One of my favorite things about the Halloween season is the iconic character Elvira. Elvira represents all of the schlocky fun, humor, and comical "spookiness" I love about Halloween.
Each year I like to write a little tribute to something about Elvira's legendary Hollywood career, and this year I thought rather than discussing one of her more famous ads or movies, I'd cover some of the lesser-known appearances she's made throughout the years.
Cassandra Peterson (the woman behind the Elvira getup) was born in Manhattan, Kansas, and moved to Las Vegas at the age of 17 to become a showgirl at The Dunes Casino. In 1979, she joined the famed improvisational group, The Groundlings, in Los Angeles. While with The Groundlings, she developed the "valley girl" character that would later shape her most famous role, Elvira, "The Mistress of the Dark."
After answering a casting call to replace longtime television host Sinister Seymour (Larry Vincent) in 1981, Peterson was hired to host the long-running Los Angeles weekend horror movie television show "Fright Night." Using the valley girl character from The Groundlings, she created the campy, sexy vampire character we all know today as "Elvira."
Practically an overnight success with Elvira at the helm, Fright Night became "Elvira's Movie Macabre." Growing out of her regional-level fame, Elvira would eventually become a lucrative worldwide brand. Halloween costumes, comic books, action figures, trading cards, and more flew off store shelves nationwide. In the late 80s, she became the spokesperson for Coors beer company before starring in a full-length film titled "Elvira: Mistress of the Dark."
In the years since, Elvira has revived her Movie Macabre tv show, wrote and starred in a second film, "Elvira's Haunted Hills," created a cartoon, and performed as a spokesperson for various products.
Amongst Elvira's many activities (FIX), you'd occasionally spot her on other shows. Below is a list of my Top 5 Favorite Guest Appearances made by Cassandra Peterson as Elvira!
5. The Elvira Show - (1993)
Ok, this is kind of cheating. An entire TV show where she's the star? It's not really a guest spot, but the show didn't make it past the pilot episode, so I feel like it may as well have been a guest appearance.
On this show, Elvira lives in Manhattan, Kansas, with her kooky Aunt Minerva (Katherine Helmond) and their talking cat. Elvira is a fortune teller and sells fake love potions to pay the bills. Elvira throws herself shamelessly at a hunk named Chip, who asks for a fortune and love potion. Elvira doesn't know Chip is an undercover cop there to bust her for selling dangerous and phony love potions that just put one poor customer into the hospital! A long-lost niece named Paige (almost played by Hillary Swank) arrives and announces she's moving in. Unbeknownst to Paige, Elvira and Minerva are really witches, and later on, when Paige hears the cat talk, she discovers that she, too, is a witch.
With two witch aunts, a teenage witch, and a talking cat, it sure sounds like "Sabrina, the Teenaged Witch." Elvira contends to this day that they indeed stole her concept. Peterson claims that the head of CBS was a big fan of the show but was home sick on the day of filming. His replacement that day was Howard Stringer, who, Elvira alleges, as soon as filming wrapped, passed on the show based on Elvira's appearance and a supposed personal dislike for her.
The writing is campy and full of one-liners and innuendo that are so terrible they're great! Too bad it was never picked up because the episode was pretty good. As good as anything else on television, anyway!
Please make time to watch the video below. It's the entire episode, and I think it's pretty funny as far as 90s sitcoms go.
4. Last Man Standing (2011)
This one doesn't fall into my self-imposed rules for this site that I've created that keeps things limited to before I graduated from college. But this episode is 12 years old already, so I'll allow it this one time based on its age.
Last Man Standing ran on ABC from 2011 to 2017 for six seasons before entering syndication in 2015. ABC canceled the show in 2017 amid controversy. FOX picked up the show from 2018 to 2021 before ending after its ninth season.
