Treehouse of Horror IV
| "Treehouse of Horror IV" | |
|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | |
| File:Treehouse of Horror IV.gif | |
| Episode no. | Season 5 |
| Directed by | David "Dry Bones" Silverman |
| Written by | Watch Conan O'Brien The Late Bill Oakley & The Estate of Josh Weinstein Greg "It's Aliiive!" Daniels and Disfigured Dan McGrath Bilious Bill Canterbury |
| Original air dates | October 28, 1993 |
| Episode features | |
| Couch gag | The family (as zombies) enter through the living room floor before sitting on the couch. |
"Treehouse of Horror IV" is the fifth episode of The Simpsons' fifth season, first aired on October 28, 1993.
Synopsis
Opening and Setup
Bart is seen walking through a gallery of famous paintings, including Ascending and Descending, The Scream, and others, all of which have been given Simpsons makeovers. He begins to tell the audience how fiendish the paintings turn at midnight, when Marge walks in, gives Maggie to him, and then heads off to the gift shop. Bart starts by explaining the first painting, which is of the devil, but Maggie interupts by sticking her pacifier into his mouth.
The Devil and Homer Simpson
Homer wakes from a dream about doughnuts to find that there are none left. When he says that he would sell his soul for a doughnut, the devil appears in the guise of Ned Flanders and offers Homer a contract to seal the deal. In a rare moment of clarity, Homer realizes that the devil will not be able to claim his soul if he doesn't finish the doughnut; he saves one bite and keeps it in his refrigerator marked "Do not eat!" Naturally, he is unable to resist the "forbidden doughnut" and eats it in the middle of the night. The Devil Flanders immediately reappears to take possession of Homer's soul. Marge and Lisa plead with the devil, finally getting him to agree to hold a trial the next night. Homer is to spend the day in Hell, however; after falling down a long rocky slope onto a conveyor belt, he is chopped into tiny pieces. His next punishment is to be strapped into a chair and continuously force-fed "all the doughnuts in the world!" (a parody of the Merrie Melodies cartoon "Pigs Is Pigs") -- but to the demons' astonishment, Homer happily eats thousands and keeps begging for more! At the stroke of midnight, the Devil Flanders brings Homer back to the Simpson household for his trial. He summons the "Jury of the Damned" made up of Blackbeard, Benedict Arnold, John Wilkes Booth, Lizzie Borden, John Dillinger, Richard Nixon and the starting line-up of the 1976 Philadelphia Flyers. However Marge has unfortunately entrusted Homer's defense to Lionel Hutz. The inept Hutz quickly realizes that he has no chance, and sneaks out the bathroom window. Before the jury delivers a verdict, Marge makes a final effort to save Homer by displaying a photo from their wedding day. On the back, Homer has written that he pledges his soul to Marge; therefore, it was not his property at the time of his deal with the devil. The jury rules in favor of Homer and the judge dismisses the case. Furious at his loss, the Devil Flanders curses Homer to never forget that doughnut; Homer is shown at breakfast the next morning with a giant doughnut for a head. Lisa warns him that he had better not leave for work. . . the entire Springfield police force is waiting patiently outside the Simpson house, coffee cups at the ready; Chief Wiggum: "Don't worry boys, he's gotta come out of there sometime." A later series outtake shows Bart willing to sell his soul for a Formula 1 racing car-until Marge tells Bart to "stop pestering Satan!"
Terror at 5½ Feet
Bart awakens from a nightmare in which the school bus is involved in a fiery crash. With his nerves on edge, he boards the bus that rainy morning to find Principal Skinner; his mother took away his car keys for talking to a woman on the phone. Groundskeeper Willie soon boards as well -- his mule got stuck in the mud and he had to shoot her. Sitting next to Milhouse, Bart glances out the window and sees a gremlin on the side of the bus. In a panic, he tells Otto, who helpfully rams Hans Moleman's Gremlin off the road. Bart grows increasingly panicked, and glimpses the gremlin loosening the lug nuts on one of the bus' tires. He attempts to warn everyone, but no one believes him. As he tries in desperation to convince others, Principal Skinner has him tied to a seat to prevent him from spreading chaos. Bart convinces Üter to untie him, then climbs halfway out the window to scare off the gremlin with an emergency flare. The gremlin catches fire and falls from the bus as the students pull Bart back inside. The gremlin bounces off Ned Flanders' car; the kindly do-gooder stops and decides to adopt the creature, cooing over the cute way it tries to claw his eyes out. When the bus finally stops, everyone sees the obvious damage—a wheel falls off as they view it—but Bart is still taken away to an insane asylum for being disruptive. Bart is relieved that at least he can get some rest... until the gremlin appears in the back window of the ambulance holding Ned's severed head, which demonically says "Hidely-ho, Bart!"
