Alexplorer's Halloween page: Haunted TVs

Haunted TVs
I have individual galleries of how each of the "haunted tvs" were made, but here's a summary of all of them. And to answer the question about how much this cost: Nothing. All the tvs were literally found by the side of the road except for the tiny one that was Kristin's and didn't sell at the garage sale, didn't have a power adapter, so it was as good as junk anyway.

Here are five of them. This was taken a couple days before our Halloween party, so they aren't completely assembled yet. This was also before I picked up the blacklight. The one in the lower right (i.e., the '70s set) was later turned 90 degrees so it wasn't blocking the bookshelf. You can see the back is off of it and the one above it as well.

At the party...

In the dark with nothing but blacklights on, the tv gives even my groomsmaid Beth a run for her money.

Here's another shot (and another of my groomsmaids, Katie) showing different colors as the lights in the '50s set cycle through. You can also see the glowing skull in the set over her shoulder.

Here's a wide shot with the ghosts and the ghoul on the wall.

Slightly longer exposure, this time with the strobe turned on in the '70s set.

The '50s TV

It isn't so obvious what's going on with the camera flash on....

...but with the lights off, it's pretty cool. This is a bit over-exposed probably, so the glare of the individual lights is intense enough that you see them and not the screen glowing. In reality, it's much more the latter as you can see in the first couple images on this page.

The '70s TV

You'd never been able to see inside the tv set this well without the camera's flash, but I wanted a shot showing the '70s deco on the front (including the gross woven speaker cover).

The knobs really aren't attached to anything since there's little left to attach to inside the set. I put the volume knob into the hole with plumber's putty. I did similar with the VHF channel knob, but didn't have the number wheel for the UHF, so that's sitting on top of the set right now.

The mental patient inside was Shanna's. He is motion sensitive, but it's triggered by a light sensor rather than a proximity detector, so the strobe set him off endlessly (He vibrates and screams; yes, it's very disturbing). I just turned him off.

With the bottom cut out, he sat in there perfectly. I even replaced the back of the set so the strobe wouldn't flash on the wall behind the tv. (Notice I have the blacklight on in this room.)

I also set this and the console tv set up with X10 units, so I could use the remote control with them. It was just a gimmick, but it was convenient for shutting them off later that night without having to unplug everything.

The '90s TV

The crinkles make it look like static or "snow" as we used to call it back when tvs would show that between stations instead of a blank blue screen.

And, yes, that's a real ghost.

And here's the result. There are two lights on other side from one another, neither shining directly at the screen (unlike with the '50s set), so the effect looks much better on camera. Better than cable!

The '00s TV

With the lights on, it looks pretty much like any other set...

If your Halloween party doesn't feature a glowing skull inside a tv set, you're doing it completely wrong.

The skull is sitting on top of a couple wooden 4x4 blocks left over from building the deck a few weeks earlier. They're painted black to make them less noticeable.

The Big TV

That's the '70s tv set in the foreground on the right. That only seemed heavy by comparison. This monster took three of us to move it onto the porch. Even though most of the electronics (and the screen) were gone, it only had one wheel remaining, one that didn't even turn, incidentally.

Here's the final version the night of the Halloween party.

Before you ask, that's the UV blacklight I rented.

The Console TV

Dani spotted this set by the side of the road one night on our way to Home Depot. We filled the trunk with it and doubled back for our place. (We didn't have room for the wood for the back deck we were picking up at that point.)

Boo!

Unless I take a picture with the strobe light off and then animate it with this image, you're missing out on the effect, but this was pretty cool.

The Tiny TV

Here's what it looked like at the start.

It could use something on the screen, but this works pretty well even with the crystal skull from the '00s tv trying to steal its thunder.

The Aftermath

We used all the tvs again the next year for our 2009 Halloween party, but Dani was adamant that we ditch the biggest ones. Here's what's left of the big-screen tv and the '70s console set. They're firewood now!

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