TVSquad

Every fan of Buffy has his or her own favorite main character (or characters). But what of the merely recurring characters? You've got Halfrek, the Vengeance Demon (sorry ... "Justice Demon"), Amy the witch/rat and Mr. Trick, to name a few. But there's one character who's always fascinated me, a character with a long, dark and mysterious past filled with magic, mayhem and chaos. I speak, of course, about Rupert "Ripper" Giles' mate from the old days, Ethan Rayne.

• At 8, ABC has a new Pushing Daisies, then new episodes of Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money.
• CBS has a new Kid Nation at 8, followed by new episodes of Criminal Minds and CSI: NY.
• NBC has a new, two-hour Phenomenon at 8, then a new Life.
• There's a new America's Next Top Model on The CW at 8.
• PBS has a new Wired Science at 8.
• AMC has Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers at 8, followed by Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.
• Bravo has a 100 Scariest Movie Moments marathon all night.
• At 9, Discovery has a new Mythbusters, then a new Storm Chasers.
• The History Channel has a new Lost Worlds at 9, about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, followed by MonsterQuest, about the search for Champ, America's Loch Ness Monster.
• HGTV has new "haunted house" edition of Deserving Design, then a new Design on a Dime.
• FX has Halloween H20 at 9.
• At 10, HBO has a new Inside The NFL.
• At 11, Lifetime has two Halloween eps of Will and Grace.

Check your local TV listings for more, and check out special guide to all the Halloween shows on tonight.

I hate being scared at Halloween. I mean, scary movies and costumes are one thing, but I can't stand it when people just jump out from hiding to shock you. Such an easy, cheap way to freak out someone. It's only funny when you do it to someone, not when it's done to you.

The news anchors at KXTV in California know that feeling. At the start of a segment on the morning news the other day, they were greeted by a pack of knife and bone-wielding creatures and completely freaked out on camera. And this isn't one of those times where the anchors really knew about it ahead of time. You can tell by the screams that they were caught completely off guard. I'm also sure several viewers had to change their underwear too.

My favorite part is Melissa Crowley, who pretty much says "the hell with my friends!" and actually runs out of the studio.

(S02E05) "That shrimp smells rancid."-- Kitty Walker

Oooh, this was a painful episode to watch. In a good way. The writing was absolutely spot on for this episode, and it was just beautifully played. Some things happened that I expected and some things that I didn't, which I will get into after the jump. It was the obligatory Halloween episode, but nicely downplayed also. I loved the fact that the minute Nora's back was turned, Justin and Rebecca dove into the candy bowl like a couple of little kids. It was a good juxtaposition to pair Robert's debate with Halloween instead of focusing on the Walkers engaging in a big costume party, as might have happened with this crazy bunch.

This has got to be one of the great celebrity moments.

I don't really know what to say about this screen shot. It's from NBC's Football Night In America the other night, and since I don't watch the show I'm not sure what the context is. Was Larry King a guest on the show, or did they just take a shot of him watching the game and then comment on how he looked? Here's a bigger version of the pic at deadspin.com (warning: not suitable for small children or pets).

Everyone's got their own idea of what's truly frightening. I'm not talking about people or things who just are scary because they're dangerous or despicable. I mean things that truly keep you awake at night, afraid to turn out the lights. Afraid to be home alone. Afraid to fly on a plane. There are a few characters on television over the years who've stuck out more than others as being truly frightening to a handful of us TV Squadders, and we've put together a list (surprise!) of characters who have haunted us for years. If we're digging up old unforgotten nightmares of your own, well, sorry about that.

The list is numbered, but it doesn't necessarily mean these are ordered. Like I said -- we all have a different definition of what truly frightens us. Make sure you list your own in the comments. Click on a number below to get started.

#10 #9 #8 #7 #6 #5 #4 #3 #2 #1

Character: Zuni fetish doll
Show: Trilogy of Terror
Episode: "Amelia"

Have you ever seen this (the original Trilogy of Terror, not the '90s remake)? It completely and utterly terrified me as a ten year-old.

The TV movie consisted of three short films, all starring Karen Black in different roles. The first one has her as a teacher who is blackmailed by a student, but she gets the upper hand on him in a creepy way. The second has Black playing twin sisters. But it's the third story that freaked me out. "Amelia" has Black alone in her apartment, being chased around by a little doll that has a knife in it's hand. It sounds silly, I know. How can a doll hurt a grown woman? But the little bastard is vicious and relentless, and it's entirely convincing. When Amelia thinks she has killed the doll by trapping it in the oven, we find out that it takes over her soul. The last scene has Amelia calling her mom to come over, so she can kill her.

Somehow I don't think this ran on The Wonderful World of Disney.

Characters: Entire cast
Show: The Day After
Episode: Mini-series

I hope this post doesn't feel like a cop-out. I tried really hard to find a more traditional scary character and couldn't think of one; the fact of the matter is, monsters and freaks don't scare me. I don't really have an explanation for this other than the fact that I live in New Jersey so seeing monsters and freaks isn't that big a deal.

The Day After is about nuclear holocaust. It might be hard for some of our younger readers to understand just how scary the world was in the early eighties. To give you some historical context: we had a right-wing hawkish president in office, there were rising tensions with the Russians, and the Middle East was destabilized.

