There are many reasons why people crave autumn after a hot summer. They’re ready for cozy sweaters once the temperature drops and everyone’s heading to the pumpkin fields to get ready for Halloween. By the time October rolls around, there are horror films playing every night, spooktacular music on every commercial, and the season craves all things scary!
Thanks to IMDb, we’ve taken a look at some of the best Halloween episodes that have graced us on TV. From sitcoms to animation, there’s almost too many to choose from. But by the looks of it, these 10 Halloween-themed episodes deserve all the praise this Halloween season.
MODERN FAMILY: OPEN HOUSE OF HORRORS - 7.9
The fifth episode of the fourth season, this Modern Family Halloween-themed episode was a great one. With viewers giving it a 7.9 out of 10 stars, we see our favorite family groups do their own thing for Halloween.
The Pritchett-Tuckers are hosting a Halloween party with their friends while Phil is stuck showing an older home with the hopes of finding buyers who thought it was enchanting. Throughout the night, we see Claire doing her best to scare Phil while he’s showing the house and the Pritchett-Tucker party getting more dramatic. With Gloria pregnant and angry, Cameron trying to show off his weight loss, and Lily thinking her mother is a princess, the night only gets more chaotic.
NEW GIRL: HALLOWEEN - 7.8
Who doesn’t love when Jessica Day gets ready for a theme? In this New Girl episode, we find Jess working at a haunted house and she invites her hookup buddy Sam to tag along. But in a classic Jess way, she wants to use this visit through the haunted house as an opportunity to tell Sam she wants to be more than hookup buddies.
Meanwhile, Schmidt will do anything to interrupt CeCe’s Halloween date, Nick is excited about rekindling with an old college flame, and Winston is about to go through a breakup. As you can see, there’s a ton of relationship drama on this Halloween night.
EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND: HALLOWEEN CANDY - 8.1
As the sixth episode in the third season, “Halloween Candy” was a high-rating episode for Everybody Loves Raymond. This hilarious episode finds Ray and his wife Debra wanting to make love but need to put it off because they don’t have any more condoms in the house.
They decide to stock up and prepare for a night of love-making after they’re done trick-or-treating with their kiddos. To surprise Deb, Ray goes out and buys a large box of colorful condoms, but when he’s out trick-or-treating, his dad mistakes them for a box of chocolates and begins passing them out to kids as they came to the house!
THE OFFICE: HALLOWEEN - 8.2
The Office has a few Halloween-themed episodes up their sleeves but “Halloween” was the highest-rated episode. As the fifth episode in the second season, Michael has ’til the end of the day to fire someone, which upsets Pam because it’s Halloween and it’s going to put a real damper on the office’s party. In this episode, we learn that Jim despises dressing up for Halloween and so he and Pam spend the whole day pulling a prank of Dwight. Meanwhile, Michael spends the entirety of his day trying to fire people but failing at it.
In the end, we see Michael fire Devon and learn that Pam believes Jim is capable of doing bigger and better things than Dunder Mifflin but something is holding him back… (Hint: Pam).
FRIENDS: THE ONE WITH THE HALLOWEEN PARTY - 8.5
Who doesn’t love a classic Friends holiday episode?! In “The One With The Halloween Party,” Monica decides to host a costume party with Chandler. Ross comes as Sputnik, Rachel dresses in high fashion, Phoebe comes as Supergirl, Monica is Catwoman, and Chandler is a pink bunny.
Rachel is trying her best to get kids to like her by giving them candy when they knock on the door but she doesn’t fare so well. Meanwhile, Monica and Phoebe go head-to-head in who would win in a battle: Supergirl or Catwoman? Those comments then get redirected into who would win in a fight between Chandler and Ross, which then gets them involved with an arm-wrestling contest.
BIG BANG THEORY: THE MIDDLE EARTH PARADIGM - 8.5
As the first Halloween episode for Big Bang Theory, we see the guys getting ready for Penny’s Halloween party across the hall. Leonard is excited to be around Penny and her friends while Howard is more excited to be around pretty girls in costumes. Once they’re at the party, they meet Penny’s ex-boyfriend who is kind of a bully and picks on Leonard. This, of course, puts Penny in a tough situation where she’s stuck between her hunky ex-boyfriend and her new buddies.
The gang eventually leaves her party and heads home, when Penny has too much to drink and wanders over to speak to Leonard. It’s in this episode that the pair have their first kiss when Penny realizes how nice of a man Leonard is.
PARKS & REC: HALLOWEEN SURPRISE - 8.8
While Parks and Rec. had a few Halloween numbers to choose from, “Halloween Surprise” had the highest-rating from IMDb. In this episode, we see Ron getting outside of his comfort zone and going trick-or-treating with Diane and her two girls. Andy, of course, tags along because he’s a giant kid himself.
Back at City Hall, we see Ann and Leslie dressed for Halloween as a showing for “Death Canoe 4: Murder at Blood Lake” plays for the community. After having a rough day with Ben, the girls decide to have some fun and scare Tom when he comes out for the bathroom, but they ended up scaring Jerry instead. He’s so caught off guard that he actually has a “fart” attack, which leads to more jokes directed towards Jerry.
THE SIMPSONS: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR V - 9.1
With a 9.1 rating, “Treehouse of Horror V” is one of the best Halloween episodes in the history of The Simpsons. This episode is quite fun because it’s filled with mini scary stories to keep viewers on their toes.
We see a Simpsons spin on The Shining, we see Homer going back in time and inevitably screwing things up, and Principal Skinner turns bad children into school lunches. Everyone from Homer to Lisa is thrown into these spooky stories, mixing horror with comedy in the greatest of ways.
COMMUNITY: EPIDEMIOLOGY - 9.3
In the second season, we see a Halloween party being thrown by the Dean. The party goes awry after a few students get food poisoning from what they thought was taco meat. The reaction from the bad “meat” (which actually happened to be rationed army food) made the students act like zombies which forced the Dean to keep everyone locked at the party until further notice.
As you can imagine, all the “zombies” try to escape and creates a similar visual to every life-like zombie show on TV right now.
BOY MEETS WORLD: AND THEN THERE WAS SHAWN - 9.5
With a 9.5-star rating, Boy Meets World’s own “And Then There Was Shawn” is one of the best Halloween-themed episodes on TV, according to IMDb. In this episode, the entire gang gets detention for misbehaving but things become spooky when they start seeing words spelled out in blood on the chalkboard.
From there, the gang goes on a haunting chase throughout the school to stay alive as the people around them start dying in front of them. In the end, though, we all find out it was all a dream made up by Shawn himself.
