Studio: Gracie Films, Film Roman, 20th Television
Distributor: Fox (Fox Broadcasting Company)
Short Synopsis
The annual Halloween episode tells three stories. In "The Shinning", a parody of The Shining, the Simpsons become winter caretakers of Mr. Burns's mountain lodge, where he has removed all the beer and television to keep them working. Without them, Homer goes mad ("No TV and no beer make Homer something something") and attacks his family, until a portable television restores his sanity. In "Time and Punishment", Homer accidentally turns his toaster into a time machine. Remembering the warning his father gave him on his wedding day never to step on anything in the past, he crushes a mosquito in the age of dinosaurs and returns to a series of altered presents, including one in which Ned Flanders is the world's dictator, and keeps going back until he settles for a world where people have long tongues like lizards. In "Nightmare Cafeteria", Principal Skinner solves overcrowded detention and a budget shortfall by cooking and serving detained students in the school cafeteria, until Bart and Lisa face being put through the grinder; the story ends as a dream, and then reality turns out to be worse.
Why It Matters
- "The Shinning" is one of the most celebrated parodies in The Simpsons, copying the look and music of Kubrick's film with precision, and "Time and Punishment" packs a dozen alternate realities into a few minutes. The running gag of Groundskeeper Willie being killed with an axe in every segment is a perfect, absurd connective thread.
- The Treehouse of Horror episodes became an annual tradition that freed the series from continuity and allowed its most extreme and inventive storytelling. This episode is often ranked the best of them.
Notes and Trivia
- James Earl Jones voices Maggie in one of the alternate timelines.
- Showrunner David Mirkin, responding to complaints about the show's violence, deliberately made the episode as gory as possible.
- See also: Last Exit to Springfield (1993).