Hang up the fake cobwebs and throw on a witch’s hat - the spookiest day of the year is here! Everyone’s got some skeletons in a closet, and there’s no better day to proudly display those skeletons than Halloween. So we’re giving the Frankenstein treatment to one of our favorite episodes and republishing our deep dive into the wonderfully wacky hour of TV that was the Paul Lynde Halloween Special. Enjoy at your own peril!

~~~

It’s a Halloween Extravaganza this week on This Was A Thing. Who’s hosting, you ask? TV Funnyman Paul Lynde, of course!

Ray teaches Rob all about The Paul Lynde Halloween Special. Who was there to share a drink (or six) with Paul? Well, just about every spooky TV personality you could think of: Carol Brady, Mr. Wiggins, Witchy Poo/Wicked Witch of the West, Donnie and Marie, Billy Barty, Sue Ann Nivens, and Halloween favorite Roz “Pinky Tuscadero” Kelly! We even get to see KISS’s first national television appearance! And, guiding the spooky special is Brady Bunch Variety Hour alumni Bruce Vilanch, ABC President Fred Silverman, and a very confused LeVar Burton!

Strap in for the WITCHIEST episode of This Was A Thing yet!

If you like what we’re doing, please support us on Patreon, or you can subscribe to our bonus content on Apple Podcasts. And we’d love to find even more listeners, so if you have time, please leave us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you have any other thoughts or feedback you’d like to share with us, we’d love to hear from you - feel free to email us or send us a message on social media. 

TEAM

Ray Hebel

Robert W. Schneider

Mark Schroeder

Billy Recce

Daniel Schwartzberg

Gabe Crawford

Natalie DeSavia

ARTICLES

IMBD

AV Club

Shock Cinema Magazine

Drunk TV

EPISODE CLIPS

The Paul Lynde Halloween Special 

Bruce Vilanch on working on the show

ADDITIONAL MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS

“Happy Bee” and “Airport Lounge”

• Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

• Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

“Cute Halloween Ambience & Music” by Infinity Rooms

Additional Sound Effects from Final Cut Pro, iLife, and Logic Pro