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I also remember watching the special episode with the time medallions and the future Danny who has turned evil. I think I watched it every time it reran.

But the most special memory to me was one Saturday.

I was up early.

It was coming up, all the ads said so. I went upstairs to my grandparents, and they gave me something to eat. A common occurrence on Saturdays so my parents could sleep in. I had several bowls of cereal, sitting in a computer chair, spinning around, and watching the special.

This comes to mind this year, not only because it’s ghosts and ghouls’ season, but because I lost my Papa this year.

Those two grandparents who fed their granddaughter to let her parents sleep in after working all week are both gone. I grew up in the same house with them. I saw them every day.

And on this day in particular, my Papa came downstairs like he so often did to go to the computer room.

He always waved to me as he walked by, going up or down. Sometimes, he stops and talk for a moment. Other times, he’d just carry on and so would I. Silently acknowledging the other.

On that day, watching the special, I heard him trundle down the stairs. (He had a bad knee and thus a distinct sound walking.) I was probably talking to the TV like I am prone to do, even now.

He stopped at my down, teasing me about it. I turned and saw him leaning in my room with a warm, teasing smile on his face as he asked what I was watching that was getting me so riled up.

I explained the TV show to him.

I doubt he cared what it was. He may have not even remembered that moment later on in life. But I do. And I do every time I watch the special.

It was a fun Saturday morning, watching a cartoon show I loved with nowhere to be that day, and nothing to do but hang out. I chatted with my Papa through the commercial and when the show returned, he left me to keep watching it so I didn’t miss anything.

I remember saying I wouldn’t. I saw it last night when it aired. But he smiled and said I should enjoy my cartoons and carried on into the computer room. With that I spun around in my chair like I had been doing while watching the special.

It’s funny the things you remember when you lose someone.

Thank you for that moment, Danny Phantom.

Now, as for the show itself.

I loved it as a kid and even now as an adult. I was at work when the graphic novel following up the series dropped and I purchased it when I left my shift for the day.

While I didn’t love the retconning of the ending of the series, which I thought was fantastic, it was wonderful to know the series wasn’t gone from other people’s minds either.

I bought the entire series on DVD as an adult and rewatched it. This was years ago now.

But I remember being surprised by how well it held up.

That I was still just an entertained by it now as I was when I was kid.

Even my mom liked the series.

However, the thing I find most amusing is how well Danny Phantom trends on Tumblr. Every once and a while, for no reason at all, it appears in the top ten. Just to stir it up again.

Just to remind people how loved it was.

How much they wish for it to return.

I can’t imagine what a return would look like, but I liked the graphic novel nonetheless.

So in honor of Halloween this year, let’s watch Danny Phantom again. I’d love to know if it still holds up in my 30s as it did in my 20s and before that my childhood.

What do you guys think? Will it?

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