Best-bets for Oct. 31: Choose your Halloween mood

1) Halloween lite. There’s a long wait before trick-or-treating, so cable fills it. FX has all 31 “Simpsons Treehouse of Horror” (shown here) episodes — some family-friendly, some not — from 9 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. Freeform has two each of “Twitches” (7 and 9 a.m.), “Halloweentown” (11 a.m. 1 p.m.) and “Addams Family” (5:10 and 7:15 p.m.) films, plus “Hocus Pocus” (3 and 9:20 p.m.) and the reboot of “Ghostbusters” (11:30 p.m.). Disney has “Zombies” movies at noon and 2 p.m. and a “Halloween House Party” at 5. Read more…

1) Halloween lite. There’s a long wait before trick-or-treating, so cable fills it. FX has all 31 “Simpsons Treehouse of Horror” (shown here) episodes — some family-friendly, some not — from 9 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. Freeform has two each of “Twitches” (7 and 9 a.m.), “Halloweentown” (11 a.m. 1 p.m.) and “Addams Family” (5:10 and 7:15 p.m.) films, plus “Hocus Pocus” (3 and 9:20 p.m.) and the reboot of “Ghostbusters” (11:30 p.m.). Disney has “Zombies” movies at noon and 2 p.m. and a “Halloween House Party” at 5.

2) Halloween heavy. Other channels seek grown-ups. AMC has the original, well-crafted “Halloween” (1978) at 10 a.m. and 11 p.m., with Jamie Lee Curtis’ return in “Halloween: H20” (1998) at 8 p.m. and 1 a.m.; at 10 p.m., Eli Roth looks at witches. FX has movies, led by “Get Out” (2017) at 3 p.m. and “What We Do In the Shadows” (2014) – the root of the delightful series – at 11 a.m. and, late, 1 a.m. And Paramount has “Rocky Horror” at 9:15 p.m., surrounded by “Clue” (1985) at 7 and 11:30.

3) “Saturday Night Live.” This wraps up a five-week stretch of new episodes, ones that have found “SNL” in top form. Now John Mulaney has his fourth time as host; he was a writer on the show for three years, co-creating the Stefon character. The Strokes are the music guest.

4) “Manhunt,” 8 and 9 p.m., CBS. As the FBI pursues Eric Rudolph – the right-wing terrorist who eventually confessed to the Olympic Park bombing – he pushes militia to launch a counterattack. And Richard Jewell, the security guard originally accused of the bombing, scrambles to clear his name.

5) Football, all day. ABC starts the daty with top-ranked Clemson hosting Boston at noon ET; it ends with Ohio State (No. 3) at Penn State (18) at 7:30. Fox starts with Michigan State at Michigan (No. 13) at noon, ends with Oklahoma (No. 24) at Texas Tech at 8. There’s much more, on CBS and cable.

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