Difference between revisions of "Treehouse of Horror XXIII"

Latest revision as of 11:25, April 14, 2024

This article is about the episode. For other uses of "Treehouse of Horror XXIII", see Treehouse of Horror XXIII (disambiguation).

This THOH is considered non-canon and the events featured do not relate to the series and therefore may not have actually happened/existed. The reason behind this decision is: The episode is part of the Treehouse of Horror series. If you dispute this, please bring it up on the episode's talk page.

"Treehouse of Horror XXIII" Title screen for the episode.

Episode Information Episode number: 510 Season number: S24 E2 Production code: PABF17 Original airdate: October 7, 2012 Guest star(s): Jon Lovitz as Artie Ziff Showrunner: Al Jean Written by: David Mandel Brian Kelley Directed by: Steven Dean Moore

"Treehouse of Horror XXIII" is the second episode of season 24 of The Simpsons and the five-hundred and tenth episode overall. It is also the twenty-third installment in the Treehouse of Horror series and consists of three parts. It originally aired on October 7, 2012. The episode was written by David Mandel and Brian Kelley and directed by Steven Dean Moore. It guest stars Jon Lovitz as Artie Ziff.

Synopsis[edit]

"We go back to ancient times when a Mayan Homer and Marge are witness to the prediction that 2012 will be the end of the world, the Springfield Subatomic Supercollider creates a black hole that terrorizes the city, a little unholy pact Marge when she was younger makes things go bump in the night and Bart travels to 1974 to buy a comic book at cover price but inadvertently disrupts Homer and Marge's courtship."

Plot[edit]

Opening sequence[edit]

In Chichen Itza, during Mayan times, the high priests look at the Mayan calendar and work out that the world will be destroyed at the end of the 13th baktun. They decide that they must appease the gods with a human sacrifice, and decide on Mayan Homer as the sacrifice. Mayan Marge comes up with a plan to get Homer out of it and seduces the Mayan priest in charge of the execution and sends him to be executed instead. when Professor Frink realizes that they sacrificed the wrong person, he says that the world will indeed end on the 13th baktun, which he then works out to be the year 2012, which leaves the Mayans relieved. In the present day, the doorbell of the Simpson house rings, and it's one of the Mayan gods. The Mayan gods then proceed to destroy Springfield, then the rest of the world. The planet explodes, leaving behind the "Treehouse of Horror XXIII" logo.

The Greatest Story Ever Holed[edit]

The Greatest Story Ever Holed title card

At the newly built Springfield Subatomic Supercollider, citizens of the town have arrived to watch it get turned on. Professor Frink turns on the collider and nothing happens, with Frink saying that the accelerator is too small to tell them anything important. Everyone gets disappointed and leaves the building as the particles are shot around the accelerator until two of them collide. This creates a miniature black hole which escapes the accelerator and starts to suck in objects and people. Lisa decides to take it home to keep people safe from the black hole and puts it in the basement. The family confronts Lisa about the black hole and Homer tries to pat the black hole, making his fingers get longer as a result. Lisa and Marge tell everyone not to put stuff into the black hole to stop it becoming bigger and more dangerous. However, the family disposes of things within the black hole anyway.

The black hole gets bigger and starts sucking in objects from all around the house. The doorbell then rings and people of Springfield have gathered to dispose of objects in the black hole due to Homer's new business, Magic Craphole Waste Removal. The black hole then destroys the house and starts to suck in more objects. Lisa tells everyone to stop before the black hole hits critical mass. Meanwhile, Milhouse is at a ball game and hits his first home run, with the ball ending up in the black hole. The black hole starts to suck in everyone and everything in Springfield until it sucks up Maggie's pacifier, which calms the black hole and stops it. Maggie is then left in Springfield alone.

The rest of the family, along with everyone else who got sucked in, get transported to an unknown rocky planet where they meet the Ethereal Beings. The beings are gracious for all the gifts they received through the black hole and built their society around everything that got sent through. Homer tries to correct them, saying it was all trash, but Marge stops him.

UNnormal Activity[edit]

UNnormal Activity title card

Homer is filming himself in the mirror with a camcorder which he got because strange things have been happening in the house at night. That night, Homer sets the camera up in the bedroom and he and Marge go to sleep. Later that night, the door opens and an invisible entity removes the bed covers before hitting Homer repeatedly with a golf club. A loud noise then comes from downstairs, waking up the family. They head downstairs to find that the living room is destroyed. The next day, Homer gets more cameras installed around the house. That night, Marge gets out of bed and just stares at Homer whilst he's sleeping, and later whilst Homer is going to the toilet.

