Sometimes a hardy spook and scare too much for celebrating the spooky season. If committing to a horror movie is too great a task for your Hallows Eve, perhaps a series of twenty to thirty-minute episodes is more digestible. Cashing in on the nostalgia of a long-forgotten Halloween episode can be just what the doctor with needles for fingers (ooh spooky) ordered.
From child friendly goofs, gags and ghost stories to promiscuous poltergeists and prolonged patience, one of these episodes of long-running series should satisfy the seasonal demand. I’ve put them in order from least to most raunchy, so mature audiences may prefer the latter of the list.
“SpongeBob SquarePants”
Season 2 Episode 16 – “Graveyard Shift”
From this episode spawned one of the most notorious “spooky” childhood references: The Hash-Slinging Slasher. Squidward fabricates this fry cooking phantasm to rile SpongeBob up into a terrified frenzy until, unbeknownst to Squidward, the real Slasher arrives to exact revenge on the fast food establishment that took his hand. Spoilers I suppose, if this cultural icon has eluded you to this point. If I had a nickel for every time in middle school when someone turned the lights back on and someone playfully said “Nosferatu,” I’d have a few nickels. Not many, but a noteworthy amount. 
“Regular Show”
Season 3 Episode 5 – “Terror Tales of the Park”
“Regular Show” needs no excuse to delve into the eerie and otherworldly for a normal episode, so its Halloween series of shorts doesn’t pull any punches. Using the classic narrative format of telling anthological ghost stories for the holiday, members of the park crew recount variably true tales of terror (but you could tell that from the title) cleverly poking fun at horror conventions. As soon as the supernatural element hints at itself, characters dismiss it as “just the wind” like traditional airheaded horror movie hook hand fodder would. 
“New Girl”
Season 3 Episode 6 – “Keaton”
A Halloween episode doesn’t necessarily mean an episode about Halloween. Like many great holiday films, sometimes the festivity of the day is just the background to a real plot. The reveal of a hidden lifelong dynamic between Nick (Jake Johnson) and Schmidt (Max Greenfield) sees Jess (Zooey Deschanel) clumsily take advantage of it to maintain the integrity of a Halloween party. If Michael Keaton is not your favorite Batman, though, you may feel dissonance. 
“Letterkenny”
Season 3 Episode 7 –  “The Haunting of MoDean’s” 
A classic whodunit unfolds at the bar when a mysterious “beverage” from beyond the grave appears at MoDean’s for Wayne (Jared Keeso) and the gang to solve. The usual comedic repetition and degree of vulgarity associated with “Letterkenny” festively manifests like a possibly taken down Uncle Eddie out for a good spook (you’ll get that after watching the episode). 
“How I Met Your Mother”
Season 7 Episode 8 – “The Slutty Pumpkin Returns”
As the fourth episode of the series, the hopeless romantics of Ted’s (Josh Radnor) immediately shine through as he dresses in the same lame joke of a costume every year hoping a missed chance at love dressed as a slutty pumpkin will return to his party and recognize him many moons later. Though certainly not a scary episode, I suppose being lonely at a party is a different brand of fear, if fear is insisted upon. For those lacking the commitment for eight more seasons to find out, I’ll save you the time and say that the slutty pumpkin Ted seeks is not the mother.

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