For many, Halloween elicits nostalgia as a yearly invitation to look back on your childhood when you could dream without any constraints. Halloween is the one night a year when fantasy is reality, when ghosts and ghouls freely roam the streets.
Childhood television shows also provided a venue to stretch the imagination. Few were more creative and entertaining than those on the Disney Channel, which explored themes such as possessing supernatural powers or residing in a hotel or on a cruise ship.
For these reasons, the Halloween-themed Disney Channel episodes have remained some of the most memorable. Returning to them brings back the boundless dreaming of childhood. However, looking back on Disney’s Halloween episodes, some stand the test of time better than others.
To do a manageable ranking from worst to best, I will focus on live action Disney Channel television shows that aired in the mid to late 2000s, because this was the peak of Disney Channel viewership during my childhood. This era of Disney Channel includes “That’s So Raven,” “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody,” “Wizards of Waverly Place,” and “The Suite Life on Deck.”
5. That’s So Raven: Season 2 Episode 2, “Don’t Have a Cow”
There was too much going on in this Halloween episode, preventing it from perfectly portraying childhood Halloween nostalgia. It centers around Raven’s hamburger and her best friend Chelsea’s veggie burger getting switched, so that the vegetarian Chelsea accidentally eats meat and subsequently wears a “no cow” pin to make a statement. After being excluded from a big Halloween party, Raven and Chelsea make a potion that will grant them wishes, but Chelsea’s “no cow” pin falls into the cauldron, transforming them into cows. To become humans once again, they must retrieve Raven’s spellbook at the Halloween party, but before they successfully do so, Raven awakens from what turns out to be a prophetic vision and switches the burgers to their proper positions so none of the dreamt up events become reality.
This episode was very entertaining, but the cow plot line felt arbitrary. Although it was funny, it didn’t necessarily bring the same level of nostalgia as other Disney Halloween episodes. It did feature many great costumes and an on-theme subplot about Raven’s brother Cory going trick or treating without his dad for the first time. I would recommend this episode to anyone who wants to experience 25 minutes of plot whiplash.
4. The Suite Life on Deck: Season 3 Episode 10, “The Ghost and Mr. Martin”
“The Ghost and Mr. Martin” was a great watch, although its connection to Halloween was tenuous at best. Its plot centers around the ghost of a captain who was shipwrecked off the coast of New Orleans where the SS Tipton docked. The ghost captain begins to haunt Zack, so Zack asks Cody to stay in his room to monitor it for paranormal activity by recording themselves overnight. After reviewing the tape and discovering a ghost, Zack finds and tries to communicate with the ghost of the captain. He then dives to the shipwreck and finds that the captain was not responsible for it, as was recounted in history. Instead, his compass was tampered with, causing him to run aground; Zack successfully clears his name.
This episode checks off most of the boxes for a great Halloween episode. It centered around paranormal activity, and was even a bit scary at times. One moment that comes to mind is when Zack, Cody, and their friend Woody are reviewing the footage of the previous night and on tape, all three of them sat up, said “innocent,” and went right back to sleep. However, the problem with this episode is that it is not Halloween enough. There are no hints that it takes place around Halloween, and only its paranormal plot and original air date of October 8, 2010 indicate that it is a Halloween episode.
3. The Suite Life of Zack and Cody: Season 3 Episode 12, “Arwinstein”
This episode was a bit cliche, in the way that most Disney Channel shows are, but it was also a great example of Disney’s best. In this episode, Zack and Cody wander into the Tipton Hotel engineer Arwin’s supply closet and find a secret room, later discovering there is a mysterious monster living in the room. The monster reveals itself as Arwin Frankenstein-Arwinstein. That evening, London, the daughter of the hotel owner, hosts a Halloween party, and everyone thinks the monster is human Arwin in his Halloween costume. The monster wins the party’s costume contest, but when the real Arwin appears, everyone realizes Arwinstein is an actual monster. In the end, everyone is safe and Arwin sends Arwinstein to go live with his mother.
The Frankenstein trope has been used by Disney a few times, such as in Season 3 Episode 1 of “Wizards of Waverly Place” when Justin creates a Frankenstein to keep Alex out of his room, so this episode was not the most original. However, what it lacks in originality it makes up for in nostalgia. The classic banter between Zack and Cody is as apparent as ever, and London’s big Halloween party and Arwinstein running around the Tipton Hotel successfully place Halloween at the center of the episode’s plot.
2. Wizards of Waverly Place: Season 3 Episode 2, “Halloween”
Wizards of Waverly Place is the one Disney Channel television show where nearly every episode could pass as a Halloween episode, as Alex and her brothers Max and Justin navigate the wizard world. Nonetheless, this episode still stood out as a Halloween-centric episode. Its plot depicts the Russos’ efforts to make a scary haunted house for Halloween. The Russos decide to borrow ghosts from the wizard world, and Alex chooses a ghost known for terrorizing children. When the head of the Waverly Place Merchant’s Association brings kids to the haunted house for a trial run and says it still isn’t scary enough, Alex brings out the scariest ghost from the Russos’ lair. This ghost traumatizes the kids, so the Russos’ haunted house is shut down for being too scary.
The premise of Wizards of Waverly Place is very appropriate for a Halloween episode, and the idea of bringing ghosts from the wizard world made the episode unique and entertaining. Aside from Halloween, this was a great episode in general because it was one of the few times in the show where the parents, Jerry and Theresa, agreed to use magic. Although the magic did not work as intended, the haunted house was still an engaging plot point that brought Halloween to an already thematically well-positioned show for the holiday.
1. The Suite Life of Zack and Cody: Season 1 Episode 19, “The Ghost of Suite 613”
This episode is exactly what you think of when someone mentions a Disney Channel Halloween episode. In this episode, Zack and Cody hear about a ghost who supposedly haunts suite 613 of the Tipton Hotel. Zack dares Cody to camp out in the suite with him, and the bellhop Esteban, the candy counter employee Maddie, and the aforementioned daughter of the hotel owner London all join. Esteban runs a seance to contact the ghost, and the ghost channels herself through Esteban, taking all but Zack hostage. When Zack attempts to run out of the room, everyone reveals that the seance was a prank. The episode ends with Cody going back to suite 613 to get a blanket he left during the prank, and the ghost hands it to him, revealing that although the seance was a prank, the ghost is real.
The premise of this episode perfectly centers Halloween, bringing a child-friendly spin to the haunted hotel trope. Some moments of this episode are truly eerie, such as the seance to contact the ghost in suite 613, but they are cut by the banter between Zack, Cody, London, Maddie, and Esteban. If you only have the time or the patience to endure one 25-minute television episode geared towards children (who could blame you?), this is the Halloween episode to watch.
Honorable Mention: Wizards of Waverly Place: Season 2 Episode 29, “Wizards & Vampires vs. Zombies"
Although this isn’t a Halloween episode, it’s exactly what I want to watch in October. In this episode, Justin takes his vampire girlfriend Juliet to prom, while Alex and Harper plan a zombie-themed anti-prom. Max accidentally sends the anti-prom invitation in the wizard mail, inviting real zombies to the zombie-themed event. Justin and Juliet go to the anti-prom to assist Alex in fighting the zombies, and they dance-battle the zombies. That’s right — they don’t use spells. In true 2000s fashion, they beat them in a dance battle. This may not be an official Halloween episode, but it has wizards, vampires, zombies, and a dance battle, which is enough to entertain anyone through the holiday.
Lauren Fromkin is a senior from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who covers food reviews, music, and more for the Prospect.
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