The Ringer-Verse - ‘The Simpsons’ and the Best Halloween Episodes | Mint Edition

Episode Date: October 30, 2025

Steve and Jomi are joined by ‘Simpsons’ expert and Ringer senior staff writer Alan Siegel to celebrate all things Halloween. They dive into Alan’s book, 'Stupid TV, Be More Funny,' explore the legacy of the “Treehouse of Horror” specials, and wrap up by drafting their favorite Halloween TV episodes. Intro (0:00)“Treehouse of Horror” deep dive (2:28)Halloween TV episodes draft (17:17)Outro (1:06:30) Hosts: Jomi Adeniran and Steve AhlmanGuest: Alan SiegelProducer: Devon RenaldoAdditional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'm Joe Me Dineron. And this is Mint Edition, the once in a while podcast about all the latest fandom. You just can't live without Jomi at Dineron. We're here in the studio joined by an illustrious guest. One of our like, bringer homies. Just a, bringer homie, favorite people in and out of the office. Love to see them around town. One of the main men out here in these.

streets. Alan Siegel is with us. Hey guys. Hello. Thanks for having me. Thank you for being here, really. Thanks for coming all the way from Los Angeles. I know. It was a treacherous journey and we're here to talk about Halloween. Really kind of going to be talking about the

great book that you came out with. Stupid TV, be more funny. A great chronicling of the greatest TV show of all time, The Simpsons. And this is going to be a fun little Halloween jaunt into talking about some of our favorite Halloween TV episodes.

And, but to begin kind of the last and probably longest delayed book tour stop that you've had, tell us about this book. Tell us about like your love of the Simpsons and what got you wanting to write this. So I discovered the show when I was in first grade. And it was definitely something that we like talked about on the playground. And I asked my parents if I could watch. And they were like, let me, like, let us take a look at this first before, you know, we let you watch. And they watched an episode where Homer gets caught with a belly dancer. And they watched

it and they were like, this is probably not appropriate for our seven-year-old. So they banned it for a while and then I wouldn't shut the hell up about it. So at some point, my parents were just like, all right, we'll just let you watch. It was like too big for me to be completely kept away. So that's really how it started. And I probably got like 20% of the jokes when I was that age or maybe a little less. And then, you know, as the years went on, I started to appreciate it on a much more intellectual level. And it's, like, been part of my life ever since.

That's wonderful. I have a very, like, early childhood memory, of course, of my experience of The Simpsons. It was when Homer was doing his, like, giant skateboard jump over the Grand Canyon. And it might have been the first time that I had ever seen my dad laugh as hard as he ever did. And it might have been, like, the thing that unlocked what,

comedy truly was. And I've never forgotten The Simpsons because of the fact that A, it was the thing that my mom and dad wouldn't let me watch when I was younger. And when I got to be able to watch it, it was really important to get to kind of see how

kind of like comedic timing worked and as well as something that a TV show in the 90s wasn't even doing before. And it kind of revamped kind of what the pop culture sitcom family was. Yeah. I think something should be noted, especially for what you guys cover, is like,

animation in those days was, like, considered for hacks. It was, like, to sell breakfast cereal and My Little Pony and Heard. And The Simpsons, like, really made it a legitimate genre. Like, this was right around when Disney was sort of launching, you know, Little Mermaid, these, like, big movies that made it a thing again. And, like, Roger Rabbit was another one that was, like, animators were like, wow, this is, like, a real movie. It's not just something for little kids.

but The Simpsons is what really supercharged it. And you mentioned that scene with the gorge where Homer tries to jump it on the skateboard. And, you know, when they made it, they basically were like, he has to fall. Like, it's not like a real, or rather, it's not like a cartoon where he could just make it. But the original cut, he was so bloody and injured

that it was like, this is too damn, like, rough for kids or adults. So they had to, like, tone it down, but he still falls out of the ambulance and back down the gorge. So it had some. some realism to it. So the Venn diagram of the Simpsons and Halloween is Treehouse of Terror, right? Which, I can't ask you what your favorite one is because we're going to have a draft. I don't want you to spoil that.

But as somebody who's watching the show for so long, how have you seen the Treehouse of Horror series develop you to year, Halloween to Halloween? So when they came up with this idea, the thought was basically like, we have this animated show. We want to make it completely different from any kind of live action show. show, like, you know, whatever it was on at the time, Full House, Family Matters. Like, they wanted to do something that they could not do, you know, on live action TV. So they were like, let's do a horror anthology.

And so that very first one has, you know, a couple, like, one's like a parody of Amnibuble Horror. One is a Twilight Zone parody. And one is The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. Now, think about, like, it sounds really cool and cute now to, like, have a faithful adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe, but at the time, like, nobody was doing that. And it's like, it was a way to like basically feed us our vegetables. Like, I didn't know who Edgar Allen Poe was when I was eight years old. But I mean, since then, they've basically, like, they've ramped up all the parodies even more. Like, they try to be as faithful as they can. And it's really like

some of the most creative stuff the show has ever done. Like, they, you know, there have been anime parodies. There have been Hitchcock, Kubrick, all. all these major filmmakers, and it gets more and more specific, too. So, like, I think now it's still maybe the best thing. Like, currently it's the best thing that they do every year. Oh, well. Yeah. I love Trioz of Horror because then I know I'm guaranteed a king and Kodos sighting.

I love when those dudes show up. I'm really curious, like, you being a, like, notorious studier of The Simpsons, I think kind of like my biggest thing as far as, like, the cultural impact that the Simpsons has had, along with Treyhouse of Horror, because these are where the influences are probably shown on their sleeves the most is the fact that the people and creatives behind the Simpsons were very much dorks they were the people that would probably if they weren't making the Simpsons they would be on the ring or verse talking about the things that they love the things that they grew up with star wars old comedies and stuff like that what were like kind of the

things that matt graning and all of his writers and his teams of animators what were there like big major influences that you can probably make parallels with in pop culture that are kind of the things that iterate from the Simpsons today. So I would say, like, an overall rule with Simpsons writers is that it's like the good side of watching too much TV because they watched everything. They watched the Brady Bunch. They watched Mary Tyler Moore. I mean, one of their biggest influences was the original Batman series.

And so they, like, again, I didn't get this when I saw the Batman TV show for the first time, but it was silly. There was action. It was, like, very satirical because, like, all the authority figures were kind of idiots and all The villains were kind of goofy. Like, it wasn't this big serious thing. And then, again, then they watched shows like Mary Tyler Moore, which are, like, very emotionally resonant.

So you mix all that together and, like, it's processed into The Simpsons. And also, like, again, they would watch bad sitcoms, too, stuff like Father's Office, which I'm sure you've never heard of. I hadn't even heard of it from, like, the Sydney. You just made that up. It's true. It's true. Like, they would watch it. And what they would do, like, at the time, they were bored out of their,

minds, but it was like, okay, we have all these tropes we're just going to make fun of. And like, that's the Simpsons. That's the basis for it. I love it. I think that's probably the most indelible part of what the Simpsons are. It's both a time, like, it's a time capsule to popular culture from all the things that came before it while also kind of molding something that's incredibly new and became a worldwide phenomenon. And now it's still going. And there's still an audience for it, but I'm very curious where you think that the Simpsons present day has in the kind of like cultural conversation of television now, because we don't really talk about the Simpsons like we did in the 90s, but it's still there, it's still around,

there's still an audience for it. Where does it sit with, you know, the fandoms and the popular culture of the world? I think it's like become an institution now. And I think that that's a little weird for people that grew up on the show because it was so, it was considered so sort of dangerous and transgressive. And now it's like, it's on postage stamps. Like we don't, you know, we don't remember how sort of dangerous it was considered. And I think like it appearing on Disney Plus really created a new generation of fans because, for example, like my best friend has a 12 year old.

