Treehouse of Horror VIII
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| The Simpsons episode | |
| "Treehouse of Horror VIII" | |
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| Episode no. | 182 |
| Prod. code | 5F02 |
| Orig. Airdate | October 26th, 1997 |
| Show Runner(s) | Mike Scully |
| Writer(s) | ("Ghostwriters") Mike Scully David S. Cohen Ned Goldreyer |
| Director(s) | Mad Dog Kirkland |
| Couch gag | The family gets electrocuted in Electric chairs. |
| DVD commentary by | Matt Groening Mike Scully David X. Cohen Mark Kirkland George Meyer Matt Selman |
| SNPP capsule | |
| Season 9 September 21, 1997 – May 17, 1998 |
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| List of all Simpsons episodes... | |
"Treehouse of Horror VIII" is the fourth episode of The Simpsons' ninth season, as well as the eighth Halloween episode. The episode aired on October 26th, 1997.
Contents |
[edit] Opening sequence
A FOX censor, sitting at his desk paging through the script and deleting things, proudly announces that thanks to his editing tonight's Simpsons episode is rated TV-G, with "no raunchy NBC-style sex, or senseless CBS-style violence." But as he says this, a hand with a sword appears out of the on-screen rating icon and stabs him in the back repeatedly, causing him to swear, and the displayed rating increases to TV-PG, TV-14, TV-MA, all the way to "TV-21" and "TV-666". As he collapses dead onto the desk, blood pours down the front to reveal the title, "The Simpsons Halloween Special VIII".
[edit] Synopsis
[edit] The HΩmega Man
Mayor Quimby generates a great deal of controversy for a "frog's legs" joke he makes about France, and the French president warns him that if he doesn't apologize, the French will bomb Springfield. While Homer is inspecting a bomb shelter he's considering buying from Herman, the French follow through on their threat. After the blast, Homer emerges from the shelter to find that he seems to be the only person to have survived. He misses the rest of the family, but he quickly gets over his loss and he feels happy that everything's gone, as he can now do as he pleases, from watching a Chris Farley/David Spade movie to dancing naked in church. As Homer is having fun, he is confronted by a band of Springfield citizens who are now mutants and threaten to kill him. Homer runs home, not realizing that the other family members actually survived the blast because their house was protected by many layers of lead paint. The freaks hope they can build a Utopian society with the Simpsons, but Marge and the kids blow them away with shotguns. Homer and his family now decide to do everything that they have wanted and go off to steal some Ferraris.
[edit] Fly Vs. Fly
Homer buys a teleporter from Professor Frink at his yard sale. Bart asks Homer if he can use it, but Homer refuses. After making a pet that is a cross between Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II, Bart hopes he can cross his body with that of a fly's in hopes of becoming a superhero. Because of his idiocy, the fly has Bart's head, and the fly's head is on Bart's body. Bart chases after the fly-Bart, and they get in a huge fight, until the freak-Bart goes through a transporter. Bart returns to a normal person, but an axe-wielding Homer never lets Bart use his machine again. The name is a spin-off of the famous comics, Spy vs. Spy from MAD.
[edit] Easy-Bake Coven
The year is 1649 and the town of Sprynge-Fielde is witness to many "witch burnings" . Agnes Skinner is one among those accused of witchcraft and she gets incinerated, much to Seymour's delight. Later, in the church, the townspeople try to figure out who to condemn next. People start accusing others and soon they erupt into chaos, until Marge intervenes. She tries to talk sense into the townspeople, but Moe accuses her of being a witch. Quimby assures her that she is entitled to due process. This process means she will be thrown off a cliff with a broomstick, and if she is a witch, she will be able to fly to safety (in which case, she should report back for punishment). If she is not a witch, then she will be declared innocent (though she will also obviously be dead).
Lisa tries to speak on her mother's behalf, but to no avail, and Marge gets shoved off the cliff by Wiggum. As Lovejoy speaks to the mob about having done the Lord's work, they hear a cackle and all look up, stunned to see that a green-skinned Marge is flying on the broomstick. She really is a witch! Homer requests the people not to jump to any conclusions based on what they are seeing.
Marge then cackles that she was the one who withered their livestock, soured their milk, and made their shirts itchy. She turns Wiggum into a gopher, and Eddie and Lou into a snowman and fairy. She then unleashes a swarm of bats from her (now black) hair onto the crowd, sending them fleeing and screaming.
She returns to her elder, identical-twin sisters Patty and Selma (also witches, unsurprisingly) in their cave close to Sprynge-Fielde. They ask if she has finally left "Derwood" (a play on Bewitched where Endora, the witchly mother-in-law, always intentionally mispronounced the name of her son-in-law, Darren as "Derwood").
The sisters watch (through their cauldron) Ned and Maude Flanders talking about how the witches may eat their children, thus giving them the idea in the first place. Thinking it to be a better idea than just stealing their shoes, the three set off for Sprynge-Fielde on their broomsticks.
They knock on the Flanders' door and demand the kids. Flanders tries to ward them off with a cross, but it has no effect. They put the kids in sacks and are about to leave, when Maude offers the witches gingerbread men she made. The witches like these better than kids and let the kids go. So they go to each house, getting goodies in exchange for not eating the kids. Unfortunately for the town's children, the Flanders' home was not their first stop! They later spare Ralph Wiggum, causing his father, still a gopher, to remark "You hags are all right!" As they fly off, the Sea Captain says that's how the tradition of Halloween started.
The next year, the whole town is celebrating Halloween. Homer eggs the door of a house from where no candy was received. Lisa points out that it's their house. When everybody starts laughing at him, he accuses Lisa of being a witch, prompting the townspeople to start chasing Lisa.
[edit] Trivia
- In The HΩmega Man, the neutron bomb contains a parody of the Intel Inside logo on the front.
- One of the items for sale in Professor Frink's yard is a blivet, or devil's tuning fork, one of the most famous impossible objects. It can be seen when Lisa examines it closely.
- Professor Frink's robot, Floyd (and the mop that accompanies it) is an allusion to Infocom's text adventure game Planetfall.
- Despite the TV-G rating initially mentioned by the "censor" in the opening sequence, and all the higher, partially fictitious ratings which appear on screen, the episode's actual rating was TV-PG-D.
- The censor commenting that this episode won't have any NBC-style sex or CBS-style violence is a reference to NBC's most popular shows (Friends and Seinfeld) containing sexual references and CBS's most popular show at the time, Walker: Texas Ranger being extremely violent by prime time standards.
- In The HΩmega Man, the car the mutants chase Homer in is based on the car from the Munsters, but without a roof.
- Witch Marge and Fly-Bart reappear in Treehouse of Horror X.
- Yeardley Smith is credited in this episode as "your mom"; Maggie Roswell is credited as Maggie "Area 51" Roswell.
- In "Easy Bake Coven, Miss Krabappel wears a red "A" on her clothing, a reference to The Scarlet Letter.
[edit] Cultural references
- The title of "Fly Vs. Fly" is a spoof of the MAD magazine comic "Spy vs. Spy." However, the entire plot is a spoof of the movie The Fly and The Return of the Fly. Bart imagining that he would become a superhero half-man/half-fly hybrid is also reference to what resulted in the 1986 remake of The Fly.
- "The HΩmega Man" is a spoof of the movies The Omega Man and The Last Man on Earth (both based on Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend"), with some elements from Dr. Strangelove (How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb).
- "Easy Bake Coven" may be loosely based on the stage play The Crucible, while the title is a reference to the children's toy called an Easy-Bake Oven.
| The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror |
|---|
| I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII | XIII | XIV | XV | XVI | XVII |
