31 in 31: Fifteen Down - still hanging in there...

Halfway through October, and we’ve started to fall a little behind. Between busy schedules and a couple of mini-trips, including our Tulsa run for Starbomb, the count stands at fifteen. That puts us about a day back, which is why this stretch leaned on one of our favorite rules: TV counts.

A Treehouse of Horror triple feature

One night went entirely to The Simpsons, and we picked three of our favorites: Treehouse of Horror III, IV, and V.

My favorite segment of all is in III, “Clown Without Pity,” where Homer buys Bart a cursed talking Krusty doll as a last-minute birthday present. Helen’s favorite is “Time and Punishment” from V, where Homer turns a broken toaster into a time machine and keeps wrecking the future. We also both have a deep love for “The Shinning,” which might be the best parody The Simpsons ever did.

Lately, I’ve really come around on “Nightmare Cafeteria,” also from V, where the faculty of Springfield Elementary solves overcrowded detention by eating the kids. I love the dark satire, but it’s also infinitely quotable.

“You remember me telling Jimbo Jones that I’d make something of him one day?”

“After all, isn’t there a little Üter in all of us?”

“I believe I’ll start, as you’ve so often suggested, by eating your shorts.”

Principal Skinner

V/H/S/MIXTAPE

Then there was V/H/S/MIXTAPE. I’ve watched every V/H/S movie up to this point, and this one was awful, easily the worst of the series. It had some decent nuggets here and there, but not enough to pull together a cohesive anthology.

The one saving grace was GWAR hosting the wraparound as an MTV-style show from hell. Their presence took me right back to that early MTV era. I used to love Viva La Bam, and GWAR even cameoed on an episode where Bam’s parents, Phil and April, got stuck babysitting them. So I guess I did enjoy that part.

The Fly

From Grandpa Carl’s tapes, we finally got to Cronenberg’s The Fly, and the tape quality still held up surprisingly well. We watched it with John (LunarSketch), who I believe requested this one.

It was good, and very goopy. Jeff Goldblum did a fantastic job as Seth Brundle. But what stuck with me most was the effects work. It’s up there with John Carpenter’s The Thing for me. There’s just something about these 80s movies and their practical effects that’s remarkable. The Academy agreed, too: The Fly won the Oscar for Best Makeup.

It was also another movie with a brutal, depressing ending. Somehow we’ve accidentally put ourselves in the Sad Boy Halloween timeline. But think more like Depeche Mode sad, and less like My Chemical Romance sad.

That’s two-thirds of the Cronenberg triple feature down, with Scanners still waiting in the VHS drawer.

Saturday morning scares

Helen picked our other TV night: two childhood cartoon Halloween episodes.

First was Invader Zim’s “Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom,” from arguably her favorite show growing up. Then came The Magic School Bus “In the Haunted House,” where Ms. Frizzle’s class gets stranded at a spooky mansion that turns out to be a sound museum.

Helen nearly sang the entire Magic School Bus theme song along with it, which is impressive considering I’m pretty sure most of it came straight from memory. Listening along, I had a hunch that voice belonged to Little Richard. After a little digging, it turns out I was right, and the episode credits back it up.

I had plans to toss in Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Jimmy Neutron, and Rugrats, but we dozed off. Saturday morning cartoons hit different when you’re past your bedtime.

Sixteen to go (or so)

Scanners, the Halloween trilogy, and whatever else we can squeeze in are still ahead. We’ve got some catching up to do.