The David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special/SNL Presents: Halloween

[formerlyfreedom]

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David Pumpkins and his skeleton sidekicks show a young boy and his sister the true meaning of Halloween.

This airs on Saturday, 10/28/2017, as a half hour special that starts in SNL's usual time slot, followed by an hour long SNL Presents: Halloween. Discuss both here!

[Inquisitionist]

Thanks for the heads-up.  It seems there is a one-hour SNL Halloween program after this.  My DVR picked up the latter, but I'll set it for DSP as well.  :-)

[mtlchick]

For some reason I kept thinking it was Larry David tonight.  

Instead I think may have several more questions...

[Galileo908]

That special was awful. I missed the first 10 minutes and I was sick of what I was watching. I honestly expected better, but a Halloween special made off the cuff from a viral one shot SNL character seemed doomed from the start.

[Lava VaVoom]

Excruciating.  Why put this on at a late hour when it belonged earlier in the evening?  Kids might have enjoyed it. 

It's always good to see sketches from past shows.  One had me close to tears.  One went completely over my head.

[vb68]

It was fine for what it was. It was just a goof. The strawberry car was so strange. "You can't drive a pumpkin, man!" And I like that they included Kevin "Can a bitch get a donut ?" Roberts.

I could tell Hanks was in stitches having a ball.

I do agree it could have aired at an earlier hour.

Edited October 29, 2017 by vb68

[punkypower]

The Halloween Show made me deliriously happy--SO MUCH BILL HADER!! EEEEE!!

[mortonsalt]

2 hours ago, vb68 said:

It was fine for what it was. It was just a goof. The strawberry car was so strange. "You can't drive a pumpkin, man!" And I like that they included Kevin "Can a bitch get a donut ?" Roberts.

I could tell Hanks was stitches having a ball.

I do agree it could have aired at an earlier hour.

Yes, I think I hyped it up too much in my head, but I guess I was in the right mood for it because I found it so stupid that it was funny. I also agree that it should have been on earlier because it seemed more geared towards kids than adults. I know ABC always has the It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, so I forget if NBC also shows anything special for Halloween. If not maybe they should start by pairing up The David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special with something else during October during the 8:00 hour. I admit that I would watch it every year if they did that. 

[Clare]

I know the narrator was Peter Dinklage,  he sounded so much like Phil Hartman to me.  

I thought this was kinda cute.  It was just silly, I didn't mind it.

[Spartan Girl]

1 minute ago, Clare said:

I know the narrator was Peter Dinklage,  he sounded so much like Phil Hartman to me.  

I thought this was kinda cute.  It was just silly, I didn't mind it.

I didn't even realize it was Peter til the very end.

I thought it was cute too. The stupid smile on David's face is what sells it.

[mtlchick]

Agreed it was cute enough that they could have put it on earlier in the evening.  I did laugh at "why are your pants down?"  I wasn't expecting anything stellar: it seems David is something you loved from the start or "why has he become a thing?"  

 

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I know the narrator was Peter Dinklage,

I thought it was Beck Bennett until I saw the credits. 

 

4 hours ago, mortonsalt said:

If not maybe they should start by pairing up The David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special with something else during October during the 8:00 hour.

I can see them doing that to counter program something else  on ABC: Toy Story of Terrot!

[Phishbulb]

8 hours ago, vb68 said:

It was fine for what it was. It was just a goof. The strawberry car was so strange. "You can't drive a pumpkin, man!" And I like that they included Kevin "Can a bitch get a donut ?" Roberts.

Where was Kevin Roberts? I must have missed him.

Some of Hanks' line deliveries were very funny. "Your house smells weird!!!"

[rollacoaster]

The DSP special was silly and random and pointless. I loved it because it totally embraced these things. The kid tried to apply logic or tack a deeper meaning/moral onto any of it, and nope! All about that candy! DSP is strictly a force of irrationality and fun, and I am OK with that. 

Bill Hader as Vincent Price was priceless. Total voice of reason drowning in a sea of self-absorption and incompetence. DSP would make his head explode. 

