Fun enough, our Lookback takes us to another comic strip based special, this time based off the 1979-2008 comic strip "For Better or For Worse". FBFW was created by Lynn Johnston and ran in newspapers in Canada and the United States and still does for reruns as of this writing. The interesting thing about this comic strip which is about lives of the Patterson family living in a suburb of Toronto, is that the characters in the strip aged in real time as it went on through the years. Meaning characters aged up. It was a slice of comic strip with events based on worked through Johnston's life.
For the purpose of this blog post, we are talking about another medium that many comic strips end up going into, the animated television medium. Since this is about Halloween, we are going to talk about the Halloween special "The Good For Nothing". This special ran on CTV in Canada and Disney Channel in the US.
The special starts with setting up that it is fall: the father is raking leaves, the mother is trying to enter her squash into a contest for the fall fair, etc. Though sadly, the dog squishes the squash. At the fair there is a pet show where Elizabeth and the dog, Farley are entered ah and this badly because the dog likes another dog and would rather chase her than win some contest. (The most human of the characters is that dog) The dog also runs through other parts of the fair causing a mess and disruption.
He's still a good boy
There is also a boy named Brad, because of course, who wants to bother Michael , the oldest Paterson boy, because reasons. There's also a running line of when the dog does something they call him the good for nothing. (roll credits) There's a mention of Halloween, with trick or treating. So Brad decides to mess with Michael some more because he has nothing better to do.
I'm glad my son has a no girls sign on the back of his door instead of on front
Oh it is Halloween, alright then, sure. If they masterfully some how combine the dog being rambunctious and the Michael vs Brad plot I'd be way impressed. So Michael and Elizabeth go out trick or treating (not together) while, also looking for Farley who got out. Michael is first with his friends then goes alone because they didn't want to go down some spooky area. (The Scooby Doo gang laughs at them) Though the creepy music does make me think Michael is going to get brutally murdered in this alley.
The aesthetic of the Halloween stuff is very nice and really feels like Halloween and does a great job of showing the essence of the night. They got to find that dog still. Meanwhile, Michael runs into Brad. Also, they don't use the creepy music here but, honestly, this is where I felt he could be brutally murdered. But yes! Farley does come to Michael's aid. (The dog doesn't brutally murder Brad.)
BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK
I really like this special, I haven't seen it before writing about this, I have seen some other "For Better or Worse" stuff but this one , nope. I do like how fun and simple it is and does model off the comic strips well. The characters are genuine fun: The father giving his son some space but still being around to help is really a nice touch. The dog being connected to the other plot line for the climax was fun. Even though this is more of a special that happens to take place on Halloween than be a Halloween themed special, it brings a lot of great things to the table. I do recommend watching it and it's a good family special as well.
Do check out the comic strip, you can read it on go comics from the start (link here) and the daily reruns. Check out the website as well. (here)
Tune in next time, when I write Farley is a good boy 950 times in a blog post because he's a good boy.
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