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Taking the low-density marathon-type route, the Disney Channel began its family-oriented “Hauntober Fest” — a Halloween-themed movie every night at 8 ET/PT in October — over the weekend.
We caught the charming-if-tepid Halloweentown High last night, about attempts by a well-meaning teenage witch to integrate the denizens of Halloweentown with humans – very multi-culti.
Continuing the “sympathy for the freaks” theme, tonight “children risk their lives on Halloween to help a mummy reunite with a lost love and save his soul” in Under Wraps. Twitches, starring Disney Channel stalwarts Tia and Tamera Mowry as twin girls separated at birth who meet on their 21st birthday and “must learn to use their magical powers to save the parallel world of Coventry,” debuts Oct 14.
Conversely, kids network Nickelodeon is jamming all of its Halloween treats into a compact “Shriekin’ Weekend,” which runs from Friday night, October 28, until dark on Halloween, Monday October 31, with “eerie premieres” of Catscratch (Friday, 7:30 p.m. ET/PT), Zoey 101 (Saturday, 8 p.m. ET/PT), Unfabulous (Saturday, 8:30 p.m. ET/PT) and Backyardigans (Monday, 10 a.m. ET/PT).
“Shriekin’ Weekend” schedule (all times ET/PT):
Friday Night Marathon, October 28
7 p.m. — SpongeBob SquarePants/”Scaredy Pants” — SpongeBob is the easiest scare in Bikini Bottom, but this Halloween he aims to turn the tables and scare everyone at Mr. Krabs’ party. With Patrick’s help, SpongeBob devises what is sure to be the scariest costume ever. Although his costume scares no one, his presence does summon Bikini Bottom’s most feared ghostly legend, The Flying Dutchmann, who is appalled by the way SpongeBob is portraying him.
7:30 p.m. – Catscratch/”Scaredy Cat” — Holiday Premiere — It’s Halloween: superstitious Gordon’s most dreaded day of the year! After locking himself in his room to ward off evil, Gordon grudgingly allows Blik to decorate the house. Unfortunately, when Blik turns the mansion into a giant spaceship, real aliens mistake it for their long-lost mother ship and show up to reclaim it. The three brothers must band together to defend their house, a mission made more difficult by the fact that the aliens have launched it into outer-space – with everyone inside it.
8 p.m. — The Fairly OddParents/”Scary GodParents” – Timmy finds himself mummified in two-ply toilet paper and trick-or-treating with Vicky as his chaperone. Tired of not having a cool costume, like the Jack-O-Bots in his favorite Crash Nebula Halloween special, “Crash Nebula vs. the Pumkinator,” Timmy wishes everybody’s costume were “real and scary.” So it goes that everyone in the world becomes the character his or her costume denotes. The bad news is the rich kids are in the Pumkinator costumes, and when Timmy’s wish comes true, THEY become the Pumpkinator – a gigantic monster doomsday device that can destroy the world. Oh … and the Yugopotamians are angry they weren’t invited.
8:30 p.m. – Danny Phantom/”Fright Night” — Heroic title teen battles the evil ghostly Spirit of Halloween a.k.a. Fright Knight. In an attempt to beat Dash in a haunted house decorating contest, Danny “borrows” Fright Knight’s enchanted sword. When the powerful apparition arrives to retrieve his magic saber, he decides to stick around long enough to turn the real world into his own stormy realm of terror, but Danny Phantom has other ideas.
9 p.m. — The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius/”Nightmare in Retroville” – With his latest invention, the neutronic monster maker, Jimmy transforms his friends Carl and Sheen into a vampire and werewolf for Halloween, and the pair quickly mutate into real monsters. And as Vampire Carl and Wolf Man Sheen prowl the streets in search of fresh victims to indulge their carnivorous appetites, Hugh Neutron accidentally turns himself into a duck-loving version of Frankenstein’s Monster. It’s now up to Jimmy to reverse the effects of his invention before Carl, Sheen and Hugh wreak havoc on Retroville monster-movie-style.
Saturday, October 29 — Morning Marathon
6:30 a.m. — Hey, Arnold/”Arnold’s Halloween” — On a creepy Halloween night, the neighborhood comes down with alien fever when Arnold and Gerald broadcast a mock radio show, warning of a spaceship landing. Meanwhile, Helga and the gang go trick-or-treating in cool, space alien costumes. Arnold and Gerald must come to the rescue before their friends come to a spooktacular demise.
7:30 a.m. — Rugrats/ “Curse of the Werewuff” — On “Hallowmean,” the babies get lost in a haunted house, and to make matters scarier, Angelica convinces them they’ll turn into whatever their costumes denote and that only she can break the spell — if they fork over their candy. Fearing a life as a werewolf, Chuckie pleads with the other babies to give up their treats — until he finds his inner werewuff, stands up to “Princess Angelica” and leads the babies to safety.
