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Episode
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Credits
Sideshow Bob Roberts
Treehouse of Horror V
Bart's Girlfriend
Treehouse of Horror IV
Treehouse of Horror V
Treehouse of Horror VI

Cultural References[]

Opening Sequence[]

  • During Marge's introduction, a black-and-white movie clip appears which is ostensibly from a movie called 200 Miles to Oregon. No such movie by that title exists, but it might be a reference to the original 3:10 to Yuma, in which Glenn Ford starred as Ben Wade.
  • Bart's introduction (where his voice appears as waves on an oscilloscope) is a parody of the Control Voice's introduction in the 1960s TV series The Outer Limits.

The Shinning[]

  • The Shining - Referenced in the title and parodied throughout the segment.
    • Maggie spells "REDRUM" with her blocks when Homer tries to watch the TV.
    • Analogous to Jack Torrance endlessly typing "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", Homer writes "No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy" all over the walls. The only thing Homer types is "Feelin' fine," which briefly reassures Marge, until a lightning flash reveals the writing on the walls.
    • Groundskeeper Willie and Moe are parallels of the characters Dick Hallorann and Lloyd the bartender, respectively while Charles Montgomery Burns and Waylon Smithers Jr. are parallels of the characters Stuart Ullman and Bill Watson.
    • When Groundskeeper Willie says to Bart that he has got the Shinning, Bart says "You mean Shining?!", to which Groundskeeper Willie replies "Shh! Do you want to get sued?!" This was added in to not get sued by Warner Bros. (the distributor of the original film) for using their film's title in the segment.
    • Homer does the "Heeeere's Johnny!" scene, but he breaks into the wrong room, which is vacant. He then breaks into another room announcing himself as David Letterman, only to discover that Grampa has finally arrived. The third and final time, he finds the right room and announces himself as several guests on 60 Minutes.
    • When Marge discovers that Homer has written 'No TV and no beer make Homer go crazy' all over the walls, Homer bursts through a door and scares her. In The Shining, Jack sneaks up on Wendy and asks her what she thinks of his 'book'. In the film it is written as: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy".
  • Among Moe's gang of "ghouls" are the following:
  • Scotchgard - When Homer hits Willie in the back with an axe, Marge says that she hopes the rug was Scotchgarded.
  • A Chorus Line - A parody of the song "One" plays on the portable TV when the Simpsons are frozen in the snow. It is also played during the closing sequence.

Time and Punishment[]

  • Crime and Punishment - The classic novel by Dostoyevsky is punned in the title.
  • Terminator - When Ned speaks to everyone via video, the screen rises up from the kitchen floor, similar to the T-1000 in the mental hospital scene of Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
  • The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show - Mister Peabody and Sherman appear during Homer's first trip back in time. Later, Kang and Kodos's heads are replaced with theirs.
  • Jurassic Park - When Homer first arrives in the past, he says, "I've gone back to the time when dinosaurs weren't just confined to zoos!" Also, the theme song plays for a moment.
  • A Sound of Thunder - The idea that Homer causes significant alterations to the future by killing a mosquito is a parody of the scene from the film, in which a hunter goes back in time to hunt dinosaurs. The hunter kills a butterfly by accident only to find that this alters the future he returns to.
  • McDonald's - The Simpsons' house briefly changes to a restaurant that resembles the first McDonald's restaurant.
  • Ned Flanders being the absolute lord and master of the world is similar to Big Brother in George Orwell's 1984.
    Alien-ReNeducationCenter

    Comparison: Re-Neducation Center building and an unused concept art made for the 1979 movie Alien

  • Alien - The Re-Neducation Center building design seems to be inspired by an unused concept art by Moebius for the 1979 Oscar winning sci-fi horror movie Alien.
  • The Flintstones - The Simpson house momentarily changes to the house owned by the Flintstones.
  • Batman - Flanders encourages people who he feels need "Re-neducation" to smile like how Jack Nicholson's did in the 1989 film Batman, though not in a manner which involved killing people beforehand with Smilex gas. Like the facially scarred Joker, Ned forcing unhappy people to smile with machines that held their faces in a smiling position also promoted the film's message the smiles can be a form of deception for one's true emotion.

Nightmare Cafeteria[]

  • Soylent Green - Principal Skinner hits on the idea of serving students as food to solve the problem of overcrowding, similar to the movie's plot.
  • Back to the Future - When Bart wakes up with the family around him, it is similar to the scene when Marty wakes up in Back to the Future, and his mom makes a similar statement.
  • Pink Floyd: The Wall - The scene where Milhouse, Bart and Lisa are backed into the Hamilton Beech Student Chopper is reminiscent of the scene where the students fall into the grinder.
  • The Texas Chain Saw Massacre - Parodied throughout the segment.