And he can watch an episode from 1991 and 2021. And I think like having it all with the push of a button just flattens it a little bit. So he can enjoy the new stuff that I don't think. is as good as the old stuff, but it's all mixed together now. And I mean, again, I think, like, the ratings are still pretty solid. And I think it's sort of a victim of its own success

because it was so damn good at the beginning that, you know, snobs like me will be like, oh, it's not as good as it used to be. But it's not even the show's fault. The show is solid. It's just, again, it was so good at the beginning that everything else kind of pales in comparison. So they're finally making a sequel to the Simpsons movie

from, like, 2007. We finally get a sequel, Alan Sigel, you're the Simpsons guy. What do you even think like a Simpson movie too looks like in this day and age? So the original was like a Frankensteining of like

seven or eight incredible writers and they all sort of threw ideas into their hat. And I mean, I would love to see them like give it to John Swartzweiler and George Meyer who two are the classic writers and just like let them come just like let them do this incredible like not, you know, dual-minded thing. I think again,

I enjoyed the first movie. I think it'll be solid. I think maybe like if they shed some of the, you know, the excess of it, like cut it down to a couple of writers. I think that's what is what would make it really good. No,

you don't want too many cooks in the kitchen on this one? Exactly. I mean, do you like the first one? Like, was there, like, was the experiment of making a Simpsons movie?

Even then in the late, in the mid-2000s, it felt like Simpsons was long in the tooth even then. Like, why did we think that we would need another one now? Does this actually signal the end of the Simpsons now finally. So you know the Dr. Nick quote where he just says about Mr. Burns, he's like,

the most rewarding part was when he gave me my money. Yeah, yeah. And I think that, I mean, yeah, sure, it's a money grab, but I almost don't care. Like, the show is such a big part of my life that they can go out however they want. And I think, I think they'll, like, the problem I think with the first movie, which I did like was they kind of took it out of Springfield, which is like, it's a show about a town. Right. Like, keep it intimate.

keep it, it's like on who shot Mr. Burns, like, you know, a couple of the writers like wanted Barney to be the one that shot Mr. Burns. And they're like, no, it has to be a Simpson. Like, make it as intimate as possible. And then you'll have a good movie. I'll tell you what, man. That first movie had us in a talk about because we were singing Spider-Ped for years. That was a great, like, late era Simpson's joke.

It's amazing. It might have been the last joke from the Simpsons that I currently remember and can recite. Because I think from the most part, the Simpsons has been, like endlessly memeable. It has been like we all know the Homer fading into the bushes meme, but like the amount of things that come through with both

pop culture references and the things that come after the Simpsons really kind of is endemable to the things that we talk about on the Ring ofverse because I think one of the bigger quotes that I had seen in both the Simpsons and Star Wars is the people that made the Simpsons

grew up on all of these great shows. Mary Tyler Moore show my father's office. Exactly. Father's office, right? And those are the people that made the Simpsons. Now the people that make the Simpsons are the people that are raised on the Simpsons. And there becomes like a sort of echo chamber of reference and there's like this kind of thing where it makes, there's like a feedback loop of things that make the Simpsons the Simpsons.

And that's all that it can be. It won't be as transgressive. It won't be as groundbreaking, but it will be the same. Would you agree with that? Yeah. And I think it kind of, the same, it sort of echoes like movies. It's like, you know, directors who sort of came up and, like, fought in wars and had, like, blue-collar jobs and they're making movies and then making movies. And it's like, Tarantino is a great example.

Like, he grew up in a video store. So all of his references are based on older movies, right? So, you know, the first Simpsons writers that really grew up on the show, or not really grew up on the show that were fans of the Simpsons were like Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. Okay. And they sort of get the aesthetic of the show and able to make it great. But everybody else, like, it's why you can't replicate the show. Simpsons. It's like when you are making a facsimile of it, it's not going to feel as fresh. Have you felt like that in any like a sort of like Simpsons-esque, either like an institution or

something that you'd see now, be it a Star Wars or like the new Terminator franchise, we've got a lot of like Predator remakes coming out now. There's a new one coming out this year. Are there any other things that you would see that where you're like, oh man, are we losing the recipes here or are you happy with the idea that these now nostalgic things are going to be a lot more to the forefront? The nerds have won the culture war now. Right, exactly. I mean, the good example is like something like Andor, which is very obvious.

But they managed to like get the aesthetic right, but also tell new stories, which sounds very obvious. But to me, that's like a perfect example of how you do it, you know, like how you scratch the nostalgia itch without doing the same damn thing over and over. I think that's a perfectly surmised point. So let's talk about Halloween. Let's talk about Trias of Horror. Can you talk like briefly, can you talk about like how they first decided to want to do this and like where you first saw where you were when you first saw a treehouse of horror. Sure. So the idea basically again was to do something you couldn't do on live action TV, which is a horror anthology with things like an adaptation of Edgar Allen Pose the Raven, which again, like think about how weird that would be for normal TV even now.

And so I remember the first treehouse of horror. I probably was in second grade. At the beginning of the episode, Marge comes out. And this was like sort of a James L. Brooks, you know, who wanted the creators of the show, like his idea,

because they really wanted to separate it from like the normal show. Marge comes out and like warns everybody. Basically like, this episode is not for sensitive children. Like if you're, you know, if you have kids,

you might want to put them to bed. And I remember that scaring the shit out of me. I was like a very sensitive child. So it like, it scared me. and then I watched sort of like, you know, through my hands over my face, but I really thought it was good.

And like that made it a little less scary. I love that. I was probably a kid as well. It was like probably when I was like again in 13 and it was seeing the level of sheer violence that they could get away with. Yeah. That you would only occasionally see

when they did like an itchy and scratchy interlude but not, but like stretched out throughout an entire episode. And it was incredibly trippy. It was wildly. I won't spoil the one that I'm talking about. That's my pick for the draft. But Jomey, like, have you been familiar with Trial War?

What have been, like, the things where you're like, oh, wow, this is going to be that annual thing that the Simpsons do? I mean, the thing that separates Shows'Hawr, aside from, like, the vignettes, all of it, is it's a stylistic difference. The names at the end are, like, they're puns, you know what I mean? Like, the typeface goes to, like, Spooky. He's just, like, they put on a different, a different facade. different aura that you know like, okay, I'm getting this right here. It's going to be fun. I'm going to enjoy it.

Like, you wait for one every year and it never disappoints. Except sometimes I might disappoint. But usually not. Usually not. We were literally, I saw, I was like in this office just now. You're doing a little bit of research and I was watching this an episode with you. And I was laughing along the entire time. So funny.