[possibilities]

I liked the DSP special. It was both celebrating and subverting those Halloween specials for kids.

The kid says he gets it and describes the lesson he thinks he was supposed to learn. DSP says no, Halloween is about candy!

They return the candy but never get credit.

The kid continues to be a doof in front of his crush but it stops being so painful.

Will we ever see you again? NO!

It wasn't typical SNL, but it was still silly and fun. I agree it could and possibly should have aired earlier. I put int in the category of things kids and adults could both appreciate, but in different ways. The best children's programming is often like that.

[ebk57]

1 hour ago, rollacoaster said:

The DSP special was silly and random and pointless. I loved it because it totally embraced these things. The kid tried to apply logic or tack a deeper meaning/moral onto any of it, and nope! All about that candy! DSP is strictly a force of irrationality and fun, and I am OK with that.  

Agree!  Totally enjoyed this and laughed out loud several times.  I'd watch this every year if they rerun it.

[callmebetty]

I've shown my kids the Spacepants skit and they love it. They would definetly enjoy this David Pumpkins special. I hope they'll move it up if they replay it next year.

[JakeyJokes]

Regarding the clip show, the Bill/Hillary sketch with Obama showing up at the end was a lot more biting than I remembered. Oh, 2008! You are but a beautiful and distant memory...

The clip show was okay, but I *loved* the 90s Halloween shows! Where was Matt Foley putting David Spade through a table? The Cheerleaders sketch with Neve Campbell? Any installment of Goth Talk?

[Ottis]

I’m in the “Why is this a thing?” camp.

I knew Peter D’s voice from the first sentence. It was weird seeing a totally different looking cartoon character with his voice though. 

I did enjoy the fact DSP wasn’t singing was scarier than the Halloween stuff. 

Edited October 29, 2017 by Ottis

[rmontro]

5 hours ago, Phishbulb said:

Some of Hanks' line deliveries were very funny. "Your house smells weird!!!"

I suppose a house would smell weird if you spend most of your time living under a dead pumpkin (I know I'm overthinking this).

I liked the David S. Pumpkins special.  They had a good point that there is no personification of Halloween.  And I do think kids could enjoy this, especially considering the story revolves around the youngsters.

Didn't really care about the clip show afterward.

[Irlandesa]

15 hours ago, Lava VaVoom said:

Why put this on at a late hour when it belonged earlier in the evening?  Kids might have enjoyed it. 

I read in one of those David S Pumpkins oral histories that NBC didn't have anywhere to put the special so a solution Lorne came up with is to dedicate the first half hour of the Halloween clip show to it.

If it did well, I can see it airing earlier next year.

Edited October 29, 2017 by Irlandesa

[Galileo908]

1 hour ago, JakeyJokes said:

The clip show was okay, but I *loved* the 90s Halloween shows! Where was Matt Foley putting David Spade through a table? The Cheerleaders sketch with Neve Campbell? Any installment of Goth Talk?

This is why I want that SNL Halloween special to be the full 90 minutes. I do like how the special updates every year, this one had Kellywise and they saved David S. Pumpkins for the end. I also miss those Bill Hader Vincent Price sketches so very much.

Going back to the DSP special, just the image of David Pumpkins giving his goofy-ass grin every time we see him was great, but everything besides that was kind of hard to sit through. I agree that this would be good for kids.

[peeayebee]

I thought the little sister, Dottie, looked like the girl, Dot, in Monsters Inc. I googled to check out what she wore in the movie, but it wasn't overalls. Of course it was pj's. 

Anyway, this wasn't great, but I did like a lot of the humor. My favorite part was when the skeletons and David S Pumpkins started dancing the first time. I got a big ol' grin on my face when that goofy music started up.

[Galileo908]

Yeah, my favorite joke was probably David S. Pumpkins building to a song, but never singing and how the bullies got freaked out by it.

[peeayebee]

I think this was brought up when it aired originally, but who was the girl who played the trick-or-treater in the Vincent Price party sketch? She looks familiar.

