TALES FROM THE CRYPT - "Only Skin Deep" (1994)

This is the last Saturday Night Special of this years Countdown To Halloween, so let's send it off with a Halloween party, a party that would have been better off to avoid, since you never know whose really behind that mask, especially these days.

 

Tonight's tale was originally in the Educational Comic "Tales From The Crypt" that was published October of 1953.

The cover story for this issue was called "Tight Grip," but one of the other stories inside was titled "Only Skin Deep."

For the movie they put "Only Skin Deep" on the cover of the comic, and that's not even close to the only thing they changed.

The party in the comic was a celebration for Mardi Gras, not a Halloween party.

This TV show aired on October 31, 1994, and starts off with The Cryptkeeper playing poker with a couple of his best friends, and then Death decides to join the party.

Peter (Cop Rock) Onorati is a scallywag named Carl Schlag. It's no wonder he came to the party as a pirate! Peter was an NCAA all-conference wide receiver turned businessman, and didn't start acting until he was well into his 30's. He's been very busy ever since.

Carl Schlag is not even supposed to be at this party being thrown by his ex, but being the ass that he is, he refuses to leave.

Carl meets this woman in the kitchen, because everyone knows that all the cool people hang out in the kitchen at parties!

And this is where the story really deviates from the original comic never to return.

 

In the comic book, Carl goes to an annual Mardi Gras party with the intention of asking an old flame to marry him, even though he has never seen her face. In this story he picks up on this woman and goes home to her very strange and eerie home, and they hop in the sack together. It's supposed to be a don't ask, don't tell affair with both keeping their masks on, but Carl screws the whole thing up when he thinks he's in love. The very talented Sherrie (Night Claws) Rose is the very odd young lady known only as Molly. Sherrie Rose is not only an actress, but has also written, directed, and produced films, and was also in an earlier episode of "Tales From The Crypt" called "On A Deadman"s Chest."

This shot gives you a good idea of what the interior of Molly's pad is all about!

While Molly sleeps, Carl starts looking around desperately trying to find out more information about this woman he has just fallen for. He doesn't get too far!

In my less than humble opinion it's very difficult to film a dream sequence or something that is supposed to look akin to a comic book, but the makers of "Tales From The Crypt" do about as good a job as anybody!

Carl discovers that Yech, this woman doesn't collect something like rainbow or unicorn figurines, but has some very strange collectibles in her curio cabinet instead! Too bad it's too late since she has already drugged him. 

Carl gets over falling in love! Faces are overrated anyway, don't you think?

So that's it kiddies, another Halloween shot to Hell! Just remember, stay safe and sane, or end up like Carl, Unsafe, and Insane!

2 DAYS TO GO BEFORE HALLOWEEN AT THE DHC CELEBRATION

Here are today's highlights from the wildest day yet! It's all because a gang of our Halloween Countdown celebration participants broke into the wine cellar and stole 2,351 bottles of Thunderbird and passed them out to the others! Their justification was, they were bored because Halloween was still two more days away, and they needed to have a 'few' drinks to get their mind off of the agonizing wait!

Funny, The Hearer reads her wish of love and harmony to all the participants before the activities begin for the day...

Things go south immediately because everyone's drunk on their ass and acting like jackasses! The first major incident was when these knuckleheads drilled into a giant gas line!

Okay, these two were fast friends until the Thunderbird kicked in. Out of nowhere, Terror Tongue knocks Freebyrd onto the ground and comes at him with that deadly tongue!

But then Freebyrd stabs the tongue, staking it to the ground! They laughed about it and gave each other a big sloppy hug! Ten minutes later they got into another fight!

This drunk dude thought it was funny to spray soap suds into people's eyes and watch them scream in agony as the suds burned away!

One of his victims attacks with a swift kick, taking the sud meister out!

Mutant Turtle retaliates against a guy who took one of his bottles of Thunderbird...

And teaches him not to mess with a sauced Mutant Turtle!

Bombs were landing all around and nearly hit those attendees, luckily, as we would have to pay out for the mistake.

