31 Best Classic TV Halloween Episodes Ever: ‘M*A*S*H,’ ‘Bewitched,’ ‘Happy Days’ & More
TV’s fascination with Halloween started early. It is believed that the first Halloween episode aired way back in 1931 as part of a long-lost series, The Television Ghost, which aired on the experimental New York TV station W2XAB (now WCBS), with ghost storyteller George Kelting spooking onlookers of the nascent medium. Thankfully, many other episodes have stood the test of time — including these 31 vintage treats.
From Michael Landon as a werewolf on Highway to Heaven to even the occupants of 1313 Mockingbird Lane celebrating Halloween, classic TV shows knew how to celebrate the season. Take a nostalgic trip back to some of the most memorable Halloween episodes from beloved sitcoms and series, featuring fan-favorite characters getting into some frightfully fun situations.
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
“Halloween Party” (October 31, 1952): Ozzie and neighbor Thorny (Don DeFore) plan an adult Halloween party with “typical masculine efficiency,” except they forget to decide on a place or bring refreshments. Look for a pre-Leave It to Beaver Jerry Mathers as a trick-or-treater.
The Honeymooners
“Halloween Party” (October 31, 1953): Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) erupts over the revealing Zulu costume Alice (Audrey Meadows) made him for the boss’ Halloween party, so he rips up his tuxedo to go as a bum. Only problem: The party is fancy dress.
Lassie
Everett Collection
“The Witch” (October 30, 1955): Jeff (Tommy Rettig) and his pal Porky are convinced the weird neighbor lady Sarah Dibbles is a witch, and when Lassie gets sick, the boys ask her to reverse the curse. (Turns out she has a home brew that does the trick.)
Dennis the Menace
“Haunted House” (October 29, 1961): Mr. Wilson (Joseph Kearns) and Henry Mitchell (Herbert Anderson) buy a house they believe is haunted, only to learn it’s a hobo (Rhoda‘s Howard Gould) going “boo.” The Carol Burnett Show‘s Harvey Korman plays the shady real estate agent making the deal.
My Three Sons
“The Ghost Next Door” (October 25, 1962): Chip (Stanley Livingston) is the boy who cried “ghost” when he and his pal Sudsy (Ricky Allen) go trick-or-treating and are spooked when they see a candle moving in the window of a supposedly empty house. Why won’t anyone believe them?
The Andy Griffith Show
Everett Collection
“The Haunted House” (October 7, 1963): Opie (Ron Howard) turns to the grownups when he hits a baseball into a house rumored to be haunted. When Barney (Don Knotts) and Gomer (Jim Nabors) investigate, they’re scared away — until Andy (Andy Griffith) realizes the scare tactics are a front for Otis Campbell’s (Hal Smith) secret still. This is said to have inspired Knotts’ 1966 hit The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.
The Munsters
“Munster Masquerade” (September 24, 1964): It’s always Halloween for this ghoulish family. In the pilot episode, they attend a masquerade party in costume — Herman (Fred Gwynne) as King Arthur, Lily (Yvonne De Carlo) as Little Bo Peep — and wonder why the host, dressed as Frankenstein’s monster, didn’t bother wearing one.
The Addams Family
“Halloween With the Addams Family” (October 30, 1964): Two robbers (one played by Don Rickles) get more than they bargained for, including bobbing for live crab, when they hide from the police as guests of the Addams family holiday party. And how do the Addams kids dress for Halloween? For Wednesday, a fancy dress, and for Pugsley, a proper suit.
The Dick Van Dyke Show
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“The Ghost of A. Chantz” (September 30, 1964): Rob (Dick Van Dyke), Laura (Mary Tyler Moore), Buddy (Morey Amsterdam) and Sally (Rose Marie) share a reputedly haunted cabin where, one by one, they disappear amid spooky sightings. Classic comedy with a clever twist.
Bewitched
“Trick or Treat” (October 28, 1965): No fan of Halloween and its witchy clichés, Endora (Agnes Moorehead) disguises herself as a child (a pre-Brady Bunch Maureen McCormick) and turns Darrin (Dick York) into a werewolf as payback for roping Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) into hosting a party. A hairy situation.
Gilligan’s Island
“Up at Bat” (September 12, 1966): When a bat bites Gilligan (Bob Denver), he thinks he’ll become a vampire and isolates himself from the other castaways. Cue the elaborate Dracula-inspired dream sequence.
The Wild Wild West
“The Night of the Big Blast” (October 7, 1966): Movie star/director Ida Lupino is the Frankenstein-like Dr. Faustina, who reanimates a corpse that resembles Jim West (Robert Conrad) and sends the super-strong monster to blow up members of the president’s cabinet.
Star Trek
Paramount/Courtesy: Everett Collection.
