Halloween on ABC: A Timeline of the Network’s Obsession With All Hallows’ Eve
‘The Addams Family’ — “Halloween With the Addams Family”
Sure, Lurch scared us on any given day, but Halloween was in this family's blood. The freshman season of the sitcom featured a Halloween episode with Don Rickles as a burglar. (Original airdate: Oct. 30, 1964)
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‘Schoolhouse Rock!’ — “Them Not-So-Dry Bones”
The animated educational shorts debuted in 1973, airing during ABC's Saturday morning children's programming. In 1979, a "science rock" segment featured Halloween-worthy dancing skeletons. (Original airdate: Jan. 6, 1979)
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‘Bewitched’ — “To Trick-or-Treat or Not to Trick-or-Treat”
It wouldn't be Halloween without Darrin (Dick Sargent) falling victim to one of Endora's spells. In this Halloween episode — one of five for the classic comedy — Samantha Stephens’s (Elizabeth Montgomery) mortal husband was zapped into a stereotypical witch by his angry mother-in-law. (Original airdate: Oct. 30, 1969)
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‘The Brady Bunch’ — “Fright Night”
The Brady boys tried to out-scare their golden-haired sisters in this spooky episode, but the kids' pranks ended in disaster when Mrs. Brady's sculpture became a casualty of their mischievous night. (Original airdate: Oct. 27, 1972)
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‘Happy Days’ — “Haunted”
Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) had Fonzie (Henry Winkler) to protect him at the Halloween party held at the old Simpson house, which was supposedly haunted by a headless ghost. (Original airdate: Oct. 29, 1974)
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‘Barney Miller’ — “Werewolf”
These NYPD officers saw all walks of life walk into their Greenwich Village station, including a man claiming to be a werewolf. Pictured: Abe Vigoda, Hal Linden. (Original airdate: Oct. 28, 1976)
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‘Mork and Mindy’ — “A Morkville Horror”
The Amityville Horror saga was in full swing when Robin Williams's and Pam Dawber's Happy Days spinoff featured this Halloween spoof about a demonic house. (Original airdate: Oct. 28, 1979)
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‘Mr. Belvedere’ — “Halloween”
Even Mr. Belvedere came unbuttoned on Halloween. The TV butler (Christopher Hewitt) went on a wild toilet-papering spree for Halloween 1986, but we're way more curious about the French maid costume Kevin (Rob Stone) was wearing. (Original airdate: Oct. 31, 1986)
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‘MacGyver’ — “Halloween Knights”
Richard Dean Anderson starred as the original secret agent Angus MacGyver for seven seasons in the '80s and early '90s. Four Halloween episodes aired over the course of the series. (Original airdate: Oct. 30, 1989)
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‘Roseanne’ — “Boo!”
No sitcom loved Halloween more than Roseanne. The Conner clan celebrated Halloween every season on their ABC sitcom (eight years in a row!), and it all started when Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) was a dinner entrée in 1989. (Original airdate: Oct. 31, 1989)
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‘Thirtysomething’ — “The Haunting of DAA”
Here's how baby boomers Michael and Hope (Ken Olin, Mel Harris) celebrated Halloween in 1994: She wore a Cleopatra costume, and he was haunted by the former founder of his ad agency. (Original airdate: Oct. 30, 1990)
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‘Doogie Howser, M.D.‘ — “Revenge of the Teenage Dead”
Remember when Neil Patrick Harris was a teen doctor? In 1990, Doogie and his prodigy pals celebrated Halloween by making a horror movie. (Original airdate: Oct. 31, 1990)
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‘Growing Pains’ — “Happy Halloween”
The Seavers were so into Halloween that they got a two-parter in honor of the holiday, complete with a special, spooky theme song. (Original airdate: Oct. 31, 1990)
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‘Perfect Strangers’ — “Fright Night”
Larry and Balki (Mark Linn-Baker, Bronson Pinchot) tried to rid their house of a ghost in this 1991 episode, but not before some levitating took place. (Original airdate: Oct. 25, 1991)
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‘Family Matters’ — “Whose Kid Is It Anyway?”
Urkel as a frog prince? Hey, at least it’s not Stevil! The Winslow family’s Halloween featured a not-so-scary cast of characters in 1992. (Original airdate: Oct. 30, 1992)
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‘Home Improvement’ — “Haunting of Taylor House”
Tim Allen's freshman comedy hosted a Halloween episode every year from 1992 to 1998. In this first installment, Halloween freak Tim Taylor (Allen) set up a "Catacombs of Terror" to scare his neighbors. (Original airdate: Oct. 28, 1992)
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‘My So-Called Life’ — “Halloween”
Angela Chase (Claire Danes) and her friends went back in time when they broke into their high school on Halloween in this haunting episode from the short-lived teen drama. (Original airdate: Oct. 27, 1994)
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‘Step by Step’ — “Something Wild”
The blended Lambert-Foster family went wild for Halloween during ABC's popular TGIF programming block in the '90s. (Original airdate: Oct. 28, 1994)
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‘Boy Meets World’ — “Who’s Afraid of Cory Wolf?”
Two decades before he was married with children on Girl Meets World, a teen Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) met with a fortuneteller because he thought he was turning into a werewolf. (Original airdate: Oct. 28, 1994)
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‘Ellen’ — “Trick or Treat. Who Cares?”
