The Spectacular History of "Treehouse of Horror"

One of the things I love the most about Halloween is, of course, "Treehouse of Horror," the annual Halloween-themed episode of The Simpsons. Seriously, how can you not love "Treehouse of Horror"? It's the one episode out of the season that breaks away from the norm (or close to it) of a typical Simpsons episode. The episode always consisted of three segments with different storylines, often using a horror or sci-fi theme, though recent years have borrowed from popular movies, regardless of genre.

The first "Treehouse of Horror" episode aired as part of the show's second season on October 25, 1990. It's the only one that actually lived up to its title, as Bart and Lisa told their scary stories up in their treehouse, with Homer listening in. The episode began the long-abandoned running gag of having Marge give a disclaimer warning viewers about the episode's content, and warning parents to put their children to bed early, though in the second episode, Marge told viewers to enjoy the program, as she figured they wouldn't heed the warning.

The first episode's segments were "Bad Dream House" (an homage to the Amityville movies, with just a hint of Poltergeist), "Hungry are the Damned" (an homage of To Serve Man), and "The Raven" (you know what that is). The central segment marked the debut of Kang and Kodos, a pair of aliens who invited the Simpsons to their ship, and had since appeared randomly in nearly every year's episode. Treehouse of Horror VIII revealed that Kang and Kodos are siblings, and regarding casting, Harry Shearer provides Kang's voice, while Dan Castellaneta voices Kang's sister, Kodos.

Beginning with the second episode (as part of Season Three), the scary nicknames were shown as part of the opening and closing credits, and would be a staple from that point on. Another running gag was the hilarious tombstones, with my favorite one being one that said "Elvis--Accept It," though that ended after the sixth episode. Regarding the funny disclaimers, those only aired during the first five episodes, with the best one being from Treehouse of Horror III, which was Homer homaging the Alfred Hitchcock intro.

I truly love "Treehouse of Horror," however, if I had to pick the exact moment where my fandom officially began, it would be the night that Treehouse of IV aired. I was crazy about that year's segments; the first one being "The Devil and Homer Simpson," where Homer, in true fashion, sells his soul to a Devilish Flanders...for a doughnut. "Terror at 5 1/2 Feet" was another one that borrowed from The Twilight Zone, as Bart was seeing a ferocious creature sabotaging the bus. The best segment was "Bart Simpson's Dracula," which casts Mr. Burns as the iconic vampire. I remember the first time I watched that episode, and I enjoyed every minute. From that moment, I was hooked.

Of course, "Treehouse of Horror" originally aired on or around Halloween, however, Fox's coverage of the World Series often forced the Halloween-themed episode to actually air on the first Sunday of November. I remember that used to be a topic of both criticism and humor; hell, even the show made fun of this in one episode. The latest date that a "Treehouse of Horror" has aired is November 7, and that happened twice: XV and XXI.

One thing I can't help but notice is the fabulous casting of Ned Flanders in some episodes. In III's "Dial 'Z' for Zombies," Flanders became a zombie, and was shot by Homer, drawing this hilarious exchange:

Bart: "Dad, you killed the zombie Flanders!"

Homer: "He was a zombie?"

I mentioned "The Devil and Homer Simpson" from IV, which featured the pious Flanders as the Prince of Darkness, a role he would play again in XVIII. In X's opening segment, "I Know What You Diddily-Iddily-Did," Flanders was believed to have been run down by the Simpsons, only for Flanders to revealed as not only being alive, he was also a werewolf. That's a hell of a horror scorecard for Flanders: a zombie, the Devil, and a werewolf.

As the years went by, the parodies became less about horror and sci-fi and became centered on what's popular regardless of genre. To me, this makes sense, because Halloween is the ultimate day of cosplay, and cosplay knows knows no genre barriers. They've parodied a lot of movies, shows, and even some books, and one year, they decided to parody something near and dear to them: themselves. The third segment from XXV was titled "The Others," and in it, the Simpsons encounter...the Simpsons, vintage 1987. This was an epic segment, seeing the modern day Simpsons clash with the version from The Tracey Ullman Show, complete with Dan Castellaneta bringing back the original Homer voice (which was a Walter Matthau impression).

Now, I've mention a lot of tidbits and memories from "Treehouse of Horror," but one thing I haven't mentioned is my favorite segment of all time. There have been over 100 "Treehouse of Horror" segments, so you would think it would be hard for me to name a diehard favorite out of all of them. It actually isn't.

Without any question, without any doubt, my all time favorite "Treehouse of Horror" segment is "The Shinning," the show's epic homage to Stanley Kubrick's classic film, The Shining. The family arrives at the creepy house, with Mr. Burns cutting off the home's cable and beer supply for...well...kicks. We see Groundskeeper Willie in the Scatman Crothers role, as after Bart destroys the hedge maze, he reads Willie's thought about Homer "going crazy and chopping them all to haggis." This leads to this hilarious exchange:

Willie: Boy...you read my thoughts! You've got the shinning!

Bart: Don't you mean "shining"?

Willie: Shhh! You wanna get sued?!

Of course, Homer loses it after seeing the lack of TV and beer, and we see Moe as the ghostly bartender telling Homer to kill his family. After a hilarious rendition of the "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" scene ("No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy"), we are treated to a very hilarious redo of the "Heeeeere's Johnny!" scene, which--in this version--is followed by Homer giving the intros for The Late Show with David Letterman and 60 Minutes. The whole segment was hilarious, and I love it so much mainly because of the dialogue and the way it was delivered.

The 35th and current season will give us "Treehouse of Horror XXXIV," which will air on November 5, 2023, despite the fact that the World Series doesn't air on Sunday this time. I absolutely love "Treehouse of Horror"; the beginnings were awesome, and its evolution has given us such amazing results in recent years. It's just not Halloween without The Simpsons' annual treat, which is full of some epic tricks.