I was most looking forward to the Sideshow Bob segment, because I can never get enough of that character. And the story was decent enough. The ultimate problem with Treehouse in recent (and not so recent) seasons is the three story format. They're clearly scraping the bottom of the barrel every year to find ideas. Then when they get a good one they don't have enough time to fully develop them. "Wanted: Dead, Then Alive" and "Telepaths of Glory" both fall victim to not being able to explore the concepts in their entirety. "Homerzilla" fares much better and could actually hold its own against some of the classic segments like "Time and Punishment". Although considering Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer were both in the 1998 Matthew Broderick vehicle, you'd think that would have at least inspired a joke or two.
The ultimate question is, why don't they just do full non-canon Treehouse episodes devoted to a single story?
Not that I think it would help much at this point since the current production team is determined to transform The Simpsons into Family Guy (if that criticism happens to be lost on you, it's the equivalent of turning the Daredevil Netflix series into the Daredevil Ben Affleck flick). But, you know. What am I going to do? Spend a whole blog griping about it, or pretend to do something productive?
So let's pretend we're in an alternate dimension where Matt Groening took one look at my Laugh Liberation Front sketch and thought, "This is the nobody on-line we should entrust our high-profile holiday tradition to!" As such, here is the Wikipedia version of what I lovingly refer to as:
Treehouse of Horror XSIV
Opening sequence
It opens with Maggie alone in a Hanna-Barbera type backdrop while the Simpsons theme is played in the style of The New Scooby-Doo Movies. She reaches for a teddy bear which lunges at her bearing its teeth. She swallows her pacifier and scurries into a Springfield-wide music video based on Thriller (preferably the Party City version), where the denizens sing about the joys of traumatizing their children, including Marge jumping off the Simpsons's roof with a noose around her neck declaring "It's all for you Maggie!" It peaks with Sideshow Bob performing the Vincent Price rap, explaining to Maggie how humans are all inherently sociopathic. It ends on his evil laugh, while Maggie smiles for the first time and holds her arms up so Bob can pick her up.
Halloween I - Columbus Day 0
At Precinct 13, Dr. Nick walks into the room where a hearing committee is going on, delivering his trademark "Hi, everybody!" When he's met with silence, he realizes the entire board has been murdered, and the violent patient has escaped. Outside, two carpenters are working at night. "We're never gonna finish the ward, what with all the fog." "Hey John, someone's watching me." "Just hand me the...the thing." He gets impaled with a large knife. The killer is clearly Moe Szyslak wearing a Moe Szyslak mask that has been painted white.
At the Simpsons house, Ned asks Marge to come babysit his kids so he can protest the release of Harry Potter: Just Kidding, This is Really What Happened. Meanwhile, Abe Simpson gets impaled against the wall at his nursing home, although the killer has to awaken him once before he dies properly. Homer calls Marge to tell her that Grandpa died in his sleep from a knife wound. At that moment, the TV show "Continuity Watch" reveals Homer's seldom seen half-brother has been similarly murdered.
Marge becomes concerned about Patty and Selma and runs over to their house to check on them, only to find them dead as well, and she encounters the killer. Running back to the Flander's home doesn't help because Rod and Tod are too preoccupied with listing all the people they want God to bless to open the door. The Simpsons house is locked up as well. She throws a rock at the window to draw Homer's attention, but only manages to knock him out with it.
She manages to get Bart and Lisa's attention and together they subdue him. Marge then tells her children to go running around in the street yelling until the police notice. The killer sits up and attacks Marge again but is defeated by a rifle shot from the actual Moe Szyslak, who's not going to let anyone use his likeness without a piece of the residuals. Marge pulls the mask off to reveal Roy Simpson as the killer.
He's taken into custody, but after an impassioned plea from guest star Rob Zombie that Roy only had an ambiguously troubled childhood and was only getting in the spirit of the season, Chief Wiggum uncuffs Roy and merely offers to drive him home. The police car travels ten feet before it rocks violently from inside, with blood splattering the windows. A moment later, Wiggum emerges, confused by the twist ending, but shrugs and puts on the Moe mask, leading to an audible "Hey!" from Moe off screen.