“Catspaw” (October 27, 1967): Robert Bloch of Psycho fame wrote this creepy episode. Capt. Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) encounter witches, a black cat and other classic frights conjured by aliens who’ve tapped into their subconscious nightmares.
The Beverly Hillbillies
“Ghost of Clampett Castle” (October 23, 1968): Mr. Drysdale (Raymond Bailey) gets a backside full of buckshot when he dresses as a ghost during a séance devised to get Granny (Irene Ryan) and the Clampetts to move back to California from Jed’s inherited British castle. Tally-ho!
Night Gallery
“Fright Night” (October 15, 1972): The only episode of Rod Serling‘s post-Twilight Zone horror anthology set on Halloween involves a couple (Stuart Whitman, Barbara Anderson) who inherit a house with a sinister trunk in the attic with spirits inside that seek to possess them.
The Brady Bunch
“Fright Night” (October 27, 1972): Boys and girls will be boys and girls as the blended siblings pull Halloween pranks on each other. When they gang up to scare Alice (Ann B. Davis), it’s Carol’s (Florence Henderson) sculptured bust of Mike’s (Robert Reed) head that takes the brunt.
McMillan & Wife
“The Devil You Say” (October 21, 1973): Who could mistake a sunny soul like Sally McMillan (Susan Saint James) for a reincarnated witch queen? A satanic cult, that’s who.
Happy Days
ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
“Haunted” (October 29, 1974): The guys throw their Halloween party at an abandoned house where Richie (Ron Howard) thinks he’s seen a headless ghost. Who’s the dummy?
Barney Miller
“Werewolf” (October 28, 1976): A full moon brings more weirdness than usual into the precinct — including a guy who asks to be locked up, claiming he’s a werewolf.
Starsky & Hutch
“The Vampire” (October 30, 1976): Michael Grais and Mark Victor, who would later coauthor the movie Poltergeist, penned this grisly episode that sics the detectives on a fiend who’s been sucking the blood from his victims.
Little House on the Prairie
“The Monster of Walnut Grove” (November 1, 1976): While planning a Halloween prank on the Oleson home, little Laura (Melissa Gilbert) thinks she sees Mr. Oleson cutting off wife Harriet’s head. Say it isn’t so! (It isn’t so.)
The Waltons
“The Changeling” (October 26, 1978): Elizabeth (Kami Cotler) is anxious about turning 13, and her growing pains of puberty appear to have triggered a poltergeist’s spirit.
The Jeffersons
CBS/courtesy Everett Collection
“Now You See It, Now You Don’t” (October 21 and 28, 1979): In a two-part episode with shades of Rear Window, Louise (Isabel Sanford) witnesses a murder across the street through a telescope while everyone’s at a Halloween costume contest.
The Dukes of Hazzard
“The Ghost of General Lee” (October 26, 1979): The reports of Bo’s (John Schneider) and Luke’s (Tom Wopat) deaths are greatly exaggerated when car thieves drive the General Lee into a pond. After the guys learn Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) is taking advantage of the situation, they make their beloved Dodge Charger look ghostly to scare him straight.
Mork & Mindy
ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
“A Morkville Horror” (October 28, 1979): When Mindy’s (Pam Dawber) childhood home is put on the market, spirits emerge that make Mork (Robin Williams) even more manic than usual. But how can you tell when he’s actually possessed?
Magnum, P.I.
“The Woman on the Beach” (October 22, 1981): Rick (Larry Manetti) may have seen a ghost when his new crush vanishes and turns out to have committed suicide 35 years ago. Sounds like a cold case for Magnum (Tom Selleck) to clear up.
M*A*S*H
“Trick or Treatment” (November 1, 1982): The 4077’s Halloween party is interrupted by a wave of patients, including a soldier declared dead who’s anything but.
Highway to Heaven
Everett Collection
“I Was a Middle-Aged Werewolf” (October 28, 1987): Michael Landon pays homage to his 1957 breakthrough in I Was a Teenage Werewolf when Jonathan masks his angelic visage in fur and fangs to help a young trick-or-treater overcome his fears and get back at his mean sister.
St. Elsewhere
“Night of the Living Bed” (October 28, 1987): Inexplicable events on Halloween at the beleaguered Boston hospital lead the staff to believe the bed where longtime patient Mrs. Hufnagel died may be haunted.
MacGyver
“The Secret of Parker House” (October 31, 1988): MacGyver’s (Richard Dean Anderson) pal Penny (Teri Hatcher) inherits a house that appears to be haunted, but the discovery of a human skull leads to a more grounded mystery.
Roseanne
“Boo!” (October 31, 1989): No one celebrated Halloween like the Conner family. The first of their annual extravaganzas finds Roseanne and Dan (John Goodman) competing to be the scariest in their transformed house of horrors. She wins by pretending her mom is coming to visit.
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October 2026
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