You're tuned to the good stuff
Vincent Price's Halloween Special II
The setup
The premise
Here’s the bit.
Presented as a TV Land rerun of a 1960 sponsored special, Vincent Price tries to host a family-friendly Halloween program from his spooky mansion. Judy Garland arrives with a bottle of pills she treats as candy, presidential nominee John F. Kennedy brings his date Candy DeCenzo, and an uninvited Liberace turns every activity into a double meaning. A pumpkin-carving craft, Kennedy’s campaign ideas and a blindfolded science experiment with fake zombie parts all spiral out of control while Price struggles to keep the show on track.
The funny people
Meet the cast. 5
Say it with us
Highly quotable.
My God, man, you’re running for president.
Don’t say swallow!
We do things not because they’re easy, but because they are hard.
I do them because they’re hard and easy.
A little extra
Notes from the archive.
This was the sixth and final installment of SNL’s Vincent Price Special series.
Script
Automatically generated script; wording may contain errors. Speaker labels are inferred.
- 00:01
Speaker 1
You're watching TV Land, in the common room at a nursing home. Up next, Vincent Price's 1960 Halloween special.
- 00:09
Vincent Price
Ah, once again it's that time of year when the tombs come open and the spirits rise from their graves. Am I in the shot? Oh, the talking skeleton doesn't work if I'm in the shot. What's rehearsal even for? Go to the open!
- 00:28
Speaker 1
And now, Colgate presents Vincent Price's Halloween special. Now, please welcome your host, Prince of Hades, Vincent Price.
- 00:37
Vincent Price
This evening, the Price Mansion is transformed into a house of spooky horrors. And I've asked some of my famous friends to bring by some treats for the neighborhood boys and girls. And our first guest has just arrived, Hollywood legend Judy Garland.
- 00:54
Judy Garland
Let me in!
- 00:56
Vincent Price
What's wrong, Judy?
- 00:58
Judy Garland
Oh, there's a tall scary...
- 01:01
Vincent Price
Judy, that's a palm tree.
- 01:04
Judy Garland
okay
- 01:04
Vincent Price
so uh did you bring us any candy judy it's very clearly a bottle of pills you've uh drawn m's on
- 01:14
Judy Garland
m's on them so i knew who they were for this one's for me and oh this one for me
- 01:21
Vincent Price
pay yourself judy it's 7 30 another guest who could it be well it's none other than democratic presidential nominee john f kennedy
- 01:36
John F Kennedy
it's uh good to be here Vincent.
- 01:39
Vincent Price
And who's your friend?
- 01:41
John F Kennedy
Oh well you told me to bring candy so I'd like to introduce you to Candy DiCenzo of the Reno DiCenzos.
- 01:49
Vincent Price
You're running for president.
- 01:51
John F Kennedy
Oh don't worry Vincent she's just my campaign manager.
- 01:53
Vincent Price
Oh.
- 01:54
John F Kennedy
And also a prostitute. Say there Judy do you have any of those M&M's for me? The back pill kind?
- 02:01
Judy Garland
Oh I do but I don't have any water.
- 02:04
John F Kennedy
Oh no that's okay I can dry swallow.
- 02:06
Liberace
Don't say Say, swallow!
- 02:14
Vincent Price
Marachi, you weren't invited this year.
- 02:16
Liberace
Oh, I couldn't miss a party, Vincent.
- 02:18
Vincent Price
Well, as long as you're on good behavior. Did you bring us any candy?
- 02:22
Liberace
Oh, aren't these lovely? These are rum and Kahlua meringues. They have a hard outer shell, but if you work at it, you get a mouthful of cream.
- 02:34
Vincent Price
Marachi, future president is here. Senator, I apologize for my friend's behavior.
- 02:39
John F Kennedy
This is a tough one, but I'm going to go with Judy.
- 02:44
Judy Garland
I'm the winner!
- 02:46
John F Kennedy
Take tracks, Candy.
- 02:48
Vincent Price
Jeezy, crazy, Senator. Voters are watching. Well, now it's time for arts and crafts. We learn how to make spooky crafts. Let's go to our pumpkin. Step one, carve a hole.
- 03:03
Liberace
Step two, wait behind it.
- 03:06
Vincent Price
Liver-rugging! Step two, carve a spooky face with a big, wide mouth.
- 03:18
Liberace
The fewer the teeth, the better.
- 03:20
Vincent Price
Liver-rugging! Please stop. Then, for a little fun, put a candle in the pumpkin.
- 03:29
John F Kennedy
You know, for a lot of fun, I like to put my candle between two pumpkins.
- 03:33
Vincent Price
Liver-senator! I'm getting it from both sides.
- 03:37
Liberace
Been there, done that.
- 03:40
Vincent Price
Now, where were we?
- 03:45
John F Kennedy
Vincent, if I get elected, Judy here just had the best idea for my administration. Tell him, Judy.
- 03:50
Judy Garland
I think Mr. President...
- 03:53
John F Kennedy
Isn't that wonderful?
- 03:54
Vincent Price
Men on the moon, what would they do?
- 03:56
John F Kennedy
Tell him, Judy.
- 03:57
Judy Garland
Isn't it?
- 04:00
John F Kennedy
How great is that?
- 04:01
Vincent Price
It's not great. It's impossible.
- 04:03
John F Kennedy
We do things not because they're easy, but because they are hard.
- 04:07
Liberace
I do them because they're hard and easy.
- 04:10
Vincent Price
All right, all right. New rule. Careful what you say around Liberace. He can twist anything.
- 04:15
Liberace
I can bend anything, too.
- 04:17
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
- 04:23
Vincent Price
Moving on. It's time for our spooky science experiment. Judy, can you be my volunteer?
- 04:33
Judy Garland
Love to!
- 04:34
Vincent Price
Put on the blindfold. Now, put your hands in the first bone.
- 04:40
Judy Garland
Oh! Oh!
- 04:43
Vincent Price
These are zombie brains.
- 04:45
Judy Garland
Oh! I don't...
- 04:48
Vincent Price
We're having fun. Spooky fun here. Spooky fun. Spooky fun. All friends. Now, these are zombie eyeballs, yeah.
- 04:55
Judy Garland
Oh, this is the worst thing ever. I'm going crazy, I tell you, I'm crazy.
- 04:58
Mickey Rooney. Mickey Rooney,
- 05:00
Vincent Price
she's flipping out. Look, look, look, the brains were just spaghetti and the eyeballs were just grapes.
- 05:06
Vincent Price
That's right, and this zombie finger here is just a sausage.
- 05:11
Liberace
Sausage? There isn't a sausage?
- 05:21
Liberace
You've got my vote.
- 05:23
Vincent Price
That's it. Happy Halloween, everyone. That's it.
- 05:27
All right, your hands come in here.
The rabbit hole continues
One more couldn’t hurt.
More from across the archive.