The next day, Chief Wiggum arrives at the house and identifies that the fire is indeed hellfire. He then says that someone made a deal with a devil. A cuckoo clock then goes off and Wiggum runs out of the room, only to get eaten by the demon. That night, the demon goes to take Maggie from her room, but is stopped by Marge. Bart throws talcum powder over the demon, revealing him to the family. Marge then admits that years ago, she made a deal with the devil to stop him from taking Patty and Selma when they tried to summon him. In return, Marge would give away her favorite child. Homer talks to him to get a new deal, and the devil suggests a three-way with him, Homer, and another demon. When they go to have the three-way, Homer does something that the devil doesn't like and he repeatedly says the safe word.

Bart & Homer's Excellent Adventure[edit]

Bart & Homer's Excellent Adventure title card

Bart is in The Android's Dungeon and complains about the price of a Radioactive Man comic to Comic Book Guy, as the cover says 25¢ but he was selling it for $200. Comic Book Guy tells Bart that the only way he could get it for the cover price would be to go back in time to 1974. Bart thinks that's impossible, but then sees a comic book called Fantastic Foreshadowing, with him on the cover in a time traveling car. Bart leaves and runs into Professor Frink, who arrives in the present in the same time traveling car from the cover of the comic. He tells Bart to hold the keys while he grabs some lunch. Bart then gets in the car and goes to 1974, with several posters of James Bond films passing by in the time stream.

Bart arrives in 1974 and goes to buy the comic, which he throws in the trash after reading. He then passes Springfield High School and hears Principal Dondelinger giving Homer and Barney detention for smoking. Bart goes into detention with them and tells Homer that he's Homer's kid from the future who ruins Homer's life. Homer strangles Bart as Marge enters the classroom. This leads to Marge becoming horrified at Homer for strangling a child and she refuses to date him. Bart realizes that this means he won't exist, but checks his phone to see the picture of him in front of the house changed to one of him in front of a mansion. Bart thinks that his life will be better in the future so he goes to the future again, with Homer following him and getting into the trunk of the car.

Back in the present, Bart goes home and finds that he is now Barty Ziff, the son of Artie Ziff and Marge Ziff. Meanwhile, the teenage Homer spies on them from a tree, with the present Homer doing the same. The two Homers decide to bring an army of Homers from throughout history to fight Artie Ziff. Artie and Barty easily defeat the army, but Marge comes out to find the defeated Homers and realizes she got with the wrong person. Marge gets together with all the Homers, but gets annoyed when none of them took the trash out.

Production[edit]

A sneak peek of the segment "The Greatest Story Every Holed" was screened at San Diego Comic-Con International on July 14, 2012.^[1]

They planned to start the episode with the presidential elections again but changed it to the Maya Indians. The Black hole part was initially an idea for a regular episode. The idea of Bart travelling back in time came from James L. Brooks and the idea originally was Marge should fall in love with Bart.^[2] Storyboards for the segment "The Greatest Story Ever Holed" were posted on PinInterest. One of the cut scenes in the episode was when the black hole sucked up Christmas decorations in the Simpsons' basement and the family "oooh"ed.

"Bart & Homer's Excellent Adventure" had a few changes prior to airing. The original had Frink get arrested for his time travel experiment instead of going to lunch, the James Bond posters were not colored in and there was less instrumental scene setting music. Also, two other songs were in the sequence, "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News and the "It's About Time theme".^[3]

Reception[edit]

This episode gathered 6.52 million viewers on its premiere, making it the lowest-watched Treehouse of Horror episode on record - hardly a surprise given this is also the furthest a Treehouse of Horror episode has aired out from Halloween.^[4] A Facebook poll was set up by the show's Facebook account, TheSimpsons, asking what segment was the voters' favorite. And so, on October 15, 2012, Fox's YouTube account dedicated to animation, ANIMATIONONFOX, uploaded the segment, but several scenes are different. This new version of the segment can be viewed here.

"Treehouse of Horror XXIII" was nominated for a 2013 Writers Guild of America award in Animation, but it lost to "Ned 'n Edna's Blend Agenda".^[5] It was also nominated for a 2012 Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement, Music in an Animated Television or other Broadcast Venue Production, but it lost to "How to Pick Your Dragon" from DreamWorks Dragons.^[6] The episode also got nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program in the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards. However, it lost to "Raising the Bar" from South Park.^[7]

Animator Paul Wee won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in the 65th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards for the episode.^[8]

In other languages[edit]

Language Name Translation Español "La Casita del Horror XXIII" Little House of Horror XXIII Português "A casa da árvore dos horrores XXIII" Treehouse of Horrors XXIII

International airdates[edit]

Country Date Channel Note Latin America March 31, 2013 Fox Latin America United Kingdom March 24, 2013; 6:30pm Sky1 Gathered 1,312,000 viewers Spain December 23, 2014 Antena 3

Gallery[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• An alternative cut off "Bart & Homer's Excellent Adventure at YouTube

Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to "Treehouse of Horror XXIII".