TV Specials (Movie Challenge pt. 3)

 

On to the third part of my Movie Challenge and for this segment I have chosen: TV Specials. I have defined the topic as TV shows that have a one-off Halloween special that differs to the usual genre that dominates each week. One of the easiest challenges I've done so far, read on to discover my choices. Beware, spoilers are aplenty in this article...

 1) Quantum Leap: The Boogieman (S03, E05)

When I came up with this topic, the first TV Show that came to mind was Quantum Leap. Not a show that usually revolves around all things supernatural, it features the main character of Dr. Sam Beckett, a Scientist who manages to create a time-traveling experience using quantum physics. This involves Sam leaping into people of the past, trying to right things that went wrong in the original history. Unfortunately, as things tend to do in Science Fiction, the experiment goes wrong, leaving Sam jumping from person to person, and not being able to return home. His only guide is Al, his friend from the present, who appears as a hologram and gives all the background checks and future outcome to ensure each leap is a success. Once Sam has completed his intended mission, he leaps into the next subject, where the process starts again. The show touches on who exactly is leaping Sam into each person: is it science or actually a bigger, unseen, supernatural force that nobody is definite on?

 This question leads to this episode: The Boogieman. Sam has leapt into Joshua Ray, a writer who specialises in horror. The date is 31st October 1964 and strange things are afoot. Sam is still trying to figure out why he has leapt into this situation, when a tragic accident occurs and Sam is unable to prevent the death of a handyman. As Sam wonders why he wasn't able to prevent the accident, Al appears but is not able to provide much information. Unfortunately, more and more unusual events occur, with the incidents culminating in the sheriff's death. Al is convinced that Mary, Joshua's fiancee, is responsible and is determined to prove this to Sam, who remains unconvinced. They go to Mary's house, not noticing when her address of 966 Salem Avenue, changes to 666 Salem Avenue. Sam informs Mary that the sheriff has died, to Mary's disbelief as she tells him that the sheriff is in the kitchen. Sam confronts the sheriff and grabs his throat, causing the sheriff to shift into Al. Sam explains how all the things that 'Al' has been doing were contrary to the real Al. As things come to a head, Sam suddenly awakes at the bottom of the stairs in his house, going right back to the start of the episode, implying all events that have occurred prior were all from Sam's mind.

I absolutely love Quantum Leap, I grew up watching it and have fond memories of watching the series with my family. While I cannot remember this episode per se, I have heard of it since and the impact it has had on audiences. I love the twist that the person known as Al, was never really him throughout the episode and infact was a more sinister force, counteracting the positive force that Sam believes is leaping him about time. The realisation of this from the audience is a powerful emotion, taking a beloved character and twisting it to make him appear the enemy. I can write about Quantum Leap all day, but fortunately for you, I'm going to stop here and urge you to watch the series for yourselves.

2) Boy Meets World: And Then There Was Shawn (S05, E17)

Another 90s classic I grew up with, this time a sitcom. Boy Meets World follows Cory Matthews, a teenager trying to survive high school, along with his long-term girlfriend, Topanga and his best friend Shawn, all the while coping with his older wacky brother, Eric.

This episode was chosen due to its homage to as many horror classics as possible in a half-hour sitcom aimed at teenagers. The episode starts with the group in class, taught by everyone's favourite teacher: Mr Feeny. Due to Cory and Topanga's recent breakup, tensions run high and the class becomes disruptive, leading to Mr Feeney putting the main characters into detention: Cory, Topanga, Shawn, Shawn's on/off girlfriend Angela are all punished, along with a character, Kenny, that the audience is not familiar with. Mr Feeny makes his excuses and leaves the detention room, which triggers a series of strange events: blood on the chalkboard is the first strange occurrance. This leads to the group discussing who would be the first victim, as each event starts resembling a slasher film, almost breaking the fourth wall by suggesting it'd be Kenny ('Well, Kenny, it's certainly not going to be any of us'). Even South Park is referenced during the half hour (I'll let you guess which famous line gets spoken, or screamed, by one of the main characters). By this point Eric and his college roommate Jack, have somehow joined the chaos and following Shawn's lead from his knowledge of horror movies, the group try to figure what is happening and what is going to happen next. Unfortunately for them, that is when the unexpected starts to happen: Mr Feeny is discovered murdered, as is the next suspect: the creepy Janitor. As Shawn becomes more confused, due to events diverting from the typical horror film, the group winds up in the library. The masked killer confronts the only survivors: Cory, Topanga and Shawn, with Shawn mustering up the courage to unmask the killer; transpiring that it was Shawn all along, with the implications that Shawn is self-sabotaging himself and others. It is here that Shawn wakes up, back in the classroom with the others, and explains to Cory and Topanga that he is to blame for their break-up. Cory and Topanga reassure Shawn that this is not the case, and he is not to blame for things out of his control.

