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Treehouse of Horror III |
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Treehouse of Horror III |
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This episode is considered non-canon, and the events featured are not part of the timeline of the series' continuity. The reason for this decision is: This episode belongs to the Treehouse of Horror series. If you disagree with this, please discuss it on the talk page to dispute. |
For the continuing series of Halloween specials, see Treehouse of Horror series.
| “ | Hey Simpson! I'm feeling a mite peckish. Mind if I chew your ear?? | „ |
| ~ Zombie Ned Flanders |
| “ | Dad, you killed the zombie Flanders! | „ |
| ~ Bart Simpson |
| “ | He was a zombie? | „ |
| ~ Homer Simpson[src] |
"Treehouse of Horror III", also known as "The Simpsons Halloween Special III", is the fifth episode of Season 4, as well as the third Treehouse of Horror episode.
Synopsis[]
In the third annual Treehouse of Horror episode, the Simpsons are having a Halloween party for the neighborhood kids and decide to tell scary stories rather than go out trick-or-treating. In "Clown Without Pity" (Lisa's story), Homer buys Bart a talking Krusty doll that ends up trying to kill Homer; in "King Homer" (Grampa Simpson's story), Marge Bouvier goes on an island expedition with Mr. Burns and ends up the sacrifice to a giant ape who looks like Homer; and in "Dial 'Z' for Zombie" (Bart's story), Bart finds a book on the occult at the school library and uses a spell to raise the family's pet cat Snowball I from the dead, only to bring back dead humans and cause a zombie apocalypse in Springfield.
Full Story[]
Cold Open: Hitchcock Content Warning[]
The logo for the episode.
In a spoof of the opening to Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Homer tells viewers that the following episode might be too scary, and may give children nightmares. He then goes on a rant about how there are some crybaby viewers (religious types, mostly) who might be offended over the show and urges sensitive viewers out there to turn off the show if they so choose. He then mocks them by calling them chickens and gets the screen shut off. Over the black screen, Marge asks Homer if he called the viewers chickens. Homer denies it and backs it up by swearing on a Bible...until Marge points out that Homer has a book of carpet samples.
Set-Up: The Simpsons Halloween Party[]
The Simpsons are having a Halloween party, with Bart's and Lisa's friends in costume. Homer (dressed as Julius Caesar) gets laughed at by the kids after losing his toga to a loose nail on the wall. Martin prances in as Calliope, the Muse of Heroic Poetry, which makes Nelson (dressed as a pirate) punch him in the stomach. Bart (dressed as Alex DeLarge from the movie version of A Clockwork Orange) grouses over not going out trick-or-treating. Marge (dressed as Cleopatra VII) gathers everyone around a circle for a party game in which everyone passes around various food items (such as peeled grapes, cold spaghetti, and a raw steak) pretending they're the body parts of a dead witch. Unfortunately, a gluttonous Homer (who is inexplicably in his normal clothes) ruins the game for everyone by eating everything, saying that it was an evil game. Not sure what to do, Marge asks if anyone has a scary story to tell and Lisa (dressed as The Statue of Liberty) says that she has the story of boy and his doll (which Homer doesn't think is scary)...from Hell (which scares Homer enough to want to go to the store).
Clown Without Pity[]
"Clown Without Pity" title card.
It's Bart's birthday. After Grampa gives Bart money he got from the government ("I didn't earn it. I don't need it. But if they miss one payment, I'll raise hell."), Bart asks Homer where his present is. Homer runs out to a mysterious curio shop owned by a Chinese man who deals in bizarre and cursed items, as well as frozen yogurt (which he calls "frogurt") and buys a talking Krusty the Clown doll that comes with a free frogurt that's also cursed, but comes with free toppings that have potassium benzoate in it (which is bad). Homer comes home (slamming the door in Milhouse's face as he's playing "Pin the Tail on the Donkey") and gives Bart the talking Krusty doll. Even though the Krusty doll says he loves Bart, Grampa declares that the doll is evil (which, according to Marge, he said about all the presents and admitted that he only did that to get attention).
