peterfeld:

Woody Woodpecker, the famous Spook-A-Nanny special Halloween episode, based on the then-current hootenanny craze. (A hootenanny was an early ’60s rave, except you sat in your seat and clapped along with folk singers and there was no Ecstasy.)

On the October 1964 night when this first aired, I was a very sad boy. I couldn’t watch, because I had to finish my homework! My brother was too little for homework, so he had it on. I heard it down the hall and ran to peek: It looked like the most fantastic cartoon ever!

It started with a black-and-white film-cartoon hybrid segment, in which Woody and animator Walter Lantz planned their Halloween party, picking which Lantz characters to invite, like Homer Pigeon and Chilly Willy. Woody and a real person were talking to each other! I went back to my desk.

Soon the cartoon part started, and I could hear the music — a rock-n-roll guitar version of the Woody Woodpecker theme (check out the band of fake Beatles, all looking like Help-era John Lennons), and then the Spook-A-Nanny song. I ran down the hall to peek, then returned dejectedly to my desk. I was missing the fun party! I knew I’d never see it again - there would be no rerun for a Halloween special, at least not until next year. For days after, I was singing the song to myself: “Spook! Spook! Spook, spook-a-nanny! Ghosts and goblins dancing all around…”

And no, as much as I wanted to, I never saw it again. Until many years later when the technology finally caught up. Here it is, just as I remembered. Enjoy!