Film Enimga: 31 Days of Monster Mania: Day 16: Ultimate Spider-man: Web Warriors Halloween Special

Written by Stu Cooper

Last year I covered the Ultimate Spider-man Halloween special which ended up being incredibly entertaining. Last year Spider-man had a run-in with a werewolf,Frankenstein, and Dracula! It will be hard to top that. This year's special is called "Halloween at the Museum" and apparently features an animated version of a Disney show called "Jessie". I don't keep up with modern children's shows other than a few cartoons, so I have no idea who these people are. It really feels like those old Scooby Doo specials where they have a random celebrity appearance like the classic Batman or Harlem Globetrotters. These kids are not quite as cool. Although immediately I notice one of the kids in the group is in a Doctor Octopus costume, which gave me a brief smile.

The special starts with Jessie and her group touring a local museum late at night. The group accidentally messes with an archaic sword and it activates some kind of ghostly spirit. The spirit collides with Spider-man, and the opening credits hit! Definitely feeling like a scooby doo episode. Messing with the sword ends up waking up a witch who thanks the group for their help, then immediately threatens to destroy and conquer them all. Spider-man quickly subdues the witch and doesn't take her seriously. She gets free of her webbed restraints and proceeds to go psychotic. She casts a spell that causes parts of the museum to come alive!

For some reason this museum is full of the most nightmarish exhibits imaginable starting with a giant worm that attacks Spider-man and Jessie. Also There's one kid in Jessie's group who seems to be a gigantic Indian stereotype. He makes mention that in his homeland, they have cobras instead of worms. Cause he's Indian...get it? Pretty low-brow stuff. The next monster they encounter is a gigantic Jack'O Lantern demon who I'm assuming is the Ghost of Sleepy Hollow. Also a bit unusual that any museum would have a Sleep Hollow exhibit, but I went with it. Later Spider-man beats up some cave men who kidnap Jessie, then he immediately has to fight living dinosaur bones. It seems to be a "Best of" random Scooby Doo-esque villains.

After running the museum gauntlet Spider-man, Jessie, and friends are confronted by the evil witch again. The witch remains confident she'll conquer the world despite the fact that Spider-man just whooped all of her monsters. The witch demonstrates her power by summoning a gigantic dragon to attack the group. While Spider-man fights off the dragon, Jessie uses the special sword to battle the witch. Jessie throws down a bunch of one liners and whips out some Sailor Moon fighting moves, tho she is not a super hero. Despite Jessie's fighting skills the witch shrugs Jessie off and vows to black out the sky, and turn the world into a modern Camelot. After befriending the indian boy, the dragon decides to turn against the witch and distracts her while Jessie puts the sword back into the magical spot. This imprisons the witch once again. Basically teaching the lesson that you should never...ever touch the museum exhibits.

The special goes by rather quickly and is only 30 minutes compared to last year's one hour special. This special felt pretty generic and definitely aimed at a younger audience. Not much to take from this special, and no legendary villains or monsters to be impressed by. I would say this is a sad excuse for a Halloween special and you'd be better off seeking out the "Spider-man and Friends" Dracula episode or last year's special. If you're a fan of the Disney show Jessie, you may feel differently. The special mainly focused on her and since I've only seen that show in passing, I had little frame of reference for it. It seemed pretty lowbrow and dumb, but then again this is a children's show. Give it a shot if you see it on a Saturday afternoon.

31 Days of Monster Mania: Day 13: WWF's 1985 Halloween Special

Written by Stu Cooper

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I am a massive pro wrestling fan and have been since I was a toddler. So it should come as no surprise that I've tracked down a wrestling oriented Halloween special to discuss! For Day 13 of Monster Mania I have hopped in the time machine once again and traveled back to November 1st, 1985. At this point the WWF had begun running a special show called Saturday Night's Main Event. The show would be once every couple weeks, and this edition happened to fall on the Saturday after that year's Halloween. Even tho it was technically November, the WWF decided to celebrate Halloween anyways. What resulted was about an hour of absolutely hilarious costumes, and various halloween competitions between The Heenan Family (Bobby The Brain's group) and The Hillbillies (Jim, Elmer, and some cousins). Let's sink our teeth into this hilarious hour of 80's television!

