Treehouse of Horror IV

General

References/Trivia

Appearances

Gags

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Quotes

	Season 5 Episode
← 085 "Rosebud"	086 "Treehouse of Horror IV"	"Marge on the Lam" 087 →

← III "Treehouse of Horror III"	IV "Treehouse of Horror IV"	"Treehouse of Horror V" V →
	Treehouse of Horror Episode

This episode 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: . If you dispute this, please bring it up on the episode's talk page.

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"Mmmm ... forbidden donut."

―Homer Simpson

"Treehouse of Horror IV"

Episode Information Showrunner: [[{{{showrunner}}}]] DVD features

"Treehouse of Horror IV" is the eighty-sixth episode of The Simpsons, the fifth episode of season 5, and the fourth installment in the Treehouse of Horror series.

Synopsis

"When Homer announces he'll sell his soul for a donut, the Devil, disguised as Ned Flanders, shows up to take him up on the offer, while riding to school, Bart believe he sees a malevolent gremlin on the side of the bus, and Mr. Burns is Dracula, in a spoof of Francis Ford Coppola's vampire movie."

Plot

Opening sequence

Bart's seen walking around a room with paintings in light of Rod Sterling's Night Gallery and tries to introduce the show, but Marge and Maggie interrupt, telling Bart to tell the viewers the show's scary, but Bart ignores them, and we watch the first part.

The Devil and Homer Simpson

Homer being force-fed donuts in Hell, much to his happiness

Homer falls asleep at work, dreaming of a donut fashion show. When he wakes up to get one to eat, he finds out from Lenny and Carl the remaining donuts were already eaten, with some being thrown at Grampa Simpson. Homer declares he'll sell his soul for a donut, causing the Devil (in the form of Ned Flanders) to appear. After signing a contract, Homer's given his donut, with the provision soon as he finishes it, the Devil will own his soul. However, Homer finds a loophole: if he doesn't finish the donut, he's safe. Homer openly mocks this loophole, to which the Devil promises he'll go to Hell eventually. One evening, Homer goes down to the kitchen, and, without thinking, eats the last of the donut.

As expected, the Devil comes to take Homer's soul, but Lisa asks him to hold a trial. The Devil agrees. However, Homer must spend the day in Hell being severely tortured. Aside from being chopped into pieces, a demon in the Ironic Punishment Division tried to torture Homer by feeding Homer all of the donuts in the world. (This plan backfires when Homer gleefully keeps eating, much to the confusion of the demon) Back on Earth, Marge already has the trial area set up and hires Lionel Hutz to defend Homer.

The Devil and Hutz barter on specific terms before the trial begins: The Devil agrees to Hutz's request for bathroom breaks, and Hutz agrees the Devil can choose the jury. The Devil's jury includes Benedict Arnold, Lizzie Borden, Richard Nixon (still alive at the time), John Wilkes Booth, Blackbeard the Pirate, John Dillinger, and the 1976 Philadelphia Flyers. The Devil gives the evidence of the contract Homer signed, pledging his soul for a donut. Lionel Hutz counters with the definition of a contract according to the dictionary, stating it as something unbreakable. Realizing he put his foot in his mouth, Hutz asks to be excused to the bathroom. When he doesn't return immediately, Marge finds the bathroom window open, and Hutz long gone.

As the judge prepares to sentence Homer, Marge shows the jury a photo album showing their wedding day, where Homer ate the entire wedding cake, sending him to the emergency room. On the back of a photograph, however, it's revealed in a statement of love to Marge Homer pledged his soul to her. This causes the jury to declare Homer's deal with the Devil void as Marge owns Homer's soul. However, the Devil's unwilling to let Homer best him. With a zap of his power, the Devil turns Homer's head into a donut. The next morning, Homer can't stop eating parts of his head. As he decides to go to work, Lisa cautions him to stay home ... because standing outside the house is the Springfield Police Department, waiting to enjoy his donut head with their morning coffee.

Terror at 5 1/2 Feet

The Gremlin with Ned's head

Bart has a nightmare where the bus crashes and wakes up very paranoid. Bart and Lisa get on the bus one rainy morning with Principal Skinner on the bus. Lisa informs everyone Bart's feeling upset this morning, and asks they act nice to him, causing everyone to laugh at him instead. Shortly after the ride starts, Bart notices a Gremlin on the side of the bus, damaging it. He tells Milhouse about it but Milhouse refuses to look, in case he gets attacked by bullies. Bart tells Otto about the Gremlin. Otto looks out the window to see Hans Moleman driving an AMC Gremlin and rams him off the road, killing him.

Bart sees the Gremlin again and tells everyone. Everyone looks out the window, but the Gremlin's hiding again. Meanwhile, in a UFO, Kang and Kodos laugh at the Earthlings getting panicked over a creature who doesn't exist, only to find a Gremlin ripping apart their ship. Back on the bus, Bart's told by Skinner to stop using his imagination, and Skinner closes the window blind. Bart opens the blind again to see Groundskeeper Willie, who needed to get the bus after his mule refused to carry him. Milhouse gets weirded out by Bart's behavior and sits next to Üter Zörker instead. When Bart starts shouting about the Gremlin again, he's tied to his seat by Willie and forced to sit next to Üter, who Bart befriends and asks to untie him.

