The Halloween Podcast

60 years ago today, on October 27, 1966, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown first aired on television, beginning a Halloween tradition that generations of families have cherished ever since! Today, we're celebrating that extraordinary anniversary with a very special guest: Sally Dryer, who brought Lucy Van Pelt to life in It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! Sally joins Meghan and Lyle to share her memories of bringing one of the most iconic characters in television history to life, working on those beloved early Peanuts specials, and becoming part of a Halloween tradition that has endured for six decades. From Lucy's un...

Lyle and Meghan are taking a deep dive into “The Girl Who Stood on a Grave,” the classic story from Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

A childhood Halloween record, a classroom full of children learning to spell Halloween, and a song that's still delighting a new generation more than fifty years later!

Today, Meghan introduces Lyle to one of her most treasured childhood Halloween memories: Kay Lande and Wade Denning's 1969 album Halloween: Games, Songs and Stories.

From its wonderfully spooky sound effects and memorable children's voices to the music teacher who introduced Meghan to “Halloween Macabre,” we're exploring the history behind this charming collection of Halloween songs, stories and games.

We'll also discover how these recordings found new life...

There are some television shows that stay with you long after you've switched off the TV, and for an entire generation of Xennial kids, Unsolved Mysteries was certainly one of them!

This time, Meghan and Lyle revisit the iconic Robert Stack series, its unforgettable theme music, and the genuinely frightening ghost stories that made it such a memorable part of our childhoods. From the show's 1988 Halloween-week episode to its supernatural mysteries of 1990 and 1992, we're looking back at the hauntings, historical locations, and eerie reenactments that kept us glued to our televisions—even when we knew we'd probably re...

Lyle and Meghan are back with another Xennial Countdown to Halloween episode, and this time we're revisiting a childhood Halloween favourite that Meghan first discovered during her adolescence! We're heading to Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches to explore the 1986 television film The Worst Witch, starring Fairuza Balk, Diana Rigg, Charlotte Rae and Tim Curry.

Based on Jill Murphy's 1974 children's novel, this distinctly British production became a Halloween tradition for many American Xennials thanks to HBO. We explore the film's wonderful cast, its rather unusual boarding-school setting, the challenges facing poor Mildred Hubble, and what made this little...

Remember when Halloween wasn't just something you saw in stores, but something that took over your television screen? For Xennials, those wonderfully spooky, silly, and sometimes downright bizarre commercials were as much a part of the Halloween season as trick-or-treating, costumes, and our favorite Halloween specials!

Today, Meghan and Lyle are taking a trip down memory lane to count down their personal Top 5 Halloween commercials from their Xennial childhoods, along with a few honorable mentions that were simply too good to leave out. From catchy jingles to memorable characters and commercials we haven't seen in decades but...

What happens when Disney takes some of the biggest hits of the 1960s, 70s and 80s, pairs them with decades of classic animation, and gives the whole thing a wonderfully spooky makeover? You get Disney's DTV Monster Hits, a 1987 television special that might just be one of the greatest Xennial Halloween mixtapes ever assembled!

Today, Meghan revisits one of her most treasured childhood Halloween favorites, while Lyle experiences it for the first time. From the rise of MTV to the surprising stories behind some of the songs, we're exploring the music, the nostalgia, and the wonderfully strange combinations...

Lyle is counting down his Top 10 Halloween sitcom episodes of all time, revisiting the shows and episodes that helped make Halloween television such a big part of growing up.

There are haunted houses, Halloween parties, costumes, scares, and plenty of clas...

Lyle and Meghan are taking a deep dive into one of the most iconic music videos ever made: Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

They look back at the song, the making of the video, John Landis’ direction, the horror-movie influences, the unforgettable choreography, and Vincent Price’s legendary spoken-word performance. They also talk about how Thriller blurred the line between music video and short film, how heavily it leaned into classic monster imagery, and why it became such a permanent part of Halloween culture.

Along the way, Lyle shares his own memories of being scared by the vi...

yle and Meghan are digging into another story from Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark: “The Teeth.”

They look at the story itself, the strange image at the center of it, and where Schwartz may have drawn his inspiration from. From older folklore and printed sources to similar tales involving frightening strangers and exaggerated teeth, they follow the trail behind the story and compare those earlier versions to the one generations of readers came to know from Scary Stories.

Along the way, they talk about what makes “The Teeth” so simple, so bizarre...

Whatever happened to those three missing student filmmakers who ventured into the Maryland woods in 1999? In Part Two of our Xennial Countdown to Halloween special, Meghan and Lyle are joined once again by Special Guest Curtis Andersen of Sabrina the Teenage Witch to revisit The Blair Witch Project (1999) and explore its extraordinary influence on modern horror.