The Exor-sister
Lisa's having a nightmare. She sits up abruptly in bed clutching her abdomen when she feels something odd. She looks at her stomach to find the words "HELP ME" in red. She passes Bart's room on the way to the bathroom to wash it off, muttering "Very funny." Bart, who's awake in the middle of the night, asks her what makes her think she wrote that on her stomach. "Because I didn't mention it!"
Lisa is back in bed when she's suddenly thrown back and forth violently, calling for her mom. Marge comes in and strokes Lisa's hair. "What's wrong honey? Are you possessed by the devil?" Lisa points at Bart accusingly, who makes a slight attempt to hide a remote device. Marge asks Bart to stop driving his sister insane and sends them both back to bed.
The next morning Lisa wakes up to find her room drenched in pea soup. Particularly when she sees the damage done to her saxophone she loses it, running downstairs to confront her brother. Marge suggests again that Lisa might be possessed, while Bart insists she's really just having a meltdown. "That's it!" she screams. "Lisa's not here anymore!" Her head spins around and she spiderwalks back up to her room. Marge thinks that she should probably call someone.
From there, the Simpson household is swarmed with camera crews trying to capture footage of the exorcism, and Bart is irritated that Lisa is getting all the attention. He tries to tell everyone that she's faking it, but he's ignored. Reverend Lovejoy has his hands on Lisa's head saying "The power of Christ compels you!" "To do what?" Lisa asks. "I...never really thought about it." He shrugs and walks out. Marge grumbles that this is what happens when you question religion. Ned says that they should just try to accept that Lisa is going to hell. Professor Frink tries to disprove the afterlife with science, but Lisa points out that he divided by zero in his equation, sending him flying out the window.
Homer grabs Lisa's shoulders and demands that the devil come into him. Lisa yells no. Homer pleads that it will make him look like the cool dad but Lisa protests that being possessed is the first time Springfield has ever taken an interest in her well-being. Bart finally demands everyone recognize that she truly is faking, and he knows because he's been possessed by the devil since he was five. He demonstrates visually the demonic entity that dwells inside him. The camera crews all respond that it makes a lot of sense and lose interest in the exorcism. Marge wonders aloud how Lisa's head could have spun around, but Homer, Bart and Maggie all demonstrate the ability. "What, you can't do that?"
That night Bart is laying smugly in his bed as Lisa walks by. He sneers, "You don't mess with the master of darkness." Lisa shoots him a grin. "Oh, I've had a word with that devil of yours. It seems he's a little displeased that you haven't been using the powers of hell for the purpose of good and kindness." She ignores him as he argues, "Using evil for good? That doesn't make any sense!" He turns to a figure of a clown sitting in a chair at the foot of his bed. "Does it, life sized stuffed Krusty that I've never seen before?" He lays down, but sits up immediately to find the chair is now empty. "Ay caramba!" he moans as a jingling hand taps his shoulder. "Nope. Not turning around," he says, but the hand grabs Bart's head and spins it backwards causing Bart to scream.
The Tube
Homer sits at his work station, looking depressed. "I hate my dead-end job," he says. Smithers announces that, due to cutbacks, the power plant is looking for volunteers to be laid off, with severance packages to the first twelve people. A huge crowd runs past Homer's station before he's able to process the announcement, so he doesn't bother.
Homer walks into the kitchen at home, oblivious to his family's conversation over dinner. He realizes he's left his wallet at work. He returns to his work station and picks up his wallet, accidentally flipping a switch that brings up the power plant's self destruct menu. The screen says "Are you sure you want to destroy the power plant?" and he sadly clicks "No". He walks back into the kitchen where the Simpsons are still having the same conversation when he realizes he's also forgotten his car keys at work. He returns to claim them but suddenly makes the connection that he couldn't have made so many trips to and from work without access to his car.
