The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t

🎃 It’s the 13th of July, so it’s time for the Advent Calendar House to unearth one of our favorite Halloween haunts, 1979’s The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t, starring an exceptionally great Judd Hirsch as Count Dracula.

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🎙 Guest:

Tom Coombs (TPIF: Thank Pod It’s Funny, @ClassicTomedy).

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💬 Topics & Tangents:

1. This was renamed for its VHS release as The Night Dracula Saved the World, except no, he doesn’t.

2. Lyndhurst Mansion plays the role of both Dracula’s castle and the Witch’s castle. It’s located in New York state, not far from Sleepy Hollow.

3. The opening music, Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, was never in a Dracula movie. Its first uses in sound film were in 1931’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and 1934’s The Black Cat, starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.

4. My association of the music to Dracula probably stems from its use on Castle Dracula, a haunted boat ride on the Wildwood, New Jersey boardwalk that burned down in 2002.

5. Jack Riley (Warren the Werewolf) was also the voice of Stu Pickles on Rugrats, and did a bunch of Country Crock spread commercials.

6. Judd Hirsch as Dracula exaggeratedly disco dancing in a white Saturday Night Fever jumpsuit is the greatest way to end anything ever.

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📼 Retro Commercial Break:

McDonald’s Scared Silly Halloween commercial, starring Ronald McDonald and the Chicken McNuggets, circa 1986.

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“The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t” © 1979 Concepts Unlimited.

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.