50th Anniversary of The Flintstones: Halloween Episodes and Specials

If the Google doodle for today wasn't a clear indication, today marks the 50th Anniversary of The Flintstones!  That's right, September 30, 1960 the Hanna-Barbera animated version of The Honeymooners debuted.  And 50 years later, America is still singing the theme song...

So in a feat of last second thinking, I've decided to do a post on the various Halloween episodes, specials and tie-ins that The Flintstones have had over the years.

The ACTUAL Flintstones Halloween special was called The Flintstones Meet Rockula and Frankenstone.  It debuted on NBC on October 30, 1980 and the plot revolved around The Flintstones winning a trip on a game show to Rocksylvania.  While there, Fred and Barney accidentally cause Frankenstone to come to life and then are chased all over the place by the monster.  Meanwhile Rockula mistakes Wilma for his long lost love and pursues her to get her to marry him.  It all wraps up in 45 minutes and The Flintstones live happily ever after.  Oops--- spoiler alert.

As a Halloween special it meets some of my "What Makes a Halloween Special?" criteria namely:  it debuted on or near October 31st, it features monsters, costumes and a dark and scary castle... but alas... no jack o' lanterns.  (Even if they didn't have pumpkins in prehistoric times, I thought for sure I'd see Wilma using a pterodactyl beak to carve triangle eye holes in a boulder or something.  The she'd set the crooked-beaked bird down and he'd look at the camera and say "I sure am glad that Halloween only comes once a year."  Then the canned laughter would kick in.  Man, I should have been a Flintstones writer...)
The special overall feels like a cross between The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo minus an unmasking and "I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for you damn kids"-moment.

Unfortunately, The Flintstones Meet Rockula and Frankenstone is NOT available on DVD or digital download yet.  There are old VHS copies available on Amazon or some industrious souls have made some nice DVD-R versions for sale on eBay.  You can also poke around the internet and catch it at various times on YouTube or Rapidshare like HERE. 

The Flintstones also delved into other scary and monster-themed territory through regular episodes of the show.  Season 5 really amped-up the monster-themed episodes.  For instance, due to the popularity of The Munsters on TV, Hanna-Barbera introduced some neighbors to the Flintstones called The Gruesomes.  They were sorta The Addams Family by way of Captain Caveman and a sprinkle of Sigmund the Sea Monster.
I'm... I'm dating myself aren't I?
There were two episodes that featured The Gruesomes:  "The Gruesomes" and "Hatrocks and Gruesomes" both of which appeared in Season 5 and are available on the The Flintstones Season 5 DVD set (Amazon link below).

Season 5 also featured the episode "Monster Fred" (Fred gets hit on the head --that ol' chestnut-- and acts like a child and Wilma hires a mad scientist to put his brain back with electric shock causing Fred to become Dino, then Barney).  And spoofing The House on Haunted Hill, The Flintstones did an episode titled "A Haunted House is Not a Home."  Fred's uncle ("Uncle Giggles"... no relation to Dr. Giggles as far as I know...) dies and leaves his fortune to Fred but in order to claim the money he has to stay a night in his uncle's haunted house.  This episode originally aired on October 29, 1964 so I wonder if, technically, it was the Halloween episode of Season 5?

Season 6 featured a TV-crossover with appearances by stars Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York from Bewitched who move in next door.  And the remotely-related-to-Halloween episodes "The Masquerade Ball" and "The Masquerade Party" (both involve mistaken identity hi jinks at costume parties) appear in Season 2 and Season 6, respectively. 

This is the spot I was going to put a quick homage to Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles Halloween-themed boxes and animated commercials----buuuuuuuuuuut my memory doesn't serve because I can't find any such thing.  From the internet research I've done it looks like Kellogg's and General Mills' cereals embrace Halloween and put out special Halloween-edition boxes of their cereals... but not Post's The Flintstones Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles. 
Lame. 
This whole thing seems anti-climactic now. 
So I guess I'll just close by yelling "BARNEY!  MY PEBBLES!"

Halloween Scenes - The Ten

"I'm Stephen Montgomery.  If you move me I'll die!"

