Holidays are always important on TV. They're a way for writers to bring their whole casts together, throw parties and let out-of-the-ordinary hijinks ensue. Halloween is an even more special case because characters can get dressed up in costumes and shows can delve into a scarier side, with some even breaking continuity to allow for the occurrence of entirely unrealistic events.
This year, several shows took part in the occasion, indulging in their fantastic sides to provide episodes full of laughs, screams and visual spectacle.
ABC's Wednesday night comedies all took part in the festivities. "The Middle," "Better with You," "Modern Family" and "Cougar Town" provided a two-hour block of Halloween humor, with the last two providing some of the biggest laughs. "Modern Family" was hurt by a lazy plot about Gloria's accent, but the final sequence with the whole clan together — and without the cheesy voiceover — provided a funny and sweet capper to the half-hour.
"Cougar Town" had perhaps one of the best Halloween episodes this season. The costumes were all spot-on, especially Busy Philipps' Laurie-as-Ellie, but the holiday happenings never dominated the story, which stayed grounded in the characters and featured a terrific guest spot by Ken Jenkins of "Scrubs"(2001-10).
On Thursday at 8 p.m., ABC aired the classic "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," while NBC aired the special "Scared Shrekless," which performed much better in the timeslot than "Community" normally does. Moving up half an hour, though, "Community" hit a season ratings high with its Halloween episode, which saw nearly the whole cast turned into zombies, thanks to contaminated government surplus meat. It was as awesome as it sounds.
And Sunday night saw the premiere of AMC's newest original series, "The Walking Dead." While not necessarily a Halloween-themed episode in the traditional sense, the series is all about the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse, so the connection is quite clear.
Because of the World Series, this year's installment of "The Simpsons'" annual "Treehouse of Horror" will air this Sunday. As always, it will contain three separate segments, and this year it will guest star Hugh Laurie and Daniel Radcliffe.
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by Ben Phelps
