The 25 best Halloween TV episodes of the 21st century
Since 2000, there have been some impressive additions to the Halloween canon from BoJack Horseman, Modern Family, WandaVision, and more
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Main image: WandaVision (Photo: Marvel Studios). Background images, clockwise from top left: BoJack Horseman, The Office, Happy Endings, Gravity Falls, Bob’s Burgers, Modern Family (Screenshots) Graphic: Rebecca Fassola
The Halloween TV episode has been around for decades, ever since the days of “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” in 1966. It’s heartening to see that, even in today’s streaming times, some series are still embracing the seasonal tradition. Over the past several years of the new(ish) century, we’ve seen some impressive additions to this spooky canon, so below is our list of the 25 greatest Halloween episodes of the 21st century. These include the establishment of a new holiday tradition on shows like Modern Family and Bob’s Burgers, freaky costumes that most of us could only dream about (or browse online), and a spot-on sitcom homage to the “Great Pumpkin” itself.
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kinja
That’s probably a better episode than everything that did make this list.
Of these I’ve seen the Community, Stranger Things & American Horror Story episodes. None of which are series I’d recommend to anyone, though I expect I’ll still watch the new season of Stranger Things whenever it gets released. It does seem like Halloween episodes are mostly a sitcom thing. For a while Homestar Runner seemed to only do Halloween episodes so it was no longer a deviation from their usual.
you’re a true failure of a human being if you don’t recommend Community to people.
I’ll be happy to fail then, because a show lampshading when it’s bad doesn’t make it good.
this wins everything always
Who Got Dee Pregnant? is one of my all-time favorite episodes of IASIP. Honorable mention to The Maureen Ponderosa Wedding Massacre as a Halloween episode. I don’t think about Community much these days, which is a shame because I loved the first season and parts of the second. I know I am the minority here (and that’s fine, because it is a subjective opinion) but I disliked when Community lost some of the grounding it had. Season 1 seemed to focus on this weirdo study group and their own foibles. Season 2 introduced homages and as a fan of Psych, I could definitely appreciate those. But Season 2 also started getting outlandish and weird – everything with Chang, while kind of funny, was a lot of “wtf are they doing?”. In my mind, the chicken finger episode was the perfect example of Community at its best – some measure of realism combined with a cool Goodfellas homage. I did enjoy some of the crazy ones, like the first paintball episode and Remedial Chaos Theory but only once in awhile – not every episode.
Charlie Work probably wins as my favorite episode, but WGDP is up there.
The Chang stuff was in S3. But it’s a fair point nonetheless.
Big minus points on Supernatural though if I remember correctly as everyone keeps pronouncing the Gaelic Samhain as Sam Hain ( its either Sow(rhymes with plow) win, or Saw win depending on dialect)
Glad that the Always Sunny episode was mentioned. One of my favorite Halloween episodes that wasn’t included is the “A Nightmare on FaceTime” episode of South Park. A hilarious riff on The Shining with Randy being a perfect Jack Torrance stand-in.
The creepy-voice monologue he gives about how DVD rental remains the number one option for home movies in smaller rural areas due to the lack of consistently reliable broadband networks never fails to crack me up.
I always got a kick out of Gangnamstein and how perfectly the kids worked out as the 4 Avengers (or Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and Bruce Vilanch).
That whole episode is absolute gold. The twin runners of people quoting or near quoting The Monster Mash, and the cops going “SHHshshshshh” at each other never fail to crack me up.
One if my favorite Sunny episodes for sure! Man-Spiders, weird Italian plumbers, giant birds, too sexy phantoms of the Twilight, and of course…
and all the bits with the McPoyles
YOU WILL CALL HERRRR
(Don’t flush)
Sons A Witches was pretty swell too. Jack n Crack! And Garrison as Amoral Man-baby Mob President. Also on this fine Wednesday night before Halloween was Night Of The Living Homeless. Which I never really thought of as a Halloween episode, but it is an all-time classic.
Great list. Just missing Tricks and Treats, the Freaks and Geeks Halloween episode from, uh, season one, I think.
