Treehouse of Horror III

For the continuing series of Halloween specials, see Treehouse of Horror series.
"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 ==
=== Opening segment ===
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.
The opening goes through a graveyard, with headstones that show that Drexell's Class, R. Buckminster Fuller, Slapstick, and American Workmanship are all dead. We then see the first Halloween-themed couch gag, where The Simpsons are all skeletons running and sitting on the couch.
=== Set-up ===
The Simpsons are having a Halloween party. Homer (dressed as Julius Caesar) gets his toga ripped off, causing the kids to laugh at him. 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 a doll from Hell.
=== Clown Without Pity ===
In a parody of the Twilight Zone episode "Living Doll", as well as the Child’s Play franchise, Bart is celebrating his birthday and has obtained multiple good presents and Grandpa's social security money. Unfortunately, Homer forgets to get a present and rushes out to buy a gift for his birthday. Homer buys Bart a talking Krusty doll at 'House of Evil' (your one-stop Evil gift shop) which also sells frozen yogurt called "frogurt". 
Although the doll is nice to Bart, it repeatedly tries to kill Homer (which no one believes except for Grampa) and hits on Lisa's Malibu Stacy doll. Homer captures the evil Krusty in a bag of dirty socks, which he then locks in a suitcase. He disposes of the suitcase in a "Bottomless Pit" (the same one used by a mafioso getting rid of a body and a random man trying to get rid of a box of Whoopi Goldberg's nude photos), and returns home, not realising that the doll has somehow escaped from the suitcase and managed to follow him. As the doll attempts to drown Homer in Santa's Little Helper's water dish, Marge calls KrustyCo for help. A repairman arrives and discovers that the doll has been accidentally switched from "Good" to "Evil." He flips the switch back to "Good" and Homer, after forgiving the doll for trying to murder him, uses the doll as a servant. The Krusty doll laments to his "girlfriend" Malibu Stacy, with whom he shares Lisa's dollhouse, "Oh, what a day. Homer made me give him a sponge bath!" However, the scene finishes happily as Krusty gives Stacy a smooch on the cheek—until her head falls off.
=== King Homer ===
The scene cuts back to the living room, where Homer 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.
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 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.
=== Dial "Z" for Zombies ===
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). 
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, 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 realise he does not have enough brains for them to eat. Lisa realises 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.
== Citations ==
de:Bösartige Spiele
fr:Simpson Horror Show III
it:La paura fa novanta III
pl:Treehouse of Horror III
pt:A casa da Árvore dos Horrores III
ru:Дом ужасов III
Category:Anthology
Category:Music Composition Emmy nominated episodes
Category:Bart episodes
Category:Marge episodes
Category:Homer episodes
Category:Birthday Episodes
Category:Lisa episodes
Category:Halloween Episodes
Category:Kang and Kodos Episodes
Category:Episodes with a alternative Gracie Films logo
Category:Holiday episodes
Category:THOH with Couch Gag
Category:'Of' Episodes
Category:Snowball Episodes
Category:Episodes with recycled animation
Category:Episodes on DVD
Category:Episodes with alternate end credits
Category:Written by Jon Vitti
Category:Written by Al Jean
Category:Highly Rated Episodes
Category:Parody episodes
Category:Unusual episodes