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Treehouse of Horror II

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"Treehouse of Horror II"
The Simpsons episode
File:Treehouse of Horror IIa.png
Episode no.Season 3
Directed byJim Reardon
Written byAl Jean
Mike Reiss
Jeff Martin
George Meyer
Sam Simon
John Swartzwelder
Original air dateOctober 31, 1991
Episode features
CommentaryMatt Groening
Al Jean
Mike Reiss
Dan Castellaneta
Jeff Martin
Jim Reardon[1]
Episode chronology
The Simpsons season 3
List of episodes

"Treehouse of Horror II" is the seventh episode of The Simpsons third season, the second Simpsons Halloween episode, and the first Halloween episode where names in the closing credits were replaced by 'spooky name' parodies. The episode aired on October 31, 1991. The first segment, "The Monkey's Paw", is a direct reference to W.W. Jacobs's short story The Monkey's Paw, in which the Simpsons's wishes all backfire on them after purchasing a cursed hand of a monkey. In the second part, "The Bart Zone", Bart has omnipotent powers, and turns Homer into a jack-in-the-box, resulting in the two spending more time together. The segment was a parody of The Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life". In the last part, "If I Only Had A Brain", Mr. Burns's head is grafted onto Homer's head after Mr. Burns attempts to create a robot with Homer's brain.

Al Jean and Mike Reiss were the show runners for the Halloween special "Treehouse of Horror II", while Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Jeff Martin, George Meyer, Sam Simon, and John Swartzwelder were the writers. Jim Reardon was the director. In production order, this was the first episode to be animated by Anivision, which was the first non-AKOM overseas studio to work on the show. The episode was praised for "improvement from the first" Halloween special and its parody of The Twilight Zone.

Plot

Introduction

Homer is watching the news on Halloween night while eating candy (the rest of which he gives to Jimbo and Kearney after Kearney threatens to egg his house). Marge (with a white Bride of Frankenstein streak in her hair) and the kids (Bart dressed as a hooded executioner, Lisa dressed as a totem pole in honor of the American Indians of the Pacific Northwest, and Maggie dressed as a witch) come home from trick-or-treating with a big haul of candy. Despite warnings from Marge about getting nightmares, Homer, Lisa, and Bart eat from the large candy pile. Lisa is the first to go to sleep while eating candy...

The Monkey's Paw (Lisa's Nightmare)

The Simpsons visit Morocco, during which Homer purchases a monkey's severed hand that grants wishes from a small booth at a bazaar despite the crippled vendor's warning about grave misfortune upon the wisher. Back in Springfield, Maggie is granted her first wish of a new pacifier. Next, Bart wishes for the Simpsons to be rich and famous. Instantaneously, the Simpsons are overflowing with money, and are instantly recognized everywhere. However, the people quickly tire of the family's annoying antics, cheesy merchandise and celebrity treatment. Horrified by these wasteful wishes, Lisa wishes for world peace, and all countries declare peace and destroy all weapons by throwing them into a giant furnace. Before long, Kang and Kodos realize the human race is "ripe for the plucking" and enslave the Earth armed only with a slingshot and a club, declaring "your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons". Kang then crowns himself king of Earth. The people angrily blame the Simpsons. Determined to make a wish that cannot be twisted, Homer demands a turkey sandwich, though the turkey turns out to be a little too dry. Hoping to see Flanders suffer, Homer gladly hands the paw over to Flanders. Ned's first wish is to "Get rid of those awful aliens," which is accomplished when Moe chases after Kodos with a 2x4 with a nail sticking out of it. As they retreat, the aliens proclaim that one day humans will make bigger boards with bigger nails and eventually destroy themselves with their own power. Everyone celebrates and after Flanders wishes to "spruce up the ol' homestead", his house is converted into an opulent castle, making Homer jealous.

Lisa wakes up from her nightmare and begs Bart to keep her company. Bart sleepily complies on one condition: that Lisa give him a candy necklace. Bart is the next person to have a nightmare...

