Scaredy Cat: “Garfield’s Halloween Adventure”

By Michael Lyons

Who can’t relate to Garfield?  He hates Mondays.  He’s obsessed with Lasagna.  He loves Halloween.  Okay, maybe he just loves, what he calls “The Candy!  Candy!  Candy!”

In the 1980’s few comic strip characters were as iconic or popular as Garfield and smack dab in the middle of that decade, in 1985, he starred in his own special, “Garfield’s Halloween Adventure,” an entertaining TV special that has been embraced by many through the years, especially the “‘80’s kids” who grew up with it.

Created by cartoonist Jim Davis in 1976 (the strip originally had the title, “Jon,” as it focused on Garfield’s owner), “Garfield” would connect with readers and go on to appear in over 850 million newspapers by 1981.

Garfield’s rotund, orange shape and sleepy eyes were everywhere in the ‘80’s, most notably on the popular, suction-cup plush that were affixed to car windows.  The character has inspired  merchandise that has generated $750 million to $1 billion, annually.

This immense popularity gave way to a series of prime-time animated specials on CBS.  One of these was “Garfield in Disguise,” later renamed “Garfield’s Halloween Adventure.”

The plot is pretty basic (and very “Halloweeny”), Garfield (the sluggish, sarcastic voice of Lorenzo Music, most famous for his role as Carlton the doorman on the sitcom “Rhoda”) and his dim-witted sidekick, Odie the dog venture out for a night of trick or treating on Halloween.  While out, they find themselves at a spooky, deserted house and they encounter...ghost pirates.

The scenes with the ghost pirates features some stylish, effective animation and is surprisingly scary for what seems to be a tame special, but provides a real sense of the season.

“Garfield’s Halloween Adventure” was directed by Phil Roman, who started his career as an animator for the legendary Chuck Jones and also worked as an animator on many of the classic Charlie Brown TV specials.  In fact, while on CBS, “Garfield’s Halloween Adventure” was often paired with the annual airing of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”

Like that classic, Garfield’s special celebrates Halloween, especially for children and is the type of Halloween-night-spooky-kids-adventure that many grown adults wish they had when they were younger.

Originally airing on October 30, 1985 and celebrating its 35th anniversary this season, “Garfield’s Halloween Adventure” combines all we love about Halloween and all we love about Garfield.  It’s no wonder many have such fondness for it, as watching it is like seasonal, comfort food TV from a bygone era.

Plus, there’s all that “Candy!  Candy!  Candy!”

Wishing everyone a very Safe and very Happy Halloween!

Sources:

IMDb

Wikipedia

All Jack’d Up: The 40th anniversary of “The Shining”

 

By Michael Lyons

Unsettling.  Nerve racking.  Morbidly funny.  Disturbing, Iconic.

Director Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” is all of these.  This is why for forty years, the film has stayed at the forefront of horror movie conversations.  As “The Shining” hits this milestone and usually finds itself in many a Halloween Season movie rotation, it’s fitting to look back at this most unique entry in the horror movie genre.

Based on the novel by the literal king of horror writing, Stephen King, “The Shining” centers on writer Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson in one of his most famous performances), who brings his wife Wendy (Shelly Duvall) and his son Danny (Danny Lloyd) to the Overlook Hotel in the Colorado, where the family will act as caretakers, staying there through the winter, while the hotel is closed for the season.

A mysterious, supernatural force of past evil lives in the Overlook as well and begins to possess Jack, slowly driving him to insanity and against his family.  Additionally, his son Danny develops the ability called “The Shining,” a telepathic power that allows him to see and know things that others can’t.

Director Kubrick brings his slow, sleepy and, at times, hypnotic pacing and style (seen in some of his other well-known films, such as “A Clockwork Orange”), which brings a sense of impending doom to the film, even in its earliest scenes where nothing scary happens...but feels like it soon will.

And they do...in some of the most haunting images ever put on screen:  the camera following Danny as he endlessly rides his Big Wheel tricycle through the halls of the empty hotel...and then comes upon the twin girls (“Come and play with us, Danny...”); “Redrum” scrawled on the wall and seen in a mirror by Wendy and realizing what it spells in reverse;  the guest in room 237; blood pouring out of an elevator; Jack, finally gone off the edge and coming after his family with an ax and announcing “Heeeeere’s Johnny!,” in probably the film’s most famous scene.

And that scene is just one of the many examples of how good Jack Nicholson is in this role.  With his trademark arching eyebrows and suspicious smile, it’s easy to dismiss Jack as “just doing Jack” as Jack, but he brings so much to even the quietest moments in the film, particularly those where he just stares blankly at the camera and is the true picture of a man slipping into madness.

It’s been well noted that Stephen King was not happy with this adaptation of his work and actually was involved in a TV mini-series remake of the film in 1997 for ABC.  

Fans have all respect for the author, of course, but feel differently about 1980’s “The Shining,” holding the film in high regard and immensely re-watchable, with multiple themes, messages and hidden meanings coming out of the film.