8:30 a.m. – The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius/”Nightmare in Retroville”
9 a.m. — SpongeBob SquarePants/”Scaredy Pants”
9:30 a.m. – Catscratch/”Scaredy Cat”
10 a.m. – The Fairly OddParents/”Scaredy Godparents”
10:30 a.m. – Danny Phantom/”Fright Knight”
TEENick Primetime Holiday Specials – Saturday, October 29
8 p.m. – Zoey 101/”Haunted House” Holiday Premiere – In keeping with Halloween tradition at Pacific Coast Academy, the upper school builds a haunted house for the lower school, and Logan promises that his creation will be especially scary. But when Zoey’s little brother and his roommate get lost in the house, Zoey and Logan wonder if something otherworldly has taken it over.
8:30 p.m. — Unfabulous/”The Dark Side” Holiday Premiere — Mari and Cranberry are throwing their annual “Spook-tacular.” When Geena assures Addie that Spin the Bottle doesn’t have to be totally random, Addie vows not to chicken out like she did last year.
9 p.m. – All That — The cast shows off their Halloween costumes: Jack is Bryan, Chelsea is Jack, Kyle is Chelsea, Gio is Pickle Boy, Bryan is Kyle, Pickle Boy is Gio and Shanea’s a Ballerina! The girls have a Halloween slumber party at Claudia’s house and play with her “magic” dolls, one of which happens to be a mummy with Tom Green inside.
Sunday Monstrous Six-Hour Marathon, October 30
12 p.m. — Catscratch/”Scaredy Cat”
12:30 p.m. — The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius/”Nightmare in Retroville”
1 p.m. — Rocko/”Sugar Frosted Frights” — Filburt discovers the legend of the Hopping Hessian and the potency of candy when Rocko and Heffer introduce him to the concept of trick-or-treating.
“Ed is Dead” — Rocko suspects Bev Bighead of foul play when Ed disappears mysteriously.
1:30 p.m. — Rugrats/ “Curse of the Werewuff”
2 p.m. — The Angry Beavers/ “The Day the Earth Got Really, Really Screwed Up” — While out trick-or-treating, the Beavers discover that the scary house on the hill is home to their B-movie star hero Oxnard Montalvo. A glowing space object there thrusts them into a wild “movie” that combines bits of every bad black & white sci-fi film Oxnard ever made. In true B-movie fashion, it’s up to the Beavers to defeat the monsters.
2:30 p.m. – ChalkZone/”Pumpkin Love/Snap’s Nightmare” – episode premiere — Rudy uses ChalkZone to sneak his award-worthy “Jill-o-Lantern” to the pumpkin contest and avoid Reggie’s smash-happy fists. But along the way the evil “Jack-O,” a pumpkin-headed rock star/villain (voiced by Tim Curry), falls in love with Rudy’s Jill and kidnaps her.
Rudy must rescue Jill and make it to the contest on time before Reggie wins by default … again.
3 p.m. — CatDog/”CatDogula” — It’s Halloween, and Cat is costumed as Duke Kahanamoku of Hawaii, while Dog dons Count Dogula garb to go trick-or-treating. Dog is bitten by Nosferacho, a Peruvian vampire tick, and turns into a vampire. Then the tick bites Lola, Rancid, the Greasers, Mervis, Dunglap and Randolph. Armed with his garlic lei, Cat heroically fights off Dog, the vampire mob and the Peruvian vampire ticks, then soaks them all in garlic juice to make them normal again.
3:30 p.m. — The Fairly OddParents/”Scary Godparents”
4 p.m. — As Told by Ginger/”I Spy a Witch” — When Ginger wins the lead in “I Spy a Witch” – a musical rendition of The Crucible – her jealous understudy Miranda takes revenge and center stage by transforming the school statue into a witch and planting incriminating evidence in Ginger’s bag. Principal Milty kicks off a campaign to uncover the culprits, and last minute evidence turns Miranda’s trick into a treat for the vindicated Ginger who reclaims her rightful role in the play. Meanwhile, when Carl and Hoodsey fail to unnerve Lois with their Halloween pranks, they try to summon Maude from the cemetery.
4:30 p.m. — Hey, Arnold/”Arnold’s Halloween” — On a creepy Halloween night, the neighborhood comes down with alien fever when Arnold and Gerald broadcast a mock radio show, warning of a spaceship landing. Meanwhile, Helga and the gang go trick-or-treating in cool, space alien costumes. Arnold and Gerald must come to the rescue before their friends come to a spooktacular demise.
