Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Making a good Halloween special for network TV takes a delicate hand. Make the episode too cutesy and it feels like you’re wasting the one holiday of the year that’s allowed to be dark. Try to make it scary and you can be jarringly too successful or worse. You can make a special that’s supposed to be terrifying but is really just boring. It’s a delicate balance to hit, and in 1998 Boy Meets World knocked it out of the park.
“And Then There Was Shawn” is everything a sitcom Halloween special needs to be. It’s funny without being adorable, scary without being too terrifying, and able to wink at scary movies tropes and flirt with horror conventions without feeling pandering. It’s a standard of scary comedy that the genre can still learn from today.
The episode starts off normally enough with Cory (Ben Savage), Shawn (Rider Strong), and Topanga (Danielle Fishel) in Mr. Feeny’s class (William Daniels). Cory and Topanga are in the middle of one of their rare fights, so Cory begs Shawn to act as their mediator. Shawn reluctantly agrees, but an overly aggressive argument about a pencil lands them all in detention. So far, so normal. However, once a creepy janitor that’s never been seen before makes an appearance that’s when things get weird.
Over the course of the episode, characters are killed off in ways that wouldn’t seem out of place in Scream or, more appropriately, I Know What You Did Last Summer. There’s no blood, but there are scissor stabbings, pencil attacks, and a decapitated head. It’s surprisingly gruesome stuff for a network sitcom in the ’90s. However, what makes the episode so much fun is how it uses the horror tropes the writers clearly love.
The scary movie-loving Shawn acts as the unofficial guide through the episode, telling everyone what they should and shouldn’t do to stay alive. His suggestions are pretty basic — don’t get separated, virgins are safe, the new guy will probably die first (“Oh my god, they killed Kenny!”). However, the effortless way he spouts off this advice is oddly satisfying. More than most other specials, it weirdly feels as if you’re walking through this high school nightmare with your favorite characters.
And I haven’t even mentioned one of the best running jokes in Boy Meets World history — the episode’s insanely descriptive fake movie titles. Where would we be without that iconic line “There’s blood in the showers. It’s just like that movie, There’s Blood In the Showers?” It’s simultaneously such a dumb joke and a great commentary on the overly descriptive B-grade movies that dominated the ‘90s.
There are so many other reasons to love “And Then There Was Shawn.” The Jennifer Love Hewitt cameo, complete with multiple Party of Five references, is one of the most fun guest appearances of the show. Also, Hewitt’s scream-off with Angela (Trina McGee-Davis) is a moment of sitcom perfection. Eric’s (Will Friedle) conversation with the killer on a broken pay phone is gloriously dumb in only the way Eric can be. The jingle that haunts the hallways is equal parts creepy and corny, perfectly summing up the tone of this very silly episode. Even Shawn’s life lesson at the end — because Boy Meets World always needs a life lesson — is a good one. After dreaming up all this horror, Shawn realizes the reason he’s been so emotional about Cory and Topanga’ breakup is because they were one of the few stable elements in his life. Without them, he feels lost. And now I just really want to hug Shawn.
If you’re in the mood for something light-hearted and spooky that will get you in the Halloween mood without giving you nightmares, Boy Meets World has the special for you. It’s the All Hallow’s Eve watch both diehard horror fans and scary movie wimps can enjoy.