[heatherchandler]

21 hours ago, Lava VaVoom said:

Excruciating.  Why put this on at a late hour when it belonged earlier in the evening?  Kids might have enjoyed it. 

It's always good to see sketches from past shows.  One had me close to tears.  One went completely over my head.

Just curious- which one had you in tears?  Which one went over your head?

I loved the Vincent price one.

[vb68]

13 hours ago, Phishbulb said:

Where was Kevin Roberts? I must have missed him.

That was hard to catch. It was a child version as one of the random trick or treaters.  I had to go back and look to catch it. Just a cameo, but a funny one.

7 hours ago, peeayebee said:

I thought the little sister, Dottie, looked like the girl, Dot, in Monsters Inc.

Oh wow, that's a good catch.  I didn't even think of that.

I kept trying to figure out who the narrator was, too. I knew the voice was so familiar, but couldn't quite place until it I saw the credits. Then I was mad at myself because I'm usually pretty good at being able to get those.

Since people are talking about the Vincent sketch here, remember Jon Hamm did a different celebrity in all the rehearsals. (Dean Martin, I think?). They switched it to James Mason for the live show, and I don't think Hamm had ever done a James Mason impression before. I was always impressed by that. And he nailed it!

Edited October 30, 2017 by vb68

[Maverick]

 The Vincent Price one was pure classic.  "And you, are you supposed to be some sort of homosexual?"   I wasn't wild about the selection of other skits.  Not enough from different eras (there were two from the same episode), one from two weeks ago, one that rehashed the first half hour and ones that we're true "Halloween" skits.

[rmontro]

7 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

I read in one of those David S Pumpkins oral histories that NBC didn't have anywhere to put the special so a solution Lorne came up with is to dedicate the first half hour of the Halloween clip show to it.

They show that SNL rerun show earlier in the evening, I don't know why they couldn't have stuck it in there somewhere.  

I do like seeing a James Mason impression, seems like something you don't get to see very often, certainly not these days.

I was glad that they showed the original David S Pumpkins sketch just so everyone could see where it came from.  I remember that sketch, but I noticed that originally the spot in his hair was white, and they changed it to orange for the newer version.

[vb68]

Scroll down here to see Kevin Roberts. He's the blonde kid in the orange suit.

[Lava VaVoom]

18 hours ago, heatherchandler said:

Just curious- which one had you in tears?  Which one went over your head?

I loved the Vincent price one.

The one with Obama had me practically in tears because I miss him so much, but I didn't think I could say that here.  The second one went over my head, but to be honest I don't remember what it was about. 

[heatherchandler]

Where was the skit with Jim Carrey - Paul and Phil maybe??  He and Taran in the graveyard.  My husband and I crack up over that on the regular.

Paul and Phil (Paul con Phil)

Can you guess who's who?  We'll never tell

I'm Paul he's Phil

[marketdoctor]

On 10/29/2017 at 2:46 PM, possibilities said:

 

Will we ever see you again? NO!

This was one of my favorite lines from ANY holiday special, because it completely subverts the Frosty the Snowman trope.

I almost wanted to see the David S. Pumpkins sketch first, because there were a lot of callbacks in the long form cartoon, but there just aren't that many Halloween specials (special episodes, yes, but dedicated shows are pretty rare.)  Everything about it was having fun with tropes and stereotypes, without being mean about it. 

(OK, they were pretty harsh on raisins, but it's Halloween, not the Fresno Raisin Bowl.  Let's not rush holidays.)

In the SNL clip show, the Vincent Price bit reminded me of something I once heard about the original Vincent Price:  he was often VERY professional, and tried really hard to do his best, even when given low budgets or material that, to be kind, benefited from the hands of a trained professional.  He tried to make things better, and left a better legacy for it.  The Vincent Price/Dracula sketch captured that while still being really funny.

Thank you, SNL, you made Halloween better.

Edited November 1, 2017 by marketdoctor
Almost forgot to say "thank you."

[JZL]

What do you get when you divide a pumpkin's circumference by its diameter?

Pumpkin Pi

[Writing Wrongs]

David gets his own Funko Pop: