Halloween celebrations got an early start on Wednesday (Oct. 16) night on ABC as the network premiered the half-hour special Toy Story of Terror!. The show placed No. 1 among total viewers and adults, 18-49, giving the alphabet network its best performance in the time period in nearly two years, since Nov. 9, 2011.
According to ABC, the special was the night’s dominant No. 1 show with Kids 2-11 (5.7/19) posting the Net’s highest rating in the half-hour in almost six years –It was also the most social entertainment broadcast of the evening (25,571 tweets). Among viewers and young adults, Toy Story of Terror stands as broadcast TV’s highest-rated animated special since November 2011 and ABC’s top animated special since December 2009 – since 11/29/11 and 12/08/09.
Written and directed by Pixar veteran Angus MacLane (Small Fry), the half-hour special begins as a fun road trip for the gang, but quickly takes an unexpected turn for the worse when the trip detours to a roadside motel. Offering a clever homage to horror classics like Psycho, the special finds one one of the toys missing and the others caught up in a mysterious sequence of events that must be solved before they all suffer the same fate. The voice cast includes Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz, Joan Cusack as Jessie, Carl Weathers as Combat Carl/Combat Carl Jr., Timothy Dalton as Mr. Pricklepants, Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head, Wallace Shawn as Rex and the omnipresent toon actress Kristen Schaal as Trixie.
In case you missed it, Disney Channel will also air the special on Oct. 25 at 8 p.m.
