The 30 best Halloween-themed TV episodes

There are three Halloween episodes in "Two Guys and a Girl’s" four-season run, but this is the first and the best. (The next two are a case of diminishing returns but still very good and good, respectively.) A psychotic version of Berg ends up murdering, well, everyone, and the reasoning behind all of it is both very 1998 and very strange to imagine a sitcom episode these days doing anything like it.

With every passing season of "American Horror Story," the first season (aka "Murder House") looks more and more like a beautiful anomaly. Perhaps the most straightforward horror season of the entire series, it's also fitting that it's also the season with the dedicate Halloween episode(s).

With an entire series of episodes to choose from, there’s a reason why the fifth installment (specifically the segment “The Shinning”) is the one everyone chooses. However, in theory, you could choose to watch all 31 — going on 32 — episodes in this series specifically for your Halloween episode-viewing needs.

Unlike "The Simpsons," "Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s" Halloween-centric episodes (based on the Nine-Nine’s "Halloween Heist" competition to be known as "The Ultimate Human/Genius") have happened only six times, so it won’t exactly take a full day to watch them all.

There are three Halloween episodes in Buffy’s seven-season run, and unfortunately the third episode (Season 6’s “All The Way”) doesn’t make the cut here. Sorry to episode guest star Amber Tamblyn. (It's still so strange she’s just in one episode as Dawn’s friend and then never seen again, but that’s talk for another time.) Instead, watch “Halloween” if you want some fun people-turning-into-their-costumes shenanigans (Xander becomes Army guy!), and watch “Fear, Itself” if you actually want to be kind of scared by the show for real for once.

Admittedly, "Angel's" Halloween episode doesn't achieve the highs of its counterpart "Buffy the Vampire Slayer's" first two Halloween episodes. But "Life of the Party" is still an underrated episode in an overrated season of "Angel," with an extremely sleep-deprived Lorne being tasked with throwing the Wolfram and Hart office Halloween party and all the chaos that ensues from that.

Try not to think about how "How I Met Your Mother" ended but how it made you feel in the beginning. “The Slūtty Pumpkin”— despite what the title would imply — is one of the earliest moments of the series where Ted Mosby’s hopeless romanticism actually comes across as such. This is the guy you want to root for as your romantic lead. The sequel, unfortunately, couldn’t live up to the lofty goals set by this episode, but that’s really "HIMYM" in a nutshell, now isn’t it?

This episode isn’t just a great Halloween episode of "Freaks and Geeks" but it’s simply one of the best episodes of the show, period. If you want to feel nostalgia for the days of trick or treating — even if you didn’t grow up in the ‘80s — this episode is one to watch on Halloween.

When it comes to holidays or a special occasion or, really, anything, there’s always a perfect "Happy Endings" episode. “Spooky Endings” is the perfect Halloween episode and not just because of Max and Penny’s perfectly imperfect joint Halloween costume either.

In this episode, "That '70s Show" gets its Alfred Hitchcock on for Halloween, with parodies of multiple Hitchcock films. Because when "That '70s Show" was good, it was really good.

More “best” lists should have "Don’t Trust The B in Apartment 23," by the way. This is a Halloween episode and a deconstruction of the rom-com genre. (It’s also “technically” a "Happy Endings" crossover.) And it's all while James Van Der Beek struggles to keep scary things away from his Halloween party, the most anti-Dawson Leery thing he could ever do.

To be fair, this episode selection is more about the riff on "The O.C." — thanks, Josh Schwartz— than anything Halloween-specific itself. But it’s a really good "O.C." riff, and it puts Halloween up there in importance with New Year’s Eve in terms of being with the ones you love.

Never forget this episode where Adam Lambert — as Adam Lambert — takes time out of his busy murder train performance schedule to… flirt with Aria? That will never make sense. Also, never forget the "PLL" murder train and the ghost child who Ashley Marin had a whole subplot with (which at least made more sense than the potential for Adam Lambert and Aria to fall in love).

“Greg Pikitis? Would you like some boiling hot coffee…in your face?!” Leslie Knope vs. a teenage punk on Halloween — all while Ann Perkins throws a terrible Halloween party — is one of the first “classic” episodes of "Parks and Rec," for good reason.

