| "Treehouse of Horror VI" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | |||
| Episodeno. | Season 7 Episode 6 | ||
| Directed by | Bob Anderson[a] | ||
| Written by | "Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores": John Swartzwelder "Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace": Steve Tompkins "Homer3": David X. Cohen | ||
| Production code | 3F04 | ||
| Original air date | October 29, 1995 (1995-10-29) | ||
| Guest appearances | |||
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| Episode features | |||
| Couch gag | The Simpsons are hanged onnooses.[1] | ||
| Commentary | Matt Groening Bill Oakley Josh Weinstein David X. Cohen Bob Anderson David Silverman | ||
| Episode chronology | |||
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| The Simpsonsseason 7 | |||
| List of episodes | |||
"Treehouse of Horror VI" (titled onscreen as "The Simpsons Halloween Special VI") is the sixth episode of theseventh season of the American animated television seriesThe Simpsons, and the sixth episode in theTreehouse of Horror series. It first aired onFox in the United States on October 29, 1995, and contains three self-contained segments. In "Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores", an ionic storm bringsSpringfield's oversized advertisements and billboards to life and they begin attacking the town. The second segment, "Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace", is a parody of theA Nightmare on Elm Street film series, in whichGroundskeeper Willie (à laFreddy Krueger) attacks schoolchildren in their sleep. In the third and final segment, "Homer3",Homer finds himself trapped in a three-dimensional world, and, later, Earth. It was inspired by the 1962The Twilight Zone episode "Little Girl Lost". The episode was written byJohn Swartzwelder,Steve Tompkins, andDavid X. Cohen and was directed byBob Anderson.
The first version of the episode was very long, so it featured a very short opening sequence and did not include several trademarks established in previousTreehouse of Horror episodes. "Homer3", pitched by executive producerBill Oakley, featuresthree dimensional computer animation provided byPacific Data Images (PDI). In the final scene of the episode, Homer is sent to the real world in the first ever live-action scene inThe Simpsons. "Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores" includes a cameo appearance fromPaul Anka, who sings the song "Just Don't Look".Lard Lad Donuts, a fictionalBig Boy-inspired donut chain created for the first segment, would ultimately be incorporated into the main continuity ofThe Simpsons.
In its original broadcast, the episode was watched by 22.9 million viewers,[2] acquired aNielsen rating of 12.9, finishing 21st in the weekly ratings, and was the highest-rated show on the Fox network the week it aired. In 1996, the "Homer3" segment was awarded theOttawa International Animation Festival grand prize inOttawa,Ontario, Canada, and the episode was nominated for thePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour).
Krusty, as theHeadless Horseman fromThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow, holds his laughing head and hurls it at the camera, causing the title, "The Simpsons Halloween Special VI", to appear on-screen in blood.
Homer goes to Lard Lad Donuts to get a "colossal doughnut". Upon realizing that the colossal doughnut is the name of the doughnut that Lard Lad holds and actual doughnuts that size do not exist, he denounces the store and vows to get a colossal doughnut. He returns that night and steals the giant doughnut from the Lard Lad statue in front of the store. In the midst of a freak storm, Lard Lad and the other giant advertising statues come to life to terrorizeSpringfield. AtMarge's insistence, Homer eventually returns the doughnut to Lard Lad, but that does not stop Lard Lad and his friends from causing destruction.
Lisa goes to the ad agency that created those advertising characters, and an executive suggests the citizens stop paying attention to the monsters as they are advertising gimmicks, and attention is what keeps them motivated. He suggests a jingle will help distract people from watching the monsters. Lisa andPaul Anka later perform a catchy song and the citizens of Springfield stop looking at the monsters, who lose their powers and become lifeless (although Homer has to be dragged away from the Lard Lad statue, holding a sign reading "Now With Sprinkles"). Homer is distracted and Lard Lad drops the doughnut, which rolls pastKang and Kodos, who are trying to hitchhike toEarth's capital.Kent Brockman signs off by advising viewers to stay away from destructive advertising, then Homer says "We'll be right back."[b]
Bart has a nightmare thatGroundskeeper Willie is out to kill him. He is slashed with a rake, and the scratches are still on his body after he wakes up. Many other students atSpringfield Elementary School also say they were terrorized by Willie in their nightmares. When the students take a test,Martin—having finished his test first—falls asleep and is strangled to death by Willie in his dream, before waking up and dying in the real world. After Bart and Lisa tell Marge about the incident, she explains Willie burned to death after the thermostat was turned too high, his suffering drawn out by the spendthrift disrepair of the school and the parents of the students looking on and doing nothing; Willie swore that he would take his revenge out on their children in their dreams where their parents could not protect them.
