Treehouse of Horror XI

"Treehouse of Horror XI"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.	249
Prod. code	BABF21
Orig. airdate	November 1, 2000
Showrunner(s)	Mike Scully
Written by	Rob LaZebnik Story: Mike Scully(part 1) John Frink and Don Payne (Part 2) Carolyn Omine (Part 3)
Directed by	Matthew Nastuk
DVD commentary	Matt Groening Mike Scully John Frink Don Payne Rob LaZebnik Matt Selman Carolyn Omine
Season 12 November 1, 2000 – May 20, 2001 "Treehouse of Horror XI" "A Tale of Two Springfields" "Insane Clown Poppy" "Lisa the Tree Hugger" "Homer vs. Dignity" "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes" "The Great Money Caper" "Skinner's Sense of Snow" "HOMR" "Pokey Mom" "Worst Episode Ever" "Tennis the Menace" "Day of the Jackanapes" "New Kids on the Blecch" "Hungry, Hungry Homer" "Bye Bye Nerdie" "Simpson Safari" "Trilogy of Error" "I'm Goin' to Praiseland" "Children of a Lesser Clod" "Simpsons Tall Tales" List of all The Simpsons episodes
Seasons 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 · 19 · 20 · 21 · 22 · 23

"Treehouse of Horror XI" is the first episode of The Simpsons' twelfth season and the 249th overall, and the eleventh Halloween episode. The episode features "G-G-Ghost D-D-Dad", "Scary Tales Can Come True" and "Night of the Dolphin" and was written by Rob LaZebnik (story by Mike Scully), John Frink and Don Payne and Carolyn Omine and directed by Matthew Nastuk.

This year's installment sees Homer as a wandering spirit who must do one good deed before going to Heaven ("G-G-Ghost D-D-Dad"), Bart and Lisa as genre-savvy peasant children who end up lost in a fairy tale forest in "Scary Tales Can Come True," and Springfield's population at war with sea mammals in "Night of the Dolphin."

The episode first aired on November 1, 2000, beginning a practice of the show's Halloween episodes debuting after the holiday itself due to Fox's late-October prime time schedule being pre-empted by the network's coverage of the World Series. (All subsequent Halloween episodes, save 2009's "Treehouse of Horror XX" and 2011's "Treehouse of Horror XXII", have premiered in November.) This was also the first Simpsons episode to have mixed-case closed captioning. The episode has received positive reviews from critics.

Plot

The opening sequence is done as a spoof of The Munsters, with Homer as Herman Munster, Marge as Lily Munster, Lisa as Marilyn Munster with a book on copyright law, Bart as Eddie Munster, and Abe as Grandpa Munster. At the front of their mansion, an angry mob of townspeople attack the Munster Simpsons. They stab Marge and Grampa on the chest with stakes, set Homer on fire, and activate a bear trap on Bart's head, leaving Lisa unharmed; she then walks away from the scene, pretending as if she was never there.

G-G-Ghost D-D-Dad

At breakfast, Homer reads his horoscope. Under Taurus, it states that he will die that day, and an attractive colleague will compliment him. Marge is confused until she reads her horoscope, which says her husband will die. Homer dismisses it and leaves for work. On his way there, he narrowly escapes death several times. When he gets to the power plant Lenny compliments him about the rattlesnake on his arm. Since he is still alive at the end of the day (despite multiple injuries and close calls) he scoffs at the horoscope, but is finally killed after eating broccoli, which Dr. Hibbert informs is the deadliest vegetable known to man. When Homer reaches Heaven, St. Peter informs him that he has not done a good deed in his life, and must do one within 24 hours before he can officially be let into Heaven. Over the next 24 hours, Homer tries to do good deeds, such as saving Bart from being bullied by Nelson (which only succeeds in Homer getting a noogie from Nelson) and helping Principal Skinner's mother, Agnes across the street and ended up dropping her to her death with Homer defending his actions by stating that she was "going to be the next Hitler". With only one minute left, Homer, still unsure of what he can do to get into Heaven, saves an unknown woman's baby from a runaway stroller when it reaches the street. Confident, he returns to St. Peter with news of his good deed. However, St. Peter did not see Homer perform his good deed as he was reading a newspaper. Homer is then sent to Hell, where Satan puts Homer in a headlock and gives him a noogie for all eternity. Homer screams in pain, but Satan tells him to be quiet as he will "wake up John Wayne", who has already woken up for his day in Hell.

Scary Tales Can Come True

The Simpsons are peasants living in a pumpkin cottage. When Homer comes home with news that he has been fired as the village oaf, he abandons Bart and Lisa in the woods to solve the family's food shortage. With the help of Lisa's copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales, Bart and Lisa journey through the woods' many dangerous creatures, including a troll-like Moe and the Three Bears (who viciously maul Goldilocks after Bart and Lisa leave the Three Bears' cottage, locking her inside). Meanwhile, Marge admonishes Homer for throwing out the kids, telling him they could sell them instead, and orders him to get them back. While Homer is looking for his children, he finds Rapunzel's tower. Rapunzel asks Homer to rescue her and lowers her hair so that he can climb up to her window, but Homer only succeeds in ripping Rapunzel's hair and scalp off her head. Meanwhile, Bart and Lisa find shelter in a gingerbread house owned by a witch. Lisa is wary, as she knows that the scenario Bart and Lisa are in is exactly like that from the story "Hansel and Gretel," but Bart is too busy eating treats to care. Lisa tries to stall the witch by claiming she is lonely and has no love-mate. The witch denies this, stating that there is a man named George Cauldron coming to pick her up for a date, which Lisa does not believe. Before the witch can attack Lisa and Bart, Homer comes to the rescue, eating his way through the gingerbread house's walls. The witch turns Homer into a half-chicken, half-fish creature with donkey ears and brooms as arms, then tries to roast him in the oven, but Homer overpowers her and shoves the witch inside instead. As the witch screams in pain, the spell breaks and Homer turns back to normal. A man named George Cauldron comes by, asking Homer, Bart, and Lisa if they have seen a woman named Suzanne. Homer remarks that "she'll be ready in twenty minutes", turning up the oven. Cauldron complains that "the concert's at eight."

