Treehouse of Horror/References

Episode	References	Gags	Appearances	Gallery	Quotes	Credits

◄ Simpson and Delilah

Treehouse of Horror

Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish ►

Treehouse of Horror

Treehouse of Horror II ►

Trivia

• The episode, which featured a graveyard and a treehouse, aired only one month before the debut of the legendary Graveyard persona wrestler The Undertaker and a year before Ernest franchise lead character Ernest P. Worrell built a treehouse in a tree which aided the release of the notorious, child-abducting troll Trantor shortly before Halloween in the film Ernest Scared Stupid.
• For unknown reasons from 2020 to 2021, all reruns of this episode on FXX would exclude the clip of an Indian burial ground, completely cutting the footage of Lisa discovering it and Homer's angry phone call. This footage would later be restored in some reruns for 2022, but still remains cut in normal broadcasts in favor for more commercial time (excluding Treehouse of Horror marathons in October).
• This is the first anthology episode, which is an episode that consists of more than one story.
• Until 2021, this was the only episode of Treehouse of Horror to actually take place in a treehouse (specifically Bart's Treehouse in the Simpsons' backyard).
• This is the first time that the Simpsons family have a barbecue.
• The tombstones at the beginning read from first to last, and left to right, in all caps: Ezekiel Simpson, Ishmael Simpson, Cornelius V. Simpson, Garfield, The Grateful Dead, Casper, the friendly boy, Elvis, Your name here, Paul McCartney, disco, and Violence on TV.
• The Gracie Films logo at the end plays with its regular music, unlike other Treehouse of Horror episodes. In fact, up until "Halloween of Horror", this was the only Halloween episode with the normal Gracie Films logo sequence; from "Treehouse of Horror II" it features a pipe organ playing its jingle, and "Treehouse of Horror IV" onwards, a horrific and loud scream replaces "Shh."
  • However, FXX reruns use the same Gracie Films logo from "Treehouse of Horror IV".
• Elvis's gravestone caption is a reference to the conspiracy theories claiming that he faked his death, which have been around since his death in 1977.
• McCartney's gravestone is a reference to the "Paul is dead" hoax of the 1960s.
• Homer overuses lighter fluid for a barbecue again in "Lisa the Vegetarian".
• "Bad Dream House" parodies a number of haunted house films. The opening image of the house shows that one side resembles the house from The Amityville Horror. Much of the plot follows the events of the film Poltergeist, such as a scary tree right outside Lisa's bedroom, while the lighting of scenes using vivid colours is done in a similar manner to Suspiria, and the implosion of the house at the end a la The Fall of the House of Usher. The comparison to 2001: A Space Odyssey is also quite fair, although much more obvious references are made in later episodes.
• The soundtrack that plays when the characters are being possessed in Bad Dream House is eerily similar to bits of the soundtrack “The New Blood” from Friday The 13th Part VII, as well as the main theme of Phantasm. It is unknown if this was intentional or a mere coincidence.
• Bart, as the Raven, knocks several of Edgar Allan Poe stories off the bookshelf, including "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "The Purloined Letter."
• The Treehouse of Horror series is named after this one only because the stories were told in a treehouse and it was originally supposed to be like that every year.
• The book "How to Cook for Forty Humans" is a reference to The Twilight Zone episode where strange aliens greet humans with a book, which translated means "To Serve Man," and solved all the problems of Earth. Curious Earthlings accept invitations of the aliens to see their home world and travel on their spaceships. One man accepts such an invitation, but is stopped by his coworker, who has properly translated the book and shouts, right as he's getting on a spaceship, "It's a cookbook!"
• Even though he died in 1849, Edgar Allan Poe is credited as a writer for this episode.
• This is the first time the show has adapted a book into an actual episode (short in the Treehouse of Horror series)
• This is the first Treehouse of Horror in which Kang and Kodos don't try to conquer Earth.
• This is the first Treehouse of Horror not to have the cast's names changed due to Halloween (e.g. "Bat Groening" instead of Matt Groening).
• The Indian Burial Ground under the house in "Bad Dream House" contains graves of:
  • Crazy Horse
  • Sitting Bull
  • Mahatma Gandhi
    • The joke here being that Gandhi was Indian as in the Asian country, not as in American Indian. Incidentally, some of his ashes are buried in California, south of where Springfield was most likely intended to be by Matt Groening.
  • Pocahontas
  • Geronimo
  • Tonto
  • Sacagawea
  • Not So Crazy Horse
• In "Hungry are the Damned," when the Rigellians are measuring the Simpsons's weight, along with Kang, Kodos, and Serak, there is a fourth unnamed Rigellian with them that does not appear for the rest of the episode.
• This is the first appearance of Kang and Kodos and the only appearance of Serak the Preparer.
• In "Bad Dream House" the house chants, "Die, die, everybody dies." This line and its cadence were later used in the 2008 direct-to-video horror film Trailer Park of Terror.
• In "The Raven", Homer was reading Forgotten Lore, Vol. II. This is a reference to the second line of the poem, in which the narrator is pondering "Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore."
• Marge's warning at the beginning was put in, just because the producers genuinely thought this episode was scary for younger viewers and children.
• The plot of telling scary stories comes from the Tracey Ullman short Scary Stories, and would also reappear in "Treehouse of Horror III".
• All the segments had different people working on them, unlike the following episodes.
• For unknown reasons, on FXX reruns instead of using its own credits music it uses the one from "Treehouse of Horror XIII".
• Bart asks Kang and Kodos if they get HBO and they said "No that would cost extra", which is based on the fact that HBO cost $15 dollars per month.

Marge with white pearls

Goofs

• When Marge remarks that Lisa's intelligence has proved harmful at the end of "Hungry are the Damned", the pearls on Marge's necklace are white instead of red.

Cultural References

• Frankenstein: Marge warns the audience that the show is very scary.
• Psycho: The house's shape.
• Life in Hell: Binky appears as Maggie's toy.
• The Amityville Horror: Blood streams from the walls.
• The Shining: Lisa grabbing a butterknife and Homer holding an ax.
• The Exorcist: Maggie turns her head 360 degrees.
• Poltergeist: The house is built on an ancient Indian burial ground, the scary tree outside Lisa's bedroom and the house implosion.
• The Fall of the House of Usher: The house implodes.
• The Fly: A fly cries out, "Ow!" as it hits a bug zapper.
• Voyager 1: Lisa's view of Saturn is a reproduction of a NASA photograph, but colored differently.
• Twilight Zone: The dust-blowing sequence.
• The Raven: Lisa reads this story.
• The Cask of Amontillado: Homer's cup has Amontillado written on it.
• Lenore: The character Lenore also appears in The Raven.
• The Pit and the Pendulum: Raven Bart drops this on Homer's head.
• The Telltale Heart: Raven Bart drops this on Homer's head.
• The Purloined Letter: Raven Bart drops this on Homer's head.
• Friday the 13th Part I: Bart compares how The Raven used to be scary to this.