Treehouse of Horror IV
Encyclopedia
"Treehouse of Horror IV" is the fifth episode of The Simpsons
' fifth season
and the fourth episode in the Treehouse of Horror series of Halloween
specials. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 28, 1993, and features three short stories called "The Devil and Homer Simpson", "Terror at 5½ Feet", and "Bart Simpson's Dracula". The episode was directed by David Silverman
and co-written by Conan O'Brien
, Bill Oakley
, Josh Weinstein
, Greg Daniels
, Dan McGrath
, and Bill Canterbury.
In "The Devil and Homer Simpson", Homer Simpson
announces he would sell his soul for a doughnut, and the Devil appears to make a deal with Homer. In "Terror at 5½ Feet", while riding the bus to school, Bart Simpson
believes he sees a gremlin
taking apart the bus piece by piece. Nobody sees it except for Bart, so he tries to remove it on his own. In "Bart Simpson's Dracula", Mr. Burns is a vampire
and Bart falls victim to his bite. Lisa
and the rest of the family go to Burns castle to kill Burns so Bart can return to normal.
As with the rest of the Halloween specials, the episode is considered non-canon
and falls outside of the show's regular continuity. The episode makes cultural references to television series such as The Twilight Zone
, Night Gallery
, and Peanuts
. References are also made to films such as Dracula and The Lost Boys
. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. It acquired a Nielsen rating
of 14.5, and was the highest-rated show on the Fox network the week it aired.
's television series Night Gallery
, Bart
, opening the show in place of his mother, who has to go shopping, introduces the show while walking through a gallery of famous paintings including Ascending and Descending
, Sleep and The Scream
. All three segments of the episode are based on paintings in the exhibit.
states that he would sell his soul for a doughnut after finding that Lenny and Carl took all the doughnuts and chucked them at an old man (Abe Simpson) for kicks. The Devil, revealed to be Ned Flanders
, appears and offers Homer a contract to seal the deal. However, before Homer finishes it, he realizes that Ned will not be able to have his soul if he does not eat all of the doughnut and keeps the last piece in the refrigerator. Unfortunately, while half-asleep and looking for a midnight snack, he eats the final piece, and Ned instantly reappears to take possession of Homer's soul. Marge
and Lisa
plead with Ned, finally getting him to agree to hold a trial the next day. Until then, Homer is sent to spend the rest of the day being punished in Hell
by being forced to eat thousands of doughnuts, which severely backfired due to Homer's titanical appetite
(he not only ate all the doughnuts but also demanded more). At the stroke of midnight, Ned brings Homer back to the Simpson household for his trial. When the Simpsons' lawyer Lionel Hutz
flees after ruining his case, Marge makes a final effort to save Homer by displaying a photo from their wedding day. On the back of the photo- which shows them in the emergency room after Homer single-handedly ate the entire wedding cake before the ceremony-, Homer has written that, in return for Marge giving him her hand in marriage, he pledges his soul to her forever; therefore, it was not his property to sell at the time of his deal with Ned. The jury - made up of notorious figures like Benedict Arnold
, John Wilkes Booth
, Lizzie Borden, Blackbeard
, John Dillinger
, the starting line-up of the 1976 Philadelphia Flyers
, and former U.S. President Richard Nixon
(who, at the time of the episode's premiere, was still alive, although Ned points out that this was part of a deal Nixon made with him) - rules in favor of the Simpsons and the Grim Reaper judge dismisses the case. Enraged, Ned leaves, but unwilling to let Homer best him, he turns Homer's head into a doughnut. The next morning, Homer attempts to eat his own head, with Marge reprimanding him. Homer tries to go to work, but Lisa advises him against it, as Springfield's entire police force is waiting outside for him with coffee mugs in hand.
in which he is killed in a bus crash, Bart rides the bus to school one rainy morning. He panics when he sees a green
gremlin
on the side of the bus loosening the lug nuts on one of the tires. Bart unsuccessfully tries to convince the other passengers of the danger. In desperation, Bart climbs halfway out the window to scare off the gremlin with an emergency flare
. The gremlin catches fire
and falls from the bus, bouncing off Flanders
' car, who decides to adopt
the creature. When the bus finally stops, everyone sees the obvious damage, but Bart is still sent away to an insane asylum for the rest of his life for his disruptive behavior. Bart is relieved at finally being able to rest, but the gremlin appears in the back window of the ambulance, holding Flanders' decapitated (yet still living) head, which makes Bart scream in terror.
