{"id":240110,"date":"2025-10-25T22:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T22:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/240110\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T22:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T22:36:11","slug":"35-years-ago-today-this-classic-simpsons-episode-started-one-of-the-shows-biggest-best-traditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/240110\/","title":{"rendered":"35 Years Ago Today, This Classic Simpsons Episode Started One of the Show\u2019s Biggest & Best Traditions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Simpsons<\/a> has a lot of longstanding traditions and recurring elements that are now just a core part of the show\u2019s fabric. Things like the opening sequence, with its chalkboard and couch gags, Bart\u2019s prank phone calls to Moe, and a myriad of catchphrases have not only embedded themselves into the series, but to viewers\u2019 hearts and our collective cultural consciousness. Some were there from the beginning, others developed along the way, but they\u2019re all part of the show\u2019s makeup and what have helped it remain so beloved after decades on the air.<\/p>\n

Among all of these is a key tradition that didn\u2019t actually start until The Simpsons Season 2: the annual Treehouse of Horror episode<\/a>. The show\u2019s first season didn\u2019t begin airing until December, so missed out on celebrating Halloween. But when the series shifted to a more typical fall slot, which it has kept ever since, it launched its own seasonal tradition with \u201cTreehouse of Horror,\u201d which aired on October 25th, 1990. Given an introduction by Marge, the first iteration was heavily inspired by EC Comics and framed as scary stories told by Lisa and Bart in their treehouse. It featured the three-segment format that remains to this day, including: \u201cBad Dream House,\u201d \u201cHungry be the Damned,\u201d and \u201cThe Raven.\u201d<\/p>\n

Treehouse of Horror Is Important For The Simpsons (But What\u2019s The Best One?)<\/p>\n

\"TheCourtesy of 20th Television Animation<\/p>\n

The Treehouse of Horror episodes are one of The Simpsons\u2018 best traditions<\/a>, because they allow the series to play around so much with its form. It allows the writers to expand into different genres, like Sci-Fi and horror, and to break all the rules of the show proper since the episodes aren\u2019t canon. There\u2019s an increased level of violence, characters can (and frequently do) die, the animation style can be experimented with more, and the short story format gives some brilliant bursts of creativity that might not sustain a full episode.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also impressive just how fully-formed Treehouse of Horror arrived in 1990. The general format was perfected pretty much straight away, and \u201cThe Raven\u201d in particular still remains one of the very best segments: it\u2019s an all-timer parody and genuinely a brilliant re-telling of Edgar Allan Poe\u2019s poem. Other things came and went over time: the actual treehouse setting didn\u2019t last long, and nor did the warnings at the beginning of each episode. Other elements, such as the crew\u2019s names being changed into horror-themed puns, were added later on.<\/p>\n

The show certainly built on that foundation, and several of the Treehouse of Horror episodes and segments are among the show\u2019s most iconic installments, moments, and parodies. The first stands among them for sure, but if picking the very best, I\u2019d be tempted to go with either \u201cTreehouse of Horror IV\u201d \u2013 which features \u201cThe Devil and Homer Simpson,\u201d \u201cTerror at 5+1\u20442 Feet,\u201d and Bart Simpson\u2019s Dracula,\u201d which might be the strongest start-to-finish trio of the whole bunch \u2013 or \u201cTreehouse of Horror V,\u201d which features \u201cTime and Punishment,\u201d \u201cThe Nightmare Cafeteria,\u201d and what is, for me, still the best individual segment, \u201cThe Shinning.\u201d Whichever your favorite, though, there\u2019s no denying this is one of The Simpsons\u2018 greatest traditions, and it all started on this day.<\/p>\n

The Simpsons\u2018 Treehouse of Horror episodes are all available to stream on Disney+.<\/p>\n

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Simpsons has a lot of longstanding traditions and recurring elements that are now just a core part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[32593,49,48,75,113121,89982,348],"class_list":["post-240110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-answer-feature","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-simpsons-treehouse-of-horror","tag-the-simpsons","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}