On paper, it sounds like it could belong in a cult-favorite horror flick from the 90s: while stuck in detention and abandoned by their teacher, a group of teenagers wander about their eerily quiet high school after hours and get picked off one-by-one by a mysterious masked killer. It isn’t an underappreciated horror gem, though—it’s an episode of a sitcom. To me, Halloween specials are as integral a part of the season as horror films themselves. They’re a bit more low-key, more lighthearted, and they tended to be over in a neat, short thirty or so minutes. The Halloween episode is a work of art in itself, and practically every self-respecting sitcom has produced at least one(Community,It’sAlwaysSunnyinPhiladelphia, andFreaks and Geekshave some of my personal favorites, along with the untouchableIt’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown). It’s ABC’sBoyMeetsWorld, though, that unexpectedly put out the best Halloween episode ever filmed, with Season 5’s“And Then There Was Shawn."
Okay, it’s important to address something. So, “And Then There Was Shawn” isn’ttechnicallya Halloween episode—it aired in February of ’98—but these are just minor details: the episode isvery muchHalloween in spirit, with enough spooky flourishes to make it a crucial inclusion in your regular October rotation. While the seriesdidproduce some “legitimate” Halloween episodes, one titled “The Witches of Pennbrook” and another called “Who’s Afraid of Cory Wolf," “And Then There Was Shawn” is the best of the bunch and arguably the best episode of the entire series. When watched in retrospect some late October evening, it just feels right. Itfits. The episode is as Halloween-y as they come, with its fair share of horror film references and a pack of legitimate scares.
When This Boy Meets…DEATH
It begins like any other episode of the series: after a classroom disturbance, the gang finds itself in detention under the wrath of Mr. Feeny (William Daniels). This is season five, remember, so a major plotline revolves around Corey (Ben Savage) and Topanga (Danielle Fishel) having broken up, much to Shawn’s (Rider Strong) dismay. Just a few minutes into the episode, things start to shift gears and swerve into slasher territory. Feeny leaves the classroom, locking the doors behind him. A ghoulish janitor (played by an uncredited extra whose identity remains a mystery) appears in the doorway, smiling that creepy breed of smile that few can master. The lights flicker off, and when they turn back on, “NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE” has been written on the chalkboard—in blood. “I don’t think it’s because he ran out of chalk,” quips Angela (Trina McGee-Davis).
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What’s so impressive about this episode is how effortlessly it merges its indulges into the ‘90s horror aesthetic with its established comedic formula. It’s never a straight-up parody, and while it shares plenty of DNA with 1996’sScream,it never riffs on any one particular film. Instead, it indulges in some of the aspects that make horror movies so damn fun by toying with slasher tropes, such as the fact that virgins never die (Shawn admits that he’ll get “as sick as you can get without actually dying), the inclusion of a silent creepy janitor, and the unexpected discovery of freshly-slain corpses. There’s also Kenny (Richard Lee Jackson), a guest character who only appears in this episode, and whose sole purpose is to serve as the killer’s first victim, much akin to slasher films’ tendency to kill off lesser-known actors first. The episode plays hilariously off this fact, with Shawn repeatedly referencing his extensive knowledge of horror films to state that Kenny, not being a primary character, willobviouslybe the first to die. When he inevitably is (death by pencil), all bets are off, and the episode goes into wonderfully uncharted territory.
Scary For a Sitcom
For being an episode of a teen sitcom aired on primetime television in the ‘90s, “And Then There Was Shawn” is a hell of a lot scarier than it ever needed to be. Even if the deaths are generally absurd—itisstill a sitcom, after all, and comedyisstill the goal—there was something kind of terrifying about watching our beloved characters under threat from a deranged killer. When the characters are killed out in increasingly creative ways, it’s hard not to imagine the excessive flashes of blood that the R-rated slashers use as their bread and butter. Even if this episode is comparatively tame, with the kills being TV-appropriate, it’s still considerably scarier than any sitcom Halloween special airing before or since. When, lights flickering, a voice sings in a carnivalesque melody over the loudspeakers, “Here’s a knife, here’s a gun/there’ll be fun for everyone/Death is on the menu to-niiiiiiiight”, it’s both catchy and legitimately spooky.
