Treehouse of Horror III

"Treehouse of Horror III"
The Simpsons episode
File:Bart ClockworkOrange.jpg
Episode no.	Season 4
Directed by	Carlos Baeza
Written by	Al Jean and Mike Reiss Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky Sam Simon and Jon Vitti
Original air dates	October 29th, 1992
Episode features
Couch gag	The family's skeletons run in and sit on the couch
Commentary	Matt Groening Al Jean Jay Kogen Wallace Wolodarsky Jon Vitti

"Treehouse of Horror III" (on-screen title: The Simpson's Halloween Special III) is the fifth episode of The Simpsons fourth season, and the third Simpsons Halloween episode. It is the first Treehouse of Horror episode to have a zombie-related segment (the second is "The Fright to Creep and Scare Harms" in "Treehouse of Horror XIII").

This was also the first Halloween episode to have a themed couch gag (where the skeletons of the family sit on the couch) - previous Halloween episodes had no couch gag.

Plot

Opening sequence

The song "Funeral March of a Marionette" plays as Homer walks on screen into Alfred Hitchcock's famous silhouette)
Homer: Good eeev'ning. I've been asked to tell you that the following show is very scary, with stuff that might give your kids nightmares. You see, there are some cry babies out there, religious types mostly, who might be offended. If you are one of them, I advise you to turn off your set now. Come on, I dare ya' - (makes chicken noises) Chicken!
(Screen goes black, footsteps approach)
Marge: Homer, did you just call everyone chicken?
Homer: No, I swear on this Bible!
Marge: That's not a Bible, that's a book of carpet samples!
Homer: Ooh, fuzzy.

Set-up

The Simpsons are having a Halloween party for the children of Springfield. Lisa, Grandpa and Bart each tell a horror story. The Halloween costumes include Homer as Julius Caesar, Marge as Cleopatra, Bart as Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange, Lisa as the Statue of Liberty, Milhouse as Radioactive Man, Martin as Calliope, the muse of heroic poetry, Nelson as a pirate, Janie as a princess, Wendell as an astronaut, Ned Flanders as a zombie with a severed head and Lewis as Frankenstein's Monster.

Clown Without Pity

The segment opens on Bart's birthday at the Simpson house. Homer suddenly realises that he forgot to buy Bart a present, but promises that he will get him a present straight away. Homer goes to the “House of Evil” instead of a toy store, where he purchases a Krusty the Clown talking doll. The shopkeeper warns that the doll is cursed but Homer takes little heed. Homer returns to the party (knocking Milhouse unconscious when he opens the door) and gives Bart the doll. Grandpa starts exclaiming that the doll is evil, but admits he is just doing it to get attention. Later, Homer is playing with the doll when it starts saying that it is going to kill Homer. He dismisses this until the doll produces a large knife. After numerous attempts on Homer’s life, he captures the evil Krusty doll, locks it in a suitcase and drops it in a "Bottomless Pit". Returning home, Homer goes into the living room but is ambushed by the recently escaped doll. Marge finally sees the doll choking Homer (none of the family believed Homer before) and calls KrustyCo for help. A repairman arrives and discovers that the doll has been accidentally set to "Evil" mode. He flips the switch back to "Good". Later, it is shown that Homer has been using the doll as a slave for the remainder of the day. The Krusty doll returns to his girlfriend (a Malibu Stacy doll) with whom he shares Lisa's dollhouse. The scene ends happily as Krusty gives Stacy a kiss on the cheek.

King Homer

In a black and white style segment, Marge joins Mr. Burns and Smithers on an expedition to Ape Island to find the legendary King Homer. After landing on the island, Mr. Burns, Smithers, and Marge stealthily approach a native tribe, but are spotted due to Marge’s hair protruding over the bushes. The villagers agree that "The blue haired woman would make a good sacrifice" and so she is tied to a post. The sound of drums summons King Homer (who was busy fighting a monster very similar to Godzilla). Marge is initially terrified but sees the friendly side of Homer when he is attracted to Marge's perfume and the two form a friendship. Nonetheless, Mr. Burns is determined to capture King Homer and Smithers knocks Homer unconscious with a gas bomb. Returning to New York, the group display King Homer at the Broadway theatre. The photographers' flashes enrage King Homer, who breaks free from his restraints. He abducts Marge and wreaks havoc, eating several people. He attempts to climb the Springfield State Building, but is unable to get even one story above the ground. King Homer collapses in exhaustion and Marge helpfully suggests that he eat more vegetables and fewer people. In the end, King Homer and Marge become married. The story ends with the wedding, and King Homer eating Marge's father (although Marge is not upset).

