Treehouse of Horror II
"Treehouse of Horror II" | |
---|---|
The Simpsons episode | |
Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 7 |
Directed by | Jim Reardon |
Written by | Lisa's nightmare: Al Jean Mike Reiss Bart's nightmare: Jeff Martin George Meyer Homer's nightmare: Sam Simon John Swartzwelder |
Production code | 8F02 |
Original air date | October 31, 1991 |
Guest appearance | |
Episode features | |
Commentary | Matt Groening Al Jean Mike Reiss Dan Castellaneta Jeff Martin Jim Reardon[1] |
"Treehouse of Horror II" is the seventh episode of the third season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 31, 1991. It is the second annual Treehouse of Horror episode, consisting of three self-contained segments, told as dreams of Lisa, Bart and Homer and is the only Treehouse of Horror episode to date where each segment name is not stated inside the episode. In the first segment, which was inspired by W. W. Jacobs's short story The Monkey's Paw and The Twilight Zone episode "A Small Talent for War", Homer buys a Monkey's Paw that has the power to grant wishes, although all the wishes backfire. In the second part, which parodies the Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life", Bart is omnipotent, and turns Homer into a jack-in-the-box, resulting in the two spending more time together. In the final segment, Mr. Burns attempts to use Homer's brain to power a giant robotic laborer.
The episode was written by Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Jeff Martin, George Meyer, Sam Simon and John Swartzwelder while Jim Reardon was the director. The episode is presented in a similar format to the previous season's "Treehouse of Horror" and contains several similarities to the previous episode, such as Marge's opening warning, the tombstones in the opening credits and the appearance of the alien characters Kang and Kodos. "Treehouse of Horror II" was the first episode that employed the "scary names" idea, in which many of the credits have unusual names. The episode contains numerous parodies and references to horror and science fiction works, including The Twilight Zone, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Thing with Two Heads and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
In its original airing on Fox, the episode had a 12.1
Plot
After eating too much Halloween candy, Homer, Lisa and Bart have nightmares.
In Lisa's nightmare, Homer buys a cursed monkey's paw that will grant its owner four wishes. While he, Bart and Lisa argue, Marge pleads with them to heed the vendor's warning and not use it at all. Despite this, Maggie is granted the first wish: a new pacifier. Bart wishes for the Simpsons to be rich and famous, but the public soon tires of the family's antics and ubiquity. Horrified by the wasteful wishes, Lisa wishes for world peace, but aliens Kang and Kodos enslave the defenseless Earth. Determined to make a harmless wish, Homer demands a turkey sandwich, but the turkey is dry. With all the wishes used, he gives the paw to his neighbor Ned, who wishes for the aliens to leave and transforms his home into a castle.
In Bart's nightmare, Springfield lives in fear of Bart's omnipotent powers, including the ability to read minds, magically move objects and turn living things into grotesque forms. When Homer refuses to turn off a football game so Bart can watch The
In Homer's nightmare, he becomes a grave digger after Mr. Burns fires him for incompetence. While building a giant robotic laborer to replace human workers, Burns searches a graveyard for a human brain to implant in the robot. After mistaking Homer, asleep in an open grave, for a corpse, he removes his brain and places it in the robot. Since Robo-Homer is just as incompetent as the old Homer, Burns declares the experiment a failure. After restoring the brain to Homer's body, Burns kicks the robot, which topples over and crushes him. Homer wakes from the nightmare to find Burns' head grafted on his shoulder. Homer tries to reassure himself that he is only dreaming, but Burns' head insists otherwise.
Production
"Treehouse of Horror II", the second edition of the Treehouse of Horror series of episodes, was written by Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Jeff Martin, George Meyer, Sam Simon, and John Swartzwelder. Jim Reardon was the director.[1][2] The episode is presented in a similar format to the previous season's "Treehouse of Horror", and contains several similarities to the previous episode, such as Marge's opening warning, the tombstones in the opening credits and the appearance of the alien characters Kang and Kodos. "Treehouse of Horror II" was the first episode that employed the "scary names" idea, in which many of the names in the opening and closing credits have unusual nicknames. The idea came from Al Jean, who was inspired by old issues of EC Comics.[3] Although the names quickly became more silly than scary, there has been a wide variety of special credits. For example, the director's name is given as Jim "Rondo" Reardon, a reference to his idol, Rondo Hatton.[4] The "scary names" became such a burden to write that they were cut for "Treehouse of Horror XII" and "Treehouse of Horror XIII", but after hearing complaints from the fans, Jean decided to bring them back.[3] The alien characters Kang and Kodos had been introduced in the previous year. There was a debate about whether to include them in all Halloween specials after the episode; eventually, the writers agreed to make it a tradition.[5]
During the beginning of Lisa's dream,
The second segment is based on The Twilight Zone television series episode "It's a Good Life".