In 2013, King penned a sequel, “Doctor Sleep,” which was adapted into a successful film last year.  For the fourteenth anniversary of “The Shining,” Fathom Events, along with Turner Classic Movies, is hosting theatrical screenings of the film this week and the film has been the subject of multiple articles, blogs and You Tube videos lately.

So many remember and appreciate “The Shining” for what it is: Unsettling.  Nerve racking.  Morbidly funny.  Disturbing, Iconic.

Sources:

TCM.com

Wikipedia

Forgotten Frights: Lesser Known Halloween TV Specials

By Michael Lyons

If you’ve already watched “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,”  as well as the seasonal TV Halloween offerings from everyone from Garfield to Shrek, you may have plumbed the depths of Halloween television specials.

Unlike Christmas, there isn’t a tremendous catalogue of television specials that theme to spooky season, at least from a popular perspective.  If you’re a fellow Halloween pop culture junkie, you would disagree, but many casual viewers may be looking for more small screen offerings to round out the season.

What follows are some Halloween TV specials that have all but fallen through the cracks into long-lost, You Tube obscurity.  They may help with not only adding to your season, but could also become part of your seasonal viewing rotation, for years to come:

“The Paul Lynde Halloween Special” (1976)

If you had a file of “This has to be seen to be believed” TV shows this would need to be at the forefront of that file.

The famously snarky comedian, with his trademark trembly voice hosts a special unlike anything you’ve ever seen.  

The hour packs in more guests than you can imagine: Florence Henderson, Tim Conway, rock group KISS (you read that right!), Roy Kelly (who starred as Pinky Toscadaro on “Happy Days”), Margaret Hamilton (reprising her most famous role the Wicked Witch from “The Wizard of Oz”) and Billie Hayes as Witchiepoo from “H.R. Pufnstuf.”  There’s even cameos from Betty White and Donny and Marie Osmond.

 “The Paul Lynde Halloween Special” fully embraces Halloween and also serves as a time capsule of the ‘70’s (complete with a sketch about CB radios) as well as a prime specimen from the golden age of TV variety shows.

If you have any interest in television’s past or pop culture, this special needs to be seen.  Just be warned, once it’s seen, it can’t be unseen and may just become part of your Halloween viewing rituals.

“Witch’s Night Out” (1978)

This Canadian produced animated special features a story steeped perfectly in Halloween, as it centers on a Witch who decides to do something about the fact that no one seems to be appropriately scared on Halloween.

Coming to a small town, she befriends three children and transforms them into a werewolf, a ghost and Frankenstein monster before they set out for a Halloween party.  This turns the citizens of the town into an angry mob and it’s the witch who must save the day.

There’s a nice, “Don’t judge a book by its cover” acceptance theme here that many may not see, as the animation is overtly-stylized (each character is a different color and shape and the main character of the witch doesn’t look like your traditional Halloween witch),  This is really more of a product of the time in which the special was produced and actually adds to its lower-budget charm.

Plus, “Witch’s Night Out” features comedy legends Gilda Radner and Catherine O’Hara as voices, so that, coupled with pure curiosity, makes this special one to check out if you’ve never seen it.

“The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t” (1979)

The concept of all the world’s most popular monsters coming together is a trope that has been used many times through the years, from 1967’s “Mad Monster Party” to 2012’s “Hotel Transylvania.”

But none of them did so while utilizing a cast of some of TV’s biggest stars of the ‘70’s.

In the live-action “The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t,” Dracula (Judd Hirsch), the Wolfman (Jack Wiley), Frankenstein’s Monster (John Schuck), Igor (Henry Gibson) and the Mummy (Robert Fitch) must convince a Witch (Mariette Hartley) to make her annual flight across the moon, so that Halloween can actually happen (apparently that’s a thing!).

The special was directed by Bruce Bilson, a veteran of such shows as “Get Smart” and “The Odd Couple” and has some of the quick, one-line joke sensibility of a sitcom, which is all delivered perfectly by the cast of TV veterans who balance tongue-in-cheek with earnestness.

It’s also another great time capsule, as “The Halloween that Almost Wasn’t” concludes with the characters at a disco.  What better place to spend Halloween?

“The Halloween Tree” (1993)

Based on a famed novel by legendary author Ray Bradbury, this animated special from the Hanna-Barbera Studio follows four friends who, while out trick-or-treating on Halloween night, go out in search of their lost friend and meet up with the mysterious Mr. Moundshroud (voiced by Leonard Nimoy) who teaches the children about the history and heritage of Halloween traditions in a most magical way.

Narrated by the author Ray Bradbury himself, “The Halloween Tree” is compelling, mysterious and, yes, educational.  However, at a little over an hour long, with a limited budget, the story screams out for a bigger, feature-length treatment, especially since the book is so beloved.

Hollywood, if you’re listening, “The Halloween Tree” is ready for a re-boot.

As Halloween of 2020 looks to follow suit with the rest of the year and be most...unique...any of these specials, once dusted off, could prove to be perfect companions during “spooky season,” in what’s already been a most spooky year.

Sources:

IMDb

Wikipedia