Yes, Halloween now lasts 31 days

Remember when Halloween was exactly one day long?
Or maybe — if you added some mischief and/or Day of the Dead — two or three days, tops?
Not lately. In 1998, TV people decided it should run for 13 days; 20 years later, that was expanded to a month.
That’s where we are now: Beginning Oct. 1, the Freeform channel has “31 Nights of Halloween,” with lots of old movies and — starting on opening night — a new series (shown here) about teen witches.
Each day’s line-up starts at around 11 a.m. weekdays (well, it’s night-time somewhere) and 7:30 a.m. weekends, continuing to 11 p.m., sometimes later. The emphasis is on family-friendly films — depending, of course, on how strange or normal your family is.
The leader in all this is “Hocus Pocus,” a 1993 film with Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy. It’s done so well each October that Freeform once had a 24-hour marathon, then made a sequel in 2022. (Critics tended to dislike the original and moderately approved of the sequel.)
Overall, “Hocus Pocus” will air 20 times, by approximate count, this October, with the sequel seven times. Close behind is the bland “Casper” (16 times), followed by “Addams Family” and its sequel; they each air 12 times, including on each of the first four days of October.
But the individual hero is Tim Burton, a director with a dark sense of humor. Oct. 16 will have a Burton marathon — “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” 11 a.m.; “Edward Scissorhands,” 1:40 p.m.; “Dark Shadows,” 4:10 p.m.; “Nightmare Before Christmas,” 6:50; and “Sleepy Hollow,” 8:30. (Except for “Nightmare,” each stars Johnny Depp.)
And that still leaves two other Burton films: “Beetlejuice” airs six times, “Frankeweenie” three.
The “13 Days” plan was actually launched by the Fox Family Channel. Three years later, the channel was sold to Disney, which owns ABC; it became the ABC Family Channel and then Freeform.
The line-up still has popular films from other studios, led by the “Addams Family” ones. Five “Ghostbusters” films air a combined total of 30 times.
But increasingly, the emphasis is on Disney’s huge collection, Its two “Haunted Mansion” films air a combined 13 times, the two “Monsters” cartoons four times each.
Occasionally, Disney even goes way back. The gentle “Something Wicked This Way Comes” airs twice; the brilliant (and oft-overlooked) “Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad” is only once, at 7 a.m. Oct. 24.
The event rarely has something completely new, but this year is the exception. “Coven Academy” — focusing on three young witches in New Orleans — was developed for the Disney Channel, then moved to
Freeform. Its 10-part series airs in three lumps … or one big one:
— Four episodes, 8-11 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1 (rerunning from 9:35 a.m. to 12:35 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3).
— Three episodes each, 9-11 p.m. on the next two Thursdays, Oct. 8 and 15. These bunches rerun the next night at midnight.
— Or all 10, any time (starting Oct. 2) on Disney+ or Hulu.
And if you’re interested in catching the first day, here it is: “Edward Scissorhands” (1990), 11:30 a.m.; “The Addams Family” (1991), 1:55 p.m.; “Addams Family Values” (1993), 3:55 p.m.; “Hocus Pocus” (1993), 5:55 p.m.; and “Coven Academy,” 8-11 p.m.