We're taking a trip back to the early days of the internet, when a clever marketing campaign had audiences questioning what was real and what wasn't. From its improvised performances and handheld camerawork to its unsettling realism and innovative approach to...

Halloween was growing up right along with us in the 1990s, and so were the horror movies! In Part One of this two-part Xennial Countdown to Halloween, Meghan and Lyle welcome back Special Guest Curtis Andersen of Sabrina the Teenage Witch to revisit two films that helped define a generation: The Craft (1996) and Scream (1996).

From Hollywood's fascination with witchcraft and the darker side of teenage life to the revival of the slasher film and the rise of Ghostface as a Halloween icon, we're exploring the movies, memories, and pop culture moments that helped shape our teenage Halloweens...

In today's Xennial Countdown to Halloween, Meghan and Lyle revisit Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), the beloved stop-motion musical that introduced audiences to Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King, and the wonderfully strange world of Halloween Town.

From Henry Selick's extraordinary stop-motion animation and Danny Elfman's unforgettable music to the film's delightfully macabre characters and unmistakable Halloween atmosphere, we're exploring what makes this seasonal favorite so enduring. We'll also share our own reactions to the film, including the things we love, the things that don't quite work for us, and why appreciating a classic doesn't necessarily mean...

Lyle and Meghan are joined by actress and musician Shay Astar for a special Xennial Countdown interview looking back at some of her most memorable roles.

Shay shares stories from filming the 1991 Halloween favorite Ernest Scared Stupid, including her experience playing Elizabeth and what it was like being part of a movie that has become a seasonal favorite for an entire generation. She also talks about her time as August on 3rd Rock from the Sun, along with other moments from her career in television, film, and music.

It’s a conversation filled with behind-the-scenes me...

We’re heading back to the Disney Halloween television specials that helped make October magical for a generation of kids! 

This time, Meghan and Lyle are joined by Special Guests Kalyn Andrews and Christian Baxter Mott, hosts of That’s Pretty Dark, to revisit Disney’s Halloween Treat (1982) and A Disney Halloween (1983). 

From familiar Disney characters and delightfully spooky animation to childhood memories and the surprisingly dark side of Disney, we’re exploring what made these Halloween compilations so memorable — and why they still hold a special place in our October traditions. 

It’s a nostalgic t...

Lyle and Meghan are joined by Brian Earl from Christmas Past: A Christmas Podcast for a trip back into the world of Scooby-Doo and the spooky mysteries that made the franchise such a natural fit for Halloween.

They talk about the classic series, the ghosts, monsters, haunted houses, and masked villains that helped make Scooby-Doo such a huge part of growing up. Along the way, the three share their memories of the franchise, favorite characters and episodes, and why Scooby and the gang still feel right at home during the Halloween season.

19 days until Halloween!<...

Lyle is heading back to the ’80s for a look at ALF and its Halloween episode, Season 2, Episode 6, “Some Enchanted Evening.”

Along the way, Lyle and Gerry share their memories of the series and look at how well this Hallowe...

Lyle and Meghan are revisiting Once Upon a Midnight Scary, the 1979 television special hosted by Vincent Price and built around three classic spooky stories.

21 days until...

Lyle and Meghan are saying his name three times and heading into the strange, colorful world of Beetlejuice. This time, they’re looking back at both the 1988 movie and the animated series that became a favorite for kids growing up in the late ’80s and ’90s.

Lyle and Meghan are heading back to 1979 for a look at Casper’s Halloween Special, a classic animated Halloween special featuring everyone’s favorite friendly ghost.

23 days until Halloween!

Follow The Halloween Podcast:

Website: www.TheHalloweenPodcast.com
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/TheH...

Lyle and Meghan are digging into one of the sweetest parts of Halloween nostalgia: the treats that made the season taste like Halloween. From trick-or-treat bags and candy aisles to wonderfully weird novelty foods and seasonal favorites, they’re each counting down their personal Top 5 Halloween treats.

Along the way, they share the memories behind their choices, compare favorites, and make room for a few honorable mentions that didn't quite crack their Top 5. It’s a sugar-fueled trip through Halloween past and present—and a celebration of the treats that helped make the season feel special.

24 d...

Lyle and Meghan continue the Xennial Countdown to Halloween with LVCRFT — Evan “Kidd” Bogart, Amanda “MNDR” Warner, and Peter Wade — and Special Guest Katharine Isabelle. Together, they head back into the Halloween world they grew up with and explore some of the sounds and spooky pop culture that helped make the season what it was for a generation of Xennials.

They also dive into LVCRFT’s eighth album, Skeleton Sam’s Deadtime Stories, featuring an incredible collection of familiar faces and voices from the horror world, including Katharine on “Sweet Kristine.” It’s a conversation about growing up with Halloween, cre...

