Sesame Street: A Very Grouchy Halloween provides examples of:
Ax-Crazy: Countess Treach. Ever since the Grandcount died and left his will to the family cat (when she was groomed to be the main beneficiary to his role as head of the family), the Countess has become a bitter, temperamental monster who will unleash violence on anyone who dares to cross her, or anyone she no longer has any use for. Look no further than when she married Gonger and began a family with four kids, only to murder him and said kids when she became frustrated with the lack of respect for her in her own household. It is implied that she will do the same to Oscar a while after their wedding is finished.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The Trash Gordon scene. In storyline, Oscar reads a chapter to help him sleep in the Grandcount's castle, but it comes so out of left field and feels so out of place compared to the rest of the special, and after it's over, the story is never mentioned again.
Break Them by Talking: Before Oscar's scheduled wedding with the Countess Treach, he becomes spooked by his reflection in a mirror in one of the castle's bedrooms talking back to him, telling him not to go through with the marriage; he'd be putting his own reputation in jeopardy if he does.
Oscar's Reflection: You heard what that little pink furball and his kids said about the Countess. She's a no-good, rotten, violent nutcase, and you want to marry her? That is low, even for a Grouch like you. If anyone found out that you actively, willingly, sought a hand in marriage, no one on this mortal planet would ever treat you like a true Grouch again! The people you live with will be even more nice to you than ever. Your own kind will disown you! And your very reputation will completely fall apart.
The Bus Came Back: This special sees the return of Muppets who had disappeared from Sesame Street for up to decades, including: Alice Snuffleupagus, Barkley, Benny Rabbit, Betty Lou, Biff and Sully, Bruno the Trashman, Deena, Don Music, Forgetful Jones, Frazzle, Harvey Kneeslapper, Hoots the Owl, Humphrey, Ingrid and Baby Natasha; Lefty the Salesman, Little Bird, Lulu, Merry Monster, Murray Monster, Placido Flamingo, Professor Hastings, Roosevelt Franklin, Roxie Marie, SAM the Robot, Sherlock Hemlock, Simon Soundman, Stinky the Stinkweed, and Wolfgang the Seal.
This also applies to some of the Muppet performers, as Karen Prell returns as Deena in her first Sesame performance since 1981, while Joey Mazzarino reprises his role as Murray Monster for the first time since leaving the show in 2015; they receive "special appearance" credits at the end.
Roscoe Orman returns to his role as Trash Gordon during the scene where Oscar reads a chapter of "The Adventures of Trash Gordon" to help him sleep.
California Doubling: In a literal example, the Jim Henson Company lot, located in Hollywood, California, was used for the exteriors of the Grandcount's castle. In addition, eight puppeteers from the Henson Company — Grant Baciocco, Alice Dinnean, BJ Guyer, Brian Michael Jones, Donna Kimball, Tim Lagasse, Alison Mork, and Colleen Smith — are credited as "L.A. Muppet Performers."
The Cameo: Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy make cameos as dangling corpses in the Grandcount's castle (who briefly animate as Piggy complains about her status as a cameo).
The Dreaded: In the Grandcount's castle, and within the Transylvanian landscape in general, the Countess Treach is one of the most frightening individuals around, not only for her violent temperament and her iron-fisted rule of the castle, but also for her ability to strike fear into even the most stoic of souls. The ghosts who haunt the castle every night notably shiver whenever she is even mentioned aloud.
Harsher in Hindsight: Oscar being terrified over dying in the castle becomes even harder to swallow following the death of Oscar's original performer, Caroll Spinney, in December 2019.
Hilarious in Hindsight: In the "Cookie's Crumby Pictures" episode "Star S'mores", Cookie Monster (as Flan Solo) interacts with a character named Luke Piewalker (performed by Peter Linz), an obvious parody of Star Wars protagonist Luke Skywalker, played in the original films by Mark Hamill. In this special, Linz puppeteers a character named Hugo the Gargoyle, who is voiced by Hamill himself.
In Memoriam: The special was dedicated to Muppet builder Tim Miller, who had passed away nearly two months before its original broadcast.
Jerkass Woobie: Countess Treach. She was constantly ignored by the Grandcount's family, validating her belief that she was the misfit of her kind (not having purple skin like the others, not sharing the others' affinity for counting), she was positioned as the heir to the Grandcount's riches should he pass on only to have that taken from her shortly after he died (he left his will to the cat), and she married a non-Transylvanian monster and had a family in hopes she'd finally be given some respect by anyone, only to be inadvertently mistreated by her new family. This eventually led the Countess to bear a twisted, sadistic, vindictive soul underneath her vulnerable exterior, and murdered her new family in many horrific ways. By the time she tried marrying Oscar, she had lost all sense of morality (and sanity) and intended to just kill the Grouch shortly after tying the knot, even though he had not done anything to irritate her.
Nightmare Fuel: This special may just be the darkest and scariest Sesame Street production ever filmed (a given when Tim Burton and Richard O'Brien are creative consultants and Danny Elfman is penned to write original songs). Just to give you a taste of the scares this special has to offer:
The Sesame Street Muppets as ghosts can feel a little... unnerving.
The special's villain, the Countess Treach, has to rank among one of the most evil villains ever made for a children's production. She comes off as a hopeless romantic, a tragic soul trying to find a place in a world that treats her so indifferently. You'd almost feel sorry for her...that is, if you don't live long enough to discover that deep down, she exhibits a violent rage that puts her on par with Annie Wilkes.
The Phantom Host tells the story of the Countess, and during the story, Oscar interrupts to voice his disbelief that anyone could take a life and enjoy it. The Host replies by asking Oscar if he knows how many ways there are to kill people. When he reveals that the answer is around 1,000, he adds, "And the Countess can come up with a thousand more ways to kill you."
The Other Darrin: Most of the returning Muppets are recast to different performers, as their original performers either died or retired. Notably, the performers for Alice Snuffleupagus and Barkley the Dog (Judy Sladky and Bruce Connelly, respectively) did not return to reprise their roles, so the two characters were respectively voiced by Pam Arciero and John Kennedy.