attacks, Lisa begins to suspect that Mr. Burns is a vampire, but the rest of the family dismisses her concerns. The family are invited to Burns' castle in Pennsylvania
, where Bart and Lisa discover a secret staircase descending to an eerie basement filled with coffins. As they investigate, vampires emerge from the coffins and circle them. Lisa escapes, but Bart is captured and gets bitten by Burns. Later that night, Lisa is awakened by a now undead
Bart and his vampire friends. When Bart is about to bite Lisa, Homer and Marge interrupt and discover that Bart is a vampire. Lisa claims that the only way to restore him is to kill the head vampire, Mr. Burns. The family returns to the Burns mansion, where Homer drives a stake through his heart, but Bart remains a vampire. To her horror, Lisa discovers that everyone in the Simpson family except herself is a vampire, and that the true head vampire is inexplicably Marge, not Burns. With this revelation, the entire family swoops in on Lisa, only to stop and wish everyone a happy Halloween
. The segment then transitions into a parody of the Peanuts
special A Charlie Brown Christmas
, complete with Santa's Little Helper
imitating Snoopy
's dancing and Milhouse playing Schroeder
's piano.
"Treehouse of Horror IV" was directed by David Silverman
and co-written by Conan O'Brien
, Bill Oakley
, Josh Weinstein
, Greg Daniels
, Dan McGrath
, and Bill Canterbury. It is the fourth episode of the annual Treehouse of Horror Halloween specials. As with the rest of the Halloween specials, the episode is considered non-canon
and falls outside of the show's regular continuity. O'Brien worked on the "wraparounds" of Bart introducing each segment to make sure that they "pulled" the episode together. The wraparounds are based on Rod Serling's
television series Night Gallery
, in which Serling appears at an art gallery and introduces each episode by unveiling paintings depicting the stories. Executive producer James L. Brooks
loved the show, so it was "great fun" for him to do the parody. Show runner
David Mirkin
thought the Treehouse of Horror episodes were the hardest episodes to do because the staff had to fit in all three stories in only 22 minutes. Mirkin said, "Things had to happen really fast. They're really just crammed with jokes and story beats and everything."
The first segment, "The Devil and Homer Simpson", was written by Daniels and McGrath. The first time Devil Flanders appears, he looks the same as the Devil at the end of the 1940 Walt Disney
produced film Fantasia
; Silverman particularly admired the animation in that sequence. Oakley loved the idea of Flanders being the Devil because he is the one you would least expect. He also thought Harry Shearer
did a good job of playing Flanders in a much darker way, while remaining very true to the character. Many scenes had to be cut to shorten the segment, including one that showed Homer's severed head being used as a bowling ball by a demon in hell. This scene later appeared in the clip show episode "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular
", which aired in the show's seventh season
.
The second segment, "Terror at 5½ Feet", was written by Oakley and Weinstein. It was inspired by an episode of The Twilight Zone
called "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
", in which William Shatner
's character is inside an airplane watching a gremlin tear apart the wing. Silverman watched the episode to get inspiration for Bart's facial expressions. Oakley said there was a lot of work put into the design of the gremlin in "Terror at 5½ Feet" to make him scary "within The Simpsons universe". Silverman designed the gremlin based it on The Grinch
. Mirkin said he felt the gremlin was well-done because he looked scary and "yet it looks like a completely organic Simpsons character". Üter, a character from Germany
, also makes his first appearance on the show in this segment; he was conceived as a one-time joke, but reappeared in later episodes because Mirkin felt he was "such a perfect stereotype".
The third segment, "Bart Simpson's Dracula", was written by Canterbury. It is based on Francis Ford Coppola
's film Dracula. Mirkin was a big fan of the film and pushed for a segment about vampires inspired by the movie. He liked the final result and felt Mr. Burns was perfect in the role as Dracula. Dracula and his castle was designed by Silverman. Mirkin, a "big" Peanuts
fan, came up with the idea for the ending of "Bart Simpson's Dracula".
The wraparound segments are a reference to Rod Serling
's television series Night Gallery
. "Terror at 5½ Feet" is a parody of The Twilight Zone
episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
". The title and a majority of the plot of "Bart Simpson's Dracula" is a parody of the Francis Ford Coppola
film Dracula (aka Bram Stoker's Dracula). The ending of "Bart Simpson's Dracula" is a reference to A Charlie Brown Christmas
.
