The Simpson's Treehouse of Horror-My 5 Favorites

I used to love Halloween. Back when I was a kid, I used to dress up as either Spider-Man, Batman, Darth Vader and other favorites as I either went to Halloween parties or trick or treating in the Pelham Parkway section of The Bronx. That's were the best loot was in the Bronx. The houses were always decorated with all sorts of scary things from bats to monsters to pictures of Jimmy Carter. Man, it was great to be a kid in the late 70's/early 80's.

But since I have grown up (in size, not maturity), I can no longer do the trick or treating thing. My friends don't really have Halloween parties and I'm usually working on Halloween. So, my tradition is now going home, popping in my Simpson DVDs and watching the Treehouse of Horror episodes. I'm a huge Simpsons fan. Have been since they were on the Tracey Ulman Show and have watched just about every episode of the show. My favorites are the Halloween specials called The Treehouse Of Horror. They have been doing them since season 2 and, for the most part, are some of the funniest episodes they put out all year.

Today, I wanted to share my 5 favorite Treehouse episodes. As always, these are my favorites and it doesn't mean they are the best ones put out. It was a hard list to put together. I had to leave out some other favorites episodes. I also did not put them in any order as I love these bits equally.

So, without further ado, I give to you, my list starting with:

A Clown Without Pity

This episode is from Treehouse Of Horror III from season 4. In this one, Homer forgets to buy Bart a birthday present and runs out to your local store, which happens to sell trinkets of pure evil and frozen yogurt. Homer buys a Talking Krusty The Clown doll, which tries to kill Homer because he doesn't like Homer. Krusty tries to stab Homer while he's watching TV and harpoon him while he's taking a bath. Eventually, Marge calls the KrustyCo toy company for help and has a repairman come over. The repairman sees the doll was set to evil and resets it to good. Homer and the doll become friends, but Homer now uses it as a slave and has Krusty doing chores like getting his snacks, walking the dog and sponge bathing Homer. The end sees Krusty returning home to his Malibu Stacey and snuggling with her.

King Homer

Some of my favorite Treehouse episodes are their parodies of other horror movies. In this one, they parody King Kong and turn him into King Homer, which was also from Treehouse Of Horror III. In it, Marge joins Mr. Burns and Mr. Smithers on an expedition to Ape Island to find King Homer. The natives, see Marge and agree the blue haired woman would make a good sacrifice and tie her up as an offering. We first see Homer fighting a T-Rex and is distracted by the drums summoning him. The T-Rex takes the opportunity to bite Homer who responds in a loud D'oh which echoes across the island. Homer is smitten by Marge who sees the good in Homer in return. Smithers knocks out Homer with gas, but is eaten by a sleeping Homer as Mr. Burns is congratulating him. Homer is then taken to Downtown Springfield and is displayed in front of an audience and newspaper photographers. The flash of the camera's enrage Homer who breaks loose and runs amok in Downtown Springfield managing to eat Shirley Temple in the process. Homer then captures Marge and tries to climb the Empire State Building, but grows tried by the second floor and falls down. Marge agrees to take care of Homer and marries him. Homer eats Marge's dad at the wedding, yet Marge is not angry.

Citizen Kang

This episode is from Treehouse of Horrors VII, season 8. This episode involves 2 of my favorite Simpsons Characters, Kang and Kodos, the aliens who always try to enslave humanity. In this episodes, Homer is abducted by the aliens as he is fishing and is told to take them to his leader. Homer explains that there is an election coming up and while President Clinton is in charge for now, it can change with Bob Dole taking over should he win. The aliens decide to capture both Clinton and Dole, place them in suspended animation tubes and disguise themselves as Clinton and Dole, so they are ensured that one of them will be in power after the election. They douse Homer with rum, so no one would believe his story and throw him off the spaceship. The aliens go out on the campaign trail seeking votes while Homer looks for the ship. Once he finds it, he flies off and turns off the suspended animation tubes that Dole and Clinton were in. They agree to team up and get rid of the aliens, but Homer accidentally releases them into outer space, thus killing the President and his opponent. On the day before the election, Homer crashes the ship into the Capitol and reveals to Amercia the aliens. Since they deem it too late to find replacements, the Americans hold the election as is with Kang winning. The Americans are enslaved and is forced to build a ray gun aimed at another planet.

The Raven

From Treehouse of Horror I, season 2. This episode parodies the classic tale by Edgar Allan Poe and is narrated by James Earl Jones. Lisa reads the story, which finds Homer as the lead character. He dreams of his dear Lenore, which is played by Marge. Lisa and Maggie play the seraphim. Homer argues with a raven which has a spike head and sounds like Bart. The episode is done straight from the book with added humor.

The Shinning

If I had to pick one of the Treehouse of Horrors episodes, I think this one would be my favorite. From Treehouse of Horror, season 6,  this episode parodies Stanley Kubrick's 1980 movie, The Shining. The episode opens with the Simpsons driving to Mr. Burn's mansion to become the winter caretakers. Homer has to turn back twice because he forgot to lock the front and back doors of their home. Mr. Smithers removes all beer and shuts off the cable to ensure an honest winter's work from Homer. When Mr. Smithers questions the move, Mr. Burns tells him that if the Simpsons are all dead when they get back, he will owe him a Coke. Groundskeeper Willie discovers that Bart can read his thoughts and tells him to call him if Homer goes insane. Because there is no beer or TV, Homer starts to go insane. A Ghostly Moe tells him he has to kill his family in order to get a beer. Marge discovers that Homer wrote "No TV and No Beer Make Homer Go Crazy". Homer attacks and Marge has to defend herself with a bat. Homer, while stalking Marge up the stairs, sees his reflection, gets scared and falls down the stairs, knocking himself out. Marge locks Homer in the pantry, where Homer is gorging himself silly. Moe returns to remind Homer of their deal. Homer refuses to stop eating and has to be dragged out by Moe and his gang of monsters. Homer chops down multiple doors and recites different TV openings until he finds the family eating dinner and chases them. Bart calls Willie for help. As soon as Willie arrives, Homer kills him with the axe and chases the family out into the snow. Lisa finds Willie's portable TV and shows it to Homer who's urge to kill fades. He invites the family to sit in the snow and watch TV with them. They freeze and are unable to change the channel when the Tony Awards begin. Homer's urge to kill then returns.

This episode has one of my favorite bits in all of the Treehouse episodes:

Well, those are my favorites. Not all of them. I narrowed it down to 5, but a few others could have made this list like Hungry Are The Damned, The Devil and Homer Simpson, Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace and Desperately Xeeking Xena which were all great episodes. Would love to hear what your favorite Treehouse of Horror episodes are.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!