My 2nd in my 'Halloween Scenes' line of posts, this is a quick 5 second Halloween appearance in Director David Wain's 2nd theatrical film The Ten.
The movie is basically a series of 10 sketches built around the Ten Commandments with each sketch dealing with a different commandment.

As for the scene:  lampooning media frenzies, this is 'EB' ("Entertainment Beat") covering a little girl who dressed up as Stephen Montgomery for Halloween.
Who's Stephen Montgomery?
A man who jumped out an airplane without a parachute, survived the impact into the earth, but is fated to live his days in that very spot... because if you move him he'll die.

It makes more sense in the movie.

The Ten is a good time and something to be sought out for fans of MTV's sketch comedy show The State and the film Wet Hot American Summer as it features many of the Wain-players with a peppering of celebrity cameos.  Paul Rudd, Liev Schreiber, Janeane Garofalo, Famke Janssen and even a pre-Mad Men Jon Hamm all make an appearance, if fleeting.

PrintCandies.com - Customizable Halloween Candy

You fancy yourself a pretty crafty person.
But there are limits to what hoops you're going to jump through to make your Halloween treats and party one for the record books.

Monogramming 1000 individual candy coated chocolates or mints is not only foolhardy, it has caused madness in laboratory rats.

Enter PrintCandies.com.

Now there's a company that will print your own customizable picture, drawing, word or logo on multi-colored mints and deliver 'em to your door giving you more time to carve pumpkins, and less time painting little spiders on pieces of candy. 

Available in 3 different flavors: chocolate, buttermint and wintergreen; 6 different font colors (red, orange, black, blue, green, pink) and 10 different colors (white, black, orange, pink, blue, green, lavender, yellow, red, dark blue) plus a number of packaging options from mason jars, to plastic 10-candy sleeves, to Organza bags tied with ribbon---you've got plenty o' customizable options.

On top of all that you can have something as simple as "Boo," as classic as a jack o' lantern, or as complex as an actual photo printed on the candies (hence the name "PrintCandies.com." See?  Simple.).

And because your Uncle Halloween Addict loves you, he's even going to clue you in on a coupon that doesn't involve newsprint or scissors.
Use the promo code HALLOWEENADDICT on checkout and get 15% off your order of $50 or more.  How's that for cost cutting and no coupon cutting?  (Coupon cutting has been known to cause madness in laboratory rats.  That's just what I heard.)

In the interest of full disclosure, I get a handful of pennies for every order, but hey, somebody's gotta line my pockets so I can get my own custom candies that say "Boo!" on some and "Stop scaring me!" on the others.
I love confectionery contradictions...

Click here for PrintCandies.com .

Happy Birthday: Bill Murray!

Maybe it's not EXACTLY Halloween-related, but it's still noteworthy enough to mention in my book.

Bill "Petter Venkman" Murray's BIRTHDAY is TODAY.
He is 60 years old.
Sixty.
BILL MURRAY IS SIXTY!
Holy crap.
How did that happen?
Time, man.  It's a real downer, sometimes.
So take a second to appreciate one of the great comic actors of our time by watching Ghostbusters, Ed Wood, Ghostbusters 2, or playing Ghostbusters The Video Game.



SEMI-SPOILER ALERT:  And without spoiling anything for those who still haven't seen it (what are ya doin'?), please check out Zombieland for an excellent Bill Murray reference.

HELP!: The Mystery of the Childhood Halloween Skull Pail...

You know I've been pulling my hair out trying to research and figure out this mystery and then I thought, "Why not ask fellow Halloween Addicts (MY PEOPLE!) if THEY know! 

Here's the deal:  When I was a little kid (circa 1970s), I remember getting a small skull pail filled with candy for Halloween from my grandparents.
I LOVED that thing.
LOVED IT.
To to the point that I kept it in my closet and used it to hold tokens for the arcade, change from my allowance, Star Wars figure's weapons and all the other trinkets that come with childhood.
Somewhere over time, the skull pail was lost, discarded, thrown away, stolen by the gremlins that steal childhood things, whatever.

