Forgotten Halloween: "The Night Dracula Saved The World" Television Special

In 1979 Dracula saved the world. Well, Dracula giving in to demands saved Halloween but who would notice? "The Night Dracula Saved The World" AKA "The Halloween That Almost Wasn't" is a television special that many may remember as it aired for about 20 years before Disney decided that "Twitches" was what the kids really wanted. While watching a news report (and learning actual history of the holiday as told to a concerned child by her parents in little bits) we discover Halloween may have to be cancelled. The newscaster suspects it may be due to the population no longer thinking monsters are scary and are only used as simple comic relief. (AMEN)

  Soon monsters around the world are assembled. We have Dracula himself played by Alex from "Taxi." He absolutely went all out for this and acts like he's waited his whole life to don the fangs. We also have the Wolfman, The Mummy, a zombie, and Frankenstein's Monster. Then we meet the Witch.

 Dracula calls on the gang to stop entertaining the population and start scaring them again. We find out The witch is the one sabotaging Halloween by not being willing to fly over the moon to kick off the night until Dracula meets her list of demands. Above all else, she wants to be the symbol for the holiday and not Dracula. This leads to him refusing to meet the demands because he thinks of himself as the king of the monsters.She then basically tells him where to stick his coffin and flies off to her castle.

This leads the gang to go to her castle and try to force her to change her mind. When she discovers what the day means for so many kids, she does indeed change her opinion. Dracula ultimately decides to meet the demands due to her change of heart, and due to this, we are treated to a horrible disco scene as the end credits roll in which Dracula does a better Travolta than Travolta does Travolta.

Ultimately this short film holds up beautifully. You'll have a good time with this. The ridiculously dated disco scene is a product of its time but doesn't interfere with the a great pro Halloween message that many people need to think about today. It's hard to not be entertained by this unless the idea of monster slapstick angers you. I'm not a huge fan of that type of thing, but in this case, no harm no foul. It's one of those specials that for some reason is not on any format except for a super rare expensive VHS copy. So,for now, YouTube would be your destination to find this. It's highly recommended.