Where To Find Your Favorite Halloween Specials

There’s no better time to relive your childhood (or your short middle school stint with amateur witchcraft) than Halloween, and the best way to do... at least one of those things is to delve into your most-beloved cartoon Halloween specials. Luckily, nostalgia-friendly channels like The Splat can hook you up with some of your favorite spooky classics. But for the rest of us who don’t, um, have basic cable (or can only leech onto it via co-opted passwords), getting a sweet seasonal fix is a little more difficult. Namely, you have to find vintage Halloween episodes online.

But why waste all your emotional energy on that when I can just do it for you? I collected an alphabetical guide to all the best animated Halloween specials of the ‘90s and early 2000s. The treat is that many of them are a click away, and a legal click away at that. In other cases, I did the best I could, but you're going to have to shell out some cash to enjoy it in the comfort of your own home. Now without any delay, here is your ultimate catalog to Halloween heaven. Happy viewing, my fellow aspiring witches and creatures of the night.

1. "Puttergeist," The Addams Family

It's only fair that we kick off with the first family of creepy, kooky, mysterious, et al. Anything in the Addams Family franchise screams Halloween, but, if you're looking for an actual Halloween special, check out this episode about a ghost with a golf ball head. No, really, that's it.

Availability: You can only grab the series on DVD, but wouldn't that be the perfect seasonal treat?

2. "The Switching Hour," Aaahh!!! Real Monsters

Ickis gets switched up with some little kid dressed up as... what even? A red-as-hell rabbit?

Availability: Streamable on Amazon.

3. "Halloweenie," The Adventures Of Pete & Pete

Big and Little Pete end up targeted by a group of child sadists called The Pumpkin Eaters. Dark.

Availability: You're going to have to grab yourself a tangible copy of Season 2, I'm afraid.

4. "The Fright Stuff," Arthur

The little anthropomorphic boys and girls get into an all-out prank war at Muffy's Halloween party, but could there be something sinister lurking behind the punch bowl?

Availability: Streamable on Amazon.

5. "The Day The World Got Really Screwed Up!", Angry Beavers

Norbert and Dagger's trick-or-treating goes awry when they end up at the house of their favorite actor... and subsequently sucked into a hellish alternate dimension.

Availability: Streamable on Amazon.

6. "Draculee, Draculaa/Phranken-Runt," Animaniacs

There are a whole slew of Halloween Animaniacs shorts ready at your fingertips, so don't deprive yourself. My recommendation, though? Start with Yakko, Wakko, and Dot's stay in Dracula's castle.

Availability: Streamable on Amazon.

See Also: "Hot, Bothered and Bedeviled/Moon Over Minerva/Skullhead Boneyhands" and "Scare Happy Slappy/Witch One/MacBeth"

7. "The Tale of the Twisted Claw," Are You Afraid Of The Dark?

Another show that can get you into the spirit regardless of what episode you go for, yet, if you wanna save time in finding the actual Halloween special, go for this parody of "The Monkey's Paw."

Availability: Streamable on Amazon.

8. "Laugh Of The Party," Beetlejuice

Lydia's Halloween party is a bust, but leave it to one fun-loving bio-exorcist to save the day... or ruin it.

Availability: Well, ordering Beetlejuice: A Halloween Spooktacular may not give you immediate gratification. It will, however, set you up for many Halloweens to come.

See Also: "Bewitched, Bothered, And Beetlejuiced"

9. "Bungholio: Lord of Harvest (Butt-O-Ween)," Beavis And Butthead

I just want say that Beavis and Butthead making last-minute costumes for candy consumption is a move that every guy age 11 to 18 did in my hometown.

Availability: Cool news, Gen Xers and wannabe Gen Xers, MTV is giving you a freebie on this one.

10. "Catdogula," Catdog

In case the title didn't tip you off, Dog gets bitten by a tick and becomes a dog-pire of sorts.

Availability: Streamable on Amazon.

11. "Halloween With Dead Ghost, Coast To Coast," Cow And Chicken*

The one where Cow puts fishnet stockings over her utters, and I feel uncomfortable.

