Charlie Garner

Opinion Editor

avg6206@psu.edu 

If you were a casual or die hard Disney Channel viewer in the early 2010s, chances are you are familiar with the all October long Halloween special of “Monstober.” This special previously went through some name changes (such as: HauntoberFest and WizTober), but was officially changed to “Monstober” in 2012 to promote the premiere of “Girl vs. Monster.” Even though it was on the network over a decade ago, it is still a nostalgic piece of media that my generation can fondly look back on. 

Something that made “Monstober” stand out so much were the promos. Honestly, a lot of the promotional material for Disney Channel content is all very iconic. The promos for “Monstober” incorporated pretty much every show on the network at the time to get everyone feeling festive for the season, and they used the actors to further advertise the material. In the promos, songs from “A.N.T. Farm” and “Girl vs. Monster” were also included and really got nine year old me hyped up. 

When “Monstober” started in 2012, there was a great amount of anticipation for a lot of tv show episodes and for the premiere of the new Halloween movie, “Girl vs. Monster,” which had a countdown and lots of buildup that I still remember very well from this time. Many very memorable Halloween special episodes of nostalgic Disney Channel shows also aired this month.

One of these aforementioned Halloween special episodes is from the show “A.N.T. Farm.” It was the sequel to their first Halloween episode that came out a year prior, titled “mutA.N.T. Farm 2.” It follows the main characters as monster versions of themselves while the other students in their highschool are still regular people. The characters as monsters are known as the “mutants.” Even though “A.N.T. Farm” was not a favorite Disney show of mine, the Halloween episodes are certainly some of the episodes that are the most distinct in my mind. 

“Austin and Ally” aired its season two premiere, with the episode “Costumes and Courage.” This particular episode was very important to “Austin and Ally” fans at the time (fans meaning me in elementary school). The main characters- Austin, Ally, Dez, and Trish- attend a Halloween party thrown by Austin’s record label owner. He is supposed to perform with Taylor Swift, who is wearing a costume with a face mask. When something goes wrong and Taylor Swift cannot perform, Ally faces her stage fright and performs in her place in the same costume. And this changed the trajectory of the show because Ally’s stage fright was a major part of her character up until this point. Also Dez dressed up as Austin for Halloween and that will forever be iconic. 

“Jessie” also aired its season 2 premiere Halloween episode, “The Whining,” on the same night. This episode is a tribute/parody to one of the most famous horror movies of all time, “The Shining” (wow who could have guessed). I remember this episode really scaring me and I think that was just because I knew it was based off of “The Shining” and I was obviously scared of that as a child.

My favorite Disney Channel show, “Good Luck Charlie,” had a pretty simple Halloween episode, but it is still pretty memorable to me. It was Toby’s (the new baby) first Halloween where he was a baby kangaroo and Amy and Charlie were also matching kangaroos. And Bob goes as a character he created himself- a superhero exterminator named “Captain Extermo.” While the rest of the family is at the Duncan house, Teddy, PJ, and Spencer get ambushed by clowns at PJ and Emmett’s apartment. Again, not anything too crazy, but it is a solid episode and Halloween special.

The very niche and underrated show “My Babysitter’s a Vampire” had a marathon at the beginning of the month. And “Gravity Falls” (a legendary show) aired its Halloween special episode “Summerween,” which is just the characters in the show celebrating Halloween in the summer as they are trying to save themselves from a scary candy monster. Disney Channel Original Movies were played throughout the month as well. Movies of note were the entire “Halloweentown” series, “Twitches,” “Twitches Too,” Under Wraps,” “Mostly Ghostly,” “Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie,” “The Little Vampire,” “Don’t Look Under the Bed,” “Hocus Pocus,” and, of course, “Girl vs. Monster.”  

Disney Channel’s “Monstober” in 2012 will always hold a special place in my heart. While Disney Channel does still do Halloween marathons for the month of October, “Monstober” officially came to an end in 2016.