So let's get into this draft. This is going to be our Halloween episodes draft. Along with talking about the Treehouse of War, we're basically going to be talking about all things Halloween and spoo. We're going to be dividing it up into a few categories. We're going to be talking about the Simpsons Tree House of Horror. Obviously. Halloween party episodes of both famous sitcoms that we love and enjoy.

Scary, spooky TV shows that have their own scary spooky. Actually scary episodes. And then we also have our Halloween rewatchables category, which is basically pretty much any one of our favorite movies that we love that we need to play during the Halloween season. Basically the freeform channel. The 31 days of Halloween. I get to learn more about more about your house every time that you just put on free form. I do not put on free form.

I haven't put on free form since it was called ABC Family. Respect my goat. And ABC Family touting like the best promo for Batman Begins ever. Oh, yeah, I remember. I remember when it was the Family Channel. The Family Channel. My gray hair, you know. Oh, man, tell.

If anybody wants to throw it out, look up the ABC Family promo for Batman Begins. They basically spin it like it's a rom-com. Which, I mean. If you cover your eyes, you know what I mean? You could see it. Here's their homework assignment for everybody. Go look up the American Beauty commercial. I think they aired on MTV that made it into a teen movie.

Oh. And there was like a- This isn't like a spoof. They just like try to spit it and sell it. The trailer had like aggressive font on it and it was very funny. Oh, fun. That probably wasn't great then. No.

It's really bad. It's really bad now. Yikes. Okay. All right. Well, we have our category. Dev, would you mind giving us the draft order? Steve, you're going first.

Yes. Alan, you are going second. I'm sorry, Jomey. You are going third. It's got to be racist. I knew you were going to say that. Dev, we're on the same team. I could have rigged the results,

but I would be no better than the leader of our country. Oh, man. I can't. It's not fake. This is a fascinating rationale. I can't, come on, man. We just spent me and Steve earlier podcast, spent two hours trying to bring everybody together.

You know, all black people from across the planet. If you watch The Midnight Boys, that's very much not the case. I was going to say, that's frantically try. The mission. We try to bring everybody together. That's how you do me do after everything we've been through. I didn't. Rush hour one, wish hour two.

Come on. I didn't want to. I'm sorry. I'm not going to be on Rush Hour three. I'm sorry. But you know what I love you more than I love the Butterfingers propaganda that the Simpsons bring to Halloween. Okay, that's actually very, very important. Alan,

yes. Why does it need to be Butterfingers the nastiest candy that sticks in my teeth every time? But, famously too, some of the better fast food campaigns with Burger King. That was when Burger King was at its peak when the Simpson's... I'm just saying. The pink donut? That was 7-Eleven.

Absolutely, I'm saying, but you're right. Like the food... Food tithions were good. The food-tiles were good. Man, Simpsons was hidden. We were up then, but Butterfinger and nasty. Yeah, the writers would talk about so if anybody doesn't know, the Simpsons had a long, long time campaign with Butterfinger. And so the writers would get these like Butterfinger BBs, Butterfinger minis, but whatever Butterfinger, and they would get so sick of them. Like, anytime they needed to make a cheap joke, it would be like

about Butterfingers because they were so gross. And they would like throw them against the ceiling. There was like a gumball machine with the Butterfinger BBs and they would get like soggy and gross. And so that's what working at the Simpsons was like. That's great. And guess what? That paid like 90% of their salaries, I bet. That's a lot of money. Yeah, they weren't hurting for salary back then.

No, they were not. All right, I'm going to be going first. Counterintuitive to the theme for today, I'm actually going to be going into the Halloween party episodes. Okay. For sitcoms. It's probably, this has to be one of my favorite Halloween episodes ever, and it's like one of my favorite sitcoms ever.

Right. From a TV show called New Girl, the episode is called Keaton. And it takes place during a Halloween party. that our characters have, and it's basically revealing that Schmidt has a long-standing pen-pal relationship with the actor Michael Keaton that is unraveled into the idea

that is actually his mom and his best friend Nick lying to him, and they're in costumes, like a whole bunch of Halloween hijinks ensues. New Girl is probably my favorite sitcom ever, and this might be one of the best episodes. of that show. Okay. So,

Joe me, you're upset. So I'm trying to be calm. I'm trying to be calm. I'm trying to be calm. Okay. And I understand this is the first pick of the draft.

I love New Girl. Yes. This particular episode of New Girl is hilarious. Yes. Because when Schmidt tells everybody about his thing with Keaton and then Nick has to go back

and be like, actually, guys, uh, it's been me and his mom. Yeah. It's hilarious. It's funny. This is a Jordan LaForge.

In fact, no, it's not. This is, Steve, we're going to go through the entire draft. I understand. You could have gotten this at any type of point. I'm going to explain my rationale here. This is the only category that I needed to have this.

And you could have got it at any time. I understand. But if for some reason you took that, I would have been gone. I don't know why, but it's fine. It's like, there's a, there's a nuanced approach to great joke writing. And I think that occasionally the new girl, like, actually exceeds it. I don't know how familiar you are with Newgirl.

A little bit, yeah. Okay. So there's a great, like, one, two that comes with, like, the end result when Nick is, like, consoling Schmidt about the idea that he realizes that that, that the relationship with Michael Keaton is fake. And it's like, oh, that time that he wrote to me and, like, I got through my breakup, it's like, that was me. What about that time when I, you know, I lost my parent and, like, Michael Keaton talked

me about how how I might be a great dad someday. He's like, that was your mom? He's like, what about that time that we saw Michael Keaton? And he, like, looked at me and winked. He's like, I don't know about that one. That was a crazy. Crazy coincidence. It's that level of like inside and joke telling that like is like just sings to my soul

in a way that that show perfectly encapsulates. And it's and it has another great one where somebody dresses up as Batman, far off into the distance pretending to be Michael Keaton. He's like, why would he wear it? his costume from a 1989 TV show or a 1989 movie and he's like well if you was wearing the thing from clean and sober you wouldn't

recognize him. I love this type of sitcom writing. It's probably one of the great lost art forms of the world today and New Girl carried the torch perfectly. It is a great episode of television. The number one pick in the Halloween TV

draft. Probably not where it needed to be. Blame Dev, honestly. Blame Dev at this point. What can you do? That'll teach you, Dev. What can you do? Just lie. Just make me go third. Alan, where are you at?

Well, I was going to say quickly, like, that level of escalation, of, like, the joke escalation, like, is something that the Simpsons, you know, started. So I have to shoehorn that in. Yeah, no, no, you're absolutely right. And it's because the fact that it was both joke escalation and there's another great way of just making a joke come out of nowhere that seems like it's like a basically a haymaker. Right. It's like A to Z, quickly.

And I'm sure that we'll be seeing it in your next pick because I'm guessing you're going to be going with Three House of Horror, as you only would. I'm going to stay in Halloween party episodes. So my pick is tricks and treats, and it's a Freaks and Geeks episode from 1999. A beloved, like, classic season. And so to me it sort of captures this time, you know,

it's a period piece. It's like 1980, but I think it nails this time in your life where, like, you're trying to figure out if you're too old to do kid things anymore, like trick or treat. And so like the geeks in this episode all dress up and they dress up as these like really obscure characters like from father's office.