The title "The Devil and Homer Simpson" is a reference to the short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster
" in which a farmer sells his soul for prosperity but is then defended in court against the Devil with a jury of the Devil's choosing. The jury at Homer's trial consists of John Wilkes Booth
, Lizzie Borden, John Dillinger
, Blackbeard
, Benedict Arnold
, the starting lineup of the 1976
Philadelphia Flyers
, and Richard Nixon
. The first time the Devil appears, he resembles the demon Chernabog from the Walt Disney
film Fantasia
. The scene in Hell where Homer is fed all the doughnuts in the world, and asks for more, is a direct parody of the cartoon Pigs is Pigs
, in which a generic pig character known for being a glutton is taken in by a scientist and forced to eat all the food in the world. At Mr. Burns' castle, Lisa notices a tome resting on a stand in the basement. She runs over and reads the title: "Yes, I Am a Vampire, by Monty Burns. Foreword by Steve Allen," a reference to American actor Steve Allen
. In "Bart Simpson's Dracula", Bart is seen floating outside Lisa's bedroom window. This is a parody of The Lost Boys
as well as Stephen King's novel Salem's Lot. The family's plan to kill the head vampire is also a reference to both the film and novel. In particular, the twist revelation that Burns is not the head vampire is also a reference to the twist ending of The Lost Boys. The closing credits of the episode features a version of the Simpsons theme that is a combination of the instruments used in The Munsters
theme song and the harpsichord
and clicking from the Addams Family
theme song.
of 14.5, translating to 13.6 million households. The episode was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week.
Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, said the episode included many notable sequences and was "probably the best" Treehouses of Horror episode. They particularly liked the scenes in Hell where Homer is punished by the Devil, and Chief Wiggum's attempts to deal with Dracula (whom he thinks is a mummy
) in the "Bart Simpson's Dracula" segment by ordering the Egypt
ian wing of the Springfield museum to be destroyed. DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson thought "Terror at 5½ Feet" was the best segment of the episode. Jacobson praised "The Devil and Homer Simpson" as clever funny, and described "Bart Simpson's Dracula" as "easily the least effective", claiming it, "presents some good moments but never quite takes flight". Patrick Bromley of DVD Verdict gave the episode an A grade and called it "one of the very best" Halloween specials, although said "Treehouse of Horror V
" was better. Central Michigan Life
s John Thorpe named it the tenth best episode of the series, and wrote: "The best part comes when Homer decides not to eat the last part of the doughnut, thus saving him from hell. Hilarious." DVD Talk
's Bill Gibron gave the episode a 4 out of 5 score.
Kim Nowacki of Yakima Herald-Republic
named "Treehouse of Horror IV" her "all-time favorite" episode. She praised the parodies of The Twilight Zone and A Charlie Brown Christmas. The episode's reference to Bram Stoker's Dracula was named the 32nd greatest film reference in the history of the show by Total Film
' s Nathan Ditum.
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
The Simpsons (season 5)
The Simpsons fifth season originally aired on the Fox network between September 30, 1993 and May 19, 1994. The show runner for the fifth production season was David Mirkin who executive produced 20 episodes. Al Jean and Mike Reiss executive produced the remaining two, which were both hold overs...
and the fourth episode in the Treehouse of Horror series of Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
specials. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 28, 1993, and features three short stories called "The Devil and Homer Simpson", "Terror at 5½ Feet", and "Bart Simpson's Dracula". The episode was directed by David Silverman
David Silverman
David Silverman is an animator best known for directing numerous episodes of the animated TV series The Simpsons, as well as The Simpsons Movie...
and co-written by Conan O'Brien
Conan O'Brien
Conan Christopher O'Brien is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer and performer. Since November 2010 he has hosted Conan, a late-night talk show that airs on the American cable television station TBS....
, Bill Oakley
Bill Oakley
Bill Oakley is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Oakley and Josh Weinstein became best friends and writing partners at high school; Oakley then attended Harvard University and was Vice President of the Harvard Lampoon...
, Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans High School; Weinstein then attended Stanford University and was editor-in-chief of the...
, Greg Daniels
Greg Daniels
Gregory Martin "Greg" Daniels is an American television comedy writer, producer, and director.-Life and career:...
, Dan McGrath
Dan McGrath
Dan McGrath is an American television writer. He has written for Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, Mission Hill, The PJs and King of the Hill.- The Simpsons episodes :He wrote the following episodes:...
, and Bill Canterbury.
