The Simpsons: Every Treehouse Of Horror Ranked Worst To Best
"No beer and no TV make Homer something, something..."
After almost thirty years, the Treehouse Of Horrors Halloween special is about as strong a yearly brand as you're going to get in modern TV. What started as a brave diversion from the main-line of Simpsons episodes has grown into the event for the show's fans, and while more modern episodes have strayed somewhat from the original core values, they are still capable of home runs.
The specials take in classic horrors, from as diverse sources as Edgar Allen Poe to JK Rowling and Michael Bay. The results are often quite mixed, but it's a remarkably feat for Fox that there isn't a single of the specials that hasn't got at least one redeeming segment. And that's including the supposedly fallow years cynics bleat on about.
The series has grown a life of its own, with huge expectations on the prestige yearly one-off (which Fox acknowledged this year by granting the special the 600th episode slot), and the idea that it could one day be a complete box set is a beautiful thing indeed.
in celebration of Halloween and the geniuses who keep injecting cameos, Easter Eggs and horror references, here's how every Halloween Special ranks in order of greatness from worst to best.
27. XVII. Married To The Blob; You Gotta Know When To Golem; The Day The Earth Looked Stupid
There are no flatly BAD Treehouse episodes, but they aren't all equally brilliant. The unfortunate honour of coming last goes to number 17, which opens with Homer becoming an amorphous cannibal monster on the rampage and features the most unnecessary Dr Phil cameo. It's just not really up to the same standard as the other episodes.
Fun fact: in season 25, Fox reused the Married To The Blob title, because someone obviously thought it was way, way funnier than it actually is.
The second segment sees Bart using a Krusty golem to get revenge on his bullies, but there are probably a few too many Jewish jokes in there for it to be really comfortable. It also lacks some of the usual charm.
And while The Day The Earth Looked Stupid includes a pretty brave anti-Iraq war allegory, it's not that great an episode, which is always a pre-requisite if an episode is going to preach.