No, just kidding. It's like John Francis Daley's character is like somebody from the day the earth stood still and everybody thinks he's the tin man from Wizard of Oz and you know, Bill is the bionic woman, which is like a show that lasted like barely a season. Right.

So, again, watching them try to navigate, like, either being a kid or, like, being a little bit older

is sort of really a perfect encapsulation of, like, what Halloween was like as an adolescent, and then at the end of the episode, they all get egged.

And it's just like, it's sad and funny, and... It's one of those childish things that you could encapsulate. Exactly. And the teenagers, which it's like,

you know, Linda Cardalini, Seth Rogan, James Franco, and, you know, Jason Siegel, they all like pile on and egg John Francis Daley's character. And it is, it's sad, but it's like heartwarming and pretty dark in a very funny way.

I've, I've loved freaks and geeks really only because like this in the, in the time that like home video DVDs were popping off, this is like the great revitalization of a lot of lost television shows because everything was coming out on DVD again for the first time. and the Freaks and Geeks box set was pretty much kind of a lauded collection not only of behind the scene stuff, but of a show that was like not only underappreciated, but pretty much the springboard for a lot of huge stars today.

Yeah, it's kind of like the 20, the 2017 Monaco team, the 2019 I-X, the 2023, Lavercouzen, this is all European soccer. You said Lavercouzan, and I was like, I love that beer. It's like, when you take like, these young stuff,

like people who aren't like discovered stars yet and you like just put them all in a show or movie together and then later you look like look at all this collection of talent we didn't know that every single person on this show was going to blow up people that have been on the show I'm looking at the IMPD V you right now it's actually insane we've had Mike White Lizzie Kaplan Shai LeBuff has been on this along with busy Phillips Seth Rogue and Jason Siegel etc

like the amount of talent that was behind this very very small Judd Apatow project is actually insane when you look at it like 20 years now. I mean, Rashida Jones plays John Francis Daley's bully in one episode. And it's like, what? Like, and then you know, and then now he's, you know, writing and directing

movies and yeah, it's truly like the best farm team of all time. It really, really was. It really was. Freaks and geeks. Hell of a show. Jomi. So I'm gonna because Steve didn't want to think this seriously. I'm going to just go with my Harlem movie watchable and that's my first pick. I'm gonna go

hocus focus. Okay. You got to put Hocus Pocus on. Okay. Every single year. Got my girls in it. They're going to make some magic. Shout out Sarah Jessica Parker. Who is like third fiddle in this kind of?

It kind of is. I mean, when you got Bittler, absolutely making a meal of the scenery. But you see what I'm saying? Like, when you got like all that talent around and she's your third star, you got something, you got something cooking there. That's where I'm going. It's like the movie you got to watch.

I mean, there's a couple. There's a couple that are on my list. but when I think of, all right, man, it's October, it's spooky season, what we're going to put on the TV, Hocus Pocus. All right, show me a dinner on notorious Disney Channel kid growing up. You know it? Like, you knew all the hits. All the hits.

Obviously. Is this the, is this the goaded? Like, not, like, in terms of, made for TV, Disney. No, well, this is. That's theatrical. It's a theatrical. It's not, like, for me. I'm conflating this with Hocus Pocus, too, which went straight.

But it's not a decon. right now you're talking and i know you guys aren't going to mention any so i can just say them twitches holline town right those are like decoms those are the ones where like yeah like those are just play every single day during october on on disney channel because that was the move but just like you know then you get a little older and then like you go to the abcc family and then you got hocus pocus and a couple other ones that might may or may not come up but yeah that when i think of like the movie. I'm gonna pull it on.

We'll be like, all right, man, it's Tom. Actually, there's another one, but I might save that from a one. I save that. Might save that. My next pick,

I am going to go into the realm of Trials of Horror. I'm going with like the one we were watching out there. Chalas of Horror 11th. Specifically for the night of the dolphin segment. That is, Alan,

when I tell you, that segment has been living in my head, rent-free for God knows how long since I first saw it. So the premise if you haven't seen it is Lisa goes to like a SeaWorld type type thing and sees them doing the Dolphin show and she goes, no, I'm freeing that dolphin. And she frees the dolphin, who unbeknownst to her is like the leader of Adolphin Kabal and they're like, yo, we're taking the lamb back. And so he grabs all the dolphins and they attack Lenny in the ocean.

and then they go on land and they take over they kill half of Springfield and they send all the humans back to the ocean and it's got some of my favorite lines ever one of which is after

the humans have lost and know the whole thing they're on the couch in the water and I'm just kind of like they just wanted it more they just wanted it more he's like a coach

at the post kids you know we gave it all we had the end of the day man they were hungrier yeah they had more they had more to lose than we did and we shouldn't show up.

It's amazing. The gag of the dolphins going up on land and the net catching the dolphin is like, they have traps, like in a net. They have traps and the leader dolphin just like removing it kind of like lackadaisically and slapping the hell of the dolphin. It's just, it's amazing.

I love it. Like, kind of to what Steve was saying earlier about a new girl, I kind of had to have, if I'm going to pick a chance of horror, this is going to be it because this is the one for me. that at all times just like, I could not stop laughing watching it. So when I saw that in high school,

I think my mom said something like, she's like, do you know that there's like a dolphin horror movie? And I thought she was full of shit. And there's a movie called The Day of the Dolphin from before Jaws that came out that is like a sci-fi thriller. Like you could not make that up. That's insane.

The Day of the Dolphin. You know what's crazy if we really talking about it? Dave of the Dolphin, that's bad press for the Dolphins. sharks got the worst PR out of everybody. They really do. Because the worst animals in the ocean are orca whales. Yeah.

Sea world, whatever propaganda that SeaWorld was trying to push on us way back when, y'all, go look up a video of what orcas be doing for fun. Yeah. They just be murdering animals. Orcas are mass murderers. I think sharks are victims of circumstances. But, I mean, yeah, because we don't be where orcas be at.

Right? So we be where sharks be it. That's why we got the bad PR with the sharks. And we're talking about who's the real menace, who'll be out in the ocean on ocean violence. Just being outrageous. It's orcas. They'd be like, oh, you see that penguin? We're going to play tag with them.

And then guess what? We don't eat them. That's crazy. Play with their food. Remember that we're just capsizing boats? Yeah. For the love of the game. For the rich people.

It was rich people boasts, but still, it wasn't like, ah, we got to get this agenda off. It was like, this could be fun. There was a story I read about the orcas, like, presenting, like, a sacrifice to humans. like food to try to get them on their side. I'm probably not saying this right. I swear her at it. It's a trap. There's no way.

I loved it. It was a great episode. It's when Kent Brockman's like producer behind the camera is being like choked out by a dolphin. Oh yeah. Yeah. The cue card says save me. And the dolphins like no. Anybody's like, did I say intelligent dolphins?

I bet. I'm intelligent Italians. I'm like intelligent Italians. This can't be right. It's like, yeah. Something's wrong. Everything about that particular segment is perfect. That's why I had to pick it with my Chewouse a Horror pick.

