Tricks & Treats - TV Plays Dress Up

By PAIGE ALBINIAK; MAXINE SHEN

HALLOWEEN has inspired the networks to work ghoulish themes into their regular broadcasts this year. The casts of "Castle," "The Office," "Vampire Diaries" and especially "Medium," which adapts the horror film classic "Night of the Living Dead" into the life of Allison DuBois (Patricia Arquette), put on colorful costumes and camp it up. ABC Family devotes the week leading up to October 31 with a selection of Halloween-themed movies. Our guide begins on the next page. * 13 NIGHTS OF HALLOWEEN ABC Family * The second week of ABC Family's celebration of the ghoulish holiday kicks off Sunday at 3 p.m., with Tim Burton's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," with Johnny Depp. Another Burton film, "The Corpse Bride," follws at 5 p.m. The Depp classic "Edward Scissorhands," about a misfit with sharp appendages who falls in love with a suburban girl (Winona Ryder), airs at 7:30 p.m. * "America's Funniest Home Videos" features crazy costumes on Monday night, October 26 at 10 p.m. * Tuesday night's fun starts at 8 p.m., with "The Haunted Mansion." Eddie Murphy stars as a father who brings his family to a haunted house that hides a much darker secret. Wednesday features the beloved "Hocus Pocus" starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy as three sisters determined to try anything to get eternal life. A pair of "Scooby Doo" films air on Oct. 29 and 30, respectively, and the week wraps up with a trio of "Batman" movies on Saturday night. "Batman" plays at 4 p.m., "Batman Returns," featuring a divine turn by Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, follows at 7 p.m., and "Batman Forever" completes the night at 10 p.m. MEDIUM Friday, 9 p.m., CBS Cons id e r i n g "Medium's" weekly macabre psychic visions and gory crime scenes, series creator Glenn Gordon Caron knew that he'd have to do something really "kicky" to make the show's Halloween episode really stand out. Ergo, Friday's episode, "Bite Me," in which psychic Allison DuBois' (Patricia Arquette) nightmares literally land her - and the rest of the cast - in scenes from George A. Romero's horror classic, "Night of the Living Dead." The effect was created by a combination of digitally adding the Arquette and other cast members into scenes from the original movie and painstakingly recreating sets to remake certain scenes. It's an idea that Caron originally had for a "Moonlighting" episode that never was. Back then, he'd wanted to put Maddie (Cybill Shepherd) and David (Bruce Willis) into "Godzilla vs. Mothra." Caron says he chose the zombie flick because "it's one of those iconographic movies that one associates with Halloween. Jake Weber [Allison's husband Joe DuBois], ironically, was in a modern day remake of it, 'Dawn of the Dead.' " Even though the technically challenging episode took longer than usual to film, Caron had a cheerleader in star Arquette. "Whenever Patricia can dress up, she's tickled," Caron says. "Patricia loves Halloween. Every year she organizes big trips to haunted houses for the cast and the kids, so I knew I had a willing co-conspirator." THE OFFICE Thursday, 9 p.m., NBC For Halloween, the zany paper salesmen of DunderMifflin turn the warehouse into a haunted house for the community's children - Michael Scott (Steve Carell) with a noose around his neck. "Well, it's either a haunted house or this series has just taken a really dark turn," says Executive Producer Paul Lieberstein, who also plays Human Resources Manager Toby Flenderson on the show. Fans will get to see their favorite "Office" denizens, such as hanging out around the haunted house decked out in costume, but most of the episode will focus on more important things, like Andy (Ed Helms) and pregnant Pam (Jenna Fischer) having to go out on cold calls together and Michael falling into a potential customer's koi pond during a sales call. "We've done Halloween episodes over the course of the show and we try not to do the same episode over and over again," says Lieberstein. Since working in a cubicle can get a bit repetitive, it's a challenge for the show to stay in the workplace while still keeping things fresh. "We thought it was enough this year to show the audience everyone's costumes in the opening scene before the credits and then get out," he says. CASTLE Monday, 10 p.m., ABC For everyone else, Halloween is almost a week away, but the cast and crew of "Castle" has been there and done that - back in September. "Everyone's putting up Halloween decorations and selling pumpkins and I'm like, 'Didn't we already have Halloween?' because we did it so big on the show," says Andrew Marlowe, series executive producer/writer. "Shooting a Halloween party, you have all of your guys dressed up and all the trappings of a party, so people start a c t ing like they're at a party, chitchatting a n d having fun," he s ays . T h e p r o p s g u y s even managed, in early September, to find ripe pumpkins for Molly Quinn, who plays teen Alexis Castle, to carve - something she'd never done before. (Her family prefers to decorate them.) Tomorrow's episode sees novelist Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion), reluctant partner Det. Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) and the gang investigating the murder of a man with a wooden stake through his heart and vampire fangs in his mouth - as they gear up for Castle's big Halloween blowout. "With a character like Richard Castle, who has written in the horror and thriller genre, I just felt very strongly that here's a guy who loves Halloween and probably goes all out for Halloween," Marlowe says. That means costumes - and plenty of them. "Loyal fans of our actors will notice nods to those actors' previous roles," he says. Fillion winds up dressed in a velvet cape, ascot and a moustache as "Edgar Allen Poet." Meanwhile, fans of John Huertas (Det. Javier Esposito) will see him wearing "Generation Kill" cameo and "General Hospital" diehards get Seamus Dever (Det. Kevin Ryan) donning bloody scrubs again. Susan Sullivan, who plays Castle's mother, Martha Rogers, dresses as Cruella de Vil. Tamala Jones, who plays medical examiner Lanie Parish, comes as catwoman. As for Kate Beckett's costume, it's a surprise. "It's a running theme," Marlowe says. "Is she coming to the party and what is she going to wear? The black overcoat is ?????? her costume - let's just say that her costume's underneath it." GOSSIP GIRL Monday, 9 p.m., CW The roaring '20s is the theme for Halloween on "Gossip Girl." There are flapper dresses for the girls and spats for fashion plate Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick). Chuck is looking for publicity for his new hotel and decides to move up his club's opening date. He enlists Serena's (Blake Lively) help to get the word out to her celebrity clients. Feeling left out of the planning, Blair (Leighton Meester) attempts to win Chuck's approval by secretly helping him with a problem. Rufus (Matthew Settle) gets Lily (Kelly Rutherford) into the Halloween spirit. VAMPIRE DIARIES Thursday, 8 p.m., CW A high school's haunted house is the centerpiece of this week's episode "Vampire Diaries." As Vicki's (Kayla Ewell) behavior becomes more dangerous, Stefan (Paul Wesley) tries to help her and Matt (Zach Roerig) takes her to the spooky building to cheer up, but the evening takes a terrifying turn. Meanwhile, Elena (Nina Dobrev) tries to convince Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen, right) to stay away from Vicki. Caroline (Candice Accola) gives Bonnie (Katerina Graham) a necklace she took from Damon (Ian Somerhalder) to wear with her Halloween costume, and when Damon tries to take it back, he is surprised by Bonnie's abilities. Bonnie discusses the incident with Grams (guest star Jasmine Guy) and learns more about her family's past.

Originally published by PAIGE ALBINIAK AND MAXINE SHEN.

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