Aired in 1999, so unfortunately was ineligible
But Buffy’s Fear Itself aired in 1999 too!
As did ‘Fear, Itself’.
So did Fear, Itself. Thought maybe you were making exceptions for ones that were really, really close.
Like sadly all the X-Files possibilities we can’t use, but will still be on my list for watching for Halloween.
So glad to see Happy Endings make the list. That show still doesn’t get enough love.
That Curb Halloween episode has my favorite Larry moment of all time, which is when he tells the cop that, because he chooses to shave his head, “we don’t really consider you part of the bald community.”
I love the running gag in “Who Got Dee Pregnant” where Dee is progressively more bird-like in each flashback, culminating with her being replaced by an actual screeching Ostrich in Mac’s recollection.
Kaitlin Olson doing the bird sounds was the best part.
To this day I have a hard time seeing the man in question without yelling “Vidgo Morgenstein!” at the screen.
The casualness of Mac’s “Oh, hey Dee” when she shows up as the actual ostrich kills me. Also in that episode, Frank’s insistence that his costume was “Man-Spider” and not Spider-man. “TOTALLY DIFFERENT!”
The Ostrich bit is the single greatest visual joke the show has ever done.
There are many times when I feel totally awful for Dee and this episode is almost too painful to watch in that regard.
The greatest use of the Rashomon-effect ever put on film!
I unabashedly love Boyz 4 Now’s “I Love You So Much (It’s Scary)” and it (esp. the video) is a spot-on parody of “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”.
ABBA is now associated with Halloween twice thanks to Brian David Gilbert.
I’m glad Supernatural is there as they did back to back episodes that seemed to be tributes to the Real Ghostbusters cartoon at that point.Also the League Season 2 Halloween one is great, should be on the list.
Congrats to Alyson and Alison on the double entries.
(also, congrats on appearing in this list twice)
Epidemiology was the first episode of Community I watched. I’m glad I came in on a weird one. Having gone back and watched the earlier episodes, I’m not sure I would have stuck around had I watched from the beginning.
As usual American Dad gets the shaft (season 7’s “Best Little Horror House in Langley Falls” is phenomenal).Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a ton of great Halloween episodes but “Fear, Itself” was definitely the best. “Actual size” may be the show’s best closing line, at least for a laugh line.
“At the corner take a fright!”
Who Got Dee Pregnant is not only my favourite ep of Sunny but also one of my favourite episodes of any show, ever. I watched it a hundred times and I still laugh, every single time.
Evil’s s1 Halloween episode (“October 31″) with the masked little girl hijacking Kristen’s daughter’s Halloween party was super creepy & great, maybe the show’s best episode
The Grimm Halloween episode “La Llorona,” featuring one of the show’s rare & mysterious non-Wesen supernatural creatures, is one of its best episodes
A “Speechless” Halloween episode should be on this list!
The Conners did an unexpectedly sweet Halloween episode where the kids go trick or treating in the house because the town’s Halloween activities are canceled due to Covid. Actually one of the better Covid sitcom episodes and a nice tribute to the original series’ Halloween episode tradition.
I think if you want to put a late-period Simpsons episode in the list, I’d put in “Halloween of Horror” from Season 27 (Good Lord..27). It’s amazingly the only non-Treehouse of Horror Halloween episode they’ve ever done, and it’s very good.
Yes. It’s very good and I’m surprised it wasn’t the pick since it broke the Halloween mode.
Also, I think there are quite a few “Treehouse of Horrors” episodes better than the one they chose.
I was going to be all uppity about “Hush” from Buffy the Vampire Slayer not being included, but it wasn’t even in the 00’s let alone a Halloween week episode. I’d put it firmly in the list of best episodes to watch during Halloween, though.A 90’s version of this would be interesting. Whole lotta X-Files.