Somehow a show as big as "Friends" had only one Halloween episode in its 10-season run. But one episode is all it needed to make everyone know, for the rest of all time: “Ross came as doody!”

While you also can’t go wrong by watching the episode’s reference point —“It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”— you also can’t go wrong with a "Supernatural" take on a Halloween episode. Sure, every episode of "Supernatural" technically doubles as a Halloween episode, but this one’s actually about Halloween. So, easy pick.

Well you can't mention the "Supernatural" that got its episode title inspiration from this without mentioning the inspiration, right? Since its original premiere in 1966, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" has been and remains the ultimate Halloween TV special.

“Halloween” is a mix of haunted house antics and a lot of relationship drama, while “Keaton” is all about a yearslong catfishing revolving around Michael Keaton. Both are pretty emotionally satisfying episodes of the series, actually.

Don’t trust anyone who doesn’t appreciate Dakota Johnson. Not that many people watched "Ben and Kate," but if you did, you probably already know this episode is a comedic tour de force from Johnson (and the rest of the cast, to be perfectly honest) that provided the awkward line of the series: “What’s bippin’?” Thanks to FOX, we’ll never truly know what was bippin’, but at least we’ll always have great costume ideas like Babe Ruth Bader Ginsberg and The Death of Print Journalism.

Elaborate dress-up and a series of hilarious misunderstandings — you can’t really go wrong with an episode of "Frasier," especially when the sophisticated sitcom takes on such an unsophisticated holiday.

This is the kind of Halloween episode you watch with your friends, a bottle of wine and a surprising long-lasting resentment about how "Charmed" ended the Phoebe/Cole relationship (and Cole’s character as a whole). Then you just watch a bunch of Phoebe/Cole clips on YouTube because you want to experience heartbreak this Halloween. You’re going through some things. Oh, there’s also time travel to the 1600s to save the Charmed Ones’ futures and general additions to the "Charmed" witch mythos in this episode.

If you want some Halloween-appropriate cringe comedy to celebrate the holiday, you can’t go wrong with "The Office’s" first Halloween episode.

This is the perfect Halloween episode double feature, really: an ABBA-soundtracked zombie apocalypse and then some good old-fashioned scary stories. You might actually want to switch the episodes around though if you want to properly escalate in terms of scares. Well, “scares.”

"Psych" does a Halloween episode the only way it knows how: with the possibility of vampires, a piling on of vampire jokes and bits and a guest cast who knows a thing or two about vampires. In the case of the last part, that means the original "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," Kristy Swanson, "Lost Boys" star Corey Feldman and television "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" cast member Tom Lenk. It’s also just a really nice episode for Lassiter, all things considered.

This is a Halloween-centric (as well as Dee is pregnant-centric) Rashomon story from "It’s Always Sunny" that feels like it aired only yesterday but apparently aired eight years ago. How time flies when you’re thinking about Dee as an ostrich — truly spooky stuff, you know?

"Clueless" the TV series was very, very underrated — the third wall-breaking alone, especially after ABC dumped it and UPN saved it — and honestly, this ode to ‘90s slasher films, like an actual Halloween-based “And Then There Was Shawn," is pretty amazing. It’s weird to go back and watch "Clueless" (both the movie and the show) because of Stacey Dash, and this episode is the ultimate example of why: She was really great as Dionne, and "Clueless" the series truly relied on her to carry the bulk of the emotional weight of the show, for good reason.

Not only does "Legends" capture the spirit of the ‘80s — in the form of an extended "ET" homage — but it’ll also really make you long for a simpler time when you could just be a kid and trick or treat with your time-traveling friends. (This is a really sweet episode. Like, Reese’s Pieces sweet.)

Honestly, you might not even be able to handle this episode of "The Muppet Show." It’s just too spooky.

Whether you're a cartoon character or a real-life human being living in America, there is one universal Halloween truth: When it comes to Trick or Treating, you know you've hit the jackpot when you find yourself in a neighborhood where people hand out full-size candy bars. That's right, none of that "fun size" stuff. That's what this episode of "Bob's Burgers" —the series' first Halloween episode — is all about.

Watch this "BoJack Horseman" episode for a Halloween celebration (will some mandatory ennui) and a stroll down memory lane for Mr. Peanutter's love interests (including Jessica Biel!).