While Homer is watching a news report about Springfield's air now only being dangerous to children and the elderly (which doesn't concern Homer, despite that he has children and his elderly father is still alive), the Krusty doll suddenly appears next to him. Homer pulls the string, and the Krusty doll declares that he doesn't like Homer and is going to kill him. Homer dismisses the threat until Krusty pulls a knife on him. Marge and the kids come in to see what's the matter. Homer tries to tell them that the Krusty doll tried to kill him, but they don't believe him (with Bart wondering if Homer is losing his sanity to mental pressure that he might not have in the first place). Homer begs the family not to leave him alone with the doll, but the Krusty doll cackles evilly (briefly stopping because his pull-string needs to be pulled again) and begins his campaign of trying to kill Homer.
While having a bath, the Krusty doll attacks Homer with a harpoon. Homer runs screaming through the house, passing by Marge as she and her sisters, Patty and Selma, have lunch. The Gruesome Twosome are so disgusted, they stop eating (and Patty declares that she lost the last, lingering thread of her heterosexuality after seeing Homer naked). Homer finds the Krusty doll hitting on Lisa's Malibu Stacy doll ("Hey, baby. Get comfortable! Relax. It's a little hot for that cheerleader outfit, doncha think?") and tosses him in a sack full of dirty socks, which then gets chained up in a suitcase. Homer drives out to the local bottomless pit and chucks the suitcase into it (at the same time, a mafioso is disposing of a man named Vito and another man is getting rid of a box of Whoopi Goldberg's nude photos...until the pit returns the box).
Homer returns home, relieved, not knowing that the Krusty doll somehow found his way out of the pit and is chained to the underside of Homer's car. Before Homer can get inside, the Krusty doll attacks Homer from behind, covering his eyes as Homer runs screaming into the house. As the Krusty doll tries to drown Homer in Santa's Little Helper's water bowl, Marge calls the customer service hotline for the Krusty doll ("1-900-Don't-Sue") and reports that the doll is trying to kill her husband. After waiting for an available clerk while listening to a Muzak version of "Everybody Loves a Clown (So Why Don't You?)", a KrustyCo. repairman comes over, just as the Krusty doll is pulling on Homer's tongue. The repairman finds that Krusty's "Good/Evil" switch has been set to "Evil." He resets it to "Good" and the Krusty doll tells Homer that he loves him. Homer, despite the abuse and violence the Krusty doll put him through, hugs the doll and makes him his personal slave, who serves him snacks, walks the dog (and has to put up with being buried by him), and gives Homer a sponge bath. Despite being exhausted and disgusted over waiting on Homer hand and foot, the Krusty Doll is happy that he gets to return home to Lisa's Malibu Stacy doll and is nicer to her than before.
Set-Up #2: Homer's "Horror" Story:[]
The scene cuts back to the living room, where Homer (now back in his Julius Caesar costume) tries to tell the story of a man who was killed by his beautiful dead wife, but the story bores the kids and turns out to be completely nonsensical, as Homer didn't mention that the man's wife was dead and that the man was killed by a golf club because he went golfing all the time and the wife didn't like it, when really, the man who died went bowling. Grampa criticizes Homer's story, saying that he's coughed up scarier stuff than that. Bart suggests that Grampa tells a story since he has, "lived an interesting life". Grampa dismisses Bart's claim, but remarks that he has seen a lot of movies.
King Homer[]
Homer as King Kong.
"King Homer" title card.
