Hello my friends, it’s that time of year once again! The weather is cooler, the leaves are falling and changing colors, and of course, Spooky Season is in full swing!
I’ll be honest, Halloween isn’t necessarily my favorite holiday, but one tradition I always loved as a kid, was the Halloween specials coming out for all your favorite shows. Whether it was Nick, Cartoon Network, or Disney Channel, every network throughout the 2000s and 2010’s (when I was growing up), and most of the shows on the network got into the tradition of having their characters engage in special spooky adventures.
Part of what made this so fun was seeing your usual crew in a fun Halloween themed environment, with costumes, decorations, and going after candy! Another crazy aspect was sometimes the shows could push the boundaries they might not push in a normal episode, which you’ll see as I get into this!
In honor of Spooky Season, I thought it might be fun to talk about some of my favorite nostalgic specials from when I was a kid! Some of these were new episodes I saw live, and some were reruns I caught from shows that had ended, but we’re still airing. Either way, I love them!
Also, they’re in no particular order, this is just for fun. Alright, let’s get right into it!
#1 – Regular Show – Terror Tales of the Park (various)
Probably one of the most iconic Halloween specials of my childhood was the yearly Regular Show Halloween Special, aptly titled Terror Tales of the Park. Starting with Season 3, they did one of these every year until the show ended with Season 8, and then a new one recently with the Lost Tapes continuation.
Regular Show is already a show known for pushing the insanity and craziness that can be put in a show on a network primarily for kids, but these specials give the team the chance to push things even further, with sometimes legit scary creatures, and even straight up murdering a character, and then showing their flesh corpse coming back to the house! Wild stuff!
I recommend checking all of them out if you can, they’ve become a yearly tradition for me!
#2 – Jimmy Neutron – Nightmare in Retroville
As a kid, one of my favorite shows on Nick was Jimmy Neutron. The fun characters, the unique art style and sense of humor, and that iconic theme song won me over.
It’s often said about that the show that one of the most fun elements is how Jimmy, despite being a genius, is still definitely a 10 year old boy. This means most of his inventions are in pursuit of something a kid would want, and this episode perfectly highlights this.
Jimmy agrees to use his new Monster Maker invention to turn his best friends Carl and Sheen into real scary monsters for Halloween, in exchange for a portion of their candy. However, things go awry when the guys start actually developing monster traits, and turning other people around town. Jimmy must now stop the guys, turn them back to normal, and save Halloween!
This one has some all-timer jokes, including the running gag of Jimmy being conveniently saved by a store that sells the weapon that fights off a particular monster, and Sheen’s iconic line about Libby being a Republican (IYKYK). Definitely check this one out, and see why this show still holds up in many ways!
#3 – SpongeBob SquarePants – Scaredy Pants
As Nick’s flagship show, SpongeBob wasted no time getting into the holiday episode tradition. In Season 1, we got this classic! SpongeBob is tired of being clowned on for being a huge scaredy cat every Halloween, so he has Patrick change his appearance to make him scary, and he goes around posing as the Flying Dutchman. Things go downhill when the real Flying Dutchman, (in his first appearance), shows up, to take the souls of everyone in Bikini Bottom.
This one has an amazing ending reveal, that I won’t spoil despite this episode being over 25 years old. It still holds up, and has great atmosphere, with the town being decorated, and a fun party at the end where you can see people dressed up, like Sandy comes as a goldfish, and Pearl is the Bride of Frankenstein. Definitely give this one a watch!
#4 – Phineas and Ferb – Terrifying Tri-State Trilogy of Terror
I think one of the shows that shaped my sense of humor, and I’m sure most people my age, was Phineas and Ferb. This episode puts the unique and often elevated sense of humor the show works with on full display.
The premise is simple: A narrator tells us three different spooky themed tales starring the various characters of the show: one about Candace, one about Perry and Doofenshmirtz, and one about Phineas, Ferb, and their friends.
What makes this one unique is the amazing rapid fire jokes that come, such as Doofenshmirtz remarking about why he inexplicably has six boxes of oyster crackers just sitting in his pantry, or when Phineas remarks that this adventure has a strange “Halloween” feel, despite it supposedly still being summer (This is in Season 4 by the way haha).
Phineas and Ferb’s rapid fire comedic timing, and excellent musical numbers, are both here, so give this one a watch!
#5 – Scooby Doo! on Zombie Island
This last one is actually a full movie, not just a special episode. One of the best Scooby-Doo movies ever, with incredible animation and atmosphere.
After going their separate ways, the Scooby gang comes back together to help Daphne find a real monster or haunted locale for her TV show. However, they continue to find nothing but men in masks. They get a lead while in New Orleans, and head to the owner’s home, with Fred and Velma being skeptical about the reality of the situation.
Scooby and Shaggy, of course, become privy to multiple scares, and find there’s more than meets the eye on Moonscar Island…
This movie was a highlight of my childhood, and is another annual tradition for me, to this day. The vibes are fantastic, with the awesome Louisiana backdrop, and the legit frights. The soundtrack is awesome, as usual for Scooby-Doo, including amazing songs “The Ghost is Here” and “It’s Terror Time Again”.
If you haven’t seen this one, I highly recommend you give it a watch this Halloween!
Conclusion
So, there is is. A few of my favorite Nostalgic Halloween Specials. I hope to make this a regular thing on the blog, so I didn’t want to exhaust all my choices in one post. Gotta leave you wanting more:) Stay tuned for a vol. 2 next year!
With that in mind, let me know what you think. Have you seen any of these specials? Did you grow up in the 2000s-2010s, and have any favorite specials of your own? Did you not grow up in that era, and still have specials you enjoy?
Let me know by leaving a comment, or be sending me an email at blacknerdblog@gmail.com! I’d love to chat with you!
Until next time guys, have a good one, and Happy Halloween! Mwhahahahaha!
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