Bart Simpson's Dracula
The Springfield news reports that Mr. Burns has bought the Springfield Blood Bank. The Simpsons receive an invitation to a midnight dinner at Burns' country house in Pennsylvania. Lisa instantly suspects that he is a vampire, but the rest of the family dismisses her concerns. At Mr. Burns' mansion, Bart and Lisa discover a secret staircase descending to a basement filled with coffins; as they investigate, the coffins open and vampires emerge to threaten them. Bart and Lisa flee back up the staircase, but Bart is unable to resist a lever to convert the staircase into a "super fun happy slide". Although Lisa escapes, Bart slides back down into the vampires' clutches, where Mr. Burns appears and bites him. Despite obvious bite marks on Bart's neck and his dazed demeanor, Mr. Burns assures the Simpsons that their son is fine. Bart attacks Lisa that night, but she escapes and is finally able to convince her parents of Bart's vampiric nature. The only way to restore him, Lisa says, is to kill the head vampire. The family returns to Mr. Burns' mansion and drives a stake through his heart (after missing and stabbing him in the crotch once). The Simpsons return to their home, only to find that Grampa—in fact, everyone in the family except Lisa—is a vampire. Mr. Burns was never the head vampire, it was Marge. With this revelation, the entire family swoops in on Lisa... only to stop and wish everyone a happy Halloween. The segment immediately ends with a parody of A Charlie Brown Christmas (complete with Santa's Little Helper imitating Snoopy's dancing).
Trivia
- In this episode, Richard Nixon comments he is not dead yet. However, he died soon (half a year) after the episode originally aired in the US. The scene was excised when the episode aired on BBC Two in the UK, as they felt it might confuse viewers.
- This is the last Treehouse of Horror to have a theme and wrap-around segments.
Culture references
- The episode is a parody of the television series Night Gallery, with Bart narrating (à la Rod Serling) in an art gallery full of eerie paintings. Each painting Bart indicates is intended to hint at one of the segments of the show.
- "The Devil and Homer Simpson" is a parody of Steven Vincent Benet's famous short story The Devil and Daniel Webster.
- The segment where Homer is strapped into a chair and continuously force-fed doughnuts is a parody of the Merrie Melodies cartoon Pigs Is Pigs.
- In that same segment, after Homer has eaten all of the doughnuts, the demon forcefeeding him is amazed and says "I don't get it. James Coco went mad in fifteen minutes!". James Coco was an actor known for his weight and cooking skills.
- "Terror at 5½ Feet" is a parody of The Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (both the original TV episode and the segment of the 1983 film).
- "Bart Simpson's Dracula" is, of course, generally a parody of vampire films, but borrows heavily from the 1992 movie Bram Stoker's Dracula, particularly in Mr. Burns' appearance and mannerisms (and even the segment's title). Other vampire films parodied are Nosferatu, Salem's Lot, and The Lost Boys.
Goofs
- Homer and Marge were married in a small chapel without any family and friends around (as seen in "I Married Marge"), but in the photo Marge shows the jury in "The Devil and Homer Simpson", Dr. Hibbert and Principal Skinner are in the picture.
- In "Bart Simpson's Dracula," Lisa purposely spills a glass of blood all over herself and Bart, but moments after they sneak away from the dinner table, their clothes show no sign of bloodstains.
- In "Bart Simpson's Dracula", despite Burns' fangs being well separated, the bite marks are next to each other on Bart's neck.
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