The Best Classic Halloween TV Episodes

Halloween, like Christmas, demands you to at least watch one classic holiday movie. However, if you don’t have time to watch full-length feature films due to holiday preparations or midterms, try watching these Halloween TV episodes to prime yourself for the upcoming fun.

The Office: Halloween, Season 2 Episode 5

There are several Halloween office party episodes in The Office series; however, this episode is largely agreed to be the most iconic. It features “Darth Schrute,” “three-hole-punch Jim,” and “two-headed Michael,” who corporate assigns to choose an employee to fire by the end of the day. You can stream The Office on Netflix.

Friends: The One with the Halloween Party, Season 8 Episode 6

“The One with the Halloween Party” from Friends also features iconic costumes—Supergirl Phoebe, Catwoman Monica, pink bunny Chandler, Joey as Chandler, and Ross as “Spud-nik”— at Monica and Chandler’s Halloween party. Ross and Chandler hold an arm-wrestling contest to prove who’s stronger, and Phoebe falls for her twin Ursula’s finance.

The Big Bang Theory: The Middle Earth Paradigm, Season 1 Episode 6

If you haven’t discovered the theme yet, this episode of The Big Bang Theory also features a Halloween party. Penny, who is Leonard and Sheldon’s neighbor, holds a costume party that the guys arrive too early for—Leonard dresses as Frodo, Sheldon as “the doppler effect,” and their friends Howard and Raj dress as Robin Hood and Thor. Penny’s ex later arrives to the party, causing problems.

Stranger Things: Trick or Treat, Freak, Chapter 2

Any episode of Stranger Things is appropriate for Halloween, especially Season 2, which takes place during Halloween. If you’re looking for one episode, Chapter 2: Trick or Treat, Freak is the one to pick. On Halloween night, Mike, Will, Lucas, and Dustin dress as the ghostbusters and go trick-or-treating. Will, who falls behind, experiences another “episode,” seeing a shadowy monster in the sky in the “upside down.”

The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror

Kang and Kodos, Ape Homer, and Fly Bart are some of the horrors you’ll run into in The Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror, the series’ yearly Halloween special spawning twenty-nine episodes. Each Treehouse of Horror is more graphic and dark than the typical Simpsons episode, featuring multi-segmented parodies of supernatural, horror, or sci-fi shows, movies, or settings.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

No Halloween season would be complete without the iconic television special It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown based on the Peanuts comic strip. Linus waits in a pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin to come while the rest of the gang goes trick-or-treating, Charlie Brown, having botched his ghost costume by cutting too many holes in the sheet, receiving rocks from neighbors rather than candy.