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The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror

It's nearly Halloween. May I recommend the very first Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror"? Some thoughts:

*The first volume, in which a haunted house turns against the Simpsons, pretty clearly builds on Spielberg's "Poltergeist." The big revelation is that the house was erected on "an Indian burial ground." (Difficult not to think about the current Apu controversy when you land on this joke. One grave is "Mahatma Gandhi"; another is "Not So Crazy Horse"; and so on.)

*The great virtue of this half-hour is the writers' love for their material. The second volume--in which the Simpsons wrestle with possibly-nefarious aliens--seems to borrow from "Planet of the Apes." (The big idea is that we tend to imagine that The Other is the enemy, when, in fact, we ourselves have been the enemy all along.) The writers give Lisa the line including the dramatic epiphany: "When searching for evil, we should look inside our own hearts!" All the other Simpsons roll their eyes at Lisa, but you sense the writers are really aligned with Lisa, here; they have a proper sense of wonder with regard to the history of storytelling.

*I especially love the third volume, which is an update on "The Raven," and which wrings its humor from the idea of an oafish Homer-ish figure spouting the flowery lines Edgar Allan Poe would want to assign to him. ("Respite! Respite!") Bart doesn't find the story frightening--but Homer is hiding outside, and Homer understands how it might feel to lose real love. (Homer, after all, has Marge.) So Homer *is* alarmed. One story can mean different things to different people.

I recommend watching with your hand-carved pumpkin nearby. And turn the lights out. Enjoy!

P.S. The best joke in the episode: Homer calls a broker to ask why he wasn't informed about the burial ground underneath the house he just purchased. "You never told us the truth!!!!" After many moments of silence, Homer shrugs. In fact, the broker *had* mentioned the burial ground--several times. Homer had just forgotten to listen...
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