A Glendale couple will be among the participants in “The Great Halloween Fright Fight,” an ABC special airing from 8-9 p.m.
Tuesday with six families competing to make the greatest Halloween display.
Chris Leslie said he and his wife, Jeana Docter, were discovered by the show’s producers through their YouTube channel, Hollywood Haunter, where they posted videos of their Western-themed Halloween display for 2013.
The producers “were hoping to have that Western town in their show,” Leslie said, but the couple no longer had it.
They were then asked to create something for the special and responded with “a traditional haunted house,” including coffins custom fit for judges Michael Moloney and Sabrina Soto, Leslie said.
“The Great Halloween Fright Fight” is produced by FremantleMedia North America, which also produced “The Great Christmas Light Fight,” a five-episode Christmas decoration competition series that aired on ABC last December and that will return for a second season in December.
“While we were shooting ‘The Great Christmas Light Fight,’ we all thought it would be a natural to do a Halloween version of the show,” Brady Connell, an executive producer with both shows, told City News Service. “This is not plastic pumpkins and hot glue guns. This is home-spun creativity at its best — large facades, elaborate costumes, extravagant themes.”
The winners will receive $50,000.
Docter and Leslie are set decorators, mainly for trade shows, and design props for reality shows and award shows. Their profession “definitely” helps with their Halloween decorations, Leslie said.
“The only difference is compared to a lot of the jobs that we have, we have complete control over how we want to do it,” Leslie said.
Docter said she and her husband have been decorating their house for Halloween for six years. On their website, hollywoodhaunter.com, Leslie wrote that he and his wife were inspired by a house near Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank with “realistic props, moving things and fog that hugged the ground.”
“From that moment on, my wife and I were hooked,” Leslie wrote. “We went back to our house and immediately started construction on our first yard display.”
The first year 25 children came to the house, Docter said. Hoping to draw more children, she sought to decorate more. As the amount of decorations grew each year, so did the number of trick-or-treaters, she said.
After the couple had so many decorations that they filled the garage, closets, carport and attic, Docter said said she decided about three years ago that “this is too much stuff,” discarded it, and now they have a different theme for the decorations each year.
“It’s always a fun challenge to go ‘What are we going to do this year?’ and have the task of going through all the stuff to make it happen and impress people,” Docter said.
The couple does not do big jobs in October so they can concentrate on their Halloween decorations, Docter said.
“Our vacation is in October,” she said.
Last year’s display drew 1,000 people, Docter said.
“We really enjoy creating an atmosphere the families can come with their kids and have fun together,” Leslie said. “We get a lot of praise from parents for making a place they can take their little ones.”
Docter didn’t give an estimate to how many people are expected at her home for Halloween on Friday, but did say she expected to purchase about 5,000 pieces of candy to distribute. The couple give more than one piece of candy to each trick-or-treater, Docter said.
The couple is asking trick-or-treater to bring canned food for a food drive benefiting the Burbank Temporary Aid Center.
The home’s Halloween display will be lit through Sunday. Directions are available on hollywoodhaunter.com.