Alan, you got yours? Going to stick with Treehouse O'Hourr, and I'm going to go with Treehouse of Horror 5, which all three segments are amazing. There's Nightmare Cafeteria, which is where they... Soilent Green. Yes, Soilent Green, where they process the kids into food. There's Time and Punishment, which is The Sound of Thunder, which is Ray Bradbury.

Short Story, I'm becoming really neat. nerdy here, but, you know, Homer goes back in time with the toaster, but the best segment is the shining, which is a parody of The Shining. Yes. Which I definitely saw this before the Shining. So, again, this is like where The Simpsons is sort of like your cool older brother that's like introducing you to all this pop culture stuff. Right. And in that episode, there's like, it's like a perfect parody of the movie. I mean, there are, there are things again that I didn't get at the time. Like, there's the blood coming out of the elevator and Mr. Burns like, oh, normally the gets off at the second floor.

That's my joke. Then there's, you know, Homer, no beer and no TV, make Homer something, something. And what's crazy? Don't mind if I do. And then at the very end, they're like watching TV and Homer's like, come sit by the warm, glowing, warming glow of the TV. And I was considering naming my book like Warming Glow, but I think there's a blog called that. I can do that. So I kind of stayed away from that.

But again, this episode to me is like a perfect example of. of like the show how it elevates everything. Right. You could sort of do a crappy parody of the Shining very easily, but it was like very meticulous, you know, from Willie sort of being like the Scatman Crothers character and like coming getting hit by an axe. And it's like a runner through the entire episode.

He gets hit by an axe at every segment. So I think it's Treehouse of Horror at its peak. I love that because, again, with the amount of resources that The Simpsons has, not money-wise, but with its characters, the amount of things that you can do with a simple parody of a movie, you got to actually be like kind of meticulous as to Bell.

Like, okay, like, yeah, Mo can be the ghost bartender thing, but, like, you actually got to have a reason that he is the ghost bartender. Like, if he's going to give Homer a beer, incentivize him to kill his family, he's like, and then I'll give you a beer. Like, that's the type of things that, like,

not only are they considered when it comes to the things that they're referencing, but they're also very aware of the arsenal of characters in their wheelhouse. And I think that's going to bring it to me. I'm going to go with my Treehouse of Horror Pick and I'm going with Treehouse of Horror 3. I was not old enough to see this when it came out,

but again, I was a massive DVD, like, fiend when I was in my teenage years. And Treehouse of Horror 3 was by far my favorite one because I had first seen King Kong on another DVD that I absolutely loved. It was one of my favorite monster movies ever. and this has the parodies of King Homer, where Homer is King Kong,

clown without pity, and dial Z for zombies. And it's pretty much every iconic type of gag that a Simpsons episode can do boiled into amazing types of parodies. Here's your problem, somebody set this doll to evil with the killer, Krusey the Clown doll, King Homer getting like zapped by the gas and just like moaning and groaning as King Kong.

in a near perfect shot-for-shot remake of King Kong. Like, they're incredibly well-referenced shots and types of, like, animation that they try to recreate in a sort of like Ray Harryhausen style that's actually great. Black and white, too. Black and white, like for, like, again, still kind of revolutionary for the time, the fact that they can just, like, make that a thing

for their show for, like, maybe 15 minutes. And Dalai for Zombies, absolutely nothing is going to beat Homer shooting Flanders. And he says, he says, was he turning into a zombie? And he's like, there are zombies? So, like, that's just like a perfect encapsulation as to why I would ever love The Simpsons,

let alone being a great Trials of Horror episode. Yeah, I'm with it. I'm with it. All right. It's on to my next pick. I'm going to go with actually scary. One of my favorite horror things to throw on during the spooky season.

If I have the time for it, because it's kind of a long mini-series, I'm going with the episode, Proverbs from Midnight Mass. This is by far my favorite Mike Flanagan joint. He did the sequel to The Shining Doctor Sleep. He has done Fall of the House of Usher on

Netflix, a bunch of other great anthology series on Netflix as well. He's got the Clayface movie coming out. Yes, he is doing that. And along with the Carrie show, that's going to be, that just wrapped filming, interestingly enough. The episode Proverbs from Midnight Mass, not to spoil everything about

what Midnight Mass is about, but I think it's safe to say now this far on that it is a supernatural horror show with heavy vampire influence. And this is basically not like the key to kind of like unraveling the mystery of what's going on in this small town, but it is a window into one character's specific backstory that opens up everything.

And the way that Hamish Linklater's character in this show kind of unveils this story is both his, hypnotic and captivating and terrifyingly shot. Mike Flanagan has a very good eye for things that both mystify you and creep you out. And this show is a perfect kind of blend of all of these influences, along with being something so dramatically propulsive that I can't help but love it. Has anybody else here seen Midi Mass? I take it you're a fan.

Do you remember what happens in Proverbs specifically? Why don't why don't you tell me? If I say what happened to Montsignor when he was older and why he might be younger. I'm going to let you do the honors. Because it's a vampire. It comes out in the form of an angel that he confuses it for an angel. I don't want to steal your thunder. No, no, but it's amazing.

It's like one of the most amazing, like, reveals that I had seen in a TV show ever. And it's beautiful. It's haunting. And it's probably something that I'm never going to forget. Yeah. That'll happen. You know what I mean? Yeah.

How many times? Who among us has seen a vampire thought? That's an angel. That's an angel. It happens. Totally okay. Open up your heart, Jomey. You can see angels more often. I could, look, there's cathedrals for everybody with eyes.

You know what I'm not how that's? Wow, that sounded, you know what? That oddly sounded profound. There's a cathedral with everyone who's looking for it. I don't know. They're a real quote. This is all fake. Oh, you made that quote up?

No, somebody else did. Okay. I think Abe Lincoln said that. Foefondity is just as profound as real profundity. And then he paid me all my money. That's real. Alan, that's real. See, I just was foe.

Exactly. That's you, Alan. What's your pick? So this was a tough one because I was happy I went and rewatched a bunch of actual scary stuff. So one episode, I'm going to do like my honorable mention. Okay, okay. So there's a horror series, or not a horror series, like an anthology series from the 80s. It's a Spielberg production called Amazing Stories.

So it's scary and sort of adventure and sci-fi all wrapped into one. But there's a great episode that Martin Scorsese directed. with Sam Waterston where he's like a famous horror author, like a Stephen King, who's always looking into the mirror and he sees like a disturbing figure behind him. It feels like he's losing his mind. And I was like, okay, that's pretty good. But I think a scarier episode is from the X-Files that's called Home.

And to just give you some background on this, they only showed it once on Fox. It was that gory and that disgusting. And I think they left it out of their syndication deal. So that's how messed up. was and it's about an inbred family it's like a monster of the week episode right so an inbred family that like lives in a house like a rural house and the opening of the episode is is like a baby being born and a baby being buried alive oh it is and the house is booby trapped it's like the hills

have eyes but almost even scarier yeah like a police officer gets his head chopped off like i i i'm probably ruining it all, but it is so disturbing. It is almost shocking how disturbing it is. Do you have any insight as to how they got away with putting that on network TV? Barely. Right. Like they, this is the before times.

Yes, they did it. And then again, like they got so many complaints, they didn't show them the reruns. And the guys that made Final Destination were the writer and director of the episode. So it's sort of perfect. It's really narwhites.