The Bart Zone (Bart's Nightmare)

In Bart's nightmare, Springfield is held in a grip of terror by Bart, who has omnipotent powers. Bart turns whomever isn't happy and content with his "rule" is turned into another being, and even history is changed to suit Bart's pleasure. When Homer refuses to turn off a football game so that Bart can watch "The Krusty the Clown Show", Bart transports him into the football stadium in place of the ball for an extra point kick. As Homer creeps back into the house, trying to surprise Bart with a blow to the back of the head, Bart transforms him into a jack-in-the-box. Marge suggests that the two see Dr. Marvin Monroe, who says that Bart is desperate for paternal affection. Despite being a jack-in-the-box, Homer spends quality time with Bart, and they soon become a normal, loving family. Bart turns Homer back into a human and the two share a warm family moment...causing Bart to wake up screaming.

Bart and Lisa wake Homer and Marge and beg them to let them sleep in their bed. As the two crawl into bed, Homer laments that he has to go to work in a few hours and dozes off, becoming the last one in the episode to have a nightmare...

If I Only Had a Brain (Homer's Nightmare)

In Homer's nightmare, after Mr. Burns fires Homer for laziness and incompetence, Homer answers a classified ad to become a grave digger. Meanwhile, Burns is nearing the completion of his giant robotic laborer, whom he hopes will eventually replace weak-bodied human workers. The only remaining step is to implant a human brain into the machine's body. Searching a graveyard the following night, Burns mistakes Homer, snoring in an open grave, for a newly buried corpse and, despite signs that Homer may still be alive, removes Homer's brain with an ice cream scoop and places it in the robot. However, Robo-Homer is just as lazy and incompetent as he was as a human, using his x-ray vision to locate donuts. Burns declares the experiment a failure and, after restoring the brain to Homer's still-living body, kicks the robot, which topples over and crushes Burns. After the psychotic scientist tells Smithers to get some surgical tools and ether...

Epilogue

Homer wakes up screaming after Bart bites him. While going to the bathroom, Homer finds Mr. Burns's head grafted on his shoulder. Homer repeatedly mumbles that it's all a dream, and Mr. Burns sarcastically reassures him, "Oh that's right, it's all a dream...or is it" and laughs maniacally.

The episode ends with a joke preview for the next episode of The Simpsons where Lisa wants Homer to go to an all-night spaghetti dinner with her while Mr. Burns, still grafted on Homer's shoulder, wants Homer to come with him to a conference held by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. Homer grumbles that he hates having two heads and the credits roll.

Production

For this episode, Al Jean and Mike Reiss were the show runners, while Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Jeff Martin, George Meyer, Sam Simon, and John Swartzwelder were the writers. Jim Reardon was the director.[1][2] "Treehouse of Horror II" was the first episode that employed the "spooky credits" idea, partially based on the EC comics that the writers had seen as kids. Though fun originally, each year became more of a burden, and they finally abandoned the tombstone jokes and the warnings. However, after each year, the Halloween specials became more and more gruesome. The writers were especially proud of Jim's nickname, Jim "Rondo" Reardon, a reference to Reardon's idol, Rondo Hatton.[3] There was a debate about whether to include Kang and Kodos into the Halloween specials after this episode; eventually, the writers agreed to make it a tradition.[4] During the beginning of the segment "The Monkey's Paw", Hank Azaria faked some Arabic. Usually, the writers get inspiration for the Halloween specials from old horror stories, but recently, the writers tried to conceive of their own stories instead of creating more parodies.[5] Also, when the Moroccan salesman tries to warn Homer Simpson, saying "You'll be sorry", the animators forgot to move his lips. They only realized their error after the broadcast, so they decided not to change it.[6] This episode contains more movie references than any other Simpsons episodes.[2]

While writing the episode, Sam Simon, one of the writers, wanted the fingers to go down in such an order so they would eventually have the middle finger sticking up. Once the animation would have been complete, however, they couldn't have gone through; Fox would have refused to air the episode. They had considered the alternative of deliberately blurring the middle finger themselves, but decided that Fox would have also refused.[7] For this episode, there were a lot of loop lines; for instance, the ending to "The Monkey's Paw" was added to the last second. As a result of the loop, they still retained Flander's old house next to his newly-created castle. In order to make the episode fill the time needed, the animators often extended the laughing time for Kang and Kodos.[7]