Uh, you know what, maybe our younger readers actually don't need any historical context to understand The Day After. Here's all you need to know about the movie: it was scary as hell...

Character: The weeping angels
Show: Doctor Who
Episode: "Blink"

A more appropriate title for this episode of Doctor Who would have been "Don't Blink", or even "Let's Prevent Annie from Ever Enjoying the Sculpture Garden of Any Museum Ever, Ever Again. Ever."

The weeping angels were a group of statue-like creatures that "killed" their victims by sending them backwards through time to live out their lives before their birth. The angels would freeze into stone if they were seen, but between blinks or in darkness, they could move extremely quickly to their victims. To prevent looking at each other, the angels would shield their eyes, giving the appearance that they were weeping. The heroes of the episode had to avoid the angels by taking the advice of the Doctor and always keeping an eye on the villains, never blinking.

As someone who usually watches horror films, just to supply obnoxious commentary on the bad effects or acting, and is more likely to get queasy at the thought of student loans than blood, I was surprised to find myself silently peering through my fingers, too scared to move, throughout the entire episode. At certain points, I even felt my eyes water a little bit, only to realize that I had stopped blinking several minutes ago. I think I was most impressed that the angels weren't ruined by cheesy effects or bad costumes, which, to be perfectly honest, aren't exactly rare in the world of Doctor Who. Instead, everything was executed in a way that was simple but brilliant. Between the blinks of a lightbulb, the angels would make their way across the room, arms outstretched and vicious teeth bared.

To tell the sad, geeky truth, I've had a few nightmares about Daleks. Yeah, I said it was sad, okay? But there's no doubt that the Daleks are nothing compared to the angels. Look, there's even been a vote on it! The angels beat the Daleks and The Master by a huge percentage to take the top spot as the Scariest Monster of the latest Who series. The numbers don't lie, folks: Angel statues are super-creepy.

And then, as if to guarantee no one could comfortably turn their back on a statue ever again, the episode closed with this warning:

Notice I didn't put an exact date for when Monsterfest starts in the title. I'm not quite sure when it starts. The American Movie Classics site doesn't have an exact start date. If you click on Monsterfest Schedule it goes to October 21, and the first couple of movies are The Birds and Psycho, but then there are a few war movies and dramas, so I'm not sure if this is the "official" start of the Monsterfest but I'll take their own link as gospel.

For those wondering, it appears that Butch "Eddie Munster" Patrick is still alive. According to his official website, he's recorded a single called "It's Only Halloween". A clip of this song is played when you navigate to the site. If you want to own the collectible CD, you'd better hurry because only 300 are available.

If you check out the website, you'll see he's even keeping busy doing a lot of work you've probably never heard of. The audio clip shows off Butch's singing talents which can probably be compared to those of William Shatner. He tries to speak the lyrics in a scary voice a la Boris Pickett singing "Monster Mash". It makes me wonder whether Butch's fans are simply in it for the irony.

Here's what's on the schedule this fall on Comedy Central:

September:

Jeff Dunham: Spark of Insanity airs September 16 at 9:00 p.m. Dunham is a comedian and ventriloquist probably best known for his puppet character, Peanut. If you want to watch a special featuring a man who was mildly popular fifteen years ago, check this one out. Here's a clip from one of his acts.

It was more than a year ago that Bob told you about a reality show that Elvira, a.k.a. "Mistress of the Dark", would be starring in. Fox just gave it the green light and ordered 13 episodes, to begin airing on October 13th, with the live finale on Halloween night.

The idea behind this series is that the real Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) is searching for a double-- someone who can make public appearances and represent her. She's still in pretty high demand, with her manager claiming that she gets requests for "hundreds" of public appearances each year. Good for her, I say, for successfully sustaining the same character since the 1980s.

All Elvira wanna-bes can audition for the show on July 13th at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California.

Well, the new Today Show host has officially had her most embarrassing moment on the show, on the annual Halloween show.

Of course, I'm not sure what's more embarrassing, the fact that Vieira got stuck in a giant clam that was supposed to come out from behind a glittery curtain (you can see the stagehands trying to pull the clam out from behind the curtain) or the fact that Vieira decided, for some reason, to dress like...Bette Midler??

You get to see Matt Lauer dressed as Jack Sparrow and Al Roker as that squidface (?) thing from The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Natalie Morales was Madonna, and Ann Curry was a very annoying Cher. Click here, then click on "Video: Today crew reveals costumes."

[via TV Newser]

NPR asked a few designers from various seasons of Project Runway to complete one more challenge and sketch some ideas for cool Halloween costumes. Diana Eng, Daniel Vosovic, Nick Verreros, Wendy Pepper, Nora Caliguri, Katherine Gerdes, and Starr Ilzhoefer pitched some sketches and, well, I thought they were okay (yes, I'm going to pretend it was an actual episode and critique a few things because, now that the season's over, I. Am. In. Withdrawal). I liked Diana's lightning bug idea, and Katherine's iPod costume would be fantastic for a parent and child... but what was up with Nick's Pirates of the Caribbean costumes? Generic pirate and princess. Not Captain Jack and Elizabeth. Tsk tsk, Nick.

I choose to Auf... Wendy Pepper. Not because her witch costume was crappy, but because I'm still pissed that she robbed Austin Scarlett of the final Bryant Park spot (ooh, I'm so bitter). Anyway, check out the costumes for yourself.

[via Styledash]