Closing Sequence[]

  • The song the inside-out Simpsons and Groundskeeper Willie sing and dance to is a parody of "One" from A Chorus Line. It was also played at the end of "The Shinning".
  • Lights Out - The Simpsons annual Halloween episode "Treehouse of Horror V" referenced Oboler's "The Dark" about a mysterious fog that turns people inside-out. In the episode, The Simpsons and Groundskeeper Willie turn inside out, and then break into a song and dance number. No recordings of the original broadcasts of "The Dark" have survived, but Oboler recorded a memorable remake for his 1962 stereo album Drop Dead!
  • Danny Elfman is credited as "Danny Skellingelfman". This is an obvious reference to Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Also, he wrote the music and he did Jack's singing voice for the film.
  • Dan Castellaneta is credited as "Ro-Dan Castellaneta" from the movie Rodan.
  • Dave Sacks is credited as "Dave 'The Friendly Ghost' Sacks" from Casper the Friendly Ghost.
  • Pamela Hayden is credited as "Pamela 'Poltergeist' Hayden" from the movie Poltergeist.
  • Hank Azaria is credited as "The Shaws-Hank Azaria" from The Shawshank Redemption.

Trivia[]

  • Flanders forcing people he considered untrustworthy to smile, but who even give eye movement which makes clear they are not happy, inagain embraces the message of Batman's Joker that smiles are deception. By this point in time, The Joker was even a regular character on Fox cartoon Batman: The Animated Series. The Simpsons previously embraced this message through Lenny's unhappiness with the Germans owning the nuclear plant, despite having plastic surgery smile, in "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk (Burns to Sell the Power Plant)".
  • Bart's opening dialogue was used at Halloween Horror Nights XIX outside of Universal Orlando.
  • This aired the night before an infamous Monday Night Football game between the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers on ABC. In front of a national audience, the Packers blew out the Bears, 33-6.
    • Earlier that same Halloween day, American Eagle Flight 4184, officially operating as Simmons Airlines Flight 4184 flew into severe icing conditions, lost control and crashed into a field.
  • Starting with this Treehouse of Horror, bridging/wraparound sequences were abandoned.
  • This is the fourth Treehouse of Horror to have the cast's names changed due to Halloween e.g. Bat Groening. The first three being "Treehouse of Horror II", "Treehouse of Horror III" and "Treehouse of Horror IV".
  • This is the last Halloween Special to feature a cemetery opening, and the opening didn't happen again until 24 years later in "Treehouse of Horror XXIX",
  • This is also the last Halloween Special to feature a Simpson character (usually Marge) coming out of the curtains and speaking with the audience, until 23 years later in "Treehouse of Horror XXVIII" at the beginning of the "MMM...Homer" segment.
  • This is the last Halloween Special to use the original unmodified appearance for "The Simpsons Halloween Special" text.
  • This is the first, and so far, the only THOH episode in which a running gag is used in each segment of the special (Willie being killed with an axe).
  • This is the second time where James Earl Jones did a voice in a Halloween episode, after Treehouse of Horror. In this case, he did the voice of the alternate universe Maggie in "Time and Punishment".
  • The title Nightmare Cafeteria is based off the short-lived TV series, Nightmare Café.
  • The settings on the Hamilton Beech Student Chopper read: Off, Chop, Pulverize, Puree, and Gooify.
  • This was the first episode that David S. Cohen wrote for the show. Before this episode, Cohen worked on another popular Fox animated series, King of the Hill.
  • It became #1 in Watchmojo's Top 10 Best Halloween Special Episodes.
  • On FXX reruns the Gracie Films logo woman screaming has been replaced with Homer's screaming.
  • As Homer was time-traveling with his toaster, the house transformed into an igloo, the Flintstones' house, and the first McDonald's.
  • This is the highest rated Treehouse of Horror episode on iMDB and the only Treehouse of Horror episode with a 9 average or above (9.2/10).