In "The Devil and Homer Simpson", Homer Simpson
Homer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
announces he would sell his soul for a doughnut, and the Devil appears to make a deal with Homer. In "Terror at 5½ Feet", while riding the bus to school, Bart Simpson
Bart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
believes he sees a gremlin
Gremlin
A gremlin is an imaginary creature commonly depicted as mischievous and mechanically oriented, with a specific interest in aircraft. Gremlins' mischievous natures are similar to those of English folkloric imps, while their inclination to damage or dismantle machinery is more...
taking apart the bus piece by piece. Nobody sees it except for Bart, so he tries to remove it on his own. In "Bart Simpson's Dracula", Mr. Burns is a vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
and Bart falls victim to his bite. Lisa
Lisa Simpson
Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening...
and the rest of the family go to Burns castle to kill Burns so Bart can return to normal.
As with the rest of the Halloween specials, the episode is considered non-canon
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
and falls outside of the show's regular continuity. The episode makes cultural references to television series such as The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
, Night Gallery
Night Gallery
Night Gallery is an American anthology series that aired on NBC from 1970 to 1973, featuring stories of horror and the macabre. Rod Serling, who had gained fame from an earlier series, The Twilight Zone, served both as the on-air host of Night Gallery and as a major contributor of scripts, although...
, and Peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...
. References are also made to films such as Dracula and The Lost Boys
The Lost Boys
The Lost Boys is a 1987 American teen comedy horror film directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Kiefer Sutherland, Jami Gertz, Corey Feldman, Dianne Wiest, Edward Herrmann, Alex Winter, Jamison Newlander, and Barnard Hughes....
. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. It acquired a Nielsen rating
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
of 14.5, and was the highest-rated show on the Fox network the week it aired.
Plot
In a homage to Rod SerlingRod Serling
Rodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...
's television series Night Gallery
Night Gallery
Night Gallery is an American anthology series that aired on NBC from 1970 to 1973, featuring stories of horror and the macabre. Rod Serling, who had gained fame from an earlier series, The Twilight Zone, served both as the on-air host of Night Gallery and as a major contributor of scripts, although...
, Bart
Bart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
, opening the show in place of his mother, who has to go shopping, introduces the show while walking through a gallery of famous paintings including Ascending and Descending
Ascending and Descending
Ascending and Descending is a lithograph print by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher which was first printed in March 1960.The original print measures 14" x 11 1/4”. The lithograph depicts a large building roofed by a never-ending staircase. Two lines of identically dressed men appear on the staircase,...
, Sleep and The Scream
The Scream
Scream is the title of Expressionist paintings and prints in a series by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, showing an agonized figure against a blood red sky...
. All three segments of the episode are based on paintings in the exhibit.
The Devil and Homer Simpson
At work, HomerHomer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
states that he would sell his soul for a doughnut after finding that Lenny and Carl took all the doughnuts and chucked them at an old man (Abe Simpson) for kicks. The Devil, revealed to be Ned Flanders
Ned Flanders
Nedward "Ned" Flanders, Jr. is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer, and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". He is the next door neighbor to the Simpson family and is generally...
, appears and offers Homer a contract to seal the deal. However, before Homer finishes it, he realizes that Ned will not be able to have his soul if he does not eat all of the doughnut and keeps the last piece in the refrigerator. Unfortunately, while half-asleep and looking for a midnight snack, he eats the final piece, and Ned instantly reappears to take possession of Homer's soul. Marge
Marge Simpson
Marjorie "Marge" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. She is voiced by actress Julie Kavner and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
and Lisa
Lisa Simpson
Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening...
plead with Ned, finally getting him to agree to hold a trial the next day. Until then, Homer is sent to spend the rest of the day being punished in Hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
by being forced to eat thousands of doughnuts, which severely backfired due to Homer's titanical appetite
Gluttony
Gluttony, derived from the Latin gluttire meaning to gulp down or swallow, means over-indulgence and over-consumption of food, drink, intoxicants or wealth items to the point of extravagance or waste...
