Treehouse of Horror V
"Treehouse of Horror V" is the sixth episode of The Simpsons' sixth season, which originally aired October 30, 1994.[2] It was written by Greg Daniels, Dan McGrath, David Cohen and Bob Kushell, and directed by Jim Reardon.[2] James Earl Jones guest stars as the alternate universe Maggie Simpson.[2]
Plot
The Shinning
The Simpsons drive to Mr. Burns's mansion in the mountains to apply as winter caretakers. Whilst there, Groundskeeper Willie discovers that Bart has a mysterious power known as "the Shinning" and warns Bart that Homer may go insane and try to kill the whole family. As Burns leaves, he denies Homer access to two of his favorite things: beer and television. Homer is further goaded by the ghost of Moe in the cocktail bar, who offers to give him a beer if he murders his family. Homer goes insane, wielding an ax and pursuing his wife and children after he continues to enter random doors with his family not in them. Bart uses his "shinning" to call Willie, who races out of his nearby cabin, dropping his portable television into the snow. Homer kills Willie with an ax to the back and pursues everyone outside into the snow. He raises his axe and is about to kill Lisa when she sees the TV and gives it to Homer. With access to television returned to him, Homer's insanity gradually fades. The whole family sits in the snow with him to watch and eventually freeze.[2]
Time and Punishment
While attempting to fix a broken toaster, Homer accidentally creates a time machine. Every time Homer pushes the toaster's lever, he is transported to prehistoric times until the toast pops up, at which point he returns to the present. During his first visit to the past, he realizes that he could cause unpredictable changes in the future by changing anything in the ancient past, but absent-mindedly kills a mosquito. This results in Ned Flanders becoming a megalomaniacal Big Brother-type dictator, forcing everyone on the planet to have his personality. After being taken to a "re-neducation" center, Flanders performs lobotomies on the Simpson family but Homer travels back to the time of the dinosaurs again in an attempt to set things right. Every effort goes wrong: Homer sits on a prehistoric fish that had just evolved to walk on land, resulting in Bart and Lisa being giants. Then later he infects the dinosaurs with a deadly cold virus and they all drop dead. This effort comes close to perfection as Bart is polite, the family is wealthy and Patty and Selma are dead, making it seemingly Homer's perfect world. However, Marge does not know what a doughnut is, sending Homer screaming to the toaster; within a few seconds of his leaving, it begins to rain donuts. Another version of the house seems normal until Willie bursts in, claiming that he can help Homer return to his own world. However, Maggie kills Willie with an axe to his back, after which she takes out her pacifier and proclaims, in a deep voice, "This is indeed a disturbing universe." Returning to the prehistoric era for one last time, Homer takes out his frustration by smashing everything he sees with a baseball bat. After several changes, Homer eventually arrives to a present where everything seems normal. However, the family members now eat like frogs, which Homer decides is close enough.[2]
Nightmare Cafeteria
Principal Skinner is worried that the detention halls are becoming overcrowded, and Lunchlady Doris is forced to serve Grade F meat. When Jimbo Jones trips Doris up so that she spills the contents of her cooking pot, it splashes on Jimbo and Skinner hits on a common solution to the problems. The next day, the cafeteria serves "Sloppy Jimbos", followed the day after by a German-themed meal of "Üter-braten." The culinary success of these meals sends Skinner and the teachers on a cannibalistic rampage, and they continue to send students to detention, which is divided between students locked in cramped cages and a "free range" pen. Eventually Bart, Lisa and Milhouse escape, with Lunchlady Doris chasing them with a bloodied beater. In hot pursuit of the children, Skinner and the other teachers corner them on a ledge above a giant blender. Groundskeeper Willie tries to save them, but is once again killed by an axe to the back, this time by Principal Skinner, causing him to comment, "Ach, I'm bad at this." Milhouse then falls into the blender, weakening Bart's confidence that they will be rescued. As Skinner advances, Bart and Lisa fall towards the blender; but just as they are about to hit the blades, Bart wakes up and realizes it was all a dream.
The family reassures Bart that he was just having a bad dream, and that he has nothing to fear —- except a mysterious fog that turns people inside out. In a final twist, the fog seeps in through the window and turns the whole family inside out. The episode concludes with the inside-out Simpsons and Willie dancing and singing a parody version of "One" from A Chorus Line.[2]
Production
The opening sequence, with the live action stock footage, stemmed from David Mirkin's
anger at Congress, the latter which was complaining about the amount of violence in the show.[3] Because of this, he crammed this episode with "as much blood and guts" as
the writers ever did, and called it "the most intense, disturbing Halloween show ever."[3] In the opening segment, one of the tombstones reads "Amusing Tombstones", as
a send-off to the humorous tombstones seen in the opening sequences for the first four "Treehouse of Horror" episodes - the
writers were tired of coming up with ideas for them and have not used them since.[4] The first segment came from David Mirkin's wish to do a parody of
The Shining, as he had been told that director Stanley
Kubrick was a "massive" fan of The Simpsons. Whether or not Kubrick's fandom is genuine has never been confirmed.
