This Forgotten Grinch Halloween Special Is Darker Than A Witch’s Hat

The Christmas holidays wouldn’t be the same without a nostalgic viewing of How the Grinch Saved Christmas. But there was another Grinch holiday special that somehow hasn’t stayed in the public consciousness. Maybe that’s because Halloween Is Grinch Night is even darker than its Christmas cousin.

The 1977 special has all the right pedigrees, according to Remind Magazine. Dr. Seuss himself, Theodor Geisel, wrote and produced the holiday program 11 years after the original Grinch special made everyone’s hearts grow three sizes. While How the Grinch Saved Christmas was ultimately a story of redemption — that green gremlin had a change of heart and found his inner goodness over a plate of roast beast — there’s no saving the scoundrel in Halloween Is Grinch Night. 

All’s well in Whoville at the beginning of the show, for about 30 seconds anyway. That’s when the denizens of the Seussian town catch an odd whiff in the air. It’s the sour sweet wind that signals something evil is on the way. Everyone locks themselves in their homes, afraid of what comes next.

What comes next is the Grinch, notified by the weird-smelling wind that it’s time to terrorize the Whos. As he descends from his mountain perch, the Grinch comes across a small Who, and not Cindy Lou Who, who charmed him last time around. This time, it’s nearsighted Euchariah, and the Grinch decides to scare the pants off the young Who by taking him on a spook’s tour. Maybe the reason networks no longer run the special is because of the nightmare that follows, a surreal horror show filled with monsters and ghouls.  

Eventually, the wind dies down and the Grinch returns home, but this time, his heart is no bigger. Instead, he begins plotting his next terror mission. “That wind will be coming back someday — I’ll be coming back someday!” the Grinch proclaims before breaking into a diabolical cackle. 

Happy Halloween, kiddies! (According to the Dr. Seuss wiki, this is the only Grinch story in which he isn’t reformed in some way in the end.)

Halloween Is Grinch Night is billed as a prequel to the Christmas story, meaning there’s one bit of continuity weirdness. Max the dog abandons the Grinch at the end of Halloween Is Grinch Night to go live in Whoville, which is all well and good — except that the dog is back helping the green grouch thwart Christmas in the subsequent story. Maybe Max had a change of heart and decided to break bad again between specials? 

While the holiday special isn’t currently streaming (you can watch the whole thing above — thanks, YouTube), it’s not because Halloween Is Grinch Night wasn’t any good. The bombastic musical score was composed by Sesame Street legend Joe Raposo, and Geisel/Seuss indulges his darker impulses in the script. For their efforts, the special won the 1978 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children’s Program. 

Give yourself a treat and watch it tonight while you’re handing out candy to the Whos.