(he not only ate all the doughnuts but also demanded more). At the stroke of midnight, Ned brings Homer back to the Simpson household for his trial. When the Simpsons' lawyer Lionel Hutz
Lionel Hutz
Lionel Hutz is a recurring character from the animated television series The Simpsons. He was voiced by Phil Hartman, and his first appearance was in the season two episode "Bart Gets Hit by a Car". Due to the death of Hartman, his final speaking role was in the episode "Realty Bites"...
flees after ruining his case, Marge makes a final effort to save Homer by displaying a photo from their wedding day. On the back of the photo- which shows them in the emergency room after Homer single-handedly ate the entire wedding cake before the ceremony-, Homer has written that, in return for Marge giving him her hand in marriage, he pledges his soul to her forever; therefore, it was not his property to sell at the time of his deal with Ned. The jury - made up of notorious figures like Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold V was a general during the American Revolutionary War. He began the war in the Continental Army but later defected to the British Army. While a general on the American side, he obtained command of the fort at West Point, New York, and plotted to surrender it to the British forces...
, John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor...
, Lizzie Borden, Blackbeard
Blackbeard
Edward Teach , better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of the American colonies....
, John Dillinger
John Dillinger
John Herbert Dillinger, Jr. was an American bank robber in Depression-era United States. He was charged with, but never convicted of, the murder of an East Chicago, Indiana police officer during a shoot-out. This was his only alleged homicide. His gang robbed two dozen banks and four police stations...
, the starting line-up of the 1976 Philadelphia Flyers
Philadelphia Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
, and former U.S. President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
(who, at the time of the episode's premiere, was still alive, although Ned points out that this was part of a deal Nixon made with him) - rules in favor of the Simpsons and the Grim Reaper judge dismisses the case. Enraged, Ned leaves, but unwilling to let Homer best him, he turns Homer's head into a doughnut. The next morning, Homer attempts to eat his own head, with Marge reprimanding him. Homer tries to go to work, but Lisa advises him against it, as Springfield's entire police force is waiting outside for him with coffee mugs in hand.
Terror at 5½ Feet
After having a nightmareNightmare
A nightmare is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the mind, typically fear or horror, but also despair, anxiety and great sadness. The dream may contain situations of danger, discomfort, psychological or physical terror...
in which he is killed in a bus crash, Bart rides the bus to school one rainy morning. He panics when he sees a green
Green
Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...
gremlin
Gremlin
A gremlin is an imaginary creature commonly depicted as mischievous and mechanically oriented, with a specific interest in aircraft. Gremlins' mischievous natures are similar to those of English folkloric imps, while their inclination to damage or dismantle machinery is more...
on the side of the bus loosening the lug nuts on one of the tires. Bart unsuccessfully tries to convince the other passengers of the danger. In desperation, Bart climbs halfway out the window to scare off the gremlin with an emergency flare
Flare (pyrotechnic)
A flare, also sometimes called a fusee, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a brilliant light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for signalling, illumination, or defensive countermeasures in civilian and military applications...
. The gremlin catches fire
Fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....
and falls from the bus, bouncing off Flanders
Ned Flanders
Nedward "Ned" Flanders, Jr. is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer, and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". He is the next door neighbor to the Simpson family and is generally...
' car, who decides to adopt
Pet adoption
Pet adoption usually refers to the process of taking guardianship of and responsibility for a pet that a previous owner has abandoned or released to a shelter or rescue organization...
the creature. When the bus finally stops, everyone sees the obvious damage, but Bart is still sent away to an insane asylum for the rest of his life for his disruptive behavior. Bart is relieved at finally being able to rest, but the gremlin appears in the back window of the ambulance, holding Flanders' decapitated (yet still living) head, which makes Bart scream in terror.
Bart Simpson's Dracula
After a news story about several vampireVampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
attacks, Lisa begins to suspect that Mr. Burns is a vampire, but the rest of the family dismisses her concerns. The family are invited to Burns' castle in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, where Bart and Lisa discover a secret staircase descending to an eerie basement filled with coffins. As they investigate, vampires emerge from the coffins and circle them. Lisa escapes, but Bart is captured and gets bitten by Burns. Later that night, Lisa is awakened by a now undead
Undead
Undead is a collective name for fictional, mythological, or legendary beings that are deceased and yet behave as if alive. Undead may be incorporeal, such as ghosts, or corporeal, such as vampires and zombies...
Bart and his vampire friends. When Bart is about to bite Lisa, Homer and Marge interrupt and discover that Bart is a vampire. Lisa claims that the only way to restore him is to kill the head vampire, Mr. Burns. The family returns to the Burns mansion, where Homer drives a stake through his heart, but Bart remains a vampire. To her horror, Lisa discovers that everyone in the Simpson family except herself is a vampire, and that the true head vampire is inexplicably Marge, not Burns. With this revelation, the entire family swoops in on Lisa, only to stop and wish everyone a happy Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
. The segment then transitions into a parody of the Peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...
special A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy...