The show begins with Jesse "The Body" Ventura interviewing Roddy Piper who is dawning a "Super Roddy" costume. Roddy mocks the Hillbilly group for being trash, and makes remarks about Uncle Elmer's recent wedding. Piper said he vows to confront the Hillbilly family tonight on Piper's Pit. We then cut to Mean Gene who is with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. Heenan is dressed up as Davey Crockett with the coon-skin cap on, but he is immediately mistaken for a weasel and that becomes a running joke through the episode. Heenan is training for a miniature pumpkin bobbing contest that will take place later in the evening. I was unaware that bobbing for mini-pumpkins in chocolate was a thing. You can't exactly just eat a pumpkin right through the skin, so what's the point? Bizarre that they didn't just do apples. We will get back to that contest later.

We get some camera shots of children and adults throughout the audience dressed as some of their favorite WWF Superstars. Which results in an incredibly creepy shot of a kid in a Hulk Hogan mask. We are then introduced to our commentary team for the night which consists of Jesse "The Body" Ventura and Vince Mcmahon. The opening contest for the show is Terry Funk vs. The Junkyard Dog. Funk had recently been going around beating up ringside attendants and using his branding iron on wrestlers (despite the fact that it can't possibly be hot). We get a short interview from Funk where he spits chewing tobacco all over the camera (and probably the poor camera man). The superstars hit the ring and the match is off to a hot start. We see both men trade punches, headbutts, piledrivers, etc. Jimmy Hart is managing Funk at the time and he interferes every chance he gets. Funk ends up using Hart's megaphone to hit JYD over the head for the pinfall win. After the match Funk attempts to brand JYD, but JYD fights it off and ends up using the branding iron on Jimmy Hart's bum. It's classic goofy 80's WWF.

Next up is the pie eating contest between King Kong Bundy and Captain Lou Albano, two staples of 80's wrestling. Albano represents the Hillbillies, and Bundy represents the Heenan Family. Each side is accompanied by various good guys and bad guys dressed in costume. The highlight of these costumes is the absolutely ridiculous Iron Sheik as Batman and his partner Nikolai Volkoff as Robin. Seeing the two of them dressed up is just priceless and brought an immediate smile to my face. Macho Man and Liz are also dressed as Tarzan and Jane. Liz has never looked hotter in the Jane outfit, and Mean Gene gets an eye full every chance he's got. After 60 seconds of pie-eating, Albano is declared the winner. Bundy doesn't take this well and a food fight ensues.

The next segment is Piper's Pit which was hyped up earlier on the show. This segment was quite boring and uneventful compared to the rest of the show. You can tell it was taped several days before and there isn't really anything Halloween about it. The feud between the Hillbillies and Piper doesn't really lead to anything, but we do get a fun appearance by Ventura. Ventura runs down Uncle Elmer's wife and doesn't back down when threatened. It was cool to see Ventura get all hyped up, even tho his in-ring career was done at that point.

Next up was the Pumpkin bobbing game! This game would consist of a member from each team bobbing for pumpkins in a giant bucket of chocolate. Whoever has the most when the time runs out, wins. Heenan represents his team, and Cousin Junior represents the Hillbillies. With ease Heenan is able to defeat Junior, probably thanks to his practice from earlier. We get to see the always intense Macho Man hamming it up helping Heenan put the pumpkins into a trash bag. It's all pretty stupid, but fun none the less. This means that the Hillbillies and the Heenan Family are tied 1-1 and the final deciding game will be a "Pumpkin Toss" later on in the evening.

