Treehouse of Horror

"Tuck your children into bed tonight instead of writing us angry letters tomorrow."

- Marge Simpson

"Treehouse of Horror" (also known as "The Simpsons Halloween Special") is the sixteenth episode of The Simpsons, the third episode of the second season and the first installment in the Treehouse of Horror series.

Act I: "Bad Dream House"
Marge warns viewers the following program, (The Simpsons), may give their children nightmares, so she suggests the adults to "tuck your children into bed tonight instead of writing us angry letters tomorrow." However, the viewers ignore her and let their kids watch it anyway. When Homer comes back from trick-or-treating, he notices Bart and Lisa are telling ghost stories in the treehouse. He climbs up and eavesdrops while Bart comments on Lisa's first story.

The Simpsons move into a new home at a great price. Lisa and Marge are scared there is an evil presence lurking in the house, though Homer says there's nothing to worry about despite a vortex being in the kitchen. Homer throws an orange into the vortex. The ones who live in the vortex throw it out with a note asking them not to throw in stuff. in the living room, Bart's strangled by a lamp cord, the house threatens the family to leave, and the family's thrown up to the ceiling. When everyone tries to settle in to sleep, the house brainwashes everybody to kill each other.

When they stop what they're doing, thanks to Marge not being brainwashed, the house threatens that they will die horribly. Marge ends up angrily telling the house to shut up, and after a few moments, it complies. She explains since they're living in the house, the house is going to have to accept this. The house asks them to leave for a moment as it decides what to do. It determines it would rather die than host the Simpsons and implodes into nothingness.

Act II: "Hungry are the Damned"
The Simpsons are having a barbecue until an alien ship abducts them. When they arrive on the ship, they meet Kang, Kodos, an unnamed alien and Serak the Preparer, who treat the Simpsons extremely well by giving them countless amounts of food to hold them over until the great feast at Rigel IV. Lisa becomes suspicious and thus, one night, wanders around the ship and heads into the kitchen when Serak leaves. She mistakes the book How to Cook for Forty Humans as being titled How to Cook Humans and accuses the Rigellians of plotting to eat the family. They're shocked at the accusation and angry at the Simpsons. The aliens take them back home to live out their normal lives on Earth, and tell them they forfeited a blissful existence where they would have been treated like gods. Lisa speculates they, the Simpson family, may be the true monsters as everyone gets mad at Lisa.

Act III: "The Raven"
Lisa reads a classic tale of terror, "The Raven", penned by Edgar Allan Poe: Homer, a wealthy, yet distraught lover lamenting the loss of his Lenore, sits, asleep, with a book titled "Forgotten Lore Vol.~II" on his lap. He's soon disturbed from his slumber and awoken by a repeating tapping on his chamber door. Homer's spooked by a rustle heard outside. Screaming, Homer hides behind his reading chair and utters, "Sir, or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore; But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping, And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, That I scarce was sure I heard you." Homer proceeds to approach the chamber door and throws it open while covering his eyes. There's nothing there but darkness.

Suddenly, there comes a tapping on the window. Homer opens the window and a raven flies into the room and perches above the chamber door upon a bust of Pallas. Homer attempts to communicate with the raven, but the bird only replies with, "Nevermore." The bird continues with this reply and begins to anger Homer. Homer lunges for the Raven, who flits away. Homer chases the bird across and around the room, but it remains barely out of reach. Homer and the raven's chase makes a mess of his chamber and results in Homer throwing a potted plant at the Raven, who dodges the projectile. The plant pot hits Homer on the head, and tiny ravens dance around his head, chanting, ``Nevermore, Nevermore, Nevermore...''

The chase continues. The Raven plucks books from the shelf and drops them, before returning to its place atop the bust of Pallas. Meanwhile, below, the carnage it wrought upon the room, Homer seemingly descended into madness. The narrator concludes, "And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting on the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming, And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor shall be lifted - nevermore!"

With the poem now finished, Bart and Lisa consider the tales before going to bed, not knowing Homer was freaked out by all of the stories. Everybody goes to bed, but Homer has trouble sleeping that night and decides he hates Halloween after hearing the Raven outside.

Production
This is the first episode of The Simpsons to be composed by Alf Clausen, who would go on to be the main composer up until season 29. The idea behind the episode was to parody, which James L. Brooks said was "shocking" for a cartoon on network television. He also said that this episode is tame compared to later "Treehouse of Horror" episodes.

The idea of Kang and Kodos came from Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky. Kang and Kodos' designs were based off a cover of an EC Comics issue. They were originally designed to be constantly drooling, however Matt Groening decided against this to make the animation process easier. However, the animators didn't mind so the drooling stayed in. The names of Kang and Kodos come from two Star Trek characters. Kang is named after a captain from the episode "" and Kodos is named after Kodos the Executioner from the episode "".

Reception
The episode has been positively received by fans and critics. In 2011, named "Hungry are the Damned" the best Treehouse of Horror segment. As of September 2018, the episode has a 8.3 rating on and a 8.8 rating on.