Series creator Matt Groening later admitted that he still has not seen The Shining,
and thus, this story's references are almost entirely lost on him.[3] The idea of Homer travelling through time using a toaster was originally pitched by Matt
Groening, although at the time he was "shouted down".[5] While he is first travelling through time, Homer's line "I'm the first non-Brazilian person to travel backwards through time" was originally "I'm the first non-fictional person to travel backwards through time."[4] The line's changing confused Matt Groening, who suggested it be left as-is.[5] In the scene where the Simpson's house changes
into various different things, one of the original designs was the house made entirely of squirrels. The layout artist who designed it labored over the drawing for more than two days, but it ultimately
ended up on the cutting room floor. Determined to get their pencil mileage's worth out of the drawing, the show's staff has used
it in Christmas cards and other studio-related notices ever since.[6] Another cut alternate future was that the Simpsons would have a second, teenaged, son called
Roy[7]; the joke was reused as the sub-plot
for the episode "
Cultural references
The plot and title of the first segment directly parody the Stephen King novel and Stanley Kubrick film The Shining, with almost everything being a reference, such as the blood coming out of the elevator and Homer yelling "Here's Johnny!"[2] as well as numerous other parodies.[8]
The voiceovers before the title sequence are a reference to The Outer Limits.[1] The dinosaur scenes in second segment are reminiscent of Jurassic Park,[1] and the floor morphing into a television screen is a reference to scenes in both Terminator 2 and Time Bandits.[3] Peabody and Sherman from Rocky and Bullwinkle make an appearance during Homer's time traveling.[3] Time and Punishment is a parody of Ray Bradbury's short story A Sound of Thunder.[3] The title of the third segment is a reference to the short-lived television series Nightmare Cafe.[4]
Reception
The episode finished ninth on Entertainment Weekly's top 25 The Simpsons episode list,[9] and fifth on AskMen.com's "Top 10: Simpsons Episodes" list.[10] The Quindecim, a college newspaper, placed "Treehouse of Horror V" in 14th place.[11] IGN.com voted "The Shinning" the best segment of the Treehouse of Horror series, with "Time and Punishment" being named fourth.[12] In 2006, they named it the best episode of the sixth season.[13] James Earl Jones's guest appearance in this, as well as "Treehouse of Horror" and "Das Bus", was named seventh on IGN's "Top 25 Simpsons Guest Appearances" list.[14] Alf Clausen's musical score for this episode received an Emmy Award nomination for "Outstanding Dramatic Underscore - Series" in 1995.[15] The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood called it "Another fine entry to the Treehouse canon."[1]
The alternate universe Maggie's line "This is indeed a disturbing universe" is among Matt Groening's all time favorite lines.[16] The scene in which Homer gets his hand twice trapped inside a toaster is David Cohen's favorite scene of the episode.[4] Homer's line "Oh I wish, I wish I hadn't killed that fish." is one of David Mirkin's favorites, and that the alternate future in which the family are all rich "breaks his heart every time" because he just wanted Homer to stay a few more seconds and see that he was in his own personal heaven.[3] Homer's line "close enough" from "Time and Punishment" was later used in the Stargate SG-1 episode "Moebius".[17]
References
- ^ a b c d Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). Treehouse of Horror V. BBC. Retrieved on 2007-03-21.
- ^ a b c d e f g Richmond, Ray; Antonia Coffman (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to our Favorite Family. Harper Collins Publishers, pg. 154, 155. ISBN 0-00-638898-1.
- ^ a b c d e f g Mirkin, David. (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Treehouse of Horror V" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b c d e f Cohen, David. (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Treehouse of Horror V" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ a b Groening, Matt. (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Treehouse of Horror V" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ Reardon, Jim. (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Treehouse of Horror V" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ Daniels, Greg. (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Treehouse of Horror V" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ References - The Shining. The Simpsons Gallery. Retrieved on 2007-03-21.
- ^ The Family Dynamic. Entertainment Weekly (2003-01-29). Retrieved on 2007-03-03.
- ^ Weir, Rich. Top 10: Simpsons Episodes. Askmen.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-03.
- ^ Culp, Sarah (2003-02-17). The Simpsons' Top 25 Episodes. The Quindecim. Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
- ^ Goldman, Eric; Iverson, Dan; Zoromski, Brian (2006-10-30). Top 10 Segments from The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror. IGN. Retrieved on 2006-11-25.
- ^ Goldman, Eric; Dan Iverson, Brian Zoromski (2006-09-08). The Simpsons: 17 Seasons, 17 Episodes. IGN.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-03.
- ^ Goldman, Eric; Dan Iverson, Brian Zoromski. Top 25 Simpsons Guest Appearances. IGN.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-03.
- ^ Every show, every winner, every nominee. The Envelope. Retrieved on 2007-03-03.
- ^ Groening, Matt. (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD introduction "A Confession from Matt Groening" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ (2005). Stargate SG-1 Season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "Moebius" [DVD]. MGM Entertainment.
External links
- "Treehouse of Horror V" at The Simpsons.com
- "Treehouse of Horror V" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
- "Treehouse of Horror V" at TV.com
- "Treehouse of Horror V" at the Internet Movie Database
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