A few weeks ago a friend of mine asked, now that the boys (aka nephews) are in college are you going to stop the TV/Movie calendars ? I was immediately like no, it’s not about them I enjoy it too. However, I admit that this year’s calendar was way harder than in years past and if Christmas is the same well it might be time to hang up my calendar for good. As you will see the calendar is dominated by a few specific networks. Now I know there’s more to life than Freeform, AMC, and SYFY and yet here we are. I have been unable to find hardly any of the things that I used to find that routinely made the calendar’s of years past.
Where’s my network TV? Calendars filled with Food Network (More on their insanity in a few), Cartoon Network, ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox breaking their “regularly scheduled programs” for “specials” or “movies” from their respective studios that fit the season. Alas that is either no more or they just aren’t announcing anything yet instead focusing on their regular programing as their new seasons start kicking off. I guess they don’t care about my calendar as much as I do or those of you that have reached out to me in mid-September to ask when it’s coming. Soon was my reply…soon. So many of the sites I used to use to populate this calendar are no longer active, or like me only show the 3 mentioned above, heck one just recreated the Freeform calendar and said ..eh good enough. Are my sources done with this process? Are they just unable to find anything so they put out what they could hoping we’d understand? Are the networks moving away from the fall specials, I mean each is associated with a specific streaming service that can air these things without messing with their precious lineups? So why waste the air waves and the advertising dollars. Has it finally happened, has Digital made this thing …. Obsolete ? Maybe so but let’s do it at least one more time cause well I am not ready to let this thing die, tho I admit it might be on life support.
You may notice that I’m sending this out on the 30th of
September which is of course not October 1st. I did that for a
number of reasons.
- I’m going to a friend’s house Friday night to
watch Hocus Pocus 2 and wanted this to be done before so I didn’t have to worry
or think about it could instead focus on the black flame.
- It allows people to use their respective
office printers to print the thing as they move into the weekend, your IT
people will thank me for that one.
- It’s football season down South and I didn’t
want this to get lost in the shuffle of traveling to see your respective teams
play.
- I wanted you all to have it before the weekend
so as to not miss the first weekend of fun with your family and friends, which
is what this thing is all about anyway and why I continue to do it
- It’s my calendar and I’ll release it when I
darn well please. Thank you very much.
For those new to this party, and there are several of you, I will re-state the rules, for those veterans out there please forgive me for giving a short explanation and allow your attention to wander freely if you’d like. (thanks for that line Albus! – 10 pts for your house if you can tell me which Harry Potter book that’s paraphrased from).
So the Rules:
- I live in the central time zone, the times on
this calendar reflect that, adjust accordingly for those that have traveled
north of the Mason Dixie Line or spread your wings out West. Don’t call me
cause you missed your “favorite” show/movie, that’s not my mess. Be a big girl
or boy and crank up that DVR and find out when it comes on again cause odds are
it will.
- Time Zones are hard and sometimes I screw up
the conversion from Eastern Time Zone to Central. See Note above for how I feel
about you finding a mistake of time on the calendar.
- Unless otherwise stated the times are PM, this
calendar is also geared towards the after work hours of life cause well it’s
about me and that’s when I can watch. My office won’t like it if I watch these
movies at my desk as I format documents, I mean I do that but they don’t really
like it. Feel free to check out these channels and look at the day time viewing
for those that are able cause it’s there but I’m at work so it doesn’t exist in
my world.
- Lastly this calendar shows things I want to
see, movies and specials that take me back to my childhood or that just
make me happy. Some are kid themed and some are more adult oriented. PLEASE be
mindful of that before you sit down with your little and they can’t sleep cause
Freddy might get them. That’s your mess not mine. Seriously don’t be that
person and there’s always one. This is supposed to be for fun, if you make it
not be for fun well you won’t get it next year. PS if you don’t get this one
you don’t get the Christmas one either so be sure that’s what you need/want
before firing off that e-mail. This isn’t social media where you can say
whatever you want without consequences.
