Treehouse of Horror VI

"Treehouse of Horror VI"
The Simpsons episode
File:Kang Kodos Hitchhiking.jpg
Episode no.	Season 7
Directed by	Bob Anderson
Written by	John Swartzwelder Steve Tompkins David S. Cohen
Original air dates	October 29, 1995
Episode features
Couch gag	The family are hanged on nooses, staring blankly. Despite being dead from asphyxiation, Maggie manages to suck on her pacifier.
Commentary	Matt Groening Bill Oakley Josh Weinstein David S. Cohen Bob Anderson David Silverman

Treehouse of Horror VI is the sixth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season and the sixth episode in the Treehouse of Horror series. It premiered on October 29, 1995, and features three short stories called Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores, Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace, and Homer³. The episode was directed by Bob Anderson and written by John Swartzwelder, Steve Tompkins and David Cohen.

Plot

In the opening sequence, Krusty is the Headless Horseman from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, holding his laughing head, and hurling it at the camera. This makes "The Simpsons Halloween Special VI" appear on screen in blood. We hear Krusty do his trademark groan.

Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores

File:Treehouse of Horror VIa.jpg

The advertising icons destroying Springfield

When Homer goes to Lard Lad Donuts to get a "Colossal Donut", he denounces their advertising when he realizes that the "colossal donuts" are not very colossal. So, in an act of revenge, he steals the Lard Lad's giant donut from the statue displayed outside, and in the midst of a freak storm, Lard Lad and other giant advertising statues come to life to terrorize Springfield. Homer eventually returns the donut, but that does not stop Lard Lad and his friends from causing destruction. Finally, Lisa goes to an ad agency, and an executive suggests not to pay attention to the monsters, as they are advertising gimmicks, attention is what keeps them motivated. He tries to write a song, but suggests it would actually sound better coming from Paul Anka. Anka later performs a catchy song with Lisa. The citizens of Springfield stop looking at the monsters, who lose their powers and become lifeless.

Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace

File:Treehouse of Horror VIb.jpg

Maggie saving Bart and Lisa from Groundskeeper Willie

Bart has a nightmare that Groundskeeper Willie is out to kill him. He is slashed with a rake, and the scratches are still on his body after he wakes up. Many other students at Springfield Elementary School also say they were terrorized by Willie in their nightmares, and what he did actually affected them. When the students take a test, Martin falls asleep and is strangled by Willie in his dream. Martin dies in class, and Bart and Lisa tell Marge about the incident. Marge then asks what this has to do with Willie despite the fact Bart and Lisa did not mention him. She then tells the kids the truth: Willie was killed in a furnace explosion in the school's basement on the thirteenth hour of the thirteenth day of the thirteen month (that thirteenth month being "Smarch" due to misprinted calendars) and burned to death while the parents of the students (in a meeting Marge says was called to deal with the issue of the misprinted calendars) looked on and did nothing. He told the parents he would get his revenge by killing the children in their dreams. The parents ignored him, but he made good on his promise. Bart decides that he is going to go to sleep and dream of fighting Willie. Lisa is supposed to stay awake and wake him up if he seems to be in trouble. Bart appears in his dream and attempts to find Willie, who can also transform into other things. Willie turns into a lawn mower but loses when he is tricked into mowing the sandbox containing quicksand as Bart is celebrating however Willie turns into a bagpipe spider and is about to kill Bart, when Lisa enters, trying to wake him up. Bart realizes that since she is in the dream, that means she has also fallen asleep. At that point, Wille grabs Lisa, intending to kill her too. They are about to lose the battle when Maggie appears and uses her pacifier to seal the vent on Willie's spider body, resulting in Willie's explosion. Now Bart and Lisa hope they are free of Willie forever, but they are wrong. He does show up again, but just as a normal person with no evil dream-powers, much to the children's relief. Willie still doing his evil bit until the bus leaves behind where he screams of forgetting his gun then losing his shoe in the pursuit doing a parody of Benny Hill.

Homer³

File:Homer3d.gif

Homer entering the third dimension

Patty and Selma visit the Simpsons to clean a bucket of seashells. While trying to hide from them, Homer looks behind a bookcase and enters an eerie third dimension. Homer explores the peculiar area, being depicted as a 3-D computer-generated animation. Through the walls, he calls Marge for help.