Dial "Z" For Zombies

While in the library searching for material for a book report, Bart finds a book of black magic in the Springfield library’s “Occult section”. That night, when Lisa reminisces about the family’s dead cat, Snowball I, Bart suggests that he could use the book he found to resurrect Snowball for her. At the Springfield pet cemetery, Bart utters an incantation from the book but accidentally reanimates corpses from the nearby human cemetery instead. The zombies terrorize Springfield, turning several people, including Principal Skinner, Ned Flanders and Krusty the Clown, into zombies. As Krusty is put in the box by Zombie Sideshow Mel, the Krusty show stands by from Technical Difficulties. Krusty, as a zombie says "To enter, send me your parents brains!". Meanwhile, the Simpson family has barricaded all the doors and windows except for the back door, which Homer forgot to do because he was watching TV. Several zombies break into the house and chase the Simpsons outside. Lisa realises that the school library must have a book that can reverse the spell. The family runs to the car under the protection of Homer’s shotgun. Flanders comes over and asks if he can chew Homer’s ear. Homer responds by blasting Flanders with his shotgun. The family voice their shock that he killed the zombie Flanders. Homer then utters the famous line, “He was a zombie?”

The Simpsons arrive at Springfield Elementary and burst through the doors, Homer leading with his shotgun. Numerous zombies try to attack the family. Some of the zombies are famous people, such as George Washington, Albert Einstein and William Shakespeare. Homer shoots them all, (“Is this the end of Zombie Shakespeare?”) and the family reaches the occult section. Bart searches desperately through books while zombies pound on the doors. Bart casts the appropriate counter spell and the zombies return to their graves. The morning after the disaster, the Simpsons are watching TV and Marge remarks that it was lucky that they weren’t turned into zombies. However, while watching TV, the family all talk in slow monotone voices, and Homer talks in a disjointed manner, eerily reminiscent of how zombies talk. The show ends and the credits roll with the howl of a werewolf.

Cultural References

• The opening sequence where Homer walks into Alfred Hitchcock's silhouette was meant to show Homer's stomach bigger than that of the outline, but it was so subtle that not many people realised the joke.

• In the opening couch gag, the usual picture of a sailing boat hanging above the couch now depicts the same boat sinking in a storm.

• "Clown Without Pity" is based on the Twilight Zone episode "Living Doll" and the film, Trilogy of Terror. The title itself is a play on the song Town Without Pity by Gene Pitney. Some aspects of ‘’Dial Z for Zombies’’ are from the film Night of the Living Dead.

• The man that gives Homer the Krusty doll is based on Mr Wing, the shopkeeper who gives the family the Mogwai from the movie Gremlins.

• Upon receiving the Krusty doll, Bart excitedly says "Great Caesar's ghost!”, a catchphrase said by Perry White of the Superman comic book series.

• The title "Dial Z for Zombies" is a play on the 1954 Hitchcock film Dial M for Murder.

• When raising the dead from their graves, Bart wears Michael Jackson's record album cover Thriller on his head. This is both a reference to Jackson's famous music video, in which he dances with zombies, and the Baby boomer tradition of wearing a vinyl record cover on your head.

• In the scene where two zombies are crawling out of their graves the names Jay Kogen and Wolodarsky (two of The Simpsons writers who worked on the episode) are written on the tombstones, but Wolodarsky is misspelled.

• Aspects of the storyline pay homage to the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day - for example, Homer uses a sawn-off Winchester Model 1887 lever-action shotgun to fend off the zombies. In one scene, he flip-cocks the shotgun in the same manner as Arnold Schwarzenegger's character from Terminator 2. There are also scenes of Homer gunning down zombies in Springfield Elementary in the same manner as the Terminator’s first battle with the T-1000.

• When the family make the decision to go to the school, Homer exclaims "To the Book Depository!" This is a reference to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It was from the Dallas book depository that Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed the President.

• The supernatural beam of light that bursts from the school roof when Bart recites the spell is a parody of a similar scene in Ghostbusters.

• When the zombies return to their graves, one of them asks a fellow zombie if he's still pushing that boulder. This is a reference to the Greek legend of Sisyphus, who was condemned by the Gods to roll a huge boulder up a mountain in the underworld throughout eternity.

• After Homer shots zombie Shakespeare in Springfield Elementary, the zombie falls and says “Is this the end of Zombie Shakespeare?”. This may be a reference to Orson Welles theater production of voodoo Macbeth.

• The words used by Bart in the spell to reverse the zombies are all names of condom brands.

External links

• Episode capsule on "Simpsons Archive"
• "Treehouse of Horror III" at IMDb