Recently I was at Cost Plus World Market looking at their latest Halloween wares and I was drawn to this (see left) giant glow-in-the-dark skull candy bucket.  I didn't know why because the gummy candy contained within isn't really my bag, but I kept coming back to it.

Then it dawned on me:  THE CHILDHOOD SKULL PAIL!  
I had completely forgotten about it 'til that moment!

Being a pretty good internet searcher I began scouring the net looking for THE skull pail I had as a kid.  I eventually found THIS one on eBay--- but it had already sold.
In my memory, mine was white, not green as this eBay listing states.  Though, honestly, it doesn't appear green to me, but more of a "glow-in-the-dark translucent white."  
Regardless, the dimensions seem correct (it wasn't as big as the Cost Plus one or even as big as the generic plastic jack o' lantern pails they sell at .99 Cent stores and everywhere else), and the handle seems right, and I believe the face of the skull (the most important part) is correct.

So I ask, you, dear readers and fellow Halloween Addicts:  who made this skull pail and where can I find another??!!  I'm really hoping someone responds with a "Oh that's the '70s Blargedy-Blarg Pail made by Blargy Boo Productions.  They made a ton of 'em.  Here's a link to a vintage place that still sells them for pennies on the dollar."
That's what I hope.
Somewhere, someone out there knows exactly what this skull pail is.
PLEASE HELP ME COMPLETE MY QUEST!
I now return you to your lives, already in progress...

(In case the eBay link goes dead, I've snagged the rest of the detailed photos from the listing and I post them here for your reference... NOW.)

UPDATED:  Turns out this is NOT my childhood skull pail.  You can actually still buy this one at various retailers or in cases of 100 (you know... when one just isn't enough...) right from the vendor Blinky Products, Inc. HERE. 

To read about my ACTUAL childhood skull pail (I really mean it this time...) go HERE and let me know if you find it... in cases less than 100...

LAST MINUTE COOL THING: Halloween T-Shirt by RIPT

Normally I would save this for "T-Shirt Tuesdays" but thanks to RIPT Apparel's 24 Hour Business Model, I relay this to you NOW (thanks to a tip from Cult of the Great Pumpkin).

Check out RIPT's new shirt "Expression of Pumpkin" which features not one but SEVEN jack o' lanterns, dripping skull candles, bats and a very Trick 'r Treat looking Sam (Hain?).

The charcoal colored shirt is pre-shrunk and a VERY affordable 10 smackeroos (a "smackeroo" is equal to one American dollar).

There are ONLY 7 HOURS LEFT before this is gone (forever?) so get it while you can!

Just browsing through their previous catalog there's lots for a Halloween and Horror Addict to enjoy (like this "Hail to the King" Bruce Campbell beauty) so keep tabs on this company as they could become your new favorite.

DIY Craft: Light Up LED Halloween Lego Minifigs Hack!

Sure Legos are cool. 
And Lego Mini Figures are cooler.  (They travel well.  You can fit about 15 in your pocket before it actually becomes uncomfortable to walk.  And you can take them apart and make 15 NEW figures from the pieces!  Some would say "witchcraft!" but I say "awesome!") 

But the coolEST Lego is this Lego LED Minifig Hack from EvilMadScientist.com. 

They show you how to take a tiny LED and put it inside your Lego dude and make his eyes glow, or --really-- any part of him glow that you manage to cut away. 

I think they chose wisely with making the Headless Horseman.  I might take a crack at making the Spider-Man foe "Jack o' Lantern" who, in my opininon, trumps Green Goblin by having a jack o' lantern for a head.  Whereas Green Goblin just throws bombs shaped like jack o' lanterns.  Important distinction. 
Learn how to make your own by clicking the link HERE. 
What would be your ultimate Lego Light Up figure?   

P.S. Poke around on EvilMadScientist.com for more Halloween do it yourself build projects like this LED "Ghostie."

The State of Halloween: The Hard Numbers...

We all know times are a little tough right now.
But the question on many Halloween Addicts' minds' is:
"Is Halloween, like the economy, in the proverbial "la toilette?"
Will trick or treaters be getting pillow cases filled with King Size Snickers or a couple of Hershey Kisses and some pocket lint?

