It’s incredible to look at how much television has evolved over the past decade and how it’s progressively grown into the dominant medium that filmmakers want to tell their stories. The fact that a season of television will typically air over an extended period of time allows it the luxury to indulge in certain holidays and events that line up with the series’ programming. Plenty of different holidays receive regular showcases on TV shows, but Halloween installments have become an especially entertaining tradition for some programs.
Halloween can act as a fun opportunity to “break canon” and provide a scary seasonal story or just use the occasion to get the characters in fun costumes and riff on the holiday’s traditions. Some shows don’t just make Halloween episodes a regular occurrence, but they’ve become some of their very best episodes.
10 Brooklyn Nine-Nine Makes Halloween The Occasion For Their Biggest Spectacles
It's always nice when a tradition can sneak up on a show and its audience, which is how it's felt regarding Brooklyn Nine-Nine's recurring Halloween heists. Seven of these holiday heists have happened and despite how each new one tempts fate, they remain some of the comedy's most beloved installments. The series even ends with a supersized heist, even if it's not exactly Halloween-based. The unpredictable plotting and hijinks, perfect character work, and the added chaos of ridiculous costumes always mean that there's a lot to appreciate in these episodes.
9 South Park Is Often At Its Weirdest When It Leans Into Dark Territory
South Park has become an animated institution that's produced over 300 episodes with still no end in sight. Curiously, Christmas is a holiday that South Park is most commonly associated with and Santa Claus is even a recurring character. However, South Park has also had plenty of fun as they lampoon Halloween and the horror genre. South Park nearly has a Halloween episode for every other season and they're impossible to predict. Sometimes they're a silly spoof on zombies and at other times witches are afoot. Thankfully, South Park hasn't made its "Spooky-Vision" custom border become a regular occurrence.
8 Modern Family’s Halloween Traditions Bring Out The Best Of The Dunphy Family
Modern Family produced 250 episodes over the course of 11 seasons and any TV show that’s on for that long is going to establish some traditions over the years. One of the earliest recurring celebrations in the series is the utter joy that Claire and Phil have over Halloween.
There are seven Halloween installments over the show’s 11 seasons, which means that nearly every year finds an occasion to indulge in this creepy manner. Phil and Claire go extremely over the top with their decorations and elaborate scares, which Modern Family only builds upon with each new installment.
7 Community’s Genre-Embracing Concept Episodes Are The Perfect Fit For The Series
Community remains one of the most ambitious sitcoms that’s ever been made and there’s such gleeful appreciation for structure, form, and genre. It becomes the norm for Community to give itself radical makeovers and use the foundation of a broad genre to inform the personal story that’s at the center of it all. Community’s second season delivers a bold zombie homage for its Halloween episode and there’s no turning back. Many view Community’s season two Halloween entry to be its best, but they’re all deeply creative. Season three’s entry crams seven full stories into a 22-minute episode of television.
6 Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Undead Treat Halloween With Surprising Reverence
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a breakthrough piece of television for bringing genre programming to the mainstream. Buffy features lots of clever subversions on horror staples as it recontextualizes them through the filter of high school or young adulthood. It’s a fun change of pace that Buffy establishes that vampires and other supernatural creatures decide to “take Halloween off” rather than use it to masquerade in plain sight. As a result, Buffy only has three Halloween-centric episodes, but they’re all significant and push the Slayer out of her comfort zone.
5 Bob’s Burgers Uses Its Youthful Characters To Celebrate The Wonders Of Halloween
Bob’s Burgers is one of the best family sitcoms that’s currently on television, animated or otherwise. The show is so character-driven and well defined at this point and just different combinations of the cast can yield great results. Bob’s Burgers frequently focuses on the children of the Belcher family, which has given them many opportunities to get excited over Halloween.
There are nine Bob’s Burgers episodes devoted to Halloween and they’re practically a yearly tradition. The show always finds fresh material, whether it’s staking out the rich houses for candy or the stress that accompanies costumes.
4 Frasier Turns To Halloween For Some Heightened Fun And Games
Frasier is a sitcom masterpiece and it's shocking how consistent the series is across its 12 seasons. Frasier covers a ton of material over its 264 episodes, but it surprisingly doesn't feature its first Halloween episode until season five. Frasier only has three Halloween entries, but they're all unique and get the most out of Frasier's character in this context. "Room Full of Heroes" narrows in on costumes and heroic figures to find comedy gold, whereas "Tales From the Crypt" examines the dark pranks that can come along with the holiday.
3 The Office Uses Halloween To Let Its Characters Unwind
The Office gets progressively broader throughout its nine seasons and it does occasionally get guilty of straying away from its workplace setting. However, the sitcom remains at its best when it focuses on its realistic characters and the conflicts that can occur when their personalities go unchecked at work. Halloween is often an occasion for office workers to embrace a more casual look and The Office turns to Halloween on six separate occasions over its nine seasons. The elaborate costumes are a highlight, as is how Michael goes so over the top in this department, typically to the office’s detriment.
2 American Horror Story Uses Halloween As A Celebration Of Its Genre
It stands to reason that a series that specifically adheres to the horror genre would have an extra level of reverence towards the year’s spookiest holiday. Every episode of Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story can feel like Halloween, but the series specifically goes a little over the top for these special holiday installments. Different seasons routinely find ways to celebrate this custom in a twisted manner, but the series’ inaugural “Murder House” season establishes that Halloween is the one day that the spirits of the dead can roam free, which American Horror Story never fails to exploit.
1 The Simpsons' "Treehouse Of Horror" Episodes Are A Halloween Staple
It's impossible to talk about series that have become popular through their many Halloween episodes without touching on The Simpsons. Ever since the show's second season, The Simpsons delivers a "Treehouse of Horror" anthology episode of horror stories. Fans know to expect a new installment each season and The Simpsons has also finally gotten into more traditional Halloween episodes without the non-canonical anthology approach. There are now so many "Treehouse of Horror" episodes that they can fill the entire month of October. They’ve also steadily evolved from pure horror homages to broader science fiction, fantasy, and pop culture parodies.
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