4. Treehouse Of Horror V
No TV and no Beer make Homer go crazy! When it comes to both spoofs and completely original ideas, Treehouse of Horror V delivers the best there is. Containing stories that parody the works of literary geniuses Stephen King and Ray Bradbury, the episode ranges from genres of slasher and gore to sci-fi fantasy. "The Shinning" and "Nightmare Cafeteria" both put new spins on gruesome stories and play with the characters in extremely amusing ways. In "The Shinning" Homer loses his mind as he is cut off from beer and television and viciously tries to murder his family. "Nightmare Cafeteria" is littered with horror imagery as the faculty of Springfield Elementary develops a taste for the flesh of children. Even the middle segment "Time and Punishment", which deters from the horror theme, is able to escalate the Halloween goodness as Homer faces trial and error in a misguided attempt to fix the present. Keep an eye out for the running gag within each segment that sees groundskeeper Willie take an axe to the back each time he tries to play the hero. It's said that the executives of the show purposefully threw in as much violence and gore as they could to displease Congress who was meddling with production at the time. Thank goodness for Congress as this resulted in one of the best, and bloodiest, Halloween specials to grace our television sets. As if Congress really had anything to worry about... except that green fog that turns your skin inside out...