5 p.m. – SpongeBob SquarePants/”Scaredy Pants”
5:30 p.m. – Danny Phantom/”Fright Night”
Nick Jr. Halloween Day Marathon: Monday, October 31
9 a.m. — Dora the Explorer/”Boo!” — It’s Halloween, and trick-or-treating Dora and Boots are surprised by a cute little monster who they help hurry home before the arrow on the big clock strikes 12. It’s a spooky journey, as we find pumpkins that match to get out of the Pumpkin Patch and take a ride on a broomstick through the Good Witch’s forest. We reach the Monster House as the clock strikes 12, just in time for a Halloween Party.
9:30 a.m. — Blue’s Clues/”What Is Blue Afraid of” — Blue is scared, and kids play Blue’s Clues to determine what is frightening her, in the process searching for clues, investigating shadows and conceptualizing what objects are making them.
10 a.m. – Backyardigans/ “Soccer Monsters” — Holiday Premiere — Pablo is a noisy but lonely Soccer Monster who hordes soccer balls in his castle’s gym, while Tyrone is a no-nonsense, Dragnet-style detective. He and soccer loving Uniqua brave the Monster’s Castle to rescue her kidnapped ball. Sixties Rock/English Pop underscores this action-packed mystery as the friends try to get the job done without being turned into Soccer Monsters themselves.
10:30 a.m. – Dora the Explorer/ “Dora Saves the Prince” — A storybook wicked witch banishes a young prince to the High Tower. Dora and Boots jump into the book to save him. Armed with the magic word “Abre,” Dora and Boots must make it through the Big Gate, across Crocodile Lake to the High Tower in time to save the Prince. But watch out for that witch.
11:30 a.m. — LazyTown/”Rottenbeard” – Disguised as a pirate, fiendish Robbie Rotten takes the kids on a treasure hunt and uncovers a bogus piece of the LazyTown stone, rendering everyone lazy until Sportacus reenacts the final confrontation between the original Rottenbeard and the mysterious hero who once saved all of LazyTown.
12 p.m. — Blue’s Clues/”Blue’s Big Costume Party” It’s the day of Blue’s costume party and lots of silly spooky things are happening. Magenta doesn’t have a costume, so we play Blue’s Clues to help her figure out what to wear. All day long our friends come visit in their costumes and we have to use our observation skills to figure out who they are. Meanwhile, we count beanbags to help Blue and Magenta determine who won their game of Monster Toss and skidoo into a picture of a haunted house, where we help our friend Boo observe, think and test ideas so we can find Oogullah Buggla.
12:30 p.m. – Dora the Explorer/”Boo!”
1 p.m. — Little Bill/”The Halloween Costume” — Bent on being Captain Brainstorm for Halloween, Little Bill is crestfallen when his costume disappears in a mix-up, but when he fantasizes about saving Captain Brainstorm from Tickle Slime, he learns that there’s more than one solution to every problem. Little Bill surprises and impresses all with a homemade, super-deluxe Captain Brainstorm outfit.
“The Haunted Halloween Party” – Trick-or-treating frightens Little Bill – what with vampires and skeletons on the loose – and the big Haunted Halloween Party is even scarier. Big Bill assures him that it’s okay to go home, but Little Bill conquers his fears and ends up having the “best Halloween ever.”
1:30 p.m. – LazyTown/”Cry Dinosaur” — Ziggy quivers from monstrous dinosaurs lurking in the darkness at his first campout, where dinosaur-costumed Robbie wreaks havoc and Sportacus saves the fright-filled day
2 p.m. – Rugrats/”Curse of the Werewuff”
2:30 p.m. – Rugrats/”Candy Bar Creep Show” — Stu and Didi build a haunted house for Halloween, and the Rugrats sneak in looking for Reptar bars. They get tangled up in the props and Grandpa thinks the place really is haunted.
“Monster in the Garage” — The adults blame Spike for mysterious accidents in the garage, but Tommy believes his pet is innocent. Convinced the accidents are caused by a monster, Tommy talks the other Rugrats into a garage expedition.
6 p.m. – Catscratch/”Scaredy Cat”
6:30 p.m. – Danny Phantom/”Fright Knight”
7 p.m. – The Fairly OddParents/”Scary GodParents”
7:30 p.m. – The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius/”Nightmare in
Retroville”
8 p.m. – SpongeBob SquarePants/”Scaredy Pants”
Augmenting its on-air Halloween fare, Nick.com has a variety of Halloween-themed games to amaze and amuse.
We looked at PBS Kids’ Halloween schedule here.
