According to Philip Rosenthal, "we had always wanted to do an adult show about families" since season one of Everybody Loves Raymond.

[1] Steve Skrovan, for instance, had pitched "Halloween Candy" to CBS before the filming of the season; however, the network rejected due to being a Friday-night show[1] It took until its third year when the series moved to Mondays at 9:00 PM for the episode to be produced and publicly aired.

"[2] Upon "Halloween Candy"'s original airing, The Palm Beach Post named it one of the "funniest moments" of all shows of the 1998–99 season.

[3] The Oregonian ranked it the seventh best episode of the entire series,[4] and Russell Engebretson of DVD Verdict claimed it to be his favorite season three installment, alongside "Dancing with Debra" and "How They Met.

"[5] As of October 2019, "Halloween Candy" is the eighth highest-rated Halloween-themed television episode on IMDb with a rating of 8.1/10.