He walks back and forth from the kitchen to work a few times before trying a different direction, visiting several Springfield locations in rapid succession. He makes it back to the kitchen where Marge asks him if something is wrong. He thinks for a moment, and yells "Why you little-" to Bart without making a move towards him. Bart begins choking on cue. Homer runs out of the house trying to figure out what's going on.
After getting progressively more panicked he finally gets the idea to visit a fabric store. He casually asks the clerk where the fabric of reality is and the clerk points to the wall before awkwardly attempting to feign ignorance, but Homer is already over there, tearing a hole in it.
A doorway leads to an empty padded white room with similar doors in all directions. He goes through a door and finds himself in an identical room, except it's blue. He runs through several more chambers, stopping curiously when he finds himself in an all black one with red windows and a grandfather clock. The Red Death enters, excited for his big moment but is surprised to find Homer there. He misses his chance to kill Prince Prospero while ushering Homer out.
Homer spends some time going through rooms with dangerous traps trying to solve his way out of the maze when he finds a room with the TARDIS. He throws the doors open only to find a smaller TARDIS inside. The pattern continues three more sizes down until guest star Peter Capaldi reaches through the tiny door offering Homer the use of his Sonic Sunglasses. When Homer hesitates, Capaldi grabs Homer and pulls him violently against the TARDIS. "I said put on the sunglasses!" he demands, before realizing he's twenty minutes late for that reference.
Homer puts on the glasses and finds a door leading to a control room where he meets Billy the Puppet, a Minotaur, and the Lady of Pain, none of whom provide any assistance. He finds a sign that only says "You are here." He goes through several more, only to wind up in the same room, except the sign now says "You are still here."
He sinks to the floor, practically in tears when a band of folk singers walks in and sings "You'll neer get out of the Tube." Homer freaks and starts beating them with their own instruments, but he's stopped by a FOX executive who tells Homer that to return things back to normal he just has to sign a new contract, owing his existence to them indefinitely. Homer reads the contract but the letters quickly devolve into gibberish. "The writing keeps getting worse!" he laments.
He's startled to find himself being heckled by Statler and Waldorf and he realizes he's on the stage of the Hollywood Bowl. Homer thinks he can just run off the stage but he bumps into the wrong side of a movie screen. He begs for someone to help him but discovers he's only being riffed on by MST3K characters on the front row. As they get up to leave, he follows them through their door sequence, covering his ears and screaming as The Simpsons's production teams DVD commentary begins playing.
The doorway ends with Homer alone on a completely white background where he gets erased by a giant pencil and redrawn as Daffy Duck's flower creature from Duck Amuck. It's at that moment he finally just breaks down sobbing. A moment later he hears the soothing voice of guest star Tracey Ullman. "Homer," she appears in her bathrobe, "What's wrong? Aren't you enjoying your Halloween special?" "No," he cries, "I just want to go home!" She informs him that he's always had the ability to go home. "The ruby slippers?" But they both realize he's just wearing his normal shoes. Ullman frustratingly agrees to send him home herself by yelling her trademark "Go home! Go home!"
Homer wakes up in his bed surrounded by his family and the rich Texan leaning in through the window. He tells them he had this dream "and you, and you, and you, and" to the Texan "not you so much." "Well you're home now," says Marge. "It was aaaall a dream." There's an uncomfortable pause. "So," says Homer, "It really WAS just a dream then?" "Yes, Homey. Just a dream." Homer fidgets. "I guess I'm just expecting something...unexpected to happen."
Marge smiles. "What? Like him?" Guest star Chubby Checker comes in without warning, expressing how glad he is that Homer is all right and offers to perform a song. The family is enthusiastic and he begins singing "The Twist". Homer lays there completely perplexed for a few seconds before making the connection. "Oh, I get it."
Credits.
Okay, I promised you a marathon. Here are my favorite individual segments from the Treehouses over the years.
The Raven: Treehouse of Horror I (1990)
Yeah, everybody singles this one out, but this was impressive. With Dan Castellaneta's vocal inflexions and timing, Edgar Allen Poe's original words come to life both humorously and legitimately at the same time. The end result has the very vibrancy that Bart insists it doesn't. Satire has never been quite so artistic.
