since 2020 “is what it is,” and I doubt anyone was expecting that much from it.
Ghostbusters Slime Pies!
(Available at B&M in the UK)
Before you get too excited, note that these are only available in the UK. (My friend Harry generously offered to send me a few boxes, and I’ve never said yes faster.)
There are a few new Ghostbusters-themed treats lurking around the UK, but these Slime Pies are the obvious chasers. Of course, they’re not really pies, unless “pie” has a wildly different definition across the pond?
Take teensy little ice cream cones, fill ‘em with green-dyed Marshmallow Fluff, and top the things with ultra-thin chocolate shells. They’re fragile, quick to melt and extremely messy, but let’s be real: We’re not in it for the mouthfeel or flavor. We’re just here for Slimer.
GRADE: A. The delayed release of Ghostbusters: Afterlife surely meant that we lost a few planned candies and novelties, so this was a nice surprise! Definitely worth the trouble of importing, if you can figure out how.
Spicy Ghost Pepper Donut!
(Available at Dunkin’)
It looks unassuming enough — like a cross between Homer’s donut and a cupcake you might find at your church’s annual Christmas fair. While the general flavor is pretty much twins with any regular frosted donut, there’s a serious punch of heat that storms your throat once you swallow it.
It’s not hot enough to be threatening, exactly, but it was hotter than I expected. If you remember Hot Warheads, the style of the heat is similar, though not quite so spicy. My assumption is that there’s a token amount of ghost pepper in the mix — just enough to keep ‘em honest — but that the bulk of the heat comes from some sort of cinnamon candy.
GRADE: A+. Few would want hot donuts regularly, but as a one-and-done Halloween activity, this was perfect. The Spicy Ghost Pepper Donut got a lot of publicity this year, so I hope it encourages Dunkin’ to “keep it weird” with future Halloween offerings. Read More…
Dino Drac’s Halloween Funpack is here!
The October Funpack is always one of the most important of the year, so I try my best to really make it rock. This year, I think I’ve succeeded — get a load of the goodies!
UNITED STATES ONLY! *VERY* LIMITED SUPPLY!
It’s a Halloween party in a box, loaded with cool collectibles, awesome art, sinister snacks and even a tub of slime. This is one of my all-time favorite Funpacks, and if you’re already a current subscriber, good for you, because these are pretty much sold out already!
I have just a few spares left, which you can order at the bottom of this page. Subscriptions are maxed out for this month, but if you’re not a subscriber and you want a shot at just this one Funpack, scroll to the bottom and see if they’re still available.
For everyone else: Let’s see what’s in the box! Read More…
Boris Karloff’s Guacamole Recipe!
Today I made Boris Karloff’s guacamole. No, really:
Some of you should be familiar with this 1960s newspaper clipping, where Boris Karloff — yes, as in Frankenstein’s Monster — shared his recipe for guacamole. The recipe is pretty “web famous,” and I’m hardly the first food blogger to give it a whirl.
A few readers requested this article after my experiments with Halloween Chex Mix and Vincent Price’s Supper Casserole. Well, if the thought of me mashing avocados in the name of Frankenstein is all it takes to make you happy, sure, let’s do this.
Before we start, lemme tantalize ya with a shot of what we’re gonna end up with:
Mmm! Like the post-sunlight remains of the Vegetable Gremlin. Read More…