Lyle and Meghan welcome British composer and sound designer Leigh Haggerwood to The Halloween Podcast to explore something we hear every October but rarely stop to think about: the sounds that make Halloween spooky. Leigh has spent decades working professionally in music and sound, with credits across British television, live productions, commercials, and sound design, while also creating Halloween and horror soundscapes heard by listeners around the world.

From childhood trick-or-treating in London to creating imaginary haunted worlds entirely through sound, Leigh joins us for a fascinating conversation about the language of spooky audio, Britain’s centuries-old tr...

Under the Umbrella Tree was a cozy fixture of Meghan’s childhood Disney Channel viewing, but this Canadian children’s favorite is completely new to Lyle. For the Xennial Countdown, they revisit Holly, Iggy, Gloria and Jacob—and the wonderfully simple Halloween special that brought the holiday into their already delightfully unusual household. 

From costumes and trick-or-treating to a little practical Halloween safety and some wonderfully witchy fun, this is the kind of seasonal television that could make an already-beloved childhood show feel even more special. Meghan revisits a Halloween memory she hasn’t forgotten, while Lyle discovers...

Witch’s Night Out is one of Meghan’s beloved childhood Halloween specials — a wonderfully weird Canadian cartoon from 1978 featuring Gilda Radner as an eccentric Witch who can make a couple of kids’ Halloween dreams come spectacularly true. Meghan still watches it every year and is now introducing it to her own children. 

Lyle, however, had somehow never seen it. So Meghan takes him to Anytown for the first time to talk about the distinctive animation, that unforgettable opening song, a surprisingly recognizable voice cast, and why this peculiar little special has remained part of her Halloween for so ma...

Actor Curtis Andersen, who played Gordy on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, joins Meghan and Lyle for a trip through Halloween horror! Curtis puts together a movie watch list every year leading up to Halloween, so we’re talking about some of his annual go-tos alongside a few films that earned an important place in horror history.

How did horror movies become such a big part of the way we celebrate Halloween? We’re talking scary movie traditions, Halloween nostalgia, and the films we find ourselves coming back to when October rolls around. Plus, Curtis shares his own Hall...

CONTENT WARNING: This episode discusses murder, cannibalism, and harm to children and animals. Parental discretion is advised before listening with children.

Today, Meghan and Lyle sink their teeth into “Wonderful Sausage,” a particularly gruesome tale collected by Alvin Schwartz in Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones (1991), with unforgettable illustrations by Stephen Gammell.

What makes Samuel Blunt’s sausages so wonderfully delicious? You might wish you hadn’t asked! Lyle also traces the story’s folkloric roots to the Ozarks and Louisiana as we explore where this deliciously disturbing tale came from.

30 days until...

Lyle is taking Meghan back to his childhood with a Halloween cassette she had never heard before: Peter & the Werewolf! This vintage Fun World recording combines spooky storytelling with the wonderfully eerie sound effects that made Halloween so much fun for Xennial kids.

Join us as Lyle shares his memories of this childhood favorite and Meghan discovers what she's been missing all these years. It's a little Halloween nostalgia, a little old-fashioned storytelling, and a reminder that sometimes the simplest things can still give us a good scare!

31 days until Halloween!

Listen here...

Jason Marsden joins us for today’s Xennial Countdown to Halloween! You know Jason from an incredible list of films and television shows, including A Goofy Movie, Eerie, Indiana, and very importantly around here Hocus Pocus.

We had an absolute blast talking with Jason, who is genuinely one of the nicest guys you could hope to meet. We get into some of those Xennial favorites, spend plenty of time talking Hocus Pocus and Eerie, Indiana, and hear a few stories along the way — but we’re not spoiling those here. You’ll have to listen!

32 days unt...

Today on the Xennial Countdown to Halloween, Meghan and Lyle are heading to one of the strangest little towns of the early 1990s: Eerie, Indiana. Premiering on NBC in 1991, the series followed 13-year-old Marshall Teller as he tried to document the increasingly bizarre things happening around him in a place where almost everyone else seemed perfectly happy to accept the weirdness as normal.

Meghan remembers watching Eerie, Indiana as a kid—most likely during its later run on The Disney Channel—but remembers surprisingly little about it, so she and Lyle revisit what made this short-lived series so u...

Buttons and Rusty are heading into Halloween for the first time, and the young bear and fox quickly discover that humans have some very strange October traditions.

Meghan revisits a childhood favorite filled with trick-or-treating, witches, a pair of criminals, and one ridiculously catchy title song. And given her mild childhood obsession with “woodland animals” — something friends and family can readily attest to — putting a bear and a fox into a Halloween special was really stacking the deck. Meanwhile, Lyle experiences Which Witch Is Which? for the first time.

34 days until Halloween!

Watch it here...

