After kickin' up her heels and excitedly sharing her party piece of "Twas the Night Before Halloween" last year, it would seem now Endora's sulking over the less than enthusiastic reception of her recitative and has taken her boycott to the South of France! Leave it to Sam to take whatever "she's got in those sacks!" (perhaps hairspray? -- Liz's hair is mighty big here!) to make sure Tabitha gets her first taste of trick or treat.
This episode starts out nicely suggesting a moody Halloween atmosphere with huge shadows bouncing off all the walls, and the quirky (almost bizarre) "tale" that Sam has chosen to read to Tabitha...Darrin has every right to be concerned! Before you know it, Erin's changed herself into Diane, climbed out of her crib and up on to her toybox (!) and surrounded herself by a mean-looking dwarf, a big, blue thing and a plastic pumpkin head that wears pants and socks underneath its sheet.
Moments range from interesting (Gladys noting that "SHE shouldn't be allowed out today. They say their powers increase on Halloween!") to scary (the disembodied pumpkin head floating towards Gladys is wonderfully creepy) to hysterically funny (Darrin's reaction when the Gremlin smacks his hand!) to silly (the wacky living room chase.) Larry & Louise are positively RELAXED here (David White is so wonderful when he plays Larry "off-duty!") and Erin deserves kudos for... well...being "the cutest 'tiger' I've ever seen"!
FAVE QUOTE: Tommy (aka "Sweetness"): "I want my Aunt Gladys!"
Sam: "By the long arm of disaster, you don't mean the Aunt Gladys Kravitz that lives across the street?!"
Tommy: I sure do!
Sam: Terrific.
DIANE WATCH: That's Diane on the toybox singing "Ring around the Rosie"; Diane appears again and says "They did it!" after Sam twitches Mrs. Robinson's beard off.
GERALD WATCH: Wearing a white, short sleeved shirt, Gerald seems to have fathered half the neighborhood as he is seen in many different trick or treat cross-overs with several different children. (see "Oops!")
LOOK FOR: When Sam comes out of the kitchen, gets a martini from Darrin and says "Well, everything's under control" -- Liz takes a drink and accidentally spills it all over herself -- but goes on anyway like it didn't happen.
OOPS!: If you've got a lot of time on your hands, watch the extras in the trick or treat scenes -- no kid is with the same parent twice! Two different sound effects were used for Sam's two twitches.
© Review Copyright 1997 by SCOTT VIETS