The Shinning[]

  • Before Mr. Burns and Smithers leave for the winter, Smithers suggests to Burns that cutting off the cable television and beer supply might have been the reason that the previous caretakers went insane and murdered their families. Burns then says that owes Smithers a Coke if everyone gets slaughtered, which he also says in "Treehouse of Horror II" where him and Smithers are returning Homer's brain to his body.
    • On a similar note, this is the second time where Bart was depicted as reading minds, after Bart's segment in "Treehouse of Horror II".
  • Wanted posters for Sideshow Bob, Fat Tony, and Snake Jailbird can be seen in Chief Wiggum's office.
  • A deleted scene features Bart encountering Sherri and Terri as the ghosts of the previous caretaker's daughters. Bart is skateboarding in the halls, turns a corner, and sees Sherri and Terri, who sing, "Your daddyyyy's going to kill youuuu." Bart then skates down another hall and sees Patty and Selma, who tell him, "They're right, y'know." The scene also shows Dracula, the Mummy, the Werewolf, Freddy Krueger, Pinhead, and Jason Voorhees coming out of the rooms and watching Bart; this explains their later appearance when they and Moe drag Homer out of the pantry. Click on this to watch.

Nightmare Cafeteria[]

  • When Jimbo splashes himself with soup, he says "Oh no! My favorite outfit!", despite that being his only outfit.
  • The segment comes full circle from "Bart the Murderer", where Principal Skinner disappears and one of the rumors going around Springfield Elementary School is that Skinner was grounded into hamburger and served for lunch in the cafeteria.
  • According to the DVD commentary, a scene that was written, but was not used due to timing issues, has Sherri and Terri being served for lunch as "Terri-yaki with Sherri Sauce".
  • The overcrowded classroom in this episode was later reused for "Waverly Hills, 9-0-2-1-D'oh".
  • Lisa's underwear can be seen in the shot just before her and Bart fall into the blender.
  • The last time someone gained weight in a Treehouse of Horror was in "Treehouse of Horror IV".
  • Ralph has a white shirt instead of blue in class.
  • The first THOH segment where Homer makes no appearance. Maggie is also absent.
    • According to David X. Cohen, Homer was going to appear in the segment, responding to Bart and Lisa's concerns about the teachers killing and eating children with "mmm, children". When called on this by his horrified children, Homer states that "unfortunately, there are laws we must obey as human beings, but I have my dreams". Most of these involve killing and cooking Milhouse, including writing a book of Milhouse recipes (the one Mrs. Krabappel was reading in the finished episode), which he even mentions having shown to Milhouse's parents, not understanding why they didn't respond well to it.

Goofs[]

The Shinning[]

  • Bart finds a chainsaw out of nowhere and it disappears when he is speaking with Willie.
  • It is unknown how Grampa arrived at the mansion if he was dropped off at a gas station. He either walked all the way to the mansion from the gas station, he was driven there by someone else, or the gas station might have been close to the mansion.
  • Homer could have easily gone to the nearest town to buy some beer. However, considering Homer's low intelligence, this might not have occurred to him.

Time and Punishment[]

  • Whitepearl

    Marge with white pearls

    When the machine picks up the Simpson house to take it to the 'Re-Neducation Center', the garage is on the wrong side of the house. It is on the correct side in the following shots of Homer returning.
  • When Marge, Bart and Lisa are speaking with Ned, Marge's pearls are white instead of red. This is a very common animation goof that occurs in loads of episodes.

Nightmare Cafeteria[]

  • On the title card, the Springfield Elementary School sign is blue instead of its usual yellow.
    Nightmare Cafeteria - Title Card

    Blue sign error

  • When the staff come after Bart and Lisa, Mrs. Krabappel is no longer overweight.
  • At the beginning of the segment, you see Wendell Borton in class, then when Bart went to go to the detention room, Wendell Borton is in the room, when Principal Skinner directed Bart to the cafeteria, Wendell Borton is seen again.
  • After Skinner kills Groundskeeper Willie with the axe, he is wearing his apron, even though it is in the following shot where he actually puts it on.

Closing Sequence[]

  • As Marge’s skin turns inside out, her hair is still on her head. This could possibly mean that her hair covers up her head, yet that seems extremely unlikely.


Season 5 Season 6 References/Trivia Season 7
Bart of DarknessLisa's RivalAnother Simpsons Clip ShowItchy & Scratchy LandSideshow Bob RobertsTreehouse of Horror VBart's GirlfriendLisa on IceHomer BadmanGrampa vs. Sexual InadequacyFear of FlyingHomer the GreatAnd Maggie Makes ThreeBart's CometHomie the ClownBart vs. AustraliaHomer vs. Patty and SelmaA Star is BurnsLisa's WeddingTwo Dozen and One GreyhoundsThe PTA Disbands'Round SpringfieldThe Springfield ConnectionLemon of TroyWho Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)
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