11 best Halloween-themed TV episodes to binge

Most TV shows do a Halloween episode sooner or later, and now is the time to watch them. After polling everyone we could, here are the 11 most vital.

Boo and happy Halloween! It’s ticking ever closer, and I find myself watching my favorite horror movies to get in the spirit.

But sometimes I want something a little slighter, a bite-sized candy bar rather than a whole bucket of treats. In those cases, Halloween-themed TV episodes are here to give you a dose of spooky without taking up several hours, whether they come from hour-long dramatic series or easy-to-watch sitcoms. Pretty much any long-running show will have at least one Halloween episode or two, and some do them every year (looking at you, Simpsons!)

With days yet before Halloween, there’s plenty of time to sample Halloween episodes aplenty. I have searched and asked and polled and after much debate, I found the 11 best Halloween episodes, each drawn from some of our favorite television series from throughout the years. It was extremely hard to narrow it down to 11 and there are a metric ton of honorable mentions. Everything from zombies to pumpkins, pranks and dead bodies in walls is represented.

Let’s get watching!

Superstore: “Sal’s Dead,” Episode 305

I think the show Superstore is grossly underrated. If you’ve ever worked retail at a major chain store, this series will hit uncomfortably close to home. Granted, it exaggerates certain aspects, but there’s definitely a lot of truth in there.

Superstore has had a few Halloween episodes, but “Sal’s Dead” has to be one of the best. After a tornado rips through part of the store, construction is ongoing to get everything back to normal. While working on some drywall, construction workers find a very dead (but strangely preserved) body in the wall near the fitting rooms. It turns out to be Sal, a creepy pervert who got stuck behind the wall as he creeped on the dressing rooms.

No one noticed that Sal was gone and I can’t say that I feel bad for him. They can’t remove the body until the coroner arrives, but it’s Halloween and the coroner is very busy. In the meantime, all of the customers think that Sal’s body is just there to be festive. When a dude in a coroner’s costume comes in to shop, disaster ensues.

This episode is a ton of fun. I would recommend the season 2 episode “Employee Theft” as a chaser.