The next match up is dubbed the "Dream Team" matchup which pits Hulk Hogan and his partner Andre The Giant vs. Heenan's boys Big John Studd and King Kong Bundy. The four of these men had been feuding for several months leading up to this. The match itself is really just a heavy hitter brawl between Andre and Bundy, with Hogan hitting some ax-handles and boots every once and awhile. There is a false DQ finish where a ref gets knocked out, only for the match to end on a disqualification anyways. A nice reminder that you're watching a free TV match, which usually means no clean win. After the match we have Mean Gene interviewing Macho Man and he asks him possibly the dumbest question ever when he says "Why a woman manager?". Macho quickly retorts with "You're either a blind man, or a stupid man, which one are ya Gene?".

After Macho's interview he goes to the ring for his chance at the IC title against Tito Santana. Macho was quickly climbing the ladder at this point and his IC title reign was coming up soon. Unfortunately for those in attendance in Hershey,PA, it wouldn't be that night. The two go at the mat pretty hard and there is some good moves and exchanges. There is a good spot near the end where Macho goes for his classic top rope axe handle, and is hit in the gut by Santana. The two end up brawling outside and both men are counted out. Yet another non-finish on a special show. Unfortunately a common thing in 80's WWF.

After this match we are off to Roddy Piper's house for a bizarre skit. Vince Mcmahon has arrived at the house to ask Piper about Halloween. Piper is wrapping up giant bricks to make them look like giant chocolates, and bowling balls disguised as giant candy apples. He says that the Scottish like to celebrate "the trick" part of Trick or Treat. Piper then receives some Trick or Treaters. Piper invites them in and in true asshole fashion begins to ridicule the children and trick them into giving him their candy in exchange for his fake candy. It's a literal translation of the saying "like stealing candy from a baby". A real prick moment in the life of Roddy Piper, but I loved every second of it.

Next up is the final match of the evening which is a special "Kung Fu Challenge" between Ricky Steamboat and Mr.Fuji. The rules of the contest are quite vague. So much so that the commentators don't seem to know. From what I gathered tho, the wrestler's were only allowed to use Karate-like moves. You see the two of them exchange hyper exaggerated chops and kicks. Ultimately Steamboat gets the better of Mr.Fuji and gets the win, but afterwards Don Muraco runs in and spits red mist on the eyes of Steamboat. Steamboat gets beat down, and I guess the trick is on him.

The final segment of the night is the tie breaker between the Heenan Family and The Hillbillies! The WWF chose to settle this in possibly the most awkward way possible, by having teams of wrestlers pass a pumpkin underneath their chin. You know that game you do at middle school parties in a weird attempt to get close to the opposite sex? Well instead of that, you get a bunch of giant wrestlers in costumes trying to do it. Lots of awkward hilarity ensues. The good guys go first and get through 5 people before Captain Albano drops the pumpkin. The bad guys then follow and unfortunately for Liz, she drops the pumpkin and loses the game for the team. But who cares about that when we are all treated to many shots of Elizabeth in her Jane outfit. Savage of course goes ballistic and blames Liz for every problem ever known.

That concludes this absolutely bizarre and fun 1985 Halloween special. If you have access to the "WWE Network" I would highly recommend checking this episode out before Halloween hits. It's one of the more entertaining Saturday Night Main Event episodes, and a great flashback to the "good ole days" of the WWF (now WWE).

31 Days of Monster Mania: Day 9: Elvira's 1986 MTV Halloween Special

Written by Stu Cooper

For Day 9 I was able to track down something I thought I'd never see. As most horror fans know, Elvira is highly regarded as the Queen of the horror hosts and she peaked in the 1980's. She was able to capture audiences with her goofy comedy and extremely beautiful looks. One might even say she is a legend in a dying art form, that of the TV movie host. With the recent announcement of Elvira getting yet another series (this time on HULU), I figured now would be a great time to discuss "The Mistress of the Dark". Today we are going to discuss a Halloween special she did for MTV back when it was at the peak of it's success. Let's dive into this wonderfully retro piece of Halloween history.