Elvira appeared during the Halloween-themed episode of the first season on October 25, 2011, titled "Last Halloween Standing." In it, Elvira is dating Ed Alzate (Hector Elizondo), Mike's (Tim Allen) longtime business partner. Mike is taking his youngest daughter trick-or-treating and comments on how over-the-top Ed's Halloween decorations are. Ed responds that he's only trying to impress his new girlfriend, just as Elvira appears. You can check out her brief but fun appearance below!
3. The Magical World of Disney - (1988)
Elvira and... Disney?
In the same year that Elvira: Mistress of the Dark debuts at the box office, Elvira appears on the "Magical World of Disney" on NBC. From 1988 to 1990, NBC dusted off the long-running Disney anthology TV series and shifted the focus from episodes hosted by Walt Disney himself to a series of made-for-TV specials and movies introduced by then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner.
In late August 1988, the network debuted the returning "Magical World of Disney" with a bit of self-promotion. Rather than airing a Disney movie or made-for-TV special, NBC and Disney joined forces to advertise the coming 1988 Fall lineup on NBC.
When her turn comes, Elvira is seated in "the grand ballroom of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland." You can quickly tell she's dressed more conservatively than usual for her younger Disney audience. She jokes that even though NBC doesn't like to admit it, that yes, she's part of the NBC family. To be fair, Mistress of the Dark was partly produced by NBC Productions.
Elvira then carries on a conversation with the evil Maleficent, the villain from Disney's "Sleeping Beauty." She then heads off to go watch her new movie, but unless I missed it through several watching, she never actually mentions the name of her film.
Check out the below YouTube clip, and if it doesn't automatically take you there, jump to 27 minutes and 50 seconds to see Elvira.
2. CHiPs - (1982-1983)
Elvira appeared in two episodes of the hit 80s show "ChiPs." The first was "Rock Devil Rock," which aired on October 31, 1982. Her second appearance was in the April 10, 1983 episode "Things That Go Creep In the Night."
In "Rock Devil Rock," Ponch and Bobby help a rock star who claims that attempts have been made on his life. The rock star is a spoof on Gene Simmons of KISS fame and is played by Donny Most, most famous for playing Ralph Malph on Happy Days. The secondary story of the episode is that the CHP officers all throw a wild Halloween party, of which Elvira is the organizer and decorator. After flirting throughout the episode, Ponch and Elvira dance the tango at the party.
In "Things That Go Creep In The Night," a girl causes a car accident but can't remember who she is or why she's clutching the cover of a comic book. Ponch and Bruce begin to investigate the eccentric guy behind the "Sea Thing" comic she's holding. In the episode, Elvira owns a comic book store and provides crucial information to Ponch and Bruce about the Sea Thing comic books that help crack the case. I really enjoyed the aesthetics and overall vibe of the comic book shop scenes.
You can watch a highlight reel of her two appearances on CHiPs below.
1. Elvira in World Championship Wrestling (1989-1991)
Everyone's favorite Queen of Halloween helped hype World Championship Wrestling's annual October Pay-Per-View event, Halloween Havoc, between 1989 and 1991. Many wrestling fans assumed Starrcade was WCW's answer to WWF's most important event, Wrestlemania. However, former WCW boss Eric Bischoff has repeatedly stated on his podcast 83 Weeks that it was Halloween Havoc, not Starrcade, that the company considered its biggest event of the year. While I must admit I, too, thought Starrcade was the most important event, I looked forward to Halloween Havoc the most because it was the most heavily themed of the WCW Pay-Per-View events.
Elvira can be seen in advertisements for the NWA/WCW Halloween Havoc events from 1989-1991. Never appearing at the event, Elvira would hype the program during commercials on TBS Superstation to convince fans to purchase the show from their cable provider. Elvira also has the distinction of being part of the advertising that introduced the world to the infamous "Chamber of Horrors" match, where they "electrocuted" Abdullah the Butcher.
I wrote an article about Elvira and Pro Wrestling for The Retro Network a few years ago, which was later posted here. If you're interested, please click HERE to read it.
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