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Post by dem bones on Nov 16, 2015 6:08:57 GMT
There was an episode of Happy Days in which the Fonz had an encounter with the ghost of a woman who died in a wrecked car that he was going to restore. But they used the old "it was only a dream" ending. Bobby, a quick browse reveals that the Happy Days episode in question is The Spirit Is Willing, and there seems to have been an earlier 'supernatural' encounter for Fonz & Co, Haunted. The gang throw a Halloween party at the old Simpson place, a reputedly haunted house.
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Post by ripper on Nov 16, 2015 13:51:23 GMT
'Nearest and Dearest' special from 26 Dec 1969, 'The Ghost of Picklers Past.' Nellie, Eli, Walter and Lily hold a seance. Have they conjured up the spirit of Beetroot Bill Buckley's granddad?
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Post by Dr Strange on Nov 16, 2015 15:54:52 GMT
The séance episode was a bit of a standard in old British sitcoms I think - I seem to remember something similar in an episode of Steptoe & Son.
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Post by ripper on Nov 16, 2015 17:12:11 GMT
Dr. S, I think the Steptoe episode is 'Seance in a Wet Rag and Bone Yard' or something similar. Albert is planning on marriage and is trying to contact his dead wife to see if it is okay. A seance with a medium is held at the Steptoe house and Harold ridicules it, claiming it is all a fraud. After medium and other sitters have left Harold is locking up the house and casually wishes a goodnight to his dead mum. To his shock and terror a ghostly female voice says 'Goodnight, Harold.' I remember seeing this episode when I was a young boy and that last part really scared me.
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Post by Dr Strange on Nov 16, 2015 17:21:06 GMT
Yes, that sounds like it - and sounds like my reaction too.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 17, 2015 9:09:49 GMT
The séance episode was a bit of a standard in old British sitcoms I think - I seem to remember something similar in an episode of Steptoe & Son. Tony Warren - Rising Damp (Sphere, 1977) Blurb: Remember Rigsby, the meanest landlord on earth? And his unrequited passion for Miss Jones, the faded English rose? She, unfortunately, was hung up on Philip, the dashingly handsome African who shared the boarding house attic with medical student Alan–and a skeleton!
Between whiles, Rigsby's tenants included Spooner, an all -in wrestler with very natty tastes in the clothes line, Brenda who removed her clothes and bared her chest to art students, and a con-man called Seymour!
All these improbable characters, their antics under the roof of their `home-sweet-home' and a hilarious lot more is here in RISING DAMP..... but sadly, no room for Things That Go Bump in the Night. Rigsby torments Alan that his premises are haunted by 'The Grey Lady,' resulting in the obligatory "séance." Here's Rigsby,already seriously spooked by his self-manufactured phantom, settling the old nerves with an appropriate pre-bedtime read ... Complete History of Literature in Film & TV
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Post by ripper on Nov 17, 2015 17:44:22 GMT
One episode of 'Love thy Neighbour' had Eddie believing he was under a voodoo spell and Bill telling him that to break it Eddie had to dance naked around a tree at midnight singing a little ditty that probably wouldn't be allowed on TV today.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Nov 25, 2015 13:50:40 GMT
Teen-soap-romance 'Dawson's Creek' featured several horror themed episodes - probably not surprising since it was created by Kevin Williamson, creator of the 'Scream' films. One of the episodes had a wandering serial killer among the various threads, while a few series later, there was a horror anthology episode, with three of the series regulars sitting round a table swapping spooky tales. I keep meaning to track this one down again, as I want to see if the perfunctory ending of the final story was scissor-happy Channel 4 cutting it for a daytime broadcast.
Another US teen-soap-romance-angst drama of the 90s, 'My So-Called Life', had an episode with the ghost of a teenage girl.
'Little House on the Prairie' had a horror episode, where the kids think they witness the local shopkeeper chop his wife's head off with a sword. Not as scary as 'The Waltons' with their poltergeist, but nicely ghoulish - at least I thought so as a kid.
'Steptoe and Son' has been mentioned, but there's another surprisingly creepy episode called 'The Wooden Overcoats', which involves a job lot of coffins being kept in the house, much to the alarm of old man Steptoe. (The second Steptoe film also ends with a great horror tinged sequence in a cemetery during Albert's faked funeral, with Hammer regular Geoffrey Bayldon cropping up as the vicar.)
Patricia Routledge played the medium in the Steptoe seance episode. She also cropped up as a suburban white witch in an episode of LWT sitcom 'Doctor at Large' written by John Cleese, where the young doctors believe they are under a curse which they have to break.
Daytime soap, 'Doctors', has had a couple of Hallowe'en horror episodes, with a version of M.R. James's 'Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You' in 2014 - as Dem has mentioned in one of the Ghosts & Scholars threads, this was one I reviewed for that publication - and an Amicus anthology spoof the previous year, with tales of vampires, alien infections from space and a modern reworking of Orpheus in the Underworld.
