MovieChat Forums > Real People (1979) Discussion > Halloween Possession Episode

Halloween Possession Episode

posted 17 years ago by Mythic Mystic
6 replies | jump to latest

I remember watching "Real People" as a kid and looked forward to their annual Halloween shows because they always had ghost stories on them. This was way before "Unsolved Mysteries" and the flood of paranormal shows on nowadays that they feature on TLC, the Discovery Channel, the History Channel and the like.

There was one year on their annual Halloween special where they specifically had one of their reporters enter a haunted house with two cameramen to try and get footage of the spirit of an elderly woman. I was only about ten at the time that it first aired but here is what I remember:

The reporter and cameramen entered a room in the house that had been kept locked due to the fact that the woman would assault all who entered. Well that wasn't going to stop this intrepid reporter. He entered the room which I believe was bare save for a lone rocking chair that was either rocking when he entered or started rocking soon after. The cameraman was goofing around and decided to sit in the chair and it is at this point the details for me get a little bit fuzzy.

Somehow everyone but the cameraman either left the room or were forced from the room (I'm not sure which) and the door locked by itself and no one could get back in. When they finally got back in the cameraman was slowly rocking back and forth in the chair and humming or singing to himself. His hair was grey and his face had begun to take on the features of an old woman. I can't remember if the cameraman said anything to the crew that re-entered but I seem to remember him telling them to "get out" with a face and voice that were not his own.

Now I fully realize that this could all have been a prank but it was very well done with a raw video footage style that was a good 15-20 years before the "Blair Witch Project". It really freaked out my impressionable ten year old mind and I have been dying to see it ever since. I have asked other people my age or older (I was born in 1970) if they remember this episode and almost no one can even remember the show let alone the episode.

Does anyone recall this episode or even the fact that they even had Halloween specials.

[–] FITZGERALDRI 17 years ago

I remeber some episodes scared the hell out of me. I too was about 5 or 6. I'm 33 now and I remeber they did a true story about a little gorl they found dead in a cooler and I never again talked to strangers after that episode. I remeber the cool funny pictures and the cabbage patch kid episode. Too bad we're in a small group that remebers this awesome show.

[–] livingdead70 17 years ago

I remember that episdoe, I believe it was halloween of 80 or 81 . I was born in 1970 too and have fond memories of this show, Wensday nights . That was a very cool episode and was done very well, to the eyes of a 10 year old that is !!!
I wish there was some DVDs of this show out, this was a little before VCRs so there arent many bootlegs around , the ones Ive seen are in real bad shape and almost unwatchable...............
tre

[–] ljsz31969 16 years ago

I was born in '69 and one of the shows that really got my attention was when they were in a "haunted house" and you heard the creak of a coffin lid opening. That may have been the same show too because I also remember the rocking chair. I also think that they did a show about the gray lady ghost of some big mansion.

You're right, I'd love to see some of those shows again. While we're on a "remembering" kick, does anyone remember a show that started with a sailboat sailing into a bank of fog and then the people went to an alternate world. There was one lady who could communicate with cats using her eyes and there was a grandfather figure who died in real life at some point and so they wrote his death into the plot by having him get bit by a cobra. I think the boy who starred in the show is the same boy who was in Disney's "Return to Witch Mountain"? That was a cool sci-fi show.

[–] diskoboy 15 years ago

Are you sure you weren't thinking of the show, "That's Incredible"?

Real People was mainly a comedic variety show. I don't ever remember seeing any "serious" segments.

That's Incredible was a more on the serious side, like Ripley's Believe It Or Not, and had some really creepy segments. I still remember the segment they ran about a ghost that was haunting a Toys 'R' Us store.

"You people voted for Hubert Humphrey! And you killed Jesus!" - Raoul Duke

[–] Mythic Mystic 14 years ago

Nope it was definitely "Real People".

I did another search recently and found that someone recorded part of this episode as a kid with a cassette player and a microphone and posted it to his myspace account. It is a little scratchy and coarse due to the age of the recording but it is transcribed to make it easier to follow along.

http://www.strimoo.com/video/17576032/REAL-People-1978-Halloween-Speci al-audio-included-MySpaceVideos.html

If you listen(read) carefully at the beginning of the clip there is a small part that is exactly what I am talking about. David (the producer for the story) details how the face of Kevin (the cameraman for the segment) begins to change before his very eyes.

Unfortunately the clip only goes as far as the spirit talking through a medium to a priest. It never gets as far as the rocking chair incident that I detailed in my original post. At least I know that I wasn't completely crazy now and that the episode really exists! haha

[–] SpaceMountainMike 8 years ago

Real People was mainly a comedic variety show. I don't ever remember seeing any "serious" segments.

I do. There was an athlete named Carol who was missing an arm.

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