Thanks to CreepyLA.com I got forwarded these statistics on "Halloween Sales and Trends."  The graphic (check out the full one below) lists comparisons of Halloween spending and trending between 2007 and 2009.

Let's break it all down and see what we're dealing with this Halloween season...

Halloween Destinations: Disneyland's Halloween Time

Most Halloween Addicts I know enjoy Disneyland or Disney World in some capacity, whether it be the classic ghost-filled dark ride The Haunted Mansion or just the overall childlike wonder the park gives in its embrace of imagination and creativity.

Well starting THIS Friday, September 17th, Disney will be starting its "Halloween Time at Disneyland" redress.  The stunt changes the park into a Halloween-themed mecca starting with a 16 foot tall giant jack o' lantern Mickey at the entrance.

Inside, visitors will be TREAT-ed (ha!) to a Main Street pumpkin festival (boasting 300 "totally unique" pumpkins adorning shop windows), Disney characters dressed in Halloween costumes (I hope they're like the pic to the left here... I like Vampire Donald Duck...) and redesigns of its most popular rides like a "Ghost Galaxy" Space Mountain (with new haunting soundtrack and visual effects) and The Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted Mansion makeover.

There's also a "Mickey's Halloween Party" which allows (on select nights) Trick or Treating in the park, a frightfully festive parade, Halloween Screams Fireworks display and a Big Thunder Ranch Halloween Roundup (which has arts and crafts, Disney artists carving pumpkins and real live barnyard animals.  I'll type that again:  BARNYARD ANIMALS.)  My question is--- will they dress up the barnyard animals?  You haven't lived until you've seen a donkey dressed as Dracula. 

For a Halloween Addict like me, this is pretty amazing.
Seriously, if I could take a week off and live there I would.  The whole thing ends --when else?-- on October 31st so get there while the gettin''s good.  You can look at the VERY pretty website HERE.


UPDATE:  Thanks to a tip from Dr. Necropolis, check out the time lapse video of the Disney Halloween changeover:

First Time on DVD: Bugs Bunny's Howl-oween Special

Here's something I should have included on Tuesday with the release of It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown on Blu-Ray...

Up until September 7, 2010 the Halloween Special Bugs Bunny's Howl-oween Special was only available on overly priced used VHS tapes.  Not anymore!
A little bit on the special: 
It originally aired on October 26, 1978 on CBS (which means they probably had my favorite spinning CBS logo in front of it.  Here's a YouTube embed if you don't know what I'm talking about:
The special basically amounts to a "clip show" of Warner Bros. Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck Loony Tunes cartoons.  And there are some great ones.  You get:
A-Haunting We Will Go (1966)
Hyde and Hare (1955)
Hyde and Go Tweet (1960)
A Witch's Tangled Hare (1959)
Transylvania 6-5000 (1963)
Scaredy Cat (1948)
Claws For Alarm (1954)
Bewitched Bunny (1954)
[Check me on that.  I'm pretty sure there are snippets from all those in this special.  Forgive me if I'm off.]

... And they're all tied together with newer animation that isn't quite up-to-par with the classics that pepper it and there were a few times when I remembered the short and was dismayed that they didn't show the whole thing.  Here's what's weird:  I can remember thinking pretty much what I just typed above when I was a kid and this special came on.  It just... didn't... feel... right.  (Sure I turned it on and watched it anyway.)   

There's one Special Feature on the DVD:  the complete Hair Raising Hare (1946) cartoon which many will remember as having the giant orange no-armed monster in it (Gossamer).  Though not specifically Halloween-themed, it's certainly in the spirit featuring a mad scientist, scary castle and giant monster.

This is one of those Halloween specials that you can put on while you build props or carve pumpkins or melt, er, something.  In other words: you don't have to pay to close attention.  I'm not saying that the toons aren't brilliant, they are, but due to the weak connecting animations in this special, it just doesn't feel as great as, say, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. 