Bart, Lisa, and Maggie try not to fall asleep for several days, but eventually, Bart decides that he is going to have to go to sleep and fight Willie in his dream. Bart falls asleep and attempts to find Willie, who appears as a lawn mower. Bart manages to trick Willie into mowing a sandbox containing quicksand, and Willie sinks. Willie recovers and turns into a giant bagpipe spider and is about to kill Bart as well as Lisa, who has entered the dream after also falling asleep. Suddenly,Maggie appears and uses her pacifier to seal the vent on Willie's spider body, resulting in Willie exploding. The Simpsons children awaken and despite being pleased to be alive, Lisa fears that Willie might still be around "out there, and could back, any time, in any form." As it turns out, a very much alive and well, but apparently far less powerful, Willie exits a bus and tries to scare the children, but loses a shoe as he chases the bus to retrieve a gun he left aboard.
Patty and Selma visit the Simpsons, driving Bart, Lisa, and even the pets to evade them and consequently leave almost no place for Homer to hide. Desperate to avoid his wife's sisters, he looks behind a bookcase and enters a mysterious new world in which everything is in3D. Homer explores the peculiar area, and finds that he is trapped within (the rest of the family can only hear his voice). He seeks help from them, but their attempts to rescue him are fruitless.
After a cone hits Homer, he throws it point first into the floor and accidentally pierces the fabric of the space-time continuum, creating ablack hole that threatens to pull Homer and the rest of the dimension into it. Bart takes command and enters the third dimension to save Homer after tying a safety rope around his waist. Bart is unable to help, however, and the universe implodes on itself as Homer is sucked into the black hole. Bart is nearly sucked in as well, but is pulled back into the house thanks to his safety rope. Marge is sad that her husband is gone;Reverend Lovejoy attempts to console her by saying he has gone to "a better place". Homer is sent into the real world, landing in adumpster in alive-actionSherman Oaks, Los Angeles. He walks around, frightened as people stare at him, but then is pleased to find anerotic cake store.
"Treehouse of Horror VI" was the first of twoTreehouse of Horror episodes to be executive produced byBill Oakley andJosh Weinstein. The episode was "so long" because, according to Oakley, "all three of these segments are very complex stories [...] and it's hard to fit three complete stories into 21 minutes". Because of the length, the episode featured a very short opening sequence and did not include several trademarks established in previousTreehouse of Horror episodes, such asMarge's warning orwraparounds.[4] The first segment, "Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores", was written byJohn Swartzwelder, who had previously worked at an advertising agency.[5] "Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace" was written bySteve Tompkins and has been described byDavid X. Cohen as "one of the scariest [segments]".[6] "Homer3" was written by Cohen, although the idea waspitched by Oakley. The original idea was that Homer would visit several dimensions where he change through different animation art styles, including one where everything was made out of paper cut-outs, but they decided that it would be too complicated.[4]
The episode includes acameo appearance fromPaul Anka, who sings the song "Just Don't Look". He had been referenced in "Grandpa vs. Sexual Inadequacy, where Marge describes Homer as "Rex Harrison and Paul Anka rolled into one." In response, he sent a letter to the producers thanking them for the mention. After receiving the letter, they decided to ask him to guest star.[4] According toDavid Mirkin, he tried to getAl Gore to host the episode, but the producers got no response to their request. "There was an eerie silence," Mirkin said. He added that "if the VP decides now to pursue this showbiz offer, it's just too late [...] He missed his chance."[7]
In the final scene of the episode, Homer is sent to the real world in the first ever live-action scene inThe Simpsons. It was filmed onVentura Boulevard inStudio City[6] and directed by David Mirkin, who later said that Fox "couldn't have been less supportive" because they thought it would be too expensive.[8] The scene involves acrane shot which pulls back as the credits are shown. Fox "begrudgingly" allowed Mirkin to use a crane for the ending. The scene was filmed on a sidewalk with the crane on the street and Mirkin was not able to fully stop traffic for the shot. Because of this, when the camera swings around, a line of cars can be seen backed up on the street. Mirkin was also disappointed in the quality of the camera pan, again blaming the lack of support from Fox and the inability to halt the traffic.[8]
A large portion of "Homer3" wasthree dimensional and computer-animated. Supervising directorDavid Silverman was aiming for something better than most computer animation of the time. The animation was provided byPacific Data Images (PDI) and overseen byTim Johnson. The animators at PDI worked closely with the 2D animators onThe Simpsons and worked hard not to "reinvent the character[s]". The animators storyboarded the segments and showed the PDI animators how they would have handled the scenes. While designing the 3D model of Bart, the animators did not know how they would show Bart's hair. However, they realized that there were vinyl Bart dolls in production and purchased one to use as a model. One of the most difficult parts for the PDI animators was to make Homer and Bart move properly without making them look robotic.[8]
One of the key shots in the segment was where Homer steps into the 3D world and his design transitions into 3D. Executive producerBill Oakley considers the shot to be the "money shot" and had a difficult time communicating his idea to the animators.[8]
An edited version of Homer3 appeared alongside several other shorts in the 2000 American 3-D animated anthology film,CyberWorld, shown in IMAX and IMAX 3D.[9]