The special epitomizes the heart of what the original MTV stood for. You have an iconic character from pop culture hosting a mash-up of various music videos, some of which had something to do with horror, some were just popular videos at the time. In between the videos we would be treated to Elvira hosting various segments from Salem,Massachusetts! She would wander around the town, checking out various hot spots and doing "On the Streets" interviews with random old men. The comedy flops pretty bad in most of these segments, but it's still vintage Elvira. The majority of the special is these music videos from bands like Oingo Bingo, The Banshees, The Cure, and Ozzy. At first the mix of videos is random, but the last 30 minutes or so is Elvira choosing some of her favorites.

We are also treated to a few skits from Elvira and some comedic friends. There is fake commercials for a witch academy, a fake halloween album infomercial, and my personal favorite the "Elvira Demon Possessed Barbie featuring Devil Ken". There is also a pretty funny fake aerobics video with Elvira "EXOR-cising". Get it? Yeah that's the kind of humor you're in for with this special. But what can I say, I'm a sucker for anything vintage Elvira.

The place where the special really shines is the commercials! There is some absolutely absurd commercials to be seen in 1986, including but not limited to a trailer for "Soul Man" where a guy does blackface in a hollywood comedy and it's totally cool, a overly exaggerated laser tag toy advertisement, and all sorts of Max Headroom endorsements. I encourage all of you readers to checkout some of the commercials, which I'll provide links for below. If you're a fan of vintage MTV and the John Hughes era of music video teen culture, you're going to enjoy the special and the playlist of tunes it provides. Unfortunately the cuts of the videos are super quick, and since the video is just a rip of the VHS, I think this was just MTV trying to cram in as many relative videos as possible. You have to applaud the effort tho. The art of the Horror Host, or even the TV Host is dying out and the "special" part of holiday TV seems to be fading with it. I know many yearn for the days where MTV was like this, so enjoy the special in all it's hammy glory!

Music picks from the special:

Commercial picks from the special:

31 Days of Monster Mania: Day 2: Star Trek The Original Series: "Catspaw"

Written By Stu Cooper

It's time for Day 2 of Film Enigma's 31 Days of Monster Mania! Today's choice is something that I hold near and dear to my heart. Those who know me personally know I am a massive Star Trek fan. As a Star Trek fan I always wanted to see a Halloween special the likes of Roseanne or Home Improvement. While they never did any official holiday specials, there was an episode of the original series with a very strong Halloween theme. The episode was entitled "Catspaw" and involved all sorts of iconic Halloween traits.

The crew of the enterprise beamed down a landing crew consisting of Sulu, Scotty, and a red-shirt named Jackson to a seemingly uninhabited planet called Pyris VII. When the crew is unresponsive, the crew grows concerned when the red-shirt beams back up to the Enterprise and is apparently dying. Before he dies he warns the crew that they are now cursed! The crew responds the only way they know how, by beaming down to the planet to check things out. When Kirk, Spock, and Bones beam down to the planet they are immediately confronted with haunting imagery starting with screaming ghost like creatures. The screaming ghosts warn the crew members, but Spock is not alarmed because when he scans them, he realizes they are not real. Soon after this, Kirk notices a black cat that is wondering around the planet and the planet is covered in fog, creating a very familiar horror like environment. The ghostly environment only gets creepier as the crew stumble upon a castle! The castle is obscured by fog and looks like something straight out of Dracula.

The crew follows the black cat into the castle and encounters a wizard like man that looks like something straight out of Flash Gordon. The wizard begins talking to the black cat as if it understands, and the crew is quite confused. The crew also learns that the Wizard appears to have control over Sulu and Scotty and has put them into a zombie like state. The zombie crew members appear to be under the wizards command. So now not only do you have ghosts, a foggy castle, a black cat, but also zombie crew members! After Kirk, Spock, and Bones continue to investigate they realize that the wizard Korob is some type of alien that can control imagery and create illusions. To make this episode even more scooby doo-ish, the Wizard Korob uses a magic wand to do this.