An unusual choice, in that it is a sitcom and most of the events are played for laughs. Yet, this episode is still able to produce a tribute to horror films from those who are clearly fans of the genre. I was surprised to discover that this episode was not used as a halloween special, making each event a surprise to the audience due to it differing from the usual weekly installments. Each shoutout to a horror film is a wink to the audience, with even an appearance of Jennifer Love Hewitt (as character Jennifer Love Fefferman) who was the star of I Know What You Did Last Summer, around the same time. Again there is a great use of a twist, with it being used as a lesson to one of the characters, and perhaps maybe towards some audiences. And Then There Was Shawn manages to cram a lot of references to the slasher subgenre, which was starting to become the trend again at that time, and it manages to tribute the genre perfectly, mixed with a lot of humour.

3) Dawson's Creek: Four Scary Stories (S05, E05)

For my third choice, I chose to revisit a TV series that would regularly feature Halloween episodes. It helps that the creator of the series happened to be Kevin Williamson, he who had written Scream which had premiered only a couple of years prior.
Another TV show centering on teenagers trying to survive high school. Unlike Boy Meets World, however, Dawson's Creek focused on the dramatic, angsty side of the formulative years. It follows the main character of Dawson, a film-loving student who is in love with his good pal, Joey, a 16 year old girl who doesn't seem to feel the same way.

This episode takes place during the college years; the students have all graduated and moved on, mostly to college. This episode focuses mostly on Joey, Pacey (Dawson's friend from school) and Jack, another friend. All three have just returned from the movies where they discuss how unaffected they are by modern horror films. From this, they start discussing their own experiences with the supernatural, turning the episode into a one-off anthology. Joey starts with her story of being left alone in the library with a man who will not stop staring at her, and seemingly stalking her. Eventually, the twist is that the nice library assistant was the predator all along and the man staring, was only looking out for Joey. After this tale ends, Jack tells his own creepy story: his time at a fraternity involved coming across a pledge in the frat house, who had been locked in a cupboard and mistreated. The pledge explains to Jack he's being treated this way by the others because of his sexuuality, to which Jack expresses confusion as Jack himself is gay and has had nothing but positivity from the other members of the fraternity. As Jack goes to get the pledge a drink, he comes across an old photo from the 1950s with, you guessed it, the pledge that Jack had been conversing with. From Jack's confusion, he stumbles in the room to give the pledge his drink, only to find that he is no longer there and Jack was by himself. Pacey's turn is next and here he tells a tale that is based on an urban legend: driving down a road at night, Pacey and his friend see someone driving without their headlights, prompting to signal to the driver with his own headlights. As his friend has heard stories about this before, she's worried the driver will try to bump them off the road. While Pacey is dismissing this concern, the car approaches the pair and aggresively chases them until they manage to lose him. They go to a diner to phone for assistance, after discovering their cellphones have no signal. Upon entering the diner, however, they soon discover the locals are not welcoming and that the car that was chasing them, had entered the parking lot. As they get to the car, the chase begins again, leading to the creepy car to crash and when Pacey and friend approach the car, they discover nobody at the driver's wheel.
As the trio disucsses which of their tale is creepier, one of the character's grandmother joins the discussion. She has her own tale to share, that of her granddaughter Jen. Jen works at the college radio station and one night, during the night shift, she gets locked out of the building. After trying her best to get back in, Jen eventually rejoins the show. During her radio talk, a body flies through the screen of the room, which abruptly ends the tale.

I used to be a fan of Dawson's Creek when it first started but started to lose interest as the series progressed. I chose to view this episode as I liked the concept of an anthology show within a show, and it was a nice break from the usual heartbreak drama the show focused on week, after week. I found all of the tales predictable however, and was not very satisfied. I was more confused by the last tale than anything, I wasn't sure if the person coming through the radio station's window was supposed to be alive or dead or if they were implying that Jen, an original character, was doomed by this incident. It was fun to see a diversion from the usual plotlines, which I remember used to drag a lot, but overall I did not feel satisfied.

4) Documentary Now! Sandy Passage (S01 E01)

My fourth choice isn't what most people think of when thinking 'Halloween Specials'. In fact at first glance, it may be hard to see why I have chosen this particular episode at all. But it is all in the details.