Bart sees the Gremlin again and grabs an emergency flare to throw out the window at the Gremlin, getting half sucked out the window in the process. Bart throws the flare as he's pulled in by Willie and Skinner, hitting the Gremlin and sending it into the path of Ned's car. Ned decides to care for the Gremlin as the broken bus finally reaches the school. Everyone realizes Bart was telling the truth, but, due to his behavior, Bart was shipped off to the New Bedlam Rest Home for the Emotionally Interesting. On the way, the Gremlin attacks the ambulance, holding Ned's severed head.

Intermission

They originally had a story to go with the famous Dogs playing Poker picture (Homer's scared of this painting), but Bart said it was too twisted and scary to show on TV. So they had to put a random story about vampires together.

Bart Simpson's Dracula

The Simpsons attack Lisa, as vampires.

The Simpsons are watching a news report on TV about a local peasant found dead, with their blood sucked out through fang holes on them. The news goes on to report Mr. Burns bought out the Springfield Blood Bank. Burns invites the Simpsons for a midnight dinner in Pennsylvania. There, it's obvious Burns is a vampire, but no one seems to believe Lisa. She and Bart find Burns's secret vampire lair where they find the book Yes, I Am a Vampire, proving Burns is a vampire. Lisa escapes up the stairs again while Bart sees the lever turning the staircase into a "Super Fun Happy Slide", pulling it against his better judgement and sliding down to the bottom again, only to be captured by Count Burns. Lisa tells the rest of the family Bart was captured, and Burns is a vampire, but Burns and Bart show up, with Bart being turned into a vampire. The family refuses to believe Lisa, and they go home.

At home, Lisa's tormented by nightmares and, hearing something, opens her bedroom curtain and sees Bart, Milhouse, Martin, Ralph, and Janey, all vampires hovering in the air. Bart flies through her window violently, only to be stopped by Homer and Grampa. Finally believing Lisa, Lisa tells the family the only way to cure Bart is to kill the head vampire, Count Burns. The family drives back to Burns' lair in Pennsylvania, and Homer hammers a stake in Burns' heart and kills him, but gets fired in the process. They go back home thinking everything's fine now. The next morning at breakfast, Lisa finds the rest of the family are vampires. It turns out Marge is the real head vampire ("I do have a life outside of this house, you know"); the vampire family surrounds and corners a terrified Lisa ... but stop suddenly. The whole family happily wish the audience a Happy Halloween in a Peanuts-style ending, singing and with Milhouse playing a tiny piano like Schroeder.

Title Cards

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Production

Conan O'Brien put a lot of work into the show breaks to pull the whole episode together. Greg Daniels and Dan McGrath wrote "The Devil and Homer Simpson" segment. They always wrote for the Halloween episodes together. The scene where Flanders the Devil goes from his giant monster form to nothing had a flash of the actual Ned's face, suggested by Brad Bird. Scenes cut from the first segment include a scene of Homer being bowled in Hell, and Bart pestering Flanders for a race car. Both of these scenes were later included in "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular".

For "Terror at 5 1/2 Feet", David Silverman used both William Shatner and John Lithgow's portrayals of Robert "Bob" Wilson in "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" for Bart's mannerisms, but mostly Shatner. A lot of work was put into the design of the Gremlin to make him scary in the Simpsons universe. Üter Zörker was originally made as a one-off character, but became a recurring character.

"Bart Simpson's Dracula" was written by Bill Canterbury. The segment was visually based on the Francis Coppola version of Bram Stoker's Dracula. The neon writing for the Secret Vampire Room was also supposed to have an arrow on, but the animators forgot it. They didn't have enough money to go back and animate it in. The scene where Bart and the kids are floating outside Lisa's window is inspired by The Lost Boys. A joke got cut where E.T. was flying through the sky with Elliot, and the vampire children attacked them. Dave Mirkin suggested the Peanuts-inspired ending to the episode. Another cut scene had Homer open a coffin with a load of Christmas decorations in, which will appear in the final scene. The credits music took inspiration from both The Munsters and The Addams Family. The electric guitar was from The Munsters while the timing and clicking were from The Addams Family.

Reception

The episode finished 17th in the ratings for the week it originally aired, with a Nielsen rating of 14.5. It was the highest-rated show on Fox that week.

As of September 2019, the episode has an 8.8 rating on IMDb and a 9.1 rating on TV.com.

Gallery

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References

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

Treehouse of Horror series
I • II • III • IV • V • VI • VII • VIII • IX • X • XI • XII • XIII • XIV • XV • XVI • XVII • XVIII • XIX • XX • XXI • XXII • XXIII • XXIV • XXV • XXVI • XXVII • XXVIII • XXIX • XXX • XXXI • XXXII • XXXIII • XXXIV • XXXV • XXXVI
Halloween themed episodes
Halloween of Horror • Thanksgiving of Horror
Self-contained stories:
Not It • Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes

← Season 4 Season 5 Episodes Season 6 →

Homer's Barbershop Quartet • Cape Feare • Homer Goes to College • Rosebud • Treehouse of Horror IV • Marge on the Lam • Bart's Inner Child • Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood • The Last Temptation of Homer • $pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling) • Homer the Vigilante • Bart Gets Famous • Homer and Apu • Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy • Deep Space Homer • Homer Loves Flanders • Bart Gets an Elephant • Burns' Heir • Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song • The Boy Who Knew Too Much • Lady Bouvier's Lover • Secrets of a Successful Marriage