Throughout its entire run,Boy Meets Worldprovided sharply written scripts and a particularly talented cast, and few episodes prove this as much as “And Then There Was Shawn." The episode was written byJeffMenell, a horror film addict who spent time as a film critic for The Hollywood Reporter before writing forBoy Meets World. Menell used his passion for slashers by making a smart, faithful homage to the films that pulls from a pool of knowledge of the genre. The episode not only teases such movies, but also respectfully follows the trail that they left behind. As Shawn calmly explains to his friends, there arerulesto the horror world that must be abided by, and this episode knows its best not to upset these unwritten codes. There are the untouchable and amorous virgins (Corey and Topanga), the wise-cracking slacker (Eric), the charming side-man (Shawn), and the scream girl (Angela).
An Homage to the 90s
“And Then There Was Shawn” also serves as a nostalgic time capsule of late ‘90s culture, with a slew of allusions and references that are very of their time. The mysterious masked killer, a black-robed figure hiding behind a skull mask, is clearly inspired byScream’s Ghostface Killer. ‘90s scream queenJennifer Love Hewitt, playing the hilariously named bit character Kennifer LoveFefferman,suddenly shows up and lends her effervescent charm to the episode. Inevitably, it being the late ‘90s,SouthParkreferences find their way into the mix (hint: don’t forget, a character named Kenny is the first to die).
Boy Meets Worldis no stranger to taking some bold steps in disrupting its safe but dependable formula with some off-center episodes. Season 3’s “I Was a Teenage Spy and “As Time Goes By” from Season 7 toyed with experimenting on the show’s formula, featuring outlandish time travel scenarios, and paid reference to ’50s culture and film noir respectively. Still, the series' slasher episode, though brilliant, never feels too out of character for what viewers could expect from the show. It just makes sense. The characters—proven to be far more complicated in the overarching character arcs than the tropes that they portray—are perfect for a slasher.
A Halloween Classic
It’s impossible to think about Halloween without admittedly getting at least a little sentimental. I can remember watchingNight of the Living Dead,The Shining,andHalloween,all recommended by my mom and all viewed perhaps a little too young to be witnessing such gruesome content. But along with these gems of the horror cannon, I remember “And Then There Was Shawn," and I remember it fondly. I’ve watched the episode several times since, always during the Halloween season, and it holds up. It’s the type of episode that’s simultaneously referential and worth referencing. It pokes fun at beloved bits of culture while remaining respectful.
Holiday specials, especially for sitcoms, are plagued with the burden of shoehorning holiday themes and narratives into an episode while still retaining the writing and characterization that fit into the show’s style and aesthetic.Boy Meets Worldmade the greatest Halloween episode in television history by taking one of the things that makes Halloween so damn great (scary movies) and weaving it into the fabric of a legitimately hilarious script. The jokes land, the scares work, and the end result is something wildly entertaining and memorable. With this, the show’s greatest episode,Boy Meets Worldset a standard that episodes likeThat'70sShow’s fabulousHitchock-referencing “Too Old to Trick or Treat, Too Young to Die” andCommunity’s zombie-apocalypse riff “Epidemiology” followed. It’s only “And Then There Was Shawn,” though, to make a convincing argument for being in itself a faithful companion to the horror canon rather than an outright parody. Fortunately, itisalso funny, with enough quips, gags, and one-liners to reward repeat viewings.
Whether you have already or not, watch the slasher episode ofBoy Meets World.Add it to your annual October rotation. It’s the type of magic trick that few shows could hope to pull off, an absolutely delightful step into uncharted territory that doesn’t get lost along the way.