Bart Simpson's Dracula: Treehouse of Horror IV (1993)
I just didn't find episodes II and III all that memorable (it's not the first time I've said those exact words). Even King Homer, which people seem to love, just struck me as tedious. But then this episode came, and I don't believe it had a weak segment. But it was the parody of Bram Stoker's Dracula that really knocked it out of the park. And the ending homage to A Charlie Brown Christmas capped off the special beautifully.
The Shinning: Treehouse of Horror V (1994)
Was there any doubt? I don't believe the other two segments this year are as good as people claim (they're fine, but nothing grand), but this one segment is so flawless that it pushes the whole episode into unreachable heights.
Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace: Treehouse of Horror VI (1995)
I honestly find the Homer3 segment overrated, and it completely draws attention away from this brilliant gem. They cram a full episode's worth of material into this six minute segment. There are three acts, a back story, a false ending, multiple dreams and a punchline. That's a hell of a lot more than ever happened in The Happening.
It's the Grand Pumpkin, Milhouse: Treehouse of Horror XIX (2008)
Jeez, did it really take this long for another good one? I mean, there were prior episodes that had moments, (Four Beheadings and a Funeral nearly made this list) but nothing really stands out until we finally get to the Charles Schulz parody. The Grand Pumpkin winds up being a really memorable character, and I'll never get tired of the Linus and Lucy theme song in any form.
Dial 'M'..etc. (too long): Treehouse of Horror XX (2009)
The timing in a Hitchcock film is surprisingly similar to the timing of comedy (see Mel Brooks's High Anxiety for a beautiful example) and the Simpsons do the Strangers on a Train send up flawlessly. It's always gratifying to see Lisa get pushed to her breaking point, and watching her go after her brother with a knife is quite appeasing to my inner sadist.
War and Pieces: Treehouse of Horror XXI (2010)
A lot of people don't care for this one, and I get it, but the sheer number of nods to classic board games make this segment shine. Oh Milhouse. I'm embarrassed by how much of myself I see in you.
Oh the Places You'll D'oh: Treehouse of Horror XXIV (2013)
This is another one that may not have looked great on paper, but the thought of the Cat in the Hat being a psychotic force of destruction is kind of creative. It's certainly not on the level of Guillermo del Toro's presumably unsurpassable couch gag, but you'll need to pause the segment a few times to catch all the Seussian references.
A Clockwork Yellow: Treehouse of Horror XXV (2014)
The Simpsons really is having to search the American Film Industry lists for ideas, but damn it if this isn't funny. Like Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick is just meant to be parodied. I did a full review of this whole episode last year, but suffice to say this segment is still as great today.
Halloween of Horror (2015)
This wasn't as solid of an episode as I'd hoped for, but the story line works nicely. In fact it's almost reminiscent of the golden years of The Simpsons. It's the first canon Halloween episode of the 27 year old show, unless you consider the original Treehouse as the in-canon excuse for the rest of the fantasies.
Highlight 1: Homer and Lisa's relationship is the emotional core. Some of the best stories have focused on these two conflicting personalities who would never have anything to do with each other if they weren't related by blood. Lisa's emotional instability provides real tension for an understandably death-free arc, and Yeardley Smith really sells the anxiety.
Highlight 2: The bad guys really do come across as menacing, which was a needed element that the regular Treehouse series never HAD to enforce.
Highlight 3: Grown-up Halloween. That was inspired, but due to the dwindling run times it never gets fully realized.
The episode could have been better, but I'll give it credit to The Simpsons for actually doing something new and memorable. Homer is at his best when he has to prove he can be a good father to Lisa. There's still some life in this show. It would be nice to see them hit a home run now and then, but until then I can accept a double.
So Happy Halloween everyone! May you all overcome something that frightens you.
The episode could have been better, but I'll give it credit to The Simpsons for actually doing something new and memorable. Homer is at his best when he has to prove he can be a good father to Lisa. There's still some life in this show. It would be nice to see them hit a home run now and then, but until then I can accept a double.
So Happy Halloween everyone! May you all overcome something that frightens you.
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