The producers were relatively pleased with Harry Shearer's portrayal of Rod Sterling.[5] In addition, though it took a long time, the design of the cat by Rich was greatly enjoyed by the producers, who thought it looked "just hideous, just right".[3] Bill Mumy, who did the voice acting for Bart in the segment Bart's Nightmare, and Nancy Cartwright, who appeared in this Halloween special, would both appear in the Twilight movie.[2] Bart's prank call Moe was thought of by John Swartzwelder, one of the writers; however, Hank Azaria detested the line.[4] According to George Meyer, the animation for when Bart sits up, screaming, was extremely tough, especially to make the mouthlines natural.[4] After 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 that 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. One of the writers who created the Davy Crockett joke thought it was so funny that he actually mimicked the actions of Mr. Burns putting on Homer's brain in the writing room; the producers thought that it was hilarious, so they decided to add it into the episode.[2]

Cultural references

Lisa's dream is a reference to W.W. Jacobs's short story The Monkey's Paw, and the New Twilight Zone episode "A Small Talent for War".[8][9] The plot of Bart's nightmare is a parody of The Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life",[10] which was remade as part of Twilight Zone: The Movie.[8] Homer's nightmare is based on much of the film Frankenstein, and the end references The Thing with Two Heads.[10] Also, Marge's hair recalls Bride of Frankenstein.[8] In Lisa's nightmare, Moroccan soldiers stop and search the Simpsons, finding souvenirs taped to Homer's body which he was attempting to smuggle out of the country. This is a reference to the opening drug-smuggling scene of the film Midnight Express.[3][10] While Mr. Burns scoops out Homer's brain, he hums the tune of "If I Only Had a Brain" which is sung by the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz. Burns also calls the robot that had Homer's brain a "clinking, clattering cacophany of colligenous cogs and camshafts", similar to the Wizard's line to the Tin Man: "You clinking, clanking, clattering collection of colligenous junk!"[8] 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.[8] In Homer's nightmare, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson is broadcast on a TV.[10] The board advert with Bart saying "Get a Mammogram, Man!" was the first self-reference to Bart's popular slogan "Don't have a cow, man!"[2][9] Jasper's transformation into a dog is a reference to the 1978 remake Invasion of the Body Snatchers.[6] The scene in which Homer goes out with Bart during Bart's nightmare to spend time with the boy, as well as the music, is a parody of one of the old anti-smoking commercials, while the church layout was taken from a Norman Rockwell painting.[7] When Mr. Burns puts on Homer's brain, he says "Look at me! I'm Davy Crockett, a reference to Crockett's popular image as a frontierman who wore a hat of raccoon fur.[2]

Reception

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.[11] 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".[8] 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 apossible score.[12] 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".[13] He thought the best quote was “Damn it Smithers, this isn’t rocket science. It’s brain surgery!"[13]

References

  1. ^ a b Alberti, John (2003). John Alberti (ed.). Leaving Springfield: the Simpsons and the possibility of oppositional culture Contemporary approaches to film and television series Contemporary film and television series. Wayne State University Press, 2003. p. 313. ISBN 0814328490, 9780814328491. Retrieved 2009-08-31. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Groening, Matt (2003). The Simpsons The Complete Third Season DVD commentary for the episode "Treehouse of Horror II" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  3. ^ a b c Reardon, Jim (2003). The Simpsons The Complete Third Season DVD commentary for the episode "Treehouse of Horror II" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  4. ^ a b c Jean, Al (2003). The Simpsons The Complete Third Season DVD commentary for the episode "Treehouse of Horror II" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  5. ^ a b Reiss, Mike (2003). The Simpsons The Complete Third Season DVD commentary for the episode "Treehouse of Horror II" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  6. ^ a b Martin, Jeff (2003). The Simpsons The Complete Third Season DVD commentary for the episode "Treehouse of Horror II" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  7. ^ a b c Castellaneta, Dan (2003). The Simpsons The Complete Third Season DVD commentary for the episode "Treehouse of Horror II" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "The Simpsons Hallowe'en Special II". BBC. Retrieved 2008-06-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Cite error: The named reference "bbc" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  9. ^ a b Turner, Chris (2005). Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Defined a Generation (illustrated ed.). Da Capo Press. p. 176. ISBN 030681448X, 9780306814488. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  10. ^ a b c d Richmond, Ray (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to our Favorite Family. Harper Collins Publishers. pp. 68–69. ISBN 0-00-638898-1. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ Ditum, Nathan (June 6, 2009). "The 50 Greatest Simpsons Movie References". Total Film. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
  12. ^ Gibron, Bill (2005-02-23). "The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season". DVD Verdict. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
  13. ^ a b Jacobson, Colin (August 21, 2003). "The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season (1991)". DVD Movie Guide. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
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