What Happened To Trick-Or-Treating?

Last night was trick-or-treat here in Akron, OH from 5 PM until 7 PM. I made 40 treat bags to give out to the little beggars. I had 26 of them left at the end of the night. Last year I gave out 56 bags, two years ago around 60 and three years ago 32. The temperature was in the low 40s and shortly after 5:30 we had some freezing rain for about a minute. Was it too cold out? Do kids not trick-or-treat anymore? Or do they just not come down my street. I don't know. I hope for a better turn out next year.

Marcia Wallace, R.I.P.

From Variety --

Marcia Wallace, the feisty redhead who starred as receptionist Carol Kester on “The Bob Newhart Show” and voiced teacher Edna Krabappel on “The Simpsons,” died Friday. She would have turned 71 on Nov. 1.

TMZ reported the actress died at her home in Los Angeles but other details remained unclear.

Wallace won an Emmy for outstanding voiceover performance on “The Simpsons” in 1992.

Born in Creston, Iowa, she moved to New York after graduating college and worked in off-Broadway productions. The role of the receptionist on “The Bob Newhart Show” was written specifically for her after she had appeared numerous times on “The Merv Griffin Show.”

After “Bob Newhart,” she went on to appear on several game shows and on “ALF,” “Full House” and “Bewitched” as well as “Murphy Brown,” “The Brady Bunch,” “Taxi” and “Murder, She Wrote.”

She appeared in more than 100 episodes of “The Simpsons” as Bart Simpson’s teacher, who eventually marries Ned Flanders.

She also appeared in films such as “My Mother the Werewolf,” “Teen Witch” and “Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College.” Wallace appeared onstage in productions including “The Vagina Monologues.” She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1985 and published a memoir “Don’t Look Back, We’re Not Going That Way!”

She is survived by a son.

The 46 Scariest TV Show Themes Of All Time

 

Well, I finally finished putting together a Halloween music compilation before Halloween! lol

This mix features the theme songs to scary TV shows from this online story The 50 Scariest TV Shows Of All Time.

The article is two years old and I could only find 46 of the 50 themes. But, I still think it's pretty cool. The tracks are in alphabetical order, not in numerical order like the original list. Plus, the quality may vary on some of the tracks. Hopefully it sounds OK. I haven't actually listened to it all the way through.

Click below to download. I hope the link will stay active until at least Halloween!

The 46 Scariest TV Show Themes Of All Time

Hal Needham, R.I.P.

From USA Today --

Heaven just gained a guy who could jump out of a plane or onto a stagecoach like nobody's business.

Hal Needham, a former military paratrooper who later became one of Hollywood's top stuntmen and a film director, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 82 after a short bout with cancer, according to Variety.

The Tennessee native was first a stunt double for Richard Boone on the 1950s Western TV show Have Gun, Will Travel, and parlayed that into big-screen work on How the West Was Won, Little Big Man, Blazing Saddles, Chinatown and other films in the 1960s and '70s.

After enduring countless injuries — in his career, he broke 56 bones, including his back twice — Needham moved into filmmaking. He wrote the screenplay for Smokey and the Bandit, and his friend Burt Reynolds offered him a chance to direct it as a 1977 comedy starring the actor and Sally Field.

Needham directed the 1980 Bandit sequel and the Reynolds movies Hooper (1978), Cannonball Run (1981) and Stroker Ace (1983), plus the Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring Western vehicle The Villain (1979), Megaforce (1982) and Rad (1986).

The former stuntman penned a 2011 memoir about his time in the movies, Stuntman!: My Car-Crashing, Plane-Jumping, Bone-Breaking, Death-Defying Hollywood Life.

In 2012, Needham was honored with a Governors Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and was introduced by Quentin Tarantino. "You know, you're looking at the luckiest man alive," Needham said during his acceptance speech. "And lucky to be alive."

Schwarzenegger paid tribute to him on Twitter Friday: "Hal Needham was a great stunt coordinator, director, and an icon. I'm still grateful he took a chance with me in The Villain. I'll miss him."

Count Morbida's Monthly Puzzle Pages

Here's the last of the Count Morbida's Monthly Puzzle Pages that I have scanned. From Dynamite Magazine #63 (August 1979).

New Halloween T-Shirt #3

This counts a s a Halloween shirt, right? It has Beetlejuice on it. :)

Earlier this year Cult Film Club had a contest to win a shirt from RIPT Apparel. I won and this is the shirt I chose.

New Halloween T-Shirt #2

Ghostbusters! I bought this shirt on clearance back in the summer from Walmart (maybe it was Target. I'm not sure).

Who you gonna call?

Wow! 1984. That's the year I graduated from high school. I'm old. :(

New Halloween T-Shirt #1

If you were here last year, you'll remember that I posted pictures of me wearing a different Halloween/monster t-shirt every day in October. You can see last year's Countdown posts here. Since then I've only bought three new Halloween related shirts.

Here's the first one. Jason! I got this at Five Below. They have a bunch of cool Halloween shirts for five bucks each. This was the only one I saw in my size.

GWAR

This isn't really Halloween, but we are wearing costumes.

GWAR was at the 2000 Pittsburgh Comicon and my son and I had our pictures taken wearing some of their stage-worn costumes. They smelled bad.

Monster Carving Patterns

I originally scanned and posted these back in 2007. I put them in a zip file, but of course that download is no longer available. So, here they are again. This time they're not in a zip file. If anyone carves one of these classic monsters, I'd love to see a photo of it.

(click on each picture to make them bigger)