Ellen DeGeneres's character, Ellen Morgan, had that pumpkin-carving thing down on the comedian's 1990s sitcom. (Original airdate: Oct. 31, 1995)
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‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch’ — “A River of Candy Corn Runs Through It”
Halloween was a common theme on Melissa Joan Hart's witchy sitcom, but her character, Sabrina Spellman, knew how to throw a party. She even conjured up alt-rock band 10,000 Maniacs for this bash. (Original airdate: Oct. 31. 1997)
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‘It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown’
This Halloween mainstay aired for more than three decades on CBS before ABC wisely scooped up the rights in 2001. The animated Peanuts classic celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. (Original airdate on ABC: Oct. 30, 2001)
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‘Hope and Faith’ — “The Halloween Party”
Kelly Ripa was doing double duty for ABC when she starred with Faith Ford on this primetime sitcom. In addition to her annual Halloween high jinks with Regis Philbin on Live!, Ripa celebrated Halloween three times with Ford on Hope and Faith. (Original airdate: Oct. 28, 2005)
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‘Ugly Betty’ — “The Lyin, the Witch and the Wardrobe”
In 2006, Betty (America Ferrara) was the only one at her office to dress up for Halloween — but at least she looked cute! (Original airdate: Oct. 26, 2006)
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‘Grey’s Anatomy’ — “Haunt You Every Day”
In this Season 4 episode of the ABC medical drama, it was hard to take Lexie Grey's (Chyler Leigh) medical advice seriously when she dressed as Raggedy Ann for Halloween. (Original airdate: Oct. 25, 2007)
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‘Desperate Housewives’ — “Now I Know, Don’t Be Scared”
Wisteria Lane was scary year-round. People dropped like flies on that block! In 2007, Bree Van de Kamp's (Marcia Cross) pregnant teen daughter interrupted the neighborhood Halloween party when her water broke. (Original airdate: Nov. 4, 2007)
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‘Castle’ — “Vampire Weekend”
Crime solvers Castle and Beckett (Nathan Fillion, Stana Katic) were in their element on Halloween. In this second-season episode, the mystery writer and his posse dressed the part in honor of their favorite holiday. (Original airdate: Oct. 26, 2009)
(Photo by Michael Desmond/ABC via Getty Images) Crime solvers Castle and Beckett (Nathan Fillion, Stana Katic) were in their element on Halloween. In this second-season episode, the mystery writer and his posse dressed the part in honor of their favorite holiday. (Original airdate: Oct. 26, 2009)
‘The Middle’ — “Halloween”
It wouldn't be Halloween without a day of Heckoning. This ABC sitcom has aired a Halloween episode every year since 2010. (Original airdate: Oct. 27, 2010)
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‘Modern Family’ — “Halloween”
We first learned of Claire Dunphy's (Julie Bowen) love for Halloween in 2010 when she talked the family into creating a haunted house display to spook trick-or-treaters. Since then, Modern Family has treated viewers to three more Halloween episodes. (Original airdate: Oct. 27, 2010)
(Photo by Karen Neal/ABC via Getty Images) We first learned of Claire Dunphy's (Julie Bowen) love for Halloween in 2010 when she talked the family into creating a haunted house display to spook trick-or-treaters. Since then, Modern Family has treated viewers to three more Halloween episodes. (Original airdate: Oct. 27, 2010)
‘The Goldbergs’ — “Family Takes Care of Beverly”
One of our favorite things about this '80s-set sitcom is the retro Halloween costumes the characters wear. Adam (Sean Giambrone) dressed as Voltron in The Goldbergs' second season. (Original airdate: Oct. 29, 2014)
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‘Dancing With the Stars’ — “Halloween Night”
The fall cycle of Dancing With the Stars often features a Halloween theme. In 2015, the stars cranked out a series of spooky routines before Bindi Irwin won the Mirrorball Trophy a few weeks later. (Original airdate: Oct. 26, 2015)
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‘Fresh Off the Boat’ — “Miracle on Dead Street”
The Huangs' 1990-something Halloween costumes were a sign of the times. Louis (Randall Park) channeled Mr. T, while Evan and Emery (Ian Chen, Forrest Wheeler) paid homage to the 1991 movie The Silence of the Lambs. (Original airdate: Oct. 27, 2015)
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‘Black-ish’ — “Jacked o’ Lantern”
The Johnsons love Halloween, as can be seen by their three-for-three record since the sitcom debuted in 2014. The 2015 Halloween episode featured guest star Michael Strahan as Dre's (Anthony Anderson) cousin June Bug. (Original airdate: Oct. 28, 2015)
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‘Dr. Ken’ — “Halloween-Aversary”
Is it a bad sign that Dr. Ken (Ken Jeong) is dressed as the Grim Reaper for his Season 1 Halloween episode? For Season 2, the ABC comedy will feature an episode about a Korean ghost story. (Original airdate: Oct. 30, 2015)
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Halloween makes for good TV. But here's something we noticed: Many of our favorite Halloween-obsessed shows have a common address — ABC.
The powers-that-be at the Alphabet Network seem a bit consumed with things that go bump in the night, so we did a little digging to confirm that this is not a new thing. In fact, ABC has been treating us with trick-or-treat themed episodes for more than 60 years, starting with the Ozzie and Harriet episode "The Halloween Party" way back in 1952.
Related: How ABC Became the King of Halloween: Your 2016 Preview
ABC is so into Halloween that in 1976 the network hosted The Paul Lynde Halloween Special, which featured Wizard of Oz legend Margaret Hamilton in her first reprisal as the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 classic movie. And over the past six decades, every ABC show from According to Jim to Zorro has featured a Halloween episode — with no end in sight, as can be seen by this season's fall-friendly lineup and sister network, Freeform's, annual 13 Days of Halloween.
Click through this gallery to take a walk down ABC's Halloween-themed memory lane.