It's Halloween, so that means there's extra TV treats. Last year, NBC aired "SNL: Halloween," a
primetime special that included some of the most memorable celebrity
cameos from classic "Saturday Night Live" sketches.
With 39 seasons in its archives,
"SNL's" Halloween booty boasts everything from Richard Pryor's 1975
"Exorcist II" skit to Madeline Kahn's classic "I Feel
Pretty" Bride of Frankenstein sketch. In more recent years, Bill Hader's
"Vincent Price Halloween Special" featured special guest star Jon
Hamm (the “Mad Men” star, clearly comfortable in the 1960s, played
JFK), and Barack Obama even made a cameo in a 2007 "SNL" Halloween
opener when he crashed the Clinton's Halloween party.
While "SNL" has
the celeb-cameo category in the bag, other TV shows have given us their own
share of Halloween treats, as well, with special guest stars that made the
holiday-themed episodes even more memorable.
Every day was Halloween on the 1960s sitcom “Bewitched,” but
the ABC series boasted five official Halloween episodes during its eight-season
run. The legendary Willie Mays even haunted one episode. In 1966, Mays made a
cameo as a guest at Endora's (played by Agnes Moorehead) Halloween party in the
episode "Twitch or Treat," where it was revealed that the baseball great
was actually a warlock. "The way he hits home runs? What else?"
Elizabeth Montgomery's Samantha explained to a stunned Darrin (Dick York).
And here's the story of a pre-"Brady"
Maureen McCormick. “The Brady Bunch” star popped into the 1965
"Bewitched" episode "Trick or Treat," playing a pint-size
Endora dressed in a gypsy costume. The future Marcia Brady cast a wicked spell
on Darrin that soon had him sporting fangs and facial hair as he quickly
transformed into a werewolf.
See McCormick in "Bewitched":
No family loves Halloween as much as the Conner
clan, so it's no wonder the long-running sitcom “Roseanne” featured a
whopping eight Halloween-themed episodes in nine seasons. While George Clooney
was a semi-regular on the series during its first season, he left the show in
1989 after 10 episodes. But somehow producers managed to scare up one final
cameo in 1991. That's when Clooney reprised his role as Booker Brooks, Jackie's
(Laurie Metcalf) ex-boyfriend and former factory boss, for the Halloween
episode "Trick Me Up, Trick Me Down." Jackie didn't realize that the
moose she was flirting with at the lodge Halloween party was actually her ex,
but when he took off that moose head, it was the last call for Booker.
In 1982, up-and-coming comedian Andrew Dice Clay appeared in teh "m*A*S*H" episode "Trick or Treatment." The
Diceman played Corporal Hrabosky in an episode about the 4077th's Halloween
bash at Rosie's bar. Unfortunately, the gala was interrupted by war casualties,
as well as drunken antics. (Dice's character suffered a head wound after
crashing into a chicken coop during a Jeep race.) Still, this episode about
Halloween 1953 is the only place to find Hawkeye Pierce in a Superman costume
and Col. Potter as a wannabe cowboy.
“Friends” had "one" for every
holiday, and Halloween was no exception. In 2001, "The One With the
Halloween Party" featured an appearance by guest star Sean Penn. The Oscar
winner played Ursula's (played by Lisa Kudrow) former fiance, Eric. According
to Entertainment Weekly, Penn's spokesperson said the actor's
kids were big fans of the NBC sitcom at the time, while "Friends"
co-creator David Crane said, ''We've always been fans of [Penn's] comedy.''
Clearly there were some Spicoli fans in the "Friends" writers' room.
And then there's “The Office,” another
long-running series known for its Halloween hijinks. In 2012, guest star
Stephen Colbert turned up for the role of Broccoli Rob, a former member
of Andy's (Ed Helms) college a cappella group, Here Comes Treble. The episode
reunited “The Colbert Report” " host with his old "Daily Show"
cohort, but their "Office" characters were rivals, as they vied to
take ownership of a signature song: George Michael's "Faith." Too bad
Andy's leather clad George Michael costume had a confused Here Comes Treble
singer telling him, "I thought you were Adam Lambert."
The 2011 “How I Met Your Mother” episode
"Return of the Slutty Pumpkin" featured a small-screen cameo by Katie
Holmes as the legendary pumpkin from Ted's (Josh Radnor) past. (Ten years past!
"HIMYM" fans surely remember Ted's first mention of the promiscuous
pumpkin back in the year 2001.) A lost Kit Kat wrapper with the pumpkin girl's
phone number culminated with this follow-up episode that was "literally
six seasons in the making," according to show creator Craig Thomas. And it
was worth the wait. Thomas told Vulture: "Katie is a lovely and talented actress, which
is why we've saved for her perhaps the most classily named character in our
show's history."
Check out a clip of Holmes on "How I Met
Your Mother":
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