LITTLE ROCK — Is your family one of those that really gets involved in Halloween?
Maybe it’s one of those occasions that is more important when you have small children around to spook.
But long after the kids were grown, my father loved to turn his front entry into a miniature haunted house complete with spooky sound effects, black lights, spider webs and life-size creepy mannequins. Neighborhood kids had to brave the gantlet to get to the goodies.
Several houses in our neighborhood began sprouting inflatable spiders and hanging tree ghosts a month ago, so it’s obvious a lot of folks relish the fun.
Halloween-theme programs and haunted marathons on TV are part of the fun. Parents are always looking for age-appropriate material that the entire family can watch together, so a good place to start would be ABC Family and Nickelodeon.
ABC Family is in the middle of its annual “13 Nights of Halloween” event with the basic-cable premiere of Coraline set for 7 p.m. today.
The 2009 PG-rated stopaction animated film features the voices of Teri Hatcher as Other Mother and Dakota Fanning as the spunky Coraline Jones.
It may be rated PG, but that stands for parental guidance. There are some scenes that’ll scare the smaller fry when lonely, ignored, 11-year-old Coraline sets out to explore her new home and neighborhood. She discovers a secret door that opens at night to reveal a parallel universe, a much better world where her “other” parents are everything her real, too busy, parents aren’t.
It’s a seemingly ideal world — until her Other Mother tries to keep her forever. Can Coraline ever get back home?
If that’s age-appropriate at your house, gather the gang and pop the corn.
At 5:30 p.m. Monday, ABC Family airs the 2005 feature film Bewitched. It stars Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Kristin Chenoweth, Michael Caine, David Alan Grier, Shirley MacLaine, and James Lipton as himself.
Kidman is a suburban California witch trying hard to live a normal life without using her powers. The film revolves around the remake of the 1960s’ TV sitcom Bewitched. Kidman’s talent? She can imitate the Elizabeth Montgomery nose wiggle to perfection. Hilarity ensues.
Bewitched is rated PG-13.
Nickelodeon fare. Meanwhile, Nick Preschool will have Dora the Explorer’s “Halloween Parade” at 8:30 a.m. Monday; Bubble Guppies “Haunted House Party” airs at 10 and Fresh Beat Band’s “Ghost Band” at 12:30 p.m.
In case you didn’t know, Fresh Beat Band’s Marina is played by the talented Tara Perry, a 25-year-old native of Jonesboro.
If the family is still watching together in the evening, Nick at Night will have holiday-theme episodes of Everybody Hates Chris, Family Matters, Friends, George Lopez, Home Improvement and That ’70s Show from Friday through Oct. 31.
Fallen angels. Somewhere, Sabrina, Jill and Kelly are smiling. Their magic couldn’t be duplicated.
ABC has canned the 2011 attempt to reboot Charlie’s Angels with hot, young surrogates.
A curious 8.7 million viewers tuned in for the premiere Sept. 22. Unimpressed, they left in droves after that (down to 6 million and falling). The series lasted four episodes before the plug was pulled.
Better news. ABC has given a full-season order of episodes to Suburgatory and Revenge.
Suburgatory is a charmingly witty sitcom about a single dad and his daughter who move from New York to the suburbs and get a rude awakening on the lifestyle there. It airs at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays.
Revenge (9 p.m. Wednesday) follows a young woman as she gets even — more than even — with the snooty rich folks who did her dad dirty when she was a little girl.
Koppel on board. Veteran newsman 71-year-old Ted Koppel has joined Brian Williams’ forthcoming NBC newsmagazine Rock Center as a special correspondent.
Rock Center, set to debut at the end of the month, replaces the defunct Playboy Club on Monday nights.
Program reminder. ABC’s Once Upon a Time, my preseason pick for best new series, finally premieres at 7 p.m. today. Find my preview in today’s TV Week insert.
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Style, Pages 56 on 10/23/2011