After three successful A Nightmare on Elm Street films, short-lived spinoff series “Freddy’s Nightmares” was launched in October of 1988. The series, which premiered the same year Dream Master was released, kicked off with a Tobe Hooper-directed episode that centered on Freddy Krueger’s origin story, but from that point forward, Freddy (played, as always, by Robert Englund) mostly served as the host of the series rather than the star. The stories were set in the fictional town of Springwood, Ohio, and the dream demon only popped up from time to time.
One of the episodes that did indeed feature Freddy as a character in the story was the show’s one and only Halloween special, which aired on October 29th, 1988. The episode, the fourth in the first of two seasons, was titled “Freddy’s Tricks and Treats,” and it was directed by none other than Ken Wiederhorn (Return of the Living Dead 2). A young Mariska Hargitay starred as a bookish medical student, Marsha, who chooses to study rather than party on Halloween night, and Freddy comes knocking when she falls asleep at the proverbial wheel.