Documentary Now! is a television series created by Seth Meyers, Fred Armisen and Bill Hader, all alumni of the famous variety TV Show: Saturday Night Live. Each episode featured in Documentary Now! is a loving tribute to famous documentaries that have aired in the past. The show is done with subtle comedy, not spoofing the documentaries in an obvious way but painstakingly recreated, with an edge of sometimes dark humour. Nothing shows dark humour more than the episode of Sandy Passage, which is a tribute to the documentary Grey Gardens, featuring a mother and daughter, relatives to Jackie Kennedy. In Documentary Now!'s version, the two characters are 'Big Vivvie' Van Kimpton (Fred Armisen) and 'Little Vivvie' Van Kimpton (Bill Hader), two aging socialites living in a dilapidated estate. The episode starts with the usual plot: following the two eccentric ladies in their lives with interviews. However, little nuggets of information dropped by the mother and daughter lead to the two documentary makers to become increasingly uncomfortable: the strange photo album that Big Vivvie refuses to share on camera; Little Vivvie's comments on previous errand boys; the police showing up to question the whereabouts of the missing errand boys and the overall strange vibe that the two are giving out. As the two filmmakers start to investigate around the house, they are stopped by Little Vivvie, who innocently seems to invite them to see something in the basement. The two men reluctantly follow and stumble upon a horror scene, leading them to run away from Little Vivvie, right into Big Vivvie. One of them manages to get away, only finding himself to be trapped. He is eventually cornered by the mother-daughter duo, and it soon becomes apparent what has happened to the previous missing men.

Before watching Documentary Now! I honestly did not know what to expect. Due to Fred Armisen's involvement, I was expecting slapstick humour, with an obvious spoof atmosphere. On watching the show, especially opening with Sandy Passage, I was left pleasantly surprised and amused by each episode. The attention to detail in each episode is done beautifully, from the cinematography to the characters and it is obvious that each episode was done out of respect for each existing documentary. The twist in Sandy Passage is the one that cements the episode and helps to make it even more memorable, adding their own flavour to the famous documentary. The subtlety, and the very dark humour, of the ending is what makes the episode work and which is why I'm including it in an article about Halloween TV episodes. I implore you to watch the series to see the ingeniuty of the three creators on display.

5) Community: Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps (S03, E05)

For my final choice, I decided to choose Community. Now, I've only seen the first season of Community and have always wanted to continue with the series but never have had the opportunity. I know, however, that Community is famed for their episodes, especially their Halloween specials and Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps seemed like the perfect episode to sink my teeth back into.

Community follows Jeff, a former Lawyer who has been suspended from practicing the law when it transpires that he lied about obtaining a degree from a prestigious university. He is forced to attend a local community college to earn an actual degree, leading him to come across a group of quirky individuals. There's Britta, an activist, who always spurs his advances; Abed, a wannabe-film director who geeks out to pop culture; Shirley, a religious single mother; Annie, a high-achiever who crashed and burned after desperately trying to succeed in high school; Troy, the jock of the group; and finally Pierce, a middle-aged, former tycoon who displays inappropriate comments at times, aimed at women and minorities. During this Halloween Special, Britta has the results from a previous given psych test that she gave each member of the group. She confides in Jeff that one of them displays psychopathic tendencies and tries to determine which one of their friends could be a psychopath in disguise. After telling a tale that is supposed to design to elicit responses from the group in order for Britta to figure which is the culprit, the tale does not have the feedback Britta is expecting. Instead each person tells their own version of a spooky tale, starting with Abed whose tale is very practical and sensible, with an outcome that guarantees the safety of the two characters. After that tale has ended, Annie interrupts with her own version as she wasn't satisfied with Abed's. Annie's tale involves a vampire who gets taught by Annie to read. Unfortunately, for Annie, this does not curb the vampire's thirst and as he tries to feed on her, Annie turns into a werewolf and tears the vampire apart. On the group's shock at Annie's gory tale, Troy tells a story of he and Abed being fighter pilots who encounter a crazy scientist after crashing their plane. The crazy scientist (Pierce in the story) sews Troy and Abed together, which leads to them uprising and ambushing Pierce, by sewing his hands to his feet and vice-versa. Next is Pierce's turn for a story-telling: in it he plays a suave man with three girlfriends (Annie, Shirley and Britta). He gets home-invaded by two thugs (Abed and Troy) who he manages to beat with his, erm, manhood. Off the ridiculousness of that unrealistic tale, Shirley tells one of a party of wild, young adults who are drunk and taking drugs. The rapture occurs and Shirley arrives as an angel to ward off the devil. The group all exclaim their gratitude and beg for Shirley to take them with her. Shirley refuses and leaves the group to defend for themselves. After the tales have finished, Britta explains why she has gathered each person and they find out the results of the test...

Community had me laughing a lot more than I thought it would, especially with some of the humour involved. All in all, it was a clever twist on modern horror tropes and done in a very entertaining way. Each character is engaging, if not infuriating at times and it was enjoyable to see the show poking fun at ghost stories and people's reactions to it.

Part 3 of this challenge has been my favourite so far. I've managed to revisit old television shows that I have not thought of in awhile and each show has brought memories flooding back. I love the concept of a television show diverting from its usual premise to keep an audience entertained around Halloween season. Comedies, in particular, are a highlight, as they are able to parody horror in pop-culture, where it's clear the creators are fans of the genre and wanted to create a tribute in their own way.