After being held hostage by Korob, the crew witness the black cat turn into a human looking woman named Sylvia. Sylvia reveals herself to be in charge of the Wizard, and tells the crew that they serve a higher purpose, and are merely creating images that they've read about in human culture. Kirk and Bones make references to "Trick or Treat" which puzzles the Vulcan Spock. Kirk challenges Sylvia's powers and she demonstrates her magical powers by turning the enterprise into a toy, and threatens to burn the toy, which would of course kill the entire crew. After talking Sylvia down, Kirk is able to reason with Sylvia even if only for a brief moment. Sylvia then takes control of Bones, and adds him to her zombie army. Now it's up to Kirk and Spock to figure out how to stop Sylvia, and save their zombified friends.

After being held captive in a dungeon, Kirk and Spock are able to talk their way back into the good graces of Sylvia and the Wizard Korob. Kirk uses his powers of seduction to show Sylvia what it is like to experience a man's touch. We then learn that Sylvia is not humanoid, and actually has no understanding of sensations, sexuality, or power. Kirk uses his sexuality to show her a sample of what sexy sensations feel like, and of course Sylvia falls for Kirk. Sylvia tempts Kirk by showing him that she can transform into any kind of woman. Kirk appears to be interested in this but of course it's all a trick! Kirk is able to trick Sylvia and figure out that the magic wand is the source of her power. After taking her source of power, Sylvia turns into the cat, except this time, it's a giant cat! The cat goes on a rampage, and the Wizard Korob decides to stop Sylvia, sacrificing himself in order for the crew of the enterprise to get away. After a very goofy chase with a giant cat, the crew is able to escape and get back to the ship. Soon after this, the crew finds out that Korob and Sylvia actually aren't even powerful beings, they are merely tiny prawn like creatures. That's right, space prawn trick the crew into entering an imaginary haunted house. The crew would study these prawn, but unfortunately without their power, the prawn die, and the enterprise pretty much forgets about them and flies off into the great beyond.

"Catspaw" is known for being one of the most ridiculous Star Trek episodes and rightfully so. From the first scene the episode is just absolute insanity and comes off like a "Star Trek Meets Scooby Doo" special, which is great for the Halloween season, but in terms of good Star Trek, you could certainly do a lot better. The episode works as a goofy Halloween Special but the effects are pretty awful, and when you find out the aliens are basically prawns who are apparently huge Edgar Allen Poe fans, you can't help but laugh. The chase with the giant cat is also one of the more ridiculous scenes in Star Trek history. So if you're looking for a really hammy Halloween feeling episode of Star Trek, this is a good choice. Don't expect to be scared, but expect to get some serious Halloween Scooby Doo vibes. Unfortunately no crew members sneak off to indulge in scooby snacks, but the ga-ga-ga-ghost scares are riddled throughout this one. If you're looking for a Star Trek episode to give you the October Halloween feel, this is the one for you.

Checkout the full episode here:

Star Trek-Catspaw by Supercylon

Monster Mania Day 16: Zedd's Monster Mash

Written by Stu Cooper

As a young child I grew up in the peak period of several awesome trends. G.I. Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, and of course The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The Power Rangers ruled my world from 730am to 800am every weekday, and of course the new episodes on Saturday Mornings. I bought all the toys, coloring books, games, and video tapes I could get. I even saw the movie in theaters opening day and it was absolutely remarkable. Unfortunately as an adult my imagination is somewhat limited and my tolerance for terrible jokes, corny dialogue, and insane over-exaggerated fight sequences is somewhat lacking. I still love the show, but I usually have to be intoxicated or in a very weird mood to sit through several episodes of the Power Rangers. I do love the character Lord Zedd who was the main villain in seasons 2 and 3 of Power Rangers. He has an incredibly creepy voice and an appearance that absolutely screams villainous. It came to my attention after getting Netflix that there was an actual Power Rangers Halloween special called "Lord Zedd's Monster Mash"! Since it's the Halloween season, what better time to take a look at it.