In the third segment, Burns and Smithers go down to the lab during Homer's nightmare. The animators decided to make the animation a bit more impressive, and decided to do the concave and convex images of Burns and Smithers. Even though it was tough and took up more time, the producers felt it was a necessary tour-de-force.[2] Originally, Homer's robotic voice was done post-animation in order to avoid stress on the voice actor. Then-head writer Jay Kogen, who created the Davy Crockett joke, thought it was so funny he actually mimicked the actions of Mr. Burns putting on Homer's brain in the writing room; the producers thought it was hilarious, so they decided to add it into the episode.[2]
Cultural references
In the opening sequence of the episode, the Peanuts gang scurry by as trick-or-treaters, à la It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.[11] Marge's hair in the opening segment recalls Elsa Lanchester's in Bride of Frankenstein.[11]
The plot of Lisa's nightmare is a parody of
The plot of Bart's nightmare is a parody of The Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life",[9] which was remade as part of Twilight Zone: The Movie, which featured Nancy Cartwright in the role of Ethel.[11] Jasper's transformation into a dog is a reference to the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.[7] The scene in which Homer goes out with Bart to spend time with the boy, as well as the accompanying music, parody an old anti-smoking public service announcement, while the church layout was taken from a Norman Rockwell painting.[8]
Much of Homer's nightmare is based on the film
Reception
In its original airing on Fox, the episode had a 12.1
The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood praised the episode as "A marked improvement on the first, uneven Hallowe'en special. All three tales succeed, with Bart's nightmare of gaining awesome powers being perhaps the most successful".[11] Bill Gibron of DVD Verdict lauded the episode for having "wonderfully wild moments", especially "the parody of The Twilight Zone's 'It's a Good Life,' with Bart in the place of Billy Mumy's omnipresent monster". He gave the episode a score of 90 out of 100 a possible score.[14] DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson critiqued the episode as "not so hot their first couple of years", though he admitted that "the 1991 incarnation does top the original from 1990". However, he thought that "None of the three stories stands out as particularly excellent, though the monkey's paw one probably works the best. Chalk up this episode as a decent Halloween set."[15] He thought the best quote was "Damn it Smithers, this isn't rocket science. It's brain surgery!"[15]
In 2006, IGN published a list of the top ten Treehouse of Horror segments, and they placed the third segment at number eight. They wrote, "'Treehouse of Horror II' contained three quality segments, but [the third] was easily the best. Featuring a story reminiscent to Frankenstein, this episode made us laugh from beginning to end with Homer's crazy antics. [...] The humor that is derived from the multiple movie and literary parodies was enough to leave a last impression on us as an audience — and who doesn't like a robot whose primary function is to find donuts?"[16] Writing for the Star Tribune, Neal Justin rated the episode as the one of his ten favorite episodes, writing, "The annual Halloween specials glow because all the rules are thrown out, never with more ingenuity than in this second installment."[17] The episode's reference to Midnight Express was named the 18th greatest film reference in the history of the show by Total Film's Nathan Ditum.[18]
The episode was nominated for two
References
- ^ ISBN 9780814328491. Retrieved 2009-08-31.
- ^ a b c d e Groening, Matt. (2003). Commentary for "Treehouse of Horror II", in The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b Jean, Al. (2004). Commentary for "Treehouse of Horror III", in The Simpsons: The Complete Fourth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b c Reardon, Jim. (2003). Commentary for "Treehouse of Horror II", in The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b c Jean, Al. (2003). Commentary for "Treehouse of Horror II", in The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b Reiss, Mike. (2003). Commentary for "Treehouse of Horror II", in The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b Martin, Jeff. (2003). Commentary for "Treehouse of Horror II", in The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b c Castellaneta, Dan. (2003). Commentary for "Treehouse of Horror II", in The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b c d e Richmond & Coffman 1997, pp. 68–69.
- ISBN 0-7868-8600-5.
- ^ a b c d e f Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "Treehouse of Horror II". BBC. Archived from the original on 2012-11-13. Retrieved 2009-09-01.
- ^ a b Turner 2005, p. 176.
- South Florida Sun-Sentinel. 1991-11-30.
- ^ Gibron, Bill (2005-02-23). "The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season". DVD Verdict. Archived from the original on 2009-06-29. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
- ^ a b Jacobson, Colin (August 21, 2003). "The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season (1991)". DVD Movie Guide. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
- ^ Goldman, Eric; Iverson, Dan; Zoromski, Brian (2010-11-05). "The Simpsons' Best Treehouse of Horror Segments". IGN. Retrieved 2022-01-15.
- ^ Justin, Neal (January 28, 2000). "Homer's odyssey — What a long, strange trip it's been for TV's longest-running sitcom, "The Simpsons." Here are 10 of our favorite stops along the way". Star Tribune.
- ^ Ditum, Nathan (June 6, 2009). "The 50 Greatest Simpsons Movie References". Total Film. GamesRadar. Retrieved 2022-01-15.
- ^ "Primetime Emmy Awards Advanced Search". Primetime Emmy Awards. Retrieved 2010-03-20.
- Bibliography