- I have been doing this calendar since at least 2008, and have learned over the years that saving it to your phone so you can check it on the fly is the best way. I do that either as a JPEG or PDF so I make both available cause I’m awesome like that. When I print it, and I do, I print it 11X17 but 8.5X11 is often good enough, especially this year with so much additional space on it.
Now I must warn you … these networks have some kind of dyslexia cause I have noticed that they will show the movies and their sequels sometimes in order sometimes but often not so much …. I’ve only listed one or the ones I want to try and catch in the idea that if you are watching you will also be alerted that the next show after Halloween Town is well Halloween Town 2. In the case of Halloween or Friday the 13th or even Nightmare on Elm Street when there are more sequels than the Queen had jewels (RIP Liz) they really got dumb. Like on one day (same network mind you) they show Halloween 6 (1995)…then 4 (1988 ß My favorite BTW) …then 5 (1989)…then resurrection (2002), then H20 (1998), and then end the day with the original from 1978. Like what?! I get it ..show the popular ones when more are watching but that just made my head hurt and now I gotta go lay down.
As always I’ve highlighted shows I hope to catch in purple but
also wanted to alert you to a few items of note below, assuming that you are
still with me and if so …. Wow congrats!
Freeform - 31 Nights of Halloween – They 100% understand the assignment. I will admit when they went from ABC Family to whatever they were then to Freeform I was nervous. However I think they know what their core audience wants so for the entire Month of October (and for Christmas they do even more (Nov/Dec)) they show seasonal programing all month long. That’s not to say that everything they air is worthy of your time, or that they aren’t re-airing things so much it feels like watching MTV on the weekend, but if you are looking for something the littles can watch, that they will enjoy and you will too grab a chair, get a blanket, and some popcorn and enjoy. This is my go-to when I can’t find anything else to watch that particular evening.
Syfy - 31 Days of Halloween – SYFY also understands the assignment. If Freeform is where you go with your littles, SYFY is where you go after your littles trot off to bed. It’s truly the greatest place to watch Halloween fun this time of year cause they don’t hold back at all. They show classics and new movies and everything in between. This year they are even showing Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2 (which he had to make after screwing up the Halloween franchise (that’s not just my opinion btw which is law of course, but by his own admission he knew he messed up and had to fix it – seriously don’t watch the first one, after a horrible 15-30 minutes it’s a freaking shot by shot remake of the original Halloween but not even as good if that’s possible. . . but his second one more than made up for it). If you are looking good ole horror … this is the place you need to land nightly. Tho where’s my Texas Chainsaw Massacre, where’s my SAW, where’s My Bloody Valentine, Resident Evil, Leprechaun, BLAIR FREAKING WITCH? At this point I’d even take Jessica Biel in her two tight white t-shirt and low slung pants in my face for 2 hours, or even ……. Candyman…… just to see something different. NOTE: While this calendar is not about series who have a horror type twist, I am going to break this rule to tell you all to checkout Reginald the Vampire when it premier’s on SYFY Oct. 5th cause it looks like it’s going to be great fun and it’s my rule and I can break it if I wanna!!!!
AMC - Fear Fest starts – AMC is where you go for Classic horror. I admit over the years I’ve had a love hate relationship with Fear Fest over the years cause at one point the Walking Dead took it over and I ranted that it’s not about the Walking Dead or the many spin offs and talk shows it created. However I do admit that they have over 80 shows over the next few weeks that kind of make up for it. This year they appear to be having a Stephen King love fest (Pet Cemetery, Misery, Carrie, etc) instead of Fear Fest but I’m not even mad at that. Thei programing this year includes lots of Friday the 13th, House of Wax (the original and I believe the Chad Michael Murray/Paris Hilton versions), Thirteen Ghosts, Jeepers Creepers and btw CandyMan makes an appearance (that’s 2) on this channel several times.
Fox – The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror - The Simpson's Halloween special on Fox is going to have 2 specials for their annual "Treehouse of Horror.” Instead of breaking it up into several smaller stories they will have 2 episodes that focus on a singular Halloween themed fun one of which will include a Pennywise spoof! According to their Twitter the It Spoof will air Oct. 23rd so at least we know when that one will air!
