Family Guy only has a handful of Halloween episodes, but they deliver the spooky holiday's essence. You'll get your trick or treating, but it leads to epic adventures with the unbreakable duo of Stewie and Brian. Then, you mix in some of Peter's shenanigans and weirdness, and you get a freakin' sweet Halloween episode that only Family Guy can do.
The series will not have as many Halloween episodes as The Simpsons, for they have been doing "Treehouse of Horror" since 1990. However, the good news is that neither show will be ending anytime soon, meaning there will be more terrifying tales.
Which Family Guy Halloween chapter got the highest ranking and which was just good? We think you'll be surprised.
Ranking the Family Guy Halloween episodes
"Petergeist" (2006, season 4)
In "Petergeist," Peter digs up Native American remains in his yard and gets, well, all kinds of unusually creative with them, which leads to the Griffin house becoming possessed. The only way to resolve the matter is to rebury the remains where they were found. But it's not so simple as the remains are now in the hands of the comedian Carrot Top, who won't hand them over.
The house is cleaned of the possession at the end, reflecting that the remains were returned.
In case you didn't know, "Petergeist" is a spoof of the 1982 Box Office smash, Poltergeist. The narrative is relatively identical to Family Guy's but with the glorious late actress Zelda Rubenstein.
Ranking: Freakin' sweet
"Halloween On Spooner Street" (2010, season 9)
Stewie becomes an adorable, but slightly diabotical duckling in the first official Halloween "special" of the animated comedy. At first, he's terrified of the kids in costume after he sees them from his window and so, in true Stewie form, he goes rampage on them.
When Brian explains to the one-year-old that the kids are trick-and-treating and not threatening, Stewie decides to try it. His night of grabbing free candy winds up in the hands of bullies. This leads to the baby and dog duo trying to get it back (violently), but the results are futile. But what do you do when Plan A fails? You go to Plan B, and that was Lois, who got her son's candy back (and the bullies').
Elsewhere, Peter and his friends play jokes on Quagmire, who retaliates with a death-defining pilot drop that gets everyone's heart racing. Meanwhile, Meg and Chris are 'meddling' in the closet at a party but try to move past the trauma by making light of the situation.
Overall, "Halloween On Spooner Street" was a freakin' sweet start for Family Guy to inject scarier episodes.
Ranking: Freakin' Sweet
"Peternormal Activity" (2015, season 14)
Nothing screams Halloween than watching a horror flick with your best buddies and attempting to make a better version of it. As it turns out, making a movie isn't as easy as it looks, and Peter and his friends find themselves running for their lives at the old abandoned psychiatric institution.
I'll give this episode a good rating, as none of the plot points stood out. However, my opinion is just a small splash in the ocean of fans, who are open to liking what they like. That's the beauty of shows, as we can share discourses and try to recraft a situation to perfect it.
Rating: Good
"Must Love Dogs" (2021, season 20)
Aside from the two-and-a-half-minute Halloween opening, "Must Love Dogs" merges away from it and focuses the plot on Quagmire and his love interest, Carrie. To win her heart, he lies about loving dogs as Carrie loves them, but we all know Quagmire despises the four-legged heart-grabbing creatures. Quagmire forces Brian to be his dog to stretch the falsification further, only to have the entire ruse backfire and Carrie break things off.
I get it, for there are dog people and cat people, and Quagmire's a cat person, and I'm both, but to lie about something that's personal to lots of people is just plain old wrong. So, I'll give the opener a "great" rating and the rest just a "good" rating.
Rating: Great for opener; good for the rest
"Holo-ween" (2023, season 22)
There's nothing more scarier than creating a holographic clone of yourself to get out of chores. And that's precisely what Peter did to escape a few menial household duties. When Lois finds out, it's up to the real Peter to save his family from becoming his hologram's victims.
Given that this episode is another Peter "plop," it's great, and would've been "freakin' sweet if not for the maniacal takeover.
Rating: Great
"Peter, Peter Pumpkin Cheater" (2024, Hulu special)
"Peter, Peter Pumpkin Cheater" is part of Family Guy's 25th anniversary and one of the two Hulu-exclusive specials this year. The episode features another great adventure between Stewie and Brian, and in a twist, it's Rupert the Bear who tests the beloved pair's friendship. The scenario recalls previous episodes when Brian was jealous of the teddy bear as he was the object of Stewie's attention and tried to destroy him. There were also examples of Rupert being sold or recalled, so having the toy as the perpetrator this time is a brilliant 360 on the writers' behalf.
Also, Joe finally winning the pumpkin contest with Peter's assistance was hilarious.