So I only remember certain aspects of this movie I saw when I was a kid. But for some reason bits and pieces lately have been springing up in my memory but for the life of me, I cannot find it by searching online. Here are the pieces I remember in case a random person might happen to piece this together
1) Family is moving to a haunted house
2) They pull up in a van
3) Family consists of mom, dad, daughter and son
4) At one point the dad puts on a halloween mask to scare family and shouts “oogley boogley”
5) Family isn’t happy about the move but dad is positive
6) Dad has button down shirt with top buttons undone (total 70s look)
7) Mom has 80s styled blonde hair
Otherwise it’s just bits and pieces that I cant put together.
Maybe Mr. Boogedy, a 1986 hour-long episode from the Magical World of Disney. I watched it a few years ago (on Turner Classic Movies of all places — part of a month-long tribute to Disney Studios). My memory of the show matches your description pretty well. Dad (played by the ubiquitous Richard Masur) is a novelty salesman. I don’t remember the Halloween mask specifically, but he is pulling gags on his family throughout the movie, then laughing at their reactions. Mom is a frizzy haired blonde. The house is very haunted. The evil ghost is actually pretty creepy looking. He says “Oogedy Boogedy” every time he shows up.
A lot of episodes of The Wonderful World of Disney that I watched when I was a kid in the 1960’s and 70’s stick with me to this day — especially the “scary” ones. Although I saw it only once (as an adult), it struck me as a movie I would have loved had I seen it as a kid. I remember checking out the old imdb forum for the movie right after I watched it (I miss the imdb forums so much). It was filled with posts from people were traumatized by the movie when they were little kids.
YES!!!!!! I just googled it!!! You are right! Thank you. This has literally been driving me crazy that I couldn’t find it anywhere! You made my day!