Well, I AM going to get all uppity because the best Halloween Buffy is clearly ep 2.6, “Halloween,” in which visiting villain Ethan Rayne’s costume store has everyone overtaken by the personae of their costumes: Buffy becomes a helpless Southern belle (“She couldn’t have dressed up as Xena!?”), Willow becomes an actual ghost, Xander a soldier (this bit has far-reaching impact on the series), and Cordelia doesn’t change at all because (a) she bought from a more expensive store and (b) she chose sexy cat.
I’m sorry, “Southern belle?” Buffy becomes a Victorian lady, I’ll have you know!
But yes, that is the superior Buffy Halloween episode (though it is close, and neither aired in the 2000s).
As a S4 Truther, I give you this reason why “Fear Itself” deserves a spot on this list
“Fear, Itself” is from 1999 or I’d be right there with you.
Full Bars is the superior Bob’s Burger’s Halloween Episode.
Choosing just one Bob’s Burgers Halloween episode is tricky since all of them are great. I might have gone with Fort Night, but there are no wrong answers. Like the Christmas episodes they’re all winners.
Fort Night is just a laugh machine. Millie may be some of Molly Shannon’s best work.
Bob and Linda’s B plot of making and then trick or treating in the terrible dragon costume is great all on its own.
Yeeaaah I dunno about that episode though. Millie goes too far that time, where she almost indirectly murders the kids. I wasn’t cool with that level of psycho.
“Give us your candy, you nutcase ….”Yeah, just love all the BB Halloween EPs, we’ve been playing them – over and over – all week, umm, with the occasional Thanksgiving EP thrown in 😀
But the best ‘costume’ is when Gene dresses as ‘Little Bob’ in Wagstaff Broadcast News. Although Louise as ‘Peter Pan’s Labyrinth’ was brilliant.
One thing I’m noticing is how series of the early aughts had such a different tone from series of the teens. I think Community is the best (meaning the best Halloween episode) and seems to bridge the gap between the aughts’ ironic detachment and the teens’ New Sincerity. Still, I’m sorry to say that they all pale in comparison to the best Roseanne Halloween episodes of the ‘90s.
Epidemiology is way too low! What an excellent episode. I can’t listen to ABBA without thinking about zombies. Community always did Halloween well, imo. Introduction to Statistics and Horror Fiction in 7 Spooky Steps are also very good episodes. Even the season 4 one was one of the 3 watchable episodes that season.
Comedy Central ran all The Office Halloween episodes last night, there’s one where the cold open is Dwight with his head stuck in a jack o lantern.
Wandavision is one of the best shows that came out this year. Once you get passed the first two dull episodes.
And also look past the muddled CGI mush that it ended with.
“Yeah, well, the flange was a little warped. So I just goosed it with a triple three bolt smack.”
“That was nonsense.”
The lack of ‘The Gypsy and the Hobo’ from Mad Men is a crime. I’m on hold with the Hague right now.On another note, I got a Community notification for this?
Slideshows have been officially banned by G/O Media as of 2022, so we won’t have to put up with them much longer. *
* this isn’t true, but if we say it enough we can make it happen! Please copy and paste this into every comment section of every slideshow article. Remember: “Start slideshow” = “Skip article”
I’m sure someone else mentioned this, but the best Parks and Recreation Halloween episode is “Greg Pikitis.” A perfect, hilarious, endearing mystery where everybody wins. I love it.
Pigmalion came out in 2003 and is I think by far the darkest and creepiest King of the Hill episode.
“The unfortunately titled ‘Slutty Pumpkin’”.If you think that episode title is unfortunate, you should try watching an episode of HIMYM.
Also terrible snub to the Legends of Tomorrow episode “Phone Home,” where the team tries to save young Ray from being murdered & he befriends an ET-like young Dominator
I remember there was a trend in the 90’s where Halloween episodes always had a character non-canonically dying, and it never being spoken of again. I haven’t seen it any more recently than Community, though.
I know it misses the 21 century criteria by a year or two, but South Park’s “Spookyfish” is an all-time classic. The Barbara Streisand faces filling all four corners of the screen is the scariest thing I’ve ever seen broadcast on televsion.
It’s all the episodes of this, even though it’s 20th century.
I also like Freaks and Geeks and Suburagatory Halloween episodes