Several background jokes were inserted into "Homer3". The PDI animators inserted aUtah teapot, which was the first object to be rendered in 3D, and the numbers 734 (which on a phone pad correspond to PDI).[8] Several equations were also inserted in the background. One of the equations that appears is178212 + 184112 = 192212. Although a false statement, it appears to be true when evaluated on a typical calculator with 10 digits of precision. The answer is incorrect by approximately 7×1029. If it were true, it would disproveFermat's Last Theorem, which had just been proven when this episode first aired. Cohen generated this "Fermat near-miss" with a computer program.[10] Other equations that appear areEuler's identity andP = NP, which is a reference to the famousP vs NP problem, and similarly contradicts the general belief that in fact P ≠ NP.[6] The code46 72 69 6E 6B 20 72 75 6C 65 73 21 is a string ofhexadecimal numbers that, when interpreted asASCII codes, decodes to "Frink rules!".[11] There is a signpost with x, y, and z, and many basic shapes littered across the screen.[6] While wandering around, Homer walks past a building that is identical to the library from the 1993 computer gameMyst, complete with a musical homage to the game's soundtrack.[12] InThe Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets,Simon Singh notes: "we glimpse acosmological equation (ρm0 > 3H02/8πG) that describes the density of Homer's universe. Provided by one of Cohen's oldest friends, the astronomer David Schiminovich, the equation implies a high density, which means that the resulting gravitational attraction will ultimately force Homer's universe to collapse. Indeed, this is exactly what happens toward the end of the segment."[13] Cohen toldEntertainment Weekly that the equation predicts "the universe is going to one day collapse in on itself, and that was to represent the fact that the 3-D world collapses in on itself at the end". The fate of the universe was an unsolved problem at the time, though Cohen noted in 2018 that "astronomers now believe that our universe willnot collapse back in on itself".[12] Cohen would later include references to Fermat's Last Theorem in "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace", where solutions to it appear on a chalkboard.[14]
In its original broadcast, "Treehouse of Horror VI" finished 21st in the ratings for the week of October 23 to October 29, 1995, with aNielsen rating of 12.9. It was watched in approximately 12.4 million households.[23] The episode was the highest-rated show on the Fox network that week.[24]
The authors of the bookI Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide,Gary Russell andGareth Roberts,[25] described it as "Complex, very assured and very clever, [...] The computer graphics are outstanding, and the final scene – as Homer enters our dimension – is one of the highlights of the entire series."[1] Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide said, "'Attack of the 50-Ft. Eyesores' stands as the strongest of the three segments. It doesn’t blast off the screen but it seems imaginative and fun. TheNightmare on Elm Street parody has its moments and comes across as generally entertaining. However, it lacks the bite the best pieces offer. Unfortunately, 'Homer3' gives us the weakest of the bunch. It tosses out a few funny bits, but it mostly feels like an excuse to feature some 3-D animation."[26] Ryan Budke ofTV Squad listed "Homer3" as the fourth bestTreehouse of Horror segment and gave honorable mention to "Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace".[27] Will Pfeifer of theRockford Register Star called the episode "the best of the annual Halloween episodes".[28]Mike Reiss considers the episode one of his favorites, and his favoriteTreehouse installment.[29]
In the July 26, 2007 issue ofNature, the scientific journal's editorial staff listed the "Homer3" segment among "The Top Ten science moments inThe Simpsons", highlighting Cohen's "178212 + 184112=192212" equation.[30]
In 1996, the "Homer3" segment was awarded theOttawa International Animation Festival grand prize.[31] The episode was also submitted for the Primetime Emmy Award in the "Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming less than One Hour)" category because it had a 3D animation sequence, which the staff felt would have given it the edge.[32] The episode did not win the award, which went toA Pinky and the Brain Christmas.[33] Bill Oakley, speaking in 2005 on the DVD commentary for the episode, expressed regret about not submitting "Mother Simpson," an episode with a more emotionally driven plot and felt that it would have easily won had it been submitted.[34]
In a retrospective review forThe A.V. Club, Erik Adams praises the episode's visual inventiveness: "On a deeper level, 'Treehouse of Horror' endures because it's the one time a year theSimpsons staff can fully embrace the fact they make a cartoon. Various fantasy episodes and trips down the non-canonical timeline also afford this chance, but 'Treehouse of Horror' is a dependable, perennial opportunity to go whole hog with the animated wackiness. Any given episode ofThe Simpsons might find Homer surviving blunt trauma (and trauma and trauma and trauma, etc.), but only in 'Treehouse of Horror VI' can he trip through an interdimensional rift and drool in state-of-the-art for-1995 computer animation." He also notes that "Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace" is "packed with adventurous character designs and fantastical digressions—like the opening segment, which places Bart in an old-school, hand-drawn dream world with elegantly painted backgrounds and looser rules regarding talking animals. This is what I imagine Itchy and Scratchy shorts look like to Bart and Lisa—the ones produced while Roger Meyers Sr. was alive, at least."[35]
I've just done my first non-fiction book, Oh No It's A Completely Unofficial Simpsons Guide for Virgin, co-authored with Gareth Roberts which has, to be frank, been more of a nightmare than it needed to be [the book was published as I Can't Believe It's An Unofficial Simpsons Guide, with Gary and Gareth writing under the pseudonyms Warren Martyn & Adrian Wood].
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| Related |
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