'The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Meet Dracula' was a two-parter with the junior sleuths in Translyvania, Lorne Greene as a police inspector investigating apparent vampire attacks, and Paul Williams as a diminutive Alice Cooper-ish rock star resurrecting some of his songs from 'The Phantom of the Paradise' during a Hallowe'en party concert. The plot went a bit Scooby Doo, but by the end there was a hint that the culprit was a genuine vampire.
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Post by ripper on Nov 25, 2015 14:37:53 GMT
Great list, Mr Lurker. I remember the 'Little House on the Prairie' and 'Doctor at Large' episodes you mentioned. There was also a 'Doctor in Charge' episode where Duncan Waring accepts a bet to spend the night alone in the mortuary, and Bingham and Stuart-Clark pretend to be ghosts to scare him.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 25, 2015 14:55:18 GMT
Terrific post, Lurkio. This thread hasn't known such excitement since the heady days of the Dr. Quinn, Medicine Women season on ITV3. Thanks to a-popular-file-sharing-channel, I managed to catch the Doctors 'Whistle' episode, thoroughly enjoyed it, too, so will try seek out this Amicus tribute. I hope the production team got to see your review, as it's unlikely they'll ever receive a better one. The bride has since informed me the show recently indulged in some Zombie Apocalypse antics, albeit played for laughs. And I so need to see The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Meet Dracula now it hurts. Little House on the Prairie? Who'd have thought.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Nov 25, 2015 15:32:02 GMT
The Amicus-style 'Doctors' episode is called 'Trick or treat' and it is available online at a popular video streaming site. 'The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew meet Dracula' also had a tie-in novelisation. I borrowed it (possibly more than once) from the school library. The cover, plus a piece on the episodes, can be seen here; www.followingthenerd.com/tv/ftn-remembers-the-hardy-boys-and-nancy-drew-meet-dracula/#sthash.1dWvhLtL.dpbsAlthough not full on supernatural episodes, 'Dad's Army' sometimes featured the great John Laurie resurrecting his old Algernon Blackwood-turn, as Private Frazer would regale the troops with a ghostly tale or two. Laurie, who was one of the earliest actors to play Dracula, brings a genuine touch of the chills to the eerie little tales... www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYKB0i1kNnQ
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Post by andydecker on Nov 25, 2015 16:53:39 GMT
Do Halloween episodes in crime series count?
The new (well) Hawaii 5-O did a few, Criminal Minds did, Bones did and the early NCIS did. At least two, Bones and I think Criminal Minds had Robert Englund as a guest star. Bones was a lot of fun.
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Jan 8, 2016 19:28:17 GMT
Vivian Wolsey, head of Cardinal Films and director of 'The Virgin Vampires', is murdered on the set of his latest film, 'The Demon Brides', and his corpse is found wearing the mask which the film's villain, Lord Hellion, was set to wear after his face had been melted off by holy water.
This is the set up for episode 1 of the fourth series of the BBC's daytime series of 'Father Brown', which I've just caught up with on iPlayer (it was shown on Monday at lunchtime). Cardinal Films is clearly based on a view of 1950s Hammer, and there are some nice Hammeresque film posters for 'The Virgin Vampires' and 'The Demon Brides', and plenty of extracts from the latter, a black and white gothic full of crypts, fangs and cleavage.
It's not strictly supernatural, but it's pretty good fun.
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Post by dem bones on Jan 9, 2016 21:50:08 GMT
Vivian Wolsey, head of Cardinal Films and director of 'The Virgin Vampires', is murdered on the set of his latest film, 'The Demon Brides', and his corpse is found wearing the mask which the film's villain, Lord Hellion, was set to wear after his face had been melted off by holy water. This is the set up for episode 1 of the fourth series of the BBC's daytime series of 'Father Brown', which I've just caught up with on iPlayer (it was shown on Monday at lunchtime). Cardinal Films is clearly based on a view of 1950s Hammer, and there are some nice Hammeresque film posters for 'The Virgin Vampires' and 'The Demon Brides', and plenty of extracts from the latter, a black and white gothic full of crypts, fangs and cleavage. It's not strictly supernatural, but it's pretty good fun. Thanks Lurkio. Watched it in the early hours. Particularly liked the Demon Brides footage. Could be that there's more camp horror in the works as forthcoming episodes include The Wrath of Baron Samdi ("Father Brown encounters a voodoo priest who is intent on winning back the woman he loves") and The Resurrectionists ("Father Brown is determined to find out why the body of a young man was taken from his graveyard").
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Post by dem bones on Jan 24, 2016 12:15:50 GMT
The Father Brown repeats on BBC1 continue to throw up the occasional 'supernatural' and/ or horror gem. In The Shadow Of The Scaffold, a prolific murderer disposes of his victims on the farm. Hungry pigs ain't fussy eaters.
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