, complete with Santa's Little Helper
Santa's Little Helper
Santa's Little Helper is a recurring character in the American animated television series The Simpsons. He is the pet greyhound of the Simpson family. The dog was introduced in the first episode of the show, the 1989 Christmas special "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", in which his owner abandons...
imitating Snoopy
Snoopy
Snoopy is an fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. He is Charlie Brown's pet beagle. Snoopy began his life in the strip as a fairly conventional dog, but eventually evolved into perhaps the strip's most dynamic character—and among the most recognizable...
's dancing and Milhouse playing Schroeder
Schroeder (Peanuts)
Schroeder is a fictional character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz. He is distinguished by his precocious skill at playing the toy piano, as well as by his love of classical music and the composer Ludwig van Beethoven in particular...
's piano.
Production
David Silverman
David Silverman is an animator best known for directing numerous episodes of the animated TV series The Simpsons, as well as The Simpsons Movie...
and co-written by Conan O'Brien
Conan O'Brien
Conan Christopher O'Brien is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer and performer. Since November 2010 he has hosted Conan, a late-night talk show that airs on the American cable television station TBS....
, Bill Oakley
Bill Oakley
Bill Oakley is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Oakley and Josh Weinstein became best friends and writing partners at high school; Oakley then attended Harvard University and was Vice President of the Harvard Lampoon...
, Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans High School; Weinstein then attended Stanford University and was editor-in-chief of the...
, Greg Daniels
Greg Daniels
Gregory Martin "Greg" Daniels is an American television comedy writer, producer, and director.-Life and career:...
, Dan McGrath
Dan McGrath
Dan McGrath is an American television writer. He has written for Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, Mission Hill, The PJs and King of the Hill.- The Simpsons episodes :He wrote the following episodes:...
, and Bill Canterbury. It is the fourth episode of the annual Treehouse of Horror Halloween specials. As with the rest of the Halloween specials, the episode is considered non-canon
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
and falls outside of the show's regular continuity. O'Brien worked on the "wraparounds" of Bart introducing each segment to make sure that they "pulled" the episode together. The wraparounds are based on Rod Serling's
Rod Serling
Rodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...
television series Night Gallery
Night Gallery
Night Gallery is an American anthology series that aired on NBC from 1970 to 1973, featuring stories of horror and the macabre. Rod Serling, who had gained fame from an earlier series, The Twilight Zone, served both as the on-air host of Night Gallery and as a major contributor of scripts, although...
, in which Serling appears at an art gallery and introduces each episode by unveiling paintings depicting the stories. Executive producer James L. Brooks
James L. Brooks
James Lawrence Brooks is an American director, producer and screenwriter. Growing up in North Bergen, New Jersey, Brooks endured a fractured family life and passed the time by reading and writing. After dropping out of New York University, he got a job as an usher at CBS, going on to write for the...
loved the show, so it was "great fun" for him to do the parody. Show runner
Show runner
Showrunner is a term of art originating in the United States and Canadian television industry referring to the person who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of a television seriesalthough such persons generally are credited as an executive producer...
David Mirkin
David Mirkin
David Mirkin is an American feature film and television director, writer and producer. Mirkin grew up in Philadelphia and intended to become an electrical engineer, but abandoned this career path in favor of studying film at Loyola Marymount University. After graduating, he became a stand-up...
thought the Treehouse of Horror episodes were the hardest episodes to do because the staff had to fit in all three stories in only 22 minutes. Mirkin said, "Things had to happen really fast. They're really just crammed with jokes and story beats and everything."
The first segment, "The Devil and Homer Simpson", was written by Daniels and McGrath. The first time Devil Flanders appears, he looks the same as the Devil at the end of the 1940 Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
produced film Fantasia
Fantasia (film)
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...
; Silverman particularly admired the animation in that sequence. Oakley loved the idea of Flanders being the Devil because he is the one you would least expect. He also thought Harry Shearer
Harry Shearer
Harry Julius Shearer is an American actor, comedian, writer, voice artist, musician, author, radio host and director. He is known for his long-running role on The Simpsons, his work on Saturday Night Live, the comedy band Spinal Tap and his radio program Le Show...
did a good job of playing Flanders in a much darker way, while remaining very true to the character. Many scenes had to be cut to shorten the segment, including one that showed Homer's severed head being used as a bowling ball by a demon in hell. This scene later appeared in the clip show episode "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular
The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular
"The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular" is the tenth episode of The Simpsons seventh season. It originally aired on Fox on December 3, 1995. As the title suggests, it is the 138th episode and the third clip show episode of The Simpsons after "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show" and...
