Buffy The Vampire Slayer

We here at TVGuide.com really love Halloween and we really love TV, so we’ve compiled a list of our favorite Halloween television specials for your viewing pleasure. They’ll either have you cowering in fear or screaming with delight.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

This classic holiday special is always among our favorites, even 40 years after its original airing. Who can forget Charlie Brown’s hole-filled ghost costume or his lament about getting a rock instead of candy? And of course there’s Linus, who puts his faith in the elusive Great Pumpkin (who supposedly brings bags of toys for all the good children) and instead of trick-or-treating sits patiently in the pumpkin patch awaiting the pumpkin’s arrival along with the skeptical Sally. It has been released on DVD with a bonus feature where Charlie Brown and Linus run against each other in a class election and in which Linus extols the virtues of the Great Pumpkin.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Almost every episode of Buffy would be appropriate Halloween viewing, but in particular this trick-or-treat session gone wrong is a real fright-fest. Most people love dressing up and getting a chance to be something that they aren’t for an evening; most people don’t want to get stuck in costume permanently. And yet that’s exactly what happens one All Hallow’s Eve in Sunnydale when the local residents really become their characters. The tough vamp-fighting Buffy ends up as a weak 18th-century woman, Xander becomes a gun-toting soldier and Willow becomes a ghost and tries desperately to find a way to break the spell.

Roseanne

Halloween Edition (1988)

Proving Halloween isn’t just for kids, there’s nothing like watching Roseanne and Dan playing pranks ("Trick Me Up, Trick Me Down"), scaring each other ("Boo") and fooling trick-or-treaters ("Halloween: The Final Chapter") to show how crazy the Connors really can be. In this DVD set that includes ghoulish episodes from Seasons 2 through 8, the family that hates each other just as much as they love each other makes the most of this haunted holiday... even if a Ouija board leads to childbirth (yup, that’s right).

Simpsons

Treehouse of Horror (1989)

Who better to parody movies and Twilight Zone episodes than The Simpsons? In this annual trilogy - which, oddly enough, airs after Halloween - Homer and family get mixed up in some terrifying situations, but as things get creepy, the Springfield clan remains funny enough that you’ll be screaming with laughter. Check out the newest "Treehouse of Horror" installment on Fox on Nov. 5.

The Office

"Halloween" (Season 2)

Although seeing fellow coworkers in costume can be disturbing to some people, Michael fears the fact that he must fire someone by the end of the day while wearing an extra papier-mâché head on his shoulder. With shady moves happening behind cubicle walls - like Jim and Pam posting Dwight’s résumé on the Web to get rid of him - and a Halloween party gone wrong, the office is in a total frenzy, and it’s not from any sugar highs. The episode only gets funnier when Dwight loses out on another job opportunity, Devon convinces Michael to fire someone else and Michael ends up with a pumpkin-smashed car. How I Met Your Mother

"The Slutty Pumpkin" (Season 1)

On a permanent quest to find his soul mate, and in a brilliant nod to The Great Pumpkin, the ever-hopeful Ted patiently attends an annual Halloween party on the roof of his apartment building in order to reconnect with a woman he met years before who was dressed as a slutty pumpkin. Convinced that she’s The One, he dons his "hanging chad" costume year after year so that she’ll recognize him. Barney, on the other hand, is only interested in meeting Mrs. Right Now, and wears three different costumes - a penguin, a Top Gun pilot and appropriately enough, a horny devil - in order to try different pickup lines on the same girls.

Masters of Horror

This Showtime series, which is now returning for a second season, is a hair-raising experience. They recruited some of the biggest names in horror and asked them to produce these one-hour fright-fests. John Carpenter directed an installment in which a film really drives audiences mad, Gremlins’ director Joe Dante lends his skills to a presidential election that is overtaken by zombies, and Clive Barker tells a story about a man who’s told not to leave a house in the woods. All are enough to make a sane person want to cover his eyes and keep the lights on.

Friends

"The One with the Halloween Party" (Season 8)

Every once in a while, a party at Monica’s place proved the six friends did have more pals than just each other, but when Chandler and Monica threw a Halloween party, it wasn’t really about the other guests. With some hilarious costume choices - or in Chandler’s case, a pink bunny that Monica chose for him - and an arm-wrestling competition, this episode is a good laugh. If nothing else, Ross’ attempt to be Sputnik is funny enough when Joey (dressed as Chandler) insists he looks like "doody."

Charmed

"All Halliwell’s Eve" (Season 3)

It’s Halloween and the Charmed Ones are transported back to the 1600s to help a woman protect her magical child from an evil witch (sounds spooky, doesn’t it?). But there’s one problem... the girls don’t have their powers now that they’re in the past, so they have to figure out how to save the baby without their usual tricks. What would make this Halloween episode even more twisted? Cole is behind their time travel and later realizes he may be Phoebe’s true love.

South Park Halloween Season 3

"Korn’s Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery" (Season 3)

How do you scare older kids who are picking on you? Use the real corpse of your recently deceased grandmother to really teach them a Halloween lesson. Or at least that’s what you’d try to do if you were one Kyle, Kenny, Stan and Cartman. In addition to getting back at bullies, the unruly gang also tries to investigate the mystery of a pirate ghost ship that ran Korn’s tour bus off the road, and they do it Scooby-Doo style.

Written by Megan Cherkezian and Angel Cohn