It's really gnarly. Like, there are ways to find it on the internet if you can. Like, go watch it. It is terrifying. It's not on the DVD? It's a good question, but I admit I probably watched it some illegal stream. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable internet means everything for your business.

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And I'm going to a show that, fellas, I'm going to be honest with you, it's hard for me to show this show some love right now. because I used to be a big fan and in the last couple of years I've done it 180 and I've turned against this show and everything it stands for. Against this show. But there was a time.

Hazen's Shield. Well, I'm what you is. No, no, no, no. No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I don't need a full apology. I need a written 300, 300 page my fault. It will be in writing and in the mail. How dare you even suggest that? in your life. Don't ever in your life.

Can I send an apology, Graham? Play me like that. No. I want words. No, no chat GPT either. I will be, it will be a barbershop quartet that I send to your house

with an apology. Stranger Things. Oh. Season 1, episode 3, Holly Jolly, the episode where Barb dies. Okay. The show actually used to be,

used to be, not only good, actually used to be a little bit spooky. Actually used to be like, not like, super duper. like, but like, ooh, I'm like, we got to stay here. It's television, right?

You got to keep watching. You don't want to like a thing where like a movie you sit in there, you're stuck there for two hours and whatever may be. You get spooked out. It's over. Right. That episode of X-Files you're talking about is 30 minutes. It's scary. And you got that my other

you know what I'm saying? For like, you got to keep it going. But in terms of like actual like, you know, scary stuff, I think even for me, somebody who does not enjoy the scary stuff at all, I was kind of Like, oh, when they kill Barb, I was like, yo, that's the homie. She's supposed to be around.

Now, I don't agree with the, what was that thing? Justice for Barb? Because Bob had to go. Like, that's the, I think we were just around for movements back then. There was a lot of, speaking of movements, you know, trip, safe trip. Yeah, I don't know what I'm talking about. I don't know what save trip is. I'm just talking about.

Colston lives. Oh, there was all of that was in there. You can't help your. yourself, Joe. You can't help yourself. You started it. You mentioned it first. You mentioned it first. But when I think about like scary TV, that's like my go-to is strange things. And even though, okay, I'm not going to say it. Let me, let me, let me, let me, let me, let me, let me call it now. Maybe I'm not going to do. It's been my new year's Eve in a movie theater. Watch no, no, no, no, those changes. Watching those 40-year-old children. That's not going to happen. That's not going to happen. I'm going to catch it sometime, Mitch anywhere. There's a great...

What I got done us to do? I'll be the crew. My favorite tweet was I think it was a still from... I think it was like 11... It's like season four or something. And it's like 11 like crying like during a scene. And the tweet was, I wonder if she's going to hold her hand up and stare at a monster while her nose bleeds.

And I'm like, we can... Yeah. Again, Stranger Things, it's become an institution now. Everybody loves... be in an institution. I'm over it. Right. I'm over it.

You need nine years to come between seasons? What's the wrong? My wife went to go see Joe Keri, who's now an international pop star. Yeah. He has billions of streams. And he's 33 years old. That was the most shocking thing. Isn't it wild that Joe Kiri has like an entire persona outside of Stranger Things that has

nothing to do with an acting career? Not too much on Joe. Okay. And that's what I'm saying. Yeah, no beef with it. It's crazy to me. I was at that concert. It was great.

So at the Greek? Yeah. He was fantastic. My wife was there too. He was on a good show? Yeah. All right. He's a cool guy.

That's cool. And that's really cool. But it's just like, I don't know, like imagine the thing that got you popular. It's like seeing Sabrina Carpenter on a Disney Channel TV show. It's like, oh, you're the biggest pop star in the world, but you started in a Disney channel thing. Well, no, it's not that. It would be like if she was still doing Disney Channel. What the Girl D12?

The show ran for 20 years. Took 12 years off. Yeah. And in between, she became like a big, and then it had to go back to the slums. Right. And he goes back and be like, ah. Joe Kierry, graduating out of Stranger Things. Shout out of Joe Kiery, man.

No love for David Harbor? Nobody's got to. I mean, not right now. It's a little tough out there for David Harbor around. Just making sure. He'll be okay. He'll be fine. Not right now.

Bless up, man. It's not looking good. Plus up for David Harbor is crazy. Less up for David Harper. It's crazy. Brass up for David Harper. Haven Harbor. All right, Alan.

We got two. No, no, I got two. I'm on the term, baby. You know what? I think my Halloween party episode, like, I think that's for me, so I'm going to keep that one. My wild card.

And this is like a Jomi special because we weren't in the Halloween like that. But the one thing, we didn't even have cable until, like, I was like 12, so I'm coming late to all this. But the one thing, every single year on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC.

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Of course. Y'all, man, y'all had to be there for my guy, man. The Great Pumpkin. Yeah, dude. Like, again, like, just growing up and not having access, a lot of this stuff, I would see, like, the trailers for, like,

the Buffy reruns and do like that, like, on the CW when I was trying to watch Shand Showdown and Transformers. But it never got that deep. But the Charlie, I mean, every, every holiday at the Great Pumpkin, the Charlie Brown Christmas, Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Like, that was what it was like in my home. If you wanted to watch some Halloween or anything holiday, we always had the Charlie Brown. So I got to go with the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown for my wildcar pick.

Because that's just like a Halloween rewatchable for me. But, you know, I'm trying to win this draft, so I had to go with Hocus Focus. But for real, though, it's like for like Jomi, Oluojoo Jumul. great poker Charlie Brown. Shout on my guy, Charles Schultzman, rest of the piece behind me. But she was locked in for it.

I've been in an Osbury farm. You got a great legacy going on. You know what I'm saying? You're doing your thing. Play it. But now, like, I had to have this one. This means a lot to me.

Is that the best Charlie Brown special, you think? Nah, man. It's Christmas. It's Christmas. You can't go around the town. If we'd be completely honest, you got to put,

I love Thanksgiving. You got to put Alaska because Franklin is by himself on that side of the table. That is nuts. And that's not crazy. Because. if you're going to bring a brother into your space, you got to make him feel welcome.

What if he didn't feel welcome because the food wasn't good? I mean, maybe, but that's not that. Okay, first of all, you know what? See, Steve, this is how you get us with trouble. What, you mean if food wasn't good? It could have been great, Steve. That's not the point. It's not the point.

It's not that because the white people don't season. They food, Steve? How are you racist against your own people? Would you rather it be anybody else? All I'm saying is the food, no food, don't matter. He was on his, by himself on the side of a table. And they didn't date him like, Hey, man, hey, you, Franklin, come over here, bro. Or I'm going to go sit next to Frank. The whole thing about Thanksgiving is bringing people together from different cultures, from everywhere,

and we all go come together and we go give thanks that not only are we all together right now in this moment, but that we are having, we're going to have a great meal together. And they said, non-negro, you on your other side of the table by yourself. Alan, it's you. All right. So, Halloween were watchable, right? Yeah, okay. So I'm going to go with a classic to me, which is Scream. It's maybe my favorite movie of all time,

not just my favorite horror movie. Scream's great pool. So it was the first movie that I snuck into. I was 13, and my friend and I bought tickets to a movie called Michael, where John Travolta plays an angel. Oh, my God. That movie is not a good movie.