", which aired in the show's seventh season
The Simpsons (season 7)
The Simpsons seventh season originally aired on the Fox network between September 17, 1995 and May 19, 1996. The show runners for the seventh production season were Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein who would executive produce 21 episodes this season. David Mirkin executive produced the remaining...
.
The second segment, "Terror at 5½ Feet", was written by Oakley and Weinstein. It was inspired by an episode of The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
called "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
"Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" is a 1963 episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone, based on the short story of the same name by Richard Matheson.-Plot summary:...
", in which William Shatner
William Shatner
William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...
's character is inside an airplane watching a gremlin tear apart the wing. Silverman watched the episode to get inspiration for Bart's facial expressions. Oakley said there was a lot of work put into the design of the gremlin in "Terror at 5½ Feet" to make him scary "within The Simpsons universe". Silverman designed the gremlin based it on The Grinch
The Grinch
The Grinch is a fictional character created by Dr. Seuss. He first appeared as the main protagonist in the 1957 children's book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!...
. Mirkin said he felt the gremlin was well-done because he looked scary and "yet it looks like a completely organic Simpsons character". Üter, a character from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, also makes his first appearance on the show in this segment; he was conceived as a one-time joke, but reappeared in later episodes because Mirkin felt he was "such a perfect stereotype".
The third segment, "Bart Simpson's Dracula", was written by Canterbury. It is based on Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
's film Dracula. Mirkin was a big fan of the film and pushed for a segment about vampires inspired by the movie. He liked the final result and felt Mr. Burns was perfect in the role as Dracula. Dracula and his castle was designed by Silverman. Mirkin, a "big" Peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...
fan, came up with the idea for the ending of "Bart Simpson's Dracula".
Cultural references
Rod Serling
Rodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...
's television series Night Gallery
Night Gallery
Night Gallery is an American anthology series that aired on NBC from 1970 to 1973, featuring stories of horror and the macabre. Rod Serling, who had gained fame from an earlier series, The Twilight Zone, served both as the on-air host of Night Gallery and as a major contributor of scripts, although...
. "Terror at 5½ Feet" is a parody of The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
"Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" is a 1963 episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone, based on the short story of the same name by Richard Matheson.-Plot summary:...
". The title and a majority of the plot of "Bart Simpson's Dracula" is a parody of the Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
film Dracula (aka Bram Stoker's Dracula). The ending of "Bart Simpson's Dracula" is a reference to A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas is the first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Melendez, who also supplied the voice for the character of Snoopy...
.
The title "The Devil and Homer Simpson" is a reference to the short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster
The Devil and Daniel Webster
"The Devil and Daniel Webster" is a short story by Stephen Vincent Benét. This retelling of the classic German Faust tale is based on the short story "The Devil and Tom Walker", written by Washington Irving...
" in which a farmer sells his soul for prosperity but is then defended in court against the Devil with a jury of the Devil's choosing. The jury at Homer's trial consists of John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor...
, Lizzie Borden, John Dillinger
John Dillinger
John Herbert Dillinger, Jr. was an American bank robber in Depression-era United States. He was charged with, but never convicted of, the murder of an East Chicago, Indiana police officer during a shoot-out. This was his only alleged homicide. His gang robbed two dozen banks and four police stations...
, Blackbeard
Blackbeard
Edward Teach , better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of the American colonies....
, Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold V was a general during the American Revolutionary War. He began the war in the Continental Army but later defected to the British Army. While a general on the American side, he obtained command of the fort at West Point, New York, and plotted to surrender it to the British forces...
, the starting lineup of the 1976
1975–76 Philadelphia Flyers season
The 1975–76 Philadelphia Flyers season was the Philadelphia Flyers' ninth season in the National Hockey League .The Flyers recorded the best record in team history with a record of 51–13–16 in 1975–76...
Philadelphia Flyers
Philadelphia Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
, and Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
. The first time the Devil appears, he resembles the demon Chernabog from the Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
film Fantasia
Fantasia (film)
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...
. The scene in Hell where Homer is fed all the doughnuts in the world, and asks for more, is a direct parody of the cartoon Pigs is Pigs
Pigs Is Pigs (1937 film)
Not to be confused with Pigs Is Pigs .Pigs Is Pigs, is a 1937 Merrie Melodies cartoon that featured Piggy and the Hamhock family, in what would be Piggy's final appearance in the Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes repertory in the Golden Age of American animation.- Synopsis :Piggy Hamhock is always...
