By Caleb Goellner

The geniuses in Hollywood know a winning formula when they see it. Kids love Halloween, and kids love, well, kid shows. After all, two great tastes should always taste great together! Right? Unfortunately many successful intellectual properties are sucked into this illogical farce on a yearly basis with mixed results. Some properties win big with Halloween themes, while others fail spectacularly. Others still, are merely forgettable oddities. TR separates the wheat from the chaff to reveal the animated Halloween specials that, though slightly bad, made the best of their awkward natures.

10) Garfield's Halloween Adventure

Jim Davis' orange cat had a way of starring in 30-minute specials more interested in musical numbers than an actual plot. Most of them were cute enough. There's something particularly moving about seeing the usually dour Garfield emote, let alone boogie-down with a smile on his face. While this Emmy-winning special manages to entertain the child within, there are a few key scenes that seem troubling in retrospect. For example, Binky's demeaning monologue at the start of the special, perhaps hilarious to the leaner kids of mid '80s, hits close to home for a modern crop of children plagued by obesity. To make matters worse, the forever chunky Garfield chases candy with abandon, which comes off as a big middle finger to those having to monitor their blood sugar. Would it kill that cat to suffer the consequences of his poor fitness regimen and improper diet as an example to malleable children? Actually, it probably would.

9) DuckTales: Duck Horror Picture Show

A pseudo-Halloween special, this episode of DuckTales sees Scrooge get screwed out of a few investments by actual monsters under his employ. These monsters stay in one of his water-side hotels and destroy it in a fit of rock-star party rage. A lot of duck-ized versions of classic movie monsters make appearances, including a Dracula character that likes to eat apples. This episode isn't terrible, but it's not nearly as good as the Transylvania level of DuckTales on the NES. At least in the video game, Scrooge gets to bash his enemies' heads in with his cane.

8) Halloween is Grinch Night

Apparently Whoville has it's own version of Halloween called "Grinch Night," and just like America's favorite pagan holiday; it starts when the leaves change, the breeze turns sour and a fat green man states, "It's a wonderful night for eyebrows." To call this 1978 TV special anything but awful is an affront to sanity. In the Grinch's opening solo number, he cackles about dancing alone in the Whoville town hall while thrusting his shaggy hips in a fit of bastardly lust. To make matters worse, the Grinch never finds redemption the same way he does during Christmas time—he's simply driven away from Whoville by a nerdy child's logic. Let's all hope Dr. Seuss donated his royalty checks from this steaming pile of crap to charity in penance.

7) Pac-Man: Trick or Chomp

Forget that a universe where Pac-Man lives a personified life, complete with all the comforts of home is inherently bizarre, the redundancies of this Halloween episode insult logic on a level comparable to the placement of Disney character's clothing. On Halloween night, Pac-Man and family (including his um…Pac-Dog and Pac-Cat?) hit the streets for power pellet treats. Eventually those darn ghosts get involved and chase members of the Pac family into, get this, a haunted house. This conjures up some deep philosophical questions about what exactly the ghosts in the Pac universe really are. Disembodied spirits chained to the earthly plane? Or perhaps it's Pac-Man who is dead, forced to run from his own personal demons in Pac purgatory? Either way, it's kind of a cop-out to compare the Pac ghosts to, well, actual ghosts.

6) Super Mario Bros. Super Show: Count Koopula

Because an episode isn't an episode without a "Koopa" pun for a title, the Super Mario Bros. Super Show introduced this loosely Halloween-themed short. Mario, Luigi, Toad and the Princess take a trip to Turtlevania where King Koopa has decided to go Goth for the weekend, taking up the name Count Koopula and donning a cape. The plot of the episode revolves around Koopa manipulating the Mario Bros. via their stereotypical penchant for Italian food. At one point, probably just to be jerks, they get Toad to down an entire clove of raw garlic. There's another episode in the series with a Halloween theme. It's a "Frankenstein" parody cleverly titled, "Koopenstein." It ends with a mecha battle. Watch it instead?