The episode starts off with the whole crew of rangers in goofy costumes (Pirate, Einstein, some kind of cheerleader, etc) and they are throwing a Halloween party for kids. The parents are dropping off the kids and leaving them in the hands of these annoyingly happy teenagers, who are apparently obsessed with helping the community. The camera pans out and Lord Zedd is usually his super space telescope to watch the party. Instead of being pissed that the rangers are partying he reveals he is actually quite interested in Halloween since it appears to be a celebration of monsters. This gives Zedd the idea to throw a Monster Mash party, which basically means he is going to invite older villains and one new Halloween themed villain to all gang up on one ranger. This would be Zedd's idea of a party. So Zedd sends these creepy little fake kids to the party and convinces Tommy (the white ranger) to go off on his own. This is when we are introduced to one of the most random villains in Power Ranger history...DOOMSTONE! A grave stone that has come to life. He is joined by several other villains like Pumpkin Rapper, Rhinoblaster, Primator, Snizzard, and Invenusable Fly Trap. Shew what a collection of weirdos. They all proceed to gang Tommy but eventually he is joined by the rangers and they open a can. Nothing out of the ordinary here. The cool parts are really seeing the collection of villains. It's worth a watch if you want a random halloween oriented 90's special to watch.

Monster Mania Day 15: Toy Story OF TERROR!

Written by Stu Cooper

I had the great fortune of seeing all 3 "Toy Story" films in the theaters, and I loved every second of it. When I was younger I was actually such a big fan of "Toy Story" that I collected every single Burger King toy they released, including this giant hand puppets. I loved it, and I even played the super nintendo game a lot. The voice acting cast is nothing short of ingenius, the animation is flawless, and the jokes are hilarious and heartwarming. So you can imagine how excited I was to hear that "Toy Story" was getting the Halloween special treatment! I set the DVR with anticipation.

"Toy Story of Terror" is the name of the special and it aired on ABC last night. The special was a 30 minute short film (without commercials around 22 mins). The story revolved around the group of toys being hauled in the trunk of Andy's mother's car, and the car stops at a hotel. The group goes into the hotel and ends up running into several crazy misft loose toys, as well as a Lizard! The special plays up all sorts of hilarious horror movie stereotypes, and the gang actually riffs on horror movies at one point. I was surprised with the humor in the special since there were A LOT of references made that only adults would get. The shining example of that is a new cast member named "Combat Carl" who happens to be voiced by Carl Weathers, who happens to be wearing his Predator costume, and he even had one arm (since one was chopped off in Predator). I found that pretty humorous and a reference that today's youth wouldn't get. So that was a nice nod to the older members of the audience. To top off the ridiculousness of that character, he is accompanied by a miniature version of himself! There are also several other new toys involved in the story. In a nice serious moment the story-line plays up Jessie having claustrophobia and anxiety as well. She is actually forced to confront her fears when she and Woody are boxed up and sent out after being sold on Ebay accidentally. I don't want to spoil anymore than that, but needless to say the special was absolutely perfect and full of Halloween fun. I laughed and found myself thrilled with the story. It left me actually wanting to see another full length film. If you have a way to watch this, I would definitely make the time. It's only 22 minutes and it's a lot of fun in a short time. You can't go wrong here.