Hallmark – Fall Harvest - Halmark is debuting several “fall” themed movies (not scary but puts you in the mood for that Pumpkin Spiced Latte I guess). Many of these movies debuted in a few months ago and are re-airing now but there are a few “premieres” that will hit the screen that I’ve highlighted on the calendar. If you are looking for Fall but not scary or gory … these are your people. Watch them now before they go into full on Christmas meltdown. These don’t rate high on my list but I like to throw some stuff on there for you guys sometimes too.
Disney Channel – Monstober - Halloween themed related movies and shows throughout the month and as the faithful to this calendar know ..that’s not what this is about but they do have a few “original movies” that might be worth your time or just fire up Disney Plus and watch Hocus Pocus. The fact they have not embraced Disney+ and re-aired some of their classics is something I will never understand.
Turner Classic Movies - This might be the last time TCM shows up on my calendar cause my cable provider has decided that I don’t deserve Ted’s classic movies (throw back to those old enough to remember how it all started). However, I love the nod to “classic” horror and the shows that can’t be found elsewhere. There is an ap for this one but it is stupid expensive and so I haven’t bit the bullet on that one just yet. So, enjoy it while you can, if you can. It appears Vampires are the name of the game this year Tho they also show things like The Ghost Ship and Spider Baby, Frankenstein, and the 2001 : A Space Odyssey so it’s not all blood suckers this year.
Food Network - Once again Food Network jumped the Halloween gun by airing most of their programing in September, which totally makes sense. Halloween Baking Championship started Sep. 12th Halloween Wars started Sep. 18th, Halloween Cookie Challenge started Sep. 26th …. I’m done with you Food Network … however there are a few bright spots. Outrageous Pumpkins starts Oct. 2nd Kids Baking Championship Trick or Treat starts Oct. 17th if you are interested in that kind of thing.
Let’s talk Digital … since that’s all the rage …
Ok … Digital and Streaming is taking over and thus TV is only interested in keeping their heads above water not special programing no matter the season. Heck my nephews don’t even have cable anymore. So, they use the calendar to look up show names as opposed to setting DVRs. I knew it was coming and this calendar was my way of trying to keep it at bay, but it’s still sad to me that we are in fact here. That you can only see the Great Pumpkin if you have Apple TV+ (unless PBS brokers some deal again – if they are I’m not finding it yet but it’s my sincere belief that they are currently in a room having those talks), or Disney+ is the only place to see Hocus Pocus 2 (available Sep 30th) , or Peacock is where you go to see the epic conclusion to the Halloween franchise (Halloween Ends available Oct. 14th) as we know it. While it’s fun having these shows at our fingertips it also takes away from the anticipation of it, at least to me. That I am sorry I can’t do anything that night cause whatever is on and I don’t wanna miss it moments are now a thing of the past. Heck even most network TV will be on Hulu within 24-48 hours, so go have dinner with that friend after work and don’t worry NCIS whatever will be available online tomorrow.
So for my digital folks, of which I admit I am now one, see the links below but I will admit that all of me believes if we calculated up the “subscriptions” for all these services we’d see that Cable had its advantages.
The
Best Halloween Movies to Watch on Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, and More in 2022 -
TV Guide
Best
Halloween TV Shows to Stream in 2022 (people.com)
The
Best Halloween TV Show Episodes Ever (movieweb.com)
Peacock
October 2022 Movies, TV Series and Sports (vitalthrills.com)
Netflix Launches Its "Streams & Screams" Hub for Halloween Horror (comicbook.com)
In closing, assuming you are still with me and God only know why
you would be, the intention of this calendar, is to get you and your loved ones
to pause and spend some time making memories. Maybe carve a pumpkin while
watching, create some fantastic Halloween Treats from your various Social Media
sites while watching, or work on your costume – don’t forget the props - and
RELAX and unwind from the busy work day,
work week.
So, sit back, scare yourself, and have a GREAT Halloween! It’s
fall people enjoy it!
Marcy