BUT, as it's the first time it's been on DVD, and for only $10.99 (on Amazon) it's a great price for the Halloween Special completist and one more thing to keep in the Halloween Special rotation this season. 

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown on BLU-RAY TODAY!

The classic returns! ... Again!
Out today, the seminal classic It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown is out on Blu-Ray for the first time!  I've now watched this special over interference-laden TV-Antenna broadcast, VHS recording, DVD play, internet streaming and all the way up to what will now be crisp, clean 1080p playback.  Seriously, this special won't be able to look any better unless it's beamed directly into your brain.  I'll bet you can see the animator's pencil strokes on Blu-Ray. 

It seems to have the same extras as last year's Remastered DVD which are pretty good.  First you get It's Magic Charlie Brown, which I guess is featured on here for the the whole magic/ghost/Halloween tie-in?  Sort of a landmark moment as Charlie Brown finally gets to kick Lucy's football. 
But more importantly you get We Need A Blockbuster Charlie Brown which is a behind the scenes mini-documentary chronicling the making of It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.  Very informative for fans of this special and a quick watch. 

You may also be interested in these past Halloween Addict posts:
Color Design and Emotional Attachment in It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
and
The Origin the Great Pumpkin from Charles M. Schulz

As someone who just acquired the remastered edition in the Holiday Collection, I may put this purchase on hold for one more year.  FYI:  the entire Holiday Collection will be hitting Blu-Ray on October 5th of this year if you're looking to get more bang for your buck.  Amazon links are below and I'll get two dimes and a licorice whip if you order through them, so thanks in advance. 

Uncooked Cards: Twisted Humor for the Non-Greeting Card Greeting Card

Sure THIS HALLOWEEN CARD is the antithesis of how I feel about Halloween and Halloween cards, but I love Uncooked Cards so much that I'll profile them just for those people who do 'get it' and enjoy it. 
If you don't know UncookedLandTheStore.com is a little boutique greeting card company that makes --and I know I hate the word too--- "irreverent" cards.  There really is no other word for them.  Keep in mind, these cards aren't for your grandmother, they're for that friend that has a great sense of humor but you can never seem to impress with a birthday/anniversary/holiday card.  Until now.  Using simple drawings and non-sequitur lines of brilliance, they're the non-greeting greeting card.  Not available in stores, you can order online HERE at UncookedLandTheStore.com. 

Though Uncooked only has the one Halloween card I HIGHLY recommend them for all your card needs.  Here's an example of another that I thoroughly enjoy for its wonderfully warped wisdom:

It's Valentine's Day and I'm so happy we're together.  
But if you ever leave me I'll kill you.
Like, literally, I'll stab you. 

Recipe: Halloween Chex Mix

Right from the Chex Mix source, here's the HALLOWEEN CHEX MIX recipe!
I don't know what it is about Chex Mix, but for a recipe so easy it really seems like something unmake-able to me.
But looking over the ingredients and total start to finish time 15 minutes... seems very do-able.   

Though I disagree with the website's tag here:

Trick or treat? Surprise little witches and goblins with this fruit, candy and cereal mix—they’ll gobble it up!

I'm a believer that homemade treats should be given out to family and friends at parties but not given out to unknown trick or treaters.  Then the parents don't have to worry if crazy people put weird stuff in their kids treats and throw it away.  That's just my thing.
Here's the link to Chex.com and the Halloween Recipe HERE.

Halloween Decoration: Zombie Silhouette Wall Art

What a fantastic idea for a Halloween decoration.
So simple and yet so awesome.
A "why didn't I think of that" thing.
Papercuts by Joe out of Boston, MA has created a Victorian-era-inspired profile silhouette of a zombie suitable for hanging.  And it's really exquisite, complete with tousled hair, rotten nose and dripping um, something. 

Each undead head measures approximately 5" X 7," is cut from a single sheet of black archival paper and arrives mounted on a piece of 8" X 10" white illustration board.  You need to provide the creepy frame yourself.

Cost?  A "wallet friendly" $20. Get it from MakersMarket.com HERE.  Here's my question, how did Joe get the zombie to stand still long enough to trace him on the paper?  THAT'S talent.