Monster Mania Day 13: Ultimate Spider-man: Meet Blade And The Howling Commandos

Written by Stu Cooper

It's time to discuss the first Halloween special of the season! This one came on Disney XD last week and should be repeated several times before Halloween. The special was called "Ultimate Spider-man: And The Howling Commandos". It was actually just a two-parter of the actual Ultimate Spider-man cartoon that is on it's third season. The show itself is actually really good and high quality. The stories are pretty intense and it has a lot of humor. The artwork and effects are also top notch. The guy who plays Agent Coulson even voices himself on the show. It's not quite as good as the Avengers show that ended a year ago, but it's easily the best superhero show on TV right now.

The two-parter starts off with Spider-man and his friends (Luke Cage, Iron Fist, etc) all goofing off late at night when they are suddenly attacked by vampire like monsters. The monsters keep coming and coming and are putting up a pretty good fight. The group investigates where these vampires are coming from and that leads them to the one and only...the man, the myth, the legend...DRACULA! Dracula doesn't exactly look like his Bela Lugosi self. He actually looks more like a form of Dracula from one of the Castlevania games. He is covered in armor and has long white hair. Pretty menacing looking and of course he thinks Spider-man and his friends are mere peons. Dracula's plan is to basically turn the entire world into his army of vampire minions, and he is also looking for some kind of device to help him. It's soon after we meet Dracula that things pick up even more when BLADE shows up! That's right, the Daywalker is in town. To be honest this Halloween Special was about 10x better than Blade Trinity.

What unfolds after this is absolute madness. Many of Spider-man's friends (Iron Fist, Luke Cage, etc) get put under Dracula's spell and start fighting on his side. This leaves Spider-man and Blade outnumbered but don't worry Nick Fury has a plan! He introduces Spider-man to another super hero group that most of us probably don't know about, The Howling Commandos! Yeah I haven't heard of these guys either, but apparently they are real and are all marvel characters. The team is made up of Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night, The Living Mummy, and of course Frankenstein's Monster! The group is almost identical to the Universal Monsters we all know and love, except they have amped up powers or in Frankenstein's case...MACHINE GUNS! At this point the story gets pretty goofy, but I don't want to spoil it. Let's just say the special is essentially Spiderman vs. The Monster Squad. If you like either one of those things, you will be very pleased. The special is set to air 2-3 times between now and Halloween, so I highly suggest DVRing it. It's nice to see shows still doing original Halloween Specials instead of just replaying old stuff. Upon doing a bit of research I actually found out Spider-man and Dracula have interacted a few times in the past, in the comics and in the old "Spider-man and His Amazing Friends" cartoon (which is GOLD). I believe the Dracula episode of the old cartoon is on Netflix, so you could always check that one out.

Monster Mania Day 6: The Roseanne Halloween Special

Written by Stu Cooper

One of my favorite traditions is channel surfing in October, looking for the newest Halloween Specials. Growing up I remember the cartoon ones like Garfield and The Real Ghostbusters, and I also remember the sitcoms doing Halloween episodes. I actually wanted to do an article on the Power Rangers Halloween special but I had issues tracking down the video on youtube. So I thought about other specials that stood out in my memory and one show came to mind...ROSEANNE. One of the greatest sitcoms in history. I grew up a product of the 80's and 90's and as a result I was fortunate enough to see a golden era in Sitcoms...Roseanne, Home Improvement, Full House, Family Matters, Perfect Strangers, all the cheesy classics. ROSEANNE however stood out because the main character was not a perfect parent, was rude, arrogant, foul mouthed, and middle class. It was a character that a lot of people resonated with. Not only was the Roseanne character hilarious but her husband Dan Connor (played by John Goodman) was one of the most lovable characters in Television at the time. Dan and Roseanne had a hilarious that consisted of busting each other's balls and making light of the other's life. This made for some great television. The Halloween Episodes were no exception. ROSEANNE often went out of it's way to make a memorable Halloween episode. Usually the characters would be in costume, playing pranks on each other, or engaging in some serious Halloween spirit. Watching these specials was sure to put you in the mood for Halloween. I really enjoyed going back and looking at all of these.