Garfield loves food, hates Mondays, and discovers that Halloween may be the perfect holiday for one very important reason: candy.

Today, Meghan and Lyle are watching Garfield’s Halloween Adventure for the first time. Neither grew up with this 1985 special, but after hearing generations of Xennials talk about creepy old houses, ghostly pirates, and one surprisingly spooky Halloween night, it was time to find out what they missed.

We’re talking homemade costumes, trick-or-treating, Lou Rawls, Garfield’s questionable candy ethics, and the moment this funny neighborhood Halloween adventure turns into a genuinely creepy ghost story...

Who ya gonna call? For Xennials, Ghostbusters was far more than a 1984 movie. The film became a full-blown childhood phenomenon, with its unmistakable logo, proton packs, Ecto-1, ghosts, toys, cartoons and one of the most recognizable theme songs of the decade.

Today, Lyle and Meghan revisit the original Ghostbusters and The Real Ghostbusters, looking at the strange combination of comedy and the supernatural that made the franchise so much fun—and helped it find a permanent home at Halloween despite the movie having nothing whatsoever to do with the holiday. And with both animated Ghostbusters series that de...

Alvin Schwartz told us that “The Trouble,” from Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones, was true. And behind the story that terrified a generation of young readers was a real family, a real police investigation, and a strange series of events that unfolded on Long Island in 1958.

Meghan and Lyle revisit “The Trouble” and dig into the real Seaford poltergeist case that inspired it, separating Schwartz’s version from the historical record and exploring the investigation that captured national attention.

37 days until Halloween!

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Website: www.TheHallowe...

What happens when Bugs Bunny takes on Halloween?

Witches, vampires, monsters, potions, trick-or-treating and one extremely eventful Halloween night — Bugs Bunny’s Howl-oween Special takes some of the spookiest corners of classic Looney Tunes and somehow turns them into one delightfully chaotic Halloween adventure.

Meghan and Lyle head back to 1977 to revisit this spooky seasonal special, talk about how it all came together, and spend some time with Bugs Bunny, Witch Hazel and a collection of familiar faces getting into some very strange Halloween trouble.

38 days until Halloween!

Watch it here: http...

Yesterday, we revisited the original Goosebumps books that terrified, delighted, and completely took over the bookshelves of a generation. Today, we’re joined by the artist responsible for the images we saw before we ever turned the first page.

Special Guest Tim Jacobus, the original cover illustrator for R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series, joins us to talk about creating some of the most instantly recognizable book covers of the 1990s.

Tim takes us inside his creative process and shares what went into giving Goosebumps its wonderfully weird, creepy, colorful visual identity. We also discover wher...

For Xennial kids, few books were as instantly recognizable as Goosebumps. That dripping logo, those gloriously strange covers, the Scholastic book fairs and book orders — and 62 original stories that helped make being scared ridiculously fun.

Today, Meghan and Lyle are going back to the original Goosebumps series from 1992–1997 and remembering what it was like to discover these books as kids. From the stories and monsters that stayed with us to the unmistakable artwork that practically demanded you pick up the book, we're celebrating the original series and the particular kind of childhood horror that made Goosebumps a 1990s ph...

Can we really call something a proper holiday if Rankin/Bass didn’t make a television special for it?

Today we’re digging up one of the stranger corners of Rankin/Bass history with Jack O’Lantern, the wonderfully weird 1972 Halloween installment of Festival of Family Classics. It’s new to Lyle, relatively new to Meghan, and packed with pumpkins, witches, warlocks, scarecrows, supernatural mayhem and enough aggressively stage-Irish folklore to make Meghan — after living in Ireland with her Irish husband and spending rather a lot of her academic life specializing in Irish and British history — want to apologize...

Some Halloween specials become childhood traditions. Others somehow pass you by completely — and then, years later, you finally discover what everyone has been talking about.

Today Meghan introduces Lyle to Fat Albert’s Halloween Special, a 1977 Halloween favorite that neither of us actually grew up watching. Meghan only discovered it as an adult after hearing it repeatedly mentioned among beloved classic Halloween television — and, much to her delight, she loved it.

We’re talking wonderfully old-school homemade costumes, Halloween mischief, Mudfoot remembering the supposedly better — and considerably less safety-conscious — Halloweens of his childhood, a spooky house near t...

They’re creepy, they’re kooky, and for both of us, they’re pretty much perfect.

Today on the Xennial Countdown to Halloween, we’re revisiting The Addams Family (1991), starring Anjelica Huston, Raúl Juliá, Christopher Lloyd and Christina Ricci.

The Addamses had already been delightfully strange for decades by the time they reached the big screen, but for a lot of Xennials, this was our Addams Family—and Meghan and Lyle both absolutely love this film.

We’re looking back at what made this wonderfully macabre family so much fun to grow up with, why t...