Six best Halloween-themed TV episodes

10/31/08 - Since today is Halloween, I'm counting down the top six Halloween episodes ever to grace your television, as determined by me, of course. Why six, you ask? Well, it's a Halloween-related number. 666, you know. That, and I'm too indecisive to choose five. Read on to learn which show earned the great honor of claiming the title of No. 1 best Halloween episode ever.

6. "How I Met Your Mother," "Slutty Pumpkin": Season 1, Episode 6

"Slutty Pumpkin" plays on the trend of "slutty" costumes, with Ted waiting at the same rooftop party he's waited at every Halloween for four years in hopes of seeing a girl he met there four years ago, dressed up as a "slutty" pumpkin.

How exactly are pumpkins slutty, you ask? Well, as Ted explains, it was cut "strategically." Read into that what you will. That, combined with the brilliant sight gags courtesy of Barney's ever-changing costumes and the multitude of Charlie Brown references throughout the episode make for one funny episode and a nominee for the elusive "mother" role.

I bet the kids appreciated hearing that romantic tale.

5. "South Park," "Spooky Fish": Season 2, Episode 15

It could be oversight on my part, but I'm fairly certain "South Park" is the only television show to ever tackle the issue of killer fish- dubbed "spooky fish" by Stan- a serious problem that plagues our nation. When Aunt Flo comes for her monthly visit to Stan's mother, she gifts Stan with fish, and the residents of South Park begin to get knocked off one by one.

Stan's mother, not knowing about the killer fish phenomenon or the evilness of Aunt Flo, believes Stan is the killer and hides the bodies in their backyard to protect Stan. This episode also deals with other serious themes, such as doppelgangers and the ever-important question of their benefit to society, as Cartman, Stan, and Kenny all face their doppelgangers.

4. "The Addams Family," "Halloween with the Addams Family": Season 1, Episode 7

Come join the Addams family as they celebrate this, the most important of holidays. Although Wednesday is upset when she's told by classmates that there is no such thing as witches, she quickly rebounds when she spies a knife her father just got in the mail- although, to her despair, it is for pumpkin carving, not playing autopsy.

Grandmama makes the holiday better, though, after taking Wednesday and Pugsley out for trick-or-treating. When they leave, two crooks come to the door and Gomez, filled with the holiday spirit, lets them in and treats them to such classic games as bobbing for crabs until the police come to take the crooks on a well-deserved vacation. The heartwarming holiday episode is sure to be a family favorite, teaching wise holiday lessons to those young and old for years to come.

3. "Boy Meets World," "Who's Afraid of Cory Wolf?": Season 2, Episode 6

Many shows attempt the "special" (read: awkward) puberty episode, but "Boy Meets World" tops the list. This episode finds our young Cory growing hair in places he "doesn't see are really gonna help."

Older brother, Eric, obviously, manipulates Cory, who had been bitten by an unknown animal the night before, into believing a wolf that escaped from the zoo bit him and thus he would transform into a werewolf. A psychic, played by the brilliant Phyllis Diller, confirms this gruesome fate, and leads Cory to believe he will kill Topanga in his animal form.

Our noble hero avoids her like the plague and cowers in his room, recording his last days in a diary to caution others about his fate, until he finds out that "raging hormones" is not a ride (as he thought), but what was causing the werewolf-like change.

2. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Fear, Itself": Season 4, Episode 4

While many critics have hailed season 2's "Halloween" as one of the great Halloween episodes of all time, they tend to overlook season four's far superior "Fear, Itself." In the episode, the Scooby gang gets trapped in a frat house, living out their worst fears at the hands of a fear demon one of the fraternity brothers unknowingly summoned.

This sets the stage for the exploration of those fears throughout the rest of the season. "Fear, Itself" also has plenty of the trademark humor that made "Buffy" a cult phenomenon during its seven-year run, introducing the running joke of vengeance demon-turned-human Anya's fear of bunnies.

This, in turn, is the gateway for the beginning of one of the show's great odd-couple pairings: Anya and Giles. The classic episode has everything fans love about "Buffy," promising laughs, screams and plenty of witty banter.

1. "The Simpsons," "Treehouse of Horrors V": Season 6, Episode 6

"The Simpsons" is famous for its Halloween episodes, and "Treehouse of Horrors V" shows why, as one of the most violent and simultaneously funniest, episodes of the show. The violence came in response to Congress' statement against violence on television that was released that year.

Of the three vignettes, "The Shinning" is probably the most superior. The parody of the Steven King novel and subsequent Stanley Kubrick film, "The Shining," shows Homer driven insane without beer or TV, and the writers' take on Jack Nicholson's legendary performance is hilarious.

Of course, "Time and Punishment" in which Homer fixes the toaster and it becomes a time machine, is great in its own right, with its take on the effect of changing the past that ends with an alternate reality where the Simpsons eat with frog-like tongues. "Nightmare Cafeteria," with the cannibalistic teachers eating students, is the most violent of the vignettes, and I'm sure it taught Congress not to mess with "The Simpsons."

So there you have it. Now go dust off those old DVDs and get watching!