The scene transitions into a black and white segment parodying the original 1933 version of the iconic "beauty-meets-beast" monster film King Kong, Marge joins Mr. Burns and Smithers on an expedition to "Ape Island" to find the legendary "King Homer". Upon arriving at the island, Burns betrays Marge and uses her as bait to attract the giant ape. When King Homer does arrive, he kills off a good portion of Mr. Burns' crew. Burns' attempts to sedate the ape with a gas bomb only succeeds in gassing himself, so Smithers tosses the grenade, finally sedating the King Homer. With the ape in his custody, Mr. Burns returns to America and presents King Homer to the press on Broadway. The photographers' camera flashes enrage King Homer, who breaks free from his restraints. He abducts Marge and wreaks havoc, stepping on and eating many people in the process, including Shirley Temple performing "On The Good Ship Lollipop" on Broadway. He attempts to climb the Empire 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 marry on the same day Dick Cavett is born (November 19, 1936). The story finishes with the wedding, and King Homer eating Marge's father Clancy Bouvier, although Marge brushes it off as being cute.
Set-Up #3: Fresh Fruit and Zombie Flanders[]
Marge enters the living room with a bowl of fresh fruit in place of candy, much to the disappointment of the guests. A headless man enters the house and everybody starts screaming. However, it turns out just to be Ned Flanders wearing a headless zombie costume. Bart commends Ned for his prank, but then remarks that he has a story so scary that people will wet their pants (only for Grampa to tell him that he's too late, to everyone's disgust).
Dial "Z" for Zombies[]
"Dial "Z" for Zombies" title card.
The story begins in class, where Bart presents his book report to the other students. His book of choice? An A to Z alphabet book for preschoolers. Ms. Krabappel informs him that the book is unacceptable as one for the report ant his grade and he'll have to start again from scratch. While in the school's library searching for material for a book report (he almost picks a "Where's Waldo?" book called "Find Waldo Yet Again", but the picture puzzle book series has lost its creative complexity as Waldo can easily be found on a beach with a little kid pointing to him), Bart notices the occult section and explores it. While in the section, he finds a book of magic and decides to use the book for his report.
Upon returning home, Bart tries to impress Lisa with the book, but she's uninterested as it's the four year anniversary of Snowball I's death (according to Lisa, Snowball I was run over by Mayor Quimby's beer-swilling brother, Clovis). In order to make Lisa happy, Bart takes her to the pet elementary and tries to revive Snowball for her but ends up casting the wrong spell and accidentally revives hundreds of human corpses into zombies instead. The zombies terrorise Springfield and curse trouble, turning several people, including Principal Skinner, Ned Flanders, Krusty the Clown, Sideshow Mel, Edna Krabappel, and the three bullies (Dolph, Jimbo, and Kearney), into zombies.
Meanwhile, the Simpson family has barricaded all the doors and windows except for the back door, which Homer completely forgot to do because he was watching TV. Several zombies break into the house. Homer tries to sacrifice himself to give the others time to escape, but the zombies don’t attack him when they realize he does not have enough brains for them to eat. Lisa realizes that the school library must have a book that can break the spell and send the zombies back to their graves. The family runs to the car under the protection of Homer’s shotgun. The Simpsons arrive at Springfield Elementary and burst through the doors until Homer wields a shotgun to kill such famous zombies including George Washington, Albert Einstein, and William Shakespeare. While their parents distract the horde, Bart and Lisa successfully make it to the occult section of the Springfield Elementary library. Bart finds another book of magic and casts the spell...that accidentally turns Lisa into a snail. Bart finds the correct spell and casts it upon the town, returning the zombies who were dead before the spell to their graves, and also curing all those who wore turn into zombies, some of the zombies drop dead in the streets and turning Lisa, who had been unaware of her change, back to normal. In the end, the family is back at home on the couch. Although Marge is glad they never became zombies, the family starts behaving like it, thanks to television and the mindless sitcoms it airs.
Behind The Laughter[]
This episode, after it was colored in, was test screened to the show's staff quite some time before October 29th, 1992, which was when this episode was released on the TV airwaves. The colored version's test screening was not received really well at all by the staff, as, according to Al Jean, and other people who were with him on this episode's DVD commentary, this episode was remarkably fraught with major animation or coloring troubles and troubled production issues when the South Korean animators 1st sent it back to them. When there was 6 weeks remaining before it's October 29th release day, the crew had to send the episode back to be redone with 100 (or something similar to 100 (Al Jean assumed 88, keep in mind)) line changes.