The peasant Simpsons are reunited, and are now living happily ever after with Homer still having a chicken's half-body to produce eggs for the family.

Night of the Dolphin

While at Springfield's Marine World, Lisa takes pity on the star attraction — a dolphin named Snorky, whose trainers let him be humiliated and forced to do demeaning stunts for the crowd's amusement. After Snorky's latest show, Lisa sets the dolphin free to swim in the ocean. Unbeknownst to Lisa, Snorky organizes the world's dolphins into an army to destroy humanity. The dolphins begin their war by attacking Springfield, first killing Lenny during a night swim in the ocean, and then the Sea Captain (who claims he can stop them) before marching towards the town on their tails. Snorky interrupts a town meeting, takes the stage and tells Springfield that dolphins used to live on land, but were banished to the ocean by humans. Now that Snorky has reclaimed his throne as king, he banishes all mankind to live underwater. The humans at first refuse to submit to the dolphins' will without a fight, only to leave town hall to find the dolphins greatly outnumber them. As the humans walk out of the hall, Lisa sees a small dolphin with a set of bottle rings around its face. When she takes it off, the baby dolphin bites her. Furious, Homer retaliates by punching the dolphin, and then encourages the townspeople to fight back. A battle ensues between the dolphins and the humans, with heavy casualties on both sides. When one dolphin hits Homer with a bag of oranges, Bart plugs the dolphin's blowhole with a cork fired from his slingshot. After that, Homer leads the survivors in a final charge to drive the dolphins back to the sea. In a twist ending, it is revealed that humanity has lost and the residents of Springfield are now adjusting to their new life as marine animals. A dead Krusty the Klown floats near Marge. In disgust, she kicks it away, where it floats to a dozen other corpses, where it spells "THE END?".

Epilogue - Kang and Kodos

Kang and Kodos complain about being left out of this year's Halloween special, until they get an offer to do commercials for Old Navy.

Production

Carolyne Omine wrote the last segment "Night of the Dolphin".

The episode was directed by Matthew Nastuk and written by Rob LaZebnik, John Frink, Don Payne, and Carolyn Omine. The first segment, "G-G-Ghost D-D-Dad" was written by Rob LaZebnik, but the idea came from then current show runner, Mike Scully. It is Rob Lazebnik's first writing credit for the series with his second being the fifth episode of the season "Homer vs. Dignity". The second segment, "Scary Tales Can Come True" is the second written by John Frink and Don Payne after "Insane Clown Poppy", but that did not air later in the season. The segment was the idea of another writer.

The third segment, "Night of the Dolphin" was written by Carolyn Omine. The writers wanted to have a segment in a tribute to an animal and settled on dolphins, because they are "the friendliest animal in the world". Omine conceived the way the dolphins walked on land and pitched this to director Matthew Nastuk. The King Dolphin's voice is Harry Shearer's normal voice. There are two deleted scenes that are now available on the DVD: One with Dr. Julius Hibbert fighting with hypodermics and one where Moe Szyslak puts a gas tube down a dolphin's blow hole during the humans vs. dolphin war. During production, the writers forgot to include a scene with Kang and Kodos, which was mentioned at the episode's conclusion. Several elements of the "Night of the Dolphin" segment would be used in The Simpsons Game.

Cultural references

The opening is a parody to The Munsters. "Scary Tales Can Come True" is a parody of Grimm's Fairy Tales. The scene in which the baby's stroller starts falling down the stairs mirrors a similar scene in The Untouchables. In "Night of the Dolphin", where the dolphin jumps out of the water park and into the ocean is a parody of Free Willy. The dolphins outside the town meeting is a parody of The Birds. The title and plot are based on Mike Nichols's Day of the Dolphin. The witch remarking "George... George Cauldron" while looking at a cauldron is a parody of Jan from The Brady Bunch doing the same while making up a name for a fictional boyfriend in the episode "The Not-so-ugly Duckling"; looking at a glass, she states his name is "George... George Glass."

Reception

The episode has received generally positive reviews. Matt Haigh of Den of Geek quoted "it is probably one of the funniest Halloween episodes of the show's history". The episode got a 4.02 rating out of 5 ranking 69 out of 373 episodes. Matt Groening called the third segment one of his personal favorite scenes from all the series.

Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide gave the episode a positive review saying "Even in the weakest Simpsons seasons, you can count on the Halloween episodes to deliver good amusement. Or at least pretty decent comedy, as evidenced by the up and down “Treehouse XI”. None of the segments excel, but none of them flop either, so they keep us entertained. It’s really hard to fault a mainstream network TV series that references glory holes, so “Treehouse XI” gets a positive appraisal despite a few missteps." Mac McEntire of the DVD Verdict said the greatest moments of the episode was "Snorky…mad".

External links

• "Treehouse of Horror XI" at The Simpsons.com
• "Treehouse of Horror XI" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
• "Treehouse of Horror XI" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Treehouse of Horror XI at TV.com