Mouse Freak freaks out a girl and tries to take her boat for a spin, but he was so drunk, he fell out and disappeared from sight.

Allen finished his Thunderbird and went for a ride on his cycle. He got distracted and was looking back when he went off a ledge and started tumbling down the hill!

Half way down he was flung off the bike and went flying! Amazingly, Allen only suffered a broken neck, ruptured spleen and chipped teeth. He'll be fine in a few months.

But the craziest thing that happened was when this guy, Super Eyeball, who was bragging he had consumed seven bottles of nectar, shot a beam, and...

It hit our celebration command center, blowing it to kingdom come! Since the celebration is nearly over, we decided that we didn't really need it for another two days anyway. So, cool!

The Dungeon Halloween Countdown Celebration, yip, yap, yahooie!

A really drunk Cecil The Sea-Sick Sea Serpent says a few unintelligible sentences before falling over on his face, making a perfect ending for today!

BEWITCHED - "A Safe And Sane Halloween" (1967)

 

The last Weenie Wednesday of this years Countdown is from Season 04, Episode 08 of

"Bewitched." 

 

This episode aired on October 26, 1967 and was called "A Safe And Sane Halloween."

It begins with Samantha reading a Halloween bedtime story to her daughter Tabitha.

In the story, there is a goblin, a gremlin and a Jack O' Lantern.

The story was supposed to put Tabitha to sleep, but sometimes she's a restless little witch.

Oops! Something seems to have happened, and the Halloween trio are no longer in the book where they are supposed to be!

Cute as a bug Tabitha is played by three year old Erin Murphy. Erin was in 102 episodes of "Bewitched," and her twin sister Diane filled in for her on 21 episodes.

Interestingly enough, the Murphy twins shared the same birthday, June 17, with Elizabeth Montgomery's real daughter Rebecca.

Samantha is going to take Tabitha out to go trick or treating, and Tabitha's new friends decide they should go along too, so they sneak out of the house.

The trio of terror follows Samantha and Tabitha around, and Samantha doesn't even notice anything strange going on. She just thinks they are more costumed kids out on a candy hunt.

In the meantime, just to make things more confusing, Gladys Kravitz's nephew Tommy is also decked out as a Jack O' Lantern.

Here's a real power trio for you, 4' 3" Jerry Maren as the Gremlin, had a career that went all the way back to "The Terror Of Tiny Town," and "The Wizard Of Oz." Jerry passed away in 2018 at the age of 98. 3' 11" Felix (She Freak) Silla as the Goblin, just passed away six months ago at the age of 84. Probably the most famous of them all is the 4' 2" Billy (Gog) Curtis as Jack O' Lantern. Billy passed away in 1988 at the age of 79. All three of them were in the 1973 film "Little Cigars."

There's confusion out in the field, and Tommy and the real Jack O' Lantern end up trading places, much to everyone's chagrin! Tommy was played by Bobby (Countdown) Riha.

A bewildered and flabbergasted Samantha finally gets the whole thing sorted out, but she doesn't have the powers to return the guys back  to the book. It's up to Tabitha.

Gladys learns the hard way that it's not Tommy underneath the sheet!

All kinds of havoc ensues when Tommy gets turned into a goat, and Samantha has to watch on helplessly!

We should do a survey, and see who had more, and better facial expressions, Lucille Ball or Elizabeth Montgomery?

 

Not only are the terrible trio full of mischief, they also have magic powers and can do things like putting a goatee on one unsuspecting lady giving out candy, smashing a hovering pie into one guy's face, or adding ears like this to Darrin.

They finally get the guys back into the book, but when they put Tabitha to bed for the night, they find this book, and think that there must be a bear loose in the house, until they notice that Tabitha is sleeping with a new stuffed animal that is a bear. Whew, close call!

After Sam and Darrin leave the room, the real bear comes out of the closet!

Baby witch Tabitha just gets a big laugh out of the whole thing. At least the title of the book was "The Friendly Grizzly Bear."