And I was scared of all horror movies, but that movie, like, it was a sneaky way to get me into horror because it's very funny. And it is the most violent movie I've ever seen. So I watch that movie at least once a year. And every time I watch it, I'm like, holy shit, this is incredibly gnarly. Like, they don't pull any punches. Like, it's a bunch of kids.

Like, and it's pretty. And so I did a story on screen once. And I told Courtney Cox the story about it. It's like, oh, this is the first movie I snuck into. And she looked at me. straight face and just goes, so you took money from us? And then she broke and I was like, anyway.

I hope that she said it in a Zoom in her like third office of her mansion-esque house. Probably or like, you know, with like a green screen background. Right. Right. Right. Right. And she was great. But that movie will always stick with me. And the sequel's pretty good but you cannot top the original. Scream really is something that's incredibly special because it's, again, kind of like The Simpsons and a little bit like,

this amazingly self-aware send-up to horror films while also being incredibly cynical and incredibly like in touch with like the youth-focused media that came out of the 90s, which was both like angsty and also very tongue-in-cheek. It's a perfect encapsulation of the types of media that we were making in the 90s that was like, I guess like such a vibe back then

that was so like, not mean-spirited, but, like, cynical and cheeky in a way that is kind of one-of-one for that time period. Yeah, and I think, like, the sequels, the second one is pretty solid, but again, once you're making a sequel to a movie about movies that, to a movie that's a feedback loop. Right. And it becomes, like, a Russian nesting doll that's just, like, a little bit of a copy. So this will shock you guys. I don't know if you guys have ever heard this, but I'm younger than you. This is a brand new information.

Really? Okay. I didn't get to watch Scream until after I had to watch Scary a Movie. That's great. And so I'm coming to Scream with the knowledge of Scary Movie and the interesting things where you can like, you can see it. You can see where like, okay, all right, I'm flying it. And I think the most interesting thing to me, and I was just like, I was just like thinking about this the other day. in Scream, you can kind of like, Billy and still kind of got this little, like, weird thing going on. Yeah.

It's kind of, you know what I'm saying? They were lovers. But it's subtext, right? But it's scary movie with, uh, right? I forget which Wands brother. Sean? Sean. Sean, yes.

But with Sean's character and the other boy, they, they had that conversation. Yeah. Oh, man, we went to San Francisco. Well, you want to go on a trip. We went to that club. They played good music. But you're saying. It's very out there, but that's a play on Scream.

But, like, again, I don't know that as a kid, so I'm watching a game movie, ha, ha, laughing, laughing. And then I watch Scream later. And you're like, oh. The whole thing is, it's making sense all put together. And yeah, no, Scream is in endlessly, endlessly rewatchable. It's classic. But it's one of those things where if you like, if you're like me

and you're not familiar with all the stuff that, like, that came at, like, where you're not familiar with things, it at first, and you realize, oh, now this inspired so many new stuff, taking all those tropes of horror movies and distilling it into one perfect little, like, moment in time that then now influenced so many after it. It's pretty nuts to go back and be like, oh, no, this is where it all started. It's amazing. All right.

It's on to me. Halloween rewatch. You get two. You get your last two pictures. My last two. for my Halloween rewatch, it is definitely going to be, this is a new, this is a new tradition now because of midnight margaritas.

That's practical magic. And it's only because that movie's insane. And it's a, it's a chance for me to get a little drunk with my girlfriend. And pretty much peak Sandra Bollick and peak Nicole Kidman. Right. I need a second. What are midnight margaritas and what is practical magic?

Practical, are you not familiar with practical magic? I'm not familiar. Well, get, strap in, buddy. Dracatal Magic is from the early 90s with a very young Sandra Bullock and a very young Nicole Kidman. And basically they are sisters that grew up as witches. And they grow up together, like, they're ways apart. Like, Nicole Kidman becomes a bit of a spinster. And Sandra Bullock grows up and, like, has a husband and a kid.

And Sandra Bullock's husband dies. Oh, Jesus. Like, killed in a... car accident, and she then has to, like, move back in with her kooky ants, and they become witches again, and they have what midnight margaritas, and it becomes this weird murder investigation where they've killed Nicole Kidman's crazy boyfriend, who was abusive, and now the cop that is investigating the crazy boyfriend's murderer falls in love with Sandra Bullock over midnight.

I'm margaritas and then they do a dance in the town, it's amazing. It's a crazy Halloween thing. They have an awesome house. And really my girlfriend makes me margaritas and I have a fun time watching a weird movie. I love that for you guys. That's now the staple of my life. I love that for you.

That's wonderful. It's great. And then my wild card is Paranormin. Because that's one of my favorite LICA movies ever. No, it's the best Lika movie in my opinion. If anybody that hasn't seen it, it's basically a cute, six-sense kind of kid. who sees ghosts in his town, and he meets, he's like trying to undo this curse of a witch,

and it becomes this, like, hilarious little found family type of story, and it's a perfect movie, like is doing the best in the game, and that's my wildcard pick. So I'm going to say something. All right. And I'm not going to say it's controversial because that's not true, but I cannot watch these movies. Paranorman? I cannot watch stop motion feature films. What are you talking about?

Cube under two strings was cool, and I dug it. I cannot watch Parenthormon. And I cannot watch Coraline. Why? I can't do it. I just can't do it. I can't do it. I'm scared.

You're too scared. I'm scared. What creeps you out about it? The buttons. Oh, man, yeah. The eye buttons? It's just, I can't get past it. And it's just something deep-seated.

Paranorma's actually not that bad. Paranorma's great. But just like, they're like, oh, man, it's the same people. No, y'all got it. This is too close association. Okay, what about missing link? How about that one? I've seen missing link.

No, I've seen missing link. Or the box rolls. Everybody was like, who's on the two streams is he, and I enjoyed it. But Coraline, like, Coraline's a masterpiece. I'm sure, I'm sure it's perfect. Wait, so you don't watch Nightmare before Christmas? Oh, man. Are you kidding you?

We didn't. We draft that and that's a classic. So. You're kidding. me. Well, it's Nightmare for Christmas a Christmas movie or a Halloween movie. It's actually more of a Christmas movie. It's something for debate. I have seen Nightmare for Christmas, but I haven't seen it. But that's all I'm going to say about that. Wow. So, okay. Alan, is that more Christmas, Christmas movie or Halloween movie? It was odd. I am a Jewish, I'm a Jewish man,

so I'm going to say it's Halloween. Okay, great. I'm the tiebreaker. Interesting. Okay. So, so here's what's going to happen. They're going to listen back and they're like Joe Jummi, why did you what's out, man? Tell the story. I'm not going to tell the full story. But what I will say is there was a driving movie, theater. We went to see the driving to see Nightmare for Christmas. This is during COVID, I would imagine. Yeah, but unfortunately, we didn't spend a lot of time watching the movie.

I see. Yeah. All right. Well, it was on. Those are my picks. And I feel like that's a, is that a wrap on the draft? No, we got. My wild card.

We got a wild card. I got my last one, too. Am I up? Yes. Yes, you are. Please God, do these be up? For my wild card, I was going to go with Teddy Perkins, the Atlanta episode. I had that.

