The Mickey Mouse Club Halloween Special
Classic '80s & '90s Disney Cheese Still Tastes Great
Five years before Nickelodeon premiered their kid-centric sketch comedy series All That, the Disney Channel revamped the Mickey Mouse Club for the 1990s with the All-New Mickey Mouse Club. Primarily remembered now for launching the careers of ‘90s pop icons Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, and JC Chasez, not to mention Ken himself Ryan Gosling, the early years of the reboot produced some genuinely clever material that still holds up today. For proof of this, look no further than their Halloween episode.
A series of spooky sketches and musical numbers, the episode dedicates its entire runtime to celebrating the creepiest time of year. Each segment is tied together with a parody of Solid Gold titled Solid Ghoul, featuring supernatural incarnations of Cher, Marky Mark, and Mariah Carey fittingly dubbed Sker, Marky Dark, and Mariah Coffin (played by a young Keri Russell). It’s surprising that they didn’t go with Mariah Scary, but there could have been a conflict of some kind.
The best word to describe this part of the show is cute. Nothing they do is particularly funny but everyone is getting into the macabre spirit and that’s fun.
The first full sketch the episode has to offer feels like it came straight from Saturday Night Live with the edges sanded off. It’s a meeting of a Vampires Union where all the members air their grievances. That’s a mildly clever concept that definitely went over my head as a child. I just liked all the voices the characters used.
The episode also features a series of commercials for products aimed at monsters and clips from fictional horror movies released by the imaginary distribution company Scream Bloody Murder Pictures. These titles include The Incredible Monster That Borrowed Stuff and Never Returned It, about a mad scientist who creates a monster who…borrows stuff that it never returns. The Vampire Who Was In A Bad Mood is a real highlight. It appears to be about a passive-aggressive and sarcastic vampire who has trouble biting someone because he perceives her to be inconsiderate. The Snail is a fun take on The Fly.
The whole thing is capped off with a big production of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, a song that is impossible to escape during the month of October. Your mileage on this special will vary depending on your tolerance of puns and dated pop culture references. However, if your favorite part of Halloween is all the tacky decorations and fun music, then this episode needs to be added to your viewing list.
For my music recommendation, I will try to keep things light and funny with Werewolf Bar Mitzvah performed by Tracy Morgan and co-written/produced by Childish Gambino himself, Donald Glover. The music was written by Jeff Richmond. It was made for the hilarious series 30 Rock and is great, campy Halloween fun.
Just A Reminder: My book Nostalgiamares: Phantom Delivery is out now on Amazon as an ebook. We’re working on getting the formatting taken care of for the paperback. That will be available by the middle of October. Check it out if you love vintage horror and Halloween.