Availability: Legally hard to find, could be lurking on other websites that start with "Y" and end with "Outube"

12. "Depth Takes A Holiday," Daria

Not really a Halloween special so much as it is a Christmas, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and Guy Fawkes Day special. Still, a good multi-purpose holiday episode to keep in your back pocket.

Availability: Streamable on Amazon.

See Also: "Legends Of The Mall," which, while it isn't a Halloween episode, has plenty of spooky Lawndale urban legends.

13. "Doug’s Halloween Adventure," Doug

Doug, Skeeter, and Roger break into an amusement park after hours to take a ride on the new attraction, Blood Stone Manor. Nothing can possibly go wrong with that, right?

Availability: Streamable on Amazon.

14. "Boo Haw Haw," Ed, Edd, And Eddy

The Eds find a map to Spook-E-Ville, and Ed starts hallucinating monstrous figures. Nothing can possibly go wrong with that, right?

Availability: It looks like iTunes has you covered.

15. "Scary Godparents," The Fairly Odd Parents

Featuring the best Halloween song of all time, "Real And Scary."

Availability: Streamable on Amazon.

16. "Billy & Mandy’s Jacked Up Halloween," The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy

A trickster by the name of Jack O'Lantern steals Grim's scythe to keep things Halloween forever.

Availability: You can grab it on iTunes.

17. "Arnold’s Halloween," Hey Arnold!

The ultimate homage to Orson Welles' War of the World erupts when Arnold accidentally tricks the city into thinking Helga and the schoolyard kids are aliens. Whoops.

Availability: Streamable on Amazon.

18. "Halloween Spectacular Of Spooky Doom," Invader Zim

I guess the horrible nightmare realm inside Dib's head is pretty scary, but, like, no more scary than any garden variety episode of Invader Zim.

Availability: Streamable on Amazon.

19. "A Pinky & The Brain Halloween," Pinky And The Brain

Pinky sells his soul to the devil so that Brain could rule the world, leaving us all to ponder something horrifying: mice have souls?

Availability: Streamable on Amazon.

20. "The Night Before," Rocket Power

The gang gets wrapped up in Mischief Night trouble, which is all very peculiar to me because Mischief Night is mostly only a thing in my home state of New Jersey and not in the faux-Venice Beach where they live.

Availability: Streamable on Amazon.

21. "Sugar Frosted Frights/Ed Is Dead - A Thriller" Rocko’s Modern Life

Rocko, Heffer, and Filbert get pursued by the one-legged Hopping Hessian, and it ends up... as surreally as you would expect from this acid trip of a show.

Availability: Streamable on Amazon.

22. "Candy Bar Creep Show," Rugrats

A lot of fuss over the consumption of Reptar Bars, which I guess I understand. They turn your tongue green.

Availability: Streamable on Amazon.

See Also: "Curse of the Werewuff," and the Ahhh! Real Monsters cross-over "Ghost Story."

23. "Treehouse Of Horror," The Simpsons

Oh, come on, you have to respect the original Simpsons trifecta of spooky stories.

Availability: If you/your dad has a reliable cable provider, FXX has you covered.

See Also: The other 27 Treehouse of Horror installments, god. Or, you know, at least the first 10.

24. "Pinkeye," South Park

OK, you probably weren't watching South Park when you were a babychild (unless you were me). Since you're all grown up now, though, I trust you can handle the gang's brush with zombies.

Availability: Streamable on Hulu and Comedy Central.

See Also: "Spookyfish," "Korn’s Groovy Ghost Pirate Mystery," "Hell On Earth 2006," "A Nightmare On FaceTime, "Goth Kids: Dawn Of The Posers." (Incidentally, South Park does really well with the holiday.)

25. "Scaredy Pants," SpongeBob Squarepants

Don't worry, SpongeBob's brain grows back.

Availability: Streamable on Amazon.

See Also: "Graveyard Shift"

Click-or-treat, kiddies.

Images: Nickelodeon; Giphy (25)