Marge calls Ned Flanders (because he "has a ladder"), Reverend Lovejoy, Professor Frink, Chief Wiggum, and Dr. Hibbert to help Homer get out of the dimension, but they are of no help. "It's like he just disappeared into FAT air", remarks Selma.

Frink outside explains to the others that Homer is in the "third dimension". When Homer accidentally pierces the fabric of the space-time continuum by throwing a cone in the floor and creating a hole in the floor, the third dimension starts to collapse into a black hole, taking Homer and other objects closer to it with increasing force. An enraged Wiggum opens fire on the wall, but the bullets just get sucked into the black hole after narrowly missing Homer, making the force of the black hole stronger. Bart takes command and ties a safety rope around his waist, going into the third dimension to save him, despite Marge's objection. Bart yells at Homer that he has to jump to get hold of Bart, so that they can escape. Homer agrees and tries to, but falls short and into the hole, yelling "Craaaaap!", and Bart ends up back in the house thanks to his safety rope pulled by Wiggum, Ned, Lovejoy, Frink, Grampa, and Hibbert after the third dimension collapsed on itself. Bart tells the truth about what happened ("Well, we hit a little snag when the universe sorta collapsed in on itself"), much to Marge's dismay. Lovejoy assures her that Homer has gone to a better place. Homer enters in reallity. He lands in a dumpster and walks down the street as humans stare at him. Homer's fear of the real world soon subsides when he happens upon an erotic cake store and goes inside.

Awards

This episode was The Simpsons' submission for the 1996 Emmy Awards. The show would eventually lose to Pinky and the Brain. The reason this episode was submitted was because of its 3D animation and the writers felt it would be a lock. In several DVD commentaries, the writers and producers talk about how they had many different emotionally driven episodes during the seventh season that probably would have "destroyed Pinky and the Brain" and won the Emmy, episodes such as "Mother Simpson", "Lisa the Vegetarian", and "Bart Sells His Soul".

Cultural references

The title of "Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores" is a reference to the film Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. "Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace" is a parody of the film A Nightmare on Elm Street and its sequels, and Bart's dream at the opening of the segment features many elements similar to the cartoons of Tex Avery. The segment 'Homer³' is a parody of The Twilight Zone episode 'Little Girl Lost', in which a girl travels through a portal to the 4^th dimension. He even describes the series as "that twilighty show about that zone." The film Tron is also mentioned by Homer as a means of describing his surroundings. The building Homer encounters inside the third dimension is a recreation of the library from the PC game Myst, Willie changing shapes while sinking in the sand box is similar to the T-1000's "death" in Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Martin's dream references The Pagemaster. In "Homer³", as he is about to fall in the black hole Homer says "There's so much I don't know about astrophysics. I wish I'd read that book by that wheelchair guy." This is a reference to astrophysician Stephen Hawking, one of the main researchers of our time on black holes, who is confined to a wheelchair.

In "Attack of the 50 Foot Eyesores", some of the mascots are parodies of known mascots. For example, Lard Lad is a parody of Big Boy, the "Zip Boys" are a parody of the Pep Boys and the giant walking unnamed peanut is a parody of Mr. Peanut. The design of the title 'Homer³' is a parody of the title design of the 1992 science fiction-horror film Alien³. In "Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores" the radio announcement is an homage to the "announcements" near the start of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre radio play The War of the Worlds broadcast on Halloween 1938. In that play, the music of "Ramon Raquello and his orchestra" is interrupted by radio reports of astronomers at Princeton observing disturbances on Mars prior to the Martian invasion. Homer, getting out of the car and preparing to grab the giant donut statue, scoffs saying,"Eggheads what do they know?".

Reception

Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide said, "'Attack of the 50-Ft. Eyesores' stands as the strongest of the three segments. It doesn’t blast off the screen but it seems imaginative and fun. The Nightmare on Elm Street parody has its moments and comes across as generally entertaining. However, it lacks the bite the best pieces offer. Unfortunately, 'Homer³' gives us the weakest of the bunch. It tosses out a few funny bits, but it mostly feels like an excuse to feature some 3-D animation.

External links

• Pacific Data Images on Homer³
• "Treehouse of Horror VI episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.