, in which a generic pig character known for being a glutton is taken in by a scientist and forced to eat all the food in the world. At Mr. Burns' castle, Lisa notices a tome resting on a stand in the basement. She runs over and reads the title: "Yes, I Am a Vampire, by Monty Burns. Foreword by Steve Allen," a reference to American actor Steve Allen
Steve Allen
Steve Allen may refer to:*Steve Allen , American musician, comedian, and writer*Steve Allen , presenter on the London-based talk radio station LBC 97.3...
. In "Bart Simpson's Dracula", Bart is seen floating outside Lisa's bedroom window. This is a parody of The Lost Boys
The Lost Boys
The Lost Boys is a 1987 American teen comedy horror film directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Kiefer Sutherland, Jami Gertz, Corey Feldman, Dianne Wiest, Edward Herrmann, Alex Winter, Jamison Newlander, and Barnard Hughes....
as well as Stephen King's novel Salem's Lot. The family's plan to kill the head vampire is also a reference to both the film and novel. In particular, the twist revelation that Burns is not the head vampire is also a reference to the twist ending of The Lost Boys. The closing credits of the episode features a version of the Simpsons theme that is a combination of the instruments used in The Munsters
The Munsters
The Munsters is a 1960s American family television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and Yvonne De Carlo as his wife, Lily Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era,...
theme song and the harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
and clicking from the Addams Family
The Addams Family (TV series)
The Addams Family is an American television series based on the characters in Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons. The 30-minute series was shot in black-and-white and aired for two seasons in 64 installments on ABC from September 18, 1964, to April 8, 1966...
theme song.
Reception
In its original American broadcast, "Treehouse of Horror IV" finished 17th in the ratings for the week of October 25 to October 31, 1993, with a Nielsen ratingNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
of 14.5, translating to 13.6 million households. The episode was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week.
Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, said the episode included many notable sequences and was "probably the best" Treehouses of Horror episode. They particularly liked the scenes in Hell where Homer is punished by the Devil, and Chief Wiggum's attempts to deal with Dracula (whom he thinks is a mummy
Mummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
) in the "Bart Simpson's Dracula" segment by ordering the Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian wing of the Springfield museum to be destroyed. DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson thought "Terror at 5½ Feet" was the best segment of the episode. Jacobson praised "The Devil and Homer Simpson" as clever funny, and described "Bart Simpson's Dracula" as "easily the least effective", claiming it, "presents some good moments but never quite takes flight". Patrick Bromley of DVD Verdict gave the episode an A grade and called it "one of the very best" Halloween specials, although said "Treehouse of Horror V
Treehouse of Horror V
"Treehouse of Horror V" is the sixth episode of The Simpsons sixth season and the fifth episode in the Treehouse of Horror series. It premiered on October 30, 1994, and features three short stories called The Shinning, Time and Punishment, and Nightmare Cafeteria...
" was better. Central Michigan Life
Central Michigan Life
Central Michigan Life is Central Michigan University's student newspaper. It is almost entirely independent from the university. Only the salaries of the adviser and executive secretary are paid through CMU; all other expenses are covered by CM Life's own advertising revenue.The paper is published...
s John Thorpe named it the tenth best episode of the series, and wrote: "The best part comes when Homer decides not to eat the last part of the doughnut, thus saving him from hell. Hilarious." DVD Talk
DVD Talk
DVD Talk is a website for DVD enthusiasts founded in January 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman when DVDs and DVD players were first beginning to hit the market.The site started as an online forum, an email newsletter, and a page of DVD news and reviews...
's Bill Gibron gave the episode a 4 out of 5 score.
Kim Nowacki of Yakima Herald-Republic
Yakima Herald-Republic
The Yakima Herald-Republic is a newspaper published in Yakima, Washington and distributed throughout Yakima, Kittitas and Klickitat counties as well as northwest Benton County. It is Washington state's seventh largest daily newspaper. The newspaper traces its roots to the late 19th...
named "Treehouse of Horror IV" her "all-time favorite" episode. She praised the parodies of The Twilight Zone and A Charlie Brown Christmas. The episode's reference to Bram Stoker's Dracula was named the 32nd greatest film reference in the history of the show by Total Film
Total Film
Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
External links
- "Treehouse of Horror IV" at The Simpsons.com