I was on my list. But so I spoiled that. But one that I thought of that I love that is not talked about enough is the frightners. And it's a Peter Jackson movie starring Michael J. Fox. Yes. Who can communicate with ghosts. Yes. And he has like a paranormal business where he goes and exercises the ghost for people.

There's a serial killer subplot. It's funny. It's scary. It's sort of like a good preview of what Peter Jackson could do. Yes. Also, like, Michael J. Fox is so good and so funny. And I love him. So that's my pick for a wild card.

Frankly, this is an inspired pick because the Frighteners is, it's kind of, it is a very underappreciated movie. And before Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson really was like, I'm trying to find a parallel to him. He was like the New Zealand Sam Ramey. he was a very like weird weird horror director that had like these very interesting insights of like gross gross out like horror if you see like if you see the ghosts in return of the king that erigarn like summons to defeat an army that looks exactly like ghosts in the frighteners and like his horror influences like there's like a tiny tiny tiny bit that you could see in lord of the rings but it's it's like this guy's guy has a completely different gear that he hid from the world in order to make a movie

he did called Dead Alive. Yeah. The box at the video store scared the ever-living shit out of me. I never saw it. It was like a skull coming out of the world's mouth. Yeah, exactly. And so that is a good sort of example. Bad taste, another one from him. Peter Jackson, a weird guy before his

Lord of the Ring's success with the movies that he made, Frightner's an amazing pick. Yeah, Frightner's is good. My last pick, I gotta I gotta take it back home with me. I'm going with Community episode Epidemiology. Yeah. And that's Season 2, Episode 6, where there's Halloween party,

and it tends to like a zombie outbreak. And it's my second favorite show of all time. Psych is number one, obviously. Shout out my psychos. But community, the way it would jump in and out of genres, and they got a bunch of Halloween episodes. But I think it was between that one and horror fiction in seven spooky steps

where they're supposed to go a party and but like they got to take the test and they like spend the time switching stories whatever I just love

every time that community is able to like do a theme episode like the Christmas the Christmas stop motion which again I don't hate that it's a little soft

and doesn't try to scare me and spook me out no I'm saying I can do Rudolph I think you just creeped out by stop motion animation I can do Rudolph though Rudolph is cool

that's from the 60s like that's what maybe Yeah, they're moving at like two frames a second like this. This is how they move. You know, I can do Pingu, remember Pingu? Pingu. You don't remember Pingu?

Oh, the penguin? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the homie. You know what I'm saying? Bacorlon. New, yeah. I have limits as a human being. But not, community epidemiology. It's like, that's for my Halloween party pick.

That's where I'm going. Our colleague, Rob Mahoney, before this record, said, I think Jomi's going to pick a community episode. He absolutely was going to pick. Because Rob is my god. Me and Robert like this. Because that's the easiest read ever. Like,

I'm impressed. If there wasn't, if there wasn't a supremely well-known Halloween episode of Syke, you would have picked that. Well, I mean, you've got the, the Dracula one. There's a couple I could have gone with,

but I just, I had to go with, I had to go with the community, man. I had to go with my guys. That's on the Afi Afrika episode is amazing. It's amazing. That's the one where, Um, Abed and

Abed and Childish Gambito. They're supposed to come to like a couple's costume essentially. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But Troy's like, no, man, I'm trying to get the ladies, we're like, we're not doing all that. But they got to, you have to be nerds in order to get past a zombie out, you know what I mean?

That's the... That's the other one. That's the other one. Come on, man. Why would you... See, you sold it, man. We've had a good time. Did the other one, though? You know, that's cool. No, that's cool. You missed it. You ruined it. So... All right. That's great. We're going to end on me ruining things. You ruined it. You ruined it.

over. Whomp, womp, indeed. What are the picks, Steve? What are we... Not that many really others. Like, there were a couple that I was, like,

iffy on, like the Bob's burgers, Halloween ones are great, but they're really known for the Thanksgiving episodes. If we were doing, like, Disney Channel stuff,

like if I really wanted to go in, man, Hannah Montana got some. Oh, wow. That's a Raven. We could have been here all day going crazy on the Disney Channel stuff.

There's a good office episode from the second season. Oh, yeah. Right. Just called. Halloween. It's where Michael has to fire somebody for the first time. There's a really good Parks and Rec episode

called Greg Pekitis and Greg Pekitis is like Leslie's nemesis who vandalizes the office. It's like the first Chris Pratt as, was it, Bert Maclin like the fifth. There's another New Girl episode this Halloween. I can't

remember. But there's another one. I think in the next season that's also pretty good. I know Scrubs has has some as well. Like, the thing, man, we don't make themed, I mean, Abed on entry. Was it last year?

Where, like, they did the couple's costume joint. Like, we don't. The kid dresses his Black Panther, and he's like, yeah, maybe we'll kind of for the day. Yeah. Like, we don't do that anymore. We don't make, like, those, like, those themed episodes where, like, there's one Christmas,

one Halloween, one Valentine's Day. We don't have that anymore. We're losing recipes. I watch the tales from the Cryptos. Halloween episode, which is, again, these, like, horror anthologies are, like, it is funny. Like, we sort of talk about prestige TV.

Like, there was stuff that was, like, elevated 30 years ago. Yeah, for sure. And there's nothing wrong with a sort of, like, lower tier anthology series that is fun. Like, we would have, like, we probably couldn't get past the idea of a prestigiousified Twilight Zone now.

Because it's too well, it's like, it's too prestige to us now. Like, the classic 60s, TV show that that was now it's lauded too much to not be anything but to elevate. That's why we get the Jordan Peels of the world.

We have like terror at 30,000 feet. That's like kind of nonsense. Like shout out to Jordan Peel, but like that new Twilight Zone wasn't really hitting for me. And it was because of the fact that like it tries to live up to this legacy of like, yes, it was very well thought out and planned, but it's still like this amazingly good, pulpy type

of storytelling that you can kind of only really good if you like kind of shave off the rough edges a bit. I really loved it. Alan Siegel, thank you so much for coming. Thanks for having me, guys. This was a blast. This was a blast. The book is Stupid TV. Be More Funny. Available everywhere. Anything else to promote or declare while we send you out?

The book is something I'm very proud of. So, yeah, if you could grab it, I think you'll enjoy it. Seriously, it's been a blast to have you on. We love the book. Thank you again. for coming. Thank you guys again Mint Edition listeners for rocking with us, Junior

Mints everywhere. We are produced by the great dev. Don't forget that tomorrow Button Bash is going to be giving you their Ninja Guide in 4 and Outer World's 2 reviews and a double dose event is coming around where we're going to be having our Ring Reverse recommends

with a bunch of great stuff there. We're going to be talking about Walking Dead. Once again, Ben holding the candle for the Walking Dead in 2025. who'd have thought it. But again, thank you so much. Joe Meaddinner on. Do you have anything to say to the people?

Parting words. I want to shout out all the junior men's out there. Have a safe and fun Halloween as you go out there and trick-a-treat. Make sure to take your candy for, what is it, razors and nails. That's an urban myth that was like in the 80s. Listen, you can never be too safe. You got to be careful. Thank you again to Dev for being amazing at their job.

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