The Simpsons' Treehouse Of Horror Episodes Were Inspired By This '50s Comic

There are a lot of reasons why "The Simpsons" has lasted as long as it has, but a big one is just how fun those "Treehouse of Horror" anthology episodes always are. Even long past the golden age of the show, these Halloween specials reliably breathe new life into the series; they're funny and sharp, and they allow the show to play around with all sorts of different tones, genres, and animation styles. From the "Death Note" segment in 2022 to the "Coraline" segment in 2017 to the "TRON" segment in 1997, "The Simpsons" has always used these specials as opportunities to show us something we've never seen from them before. 

But how'd the writers get the idea for the special in the first place? In a 2018 interview, renowned "Simpsons" writer Mike Reiss explained how he and the other writers were big horror movie fans, name-checking the "Evil Dead" and "Nightmare on Elm Street" franchise in particular. "There was an almost universal love of horror at 'The Simpsons,'" explains Reiss. "We were all unmarried men in our twenties making the show. Of course we all loved this stuff."

Sam Simon, a co-creator of the show, was a big fan of EC Comics, a publication that specialized in anthology horror stories. Even young people today might be passingly familiar with "Tales from the Crypt," "Vault of Horror," "Haunt of Fear," which you can still find in some libraries and is still referenced sometimes in TV and film. "The idea was to do something that emulated those comics," said animator David Silverman, who helped direct the first "Treehouse of Horror" special in season 2. "Kang and Kodos, the slobbering aliens in the second segment of the first Halloween special, were ripped straight off one of the covers."

Much like how "Family Guy" would be obsessed with the '80s, early "Simpsons" was deeply interested in the stories of the previous generation. Not only were they inspired by EC Comics, which were published in the '50s and circulated widely in pop culture for decades afterward, but they also listed the early '60s show "The Twilight Zone" as a major inspiration for their "Treehouse" episodes. 

"It used to be very fun because we just had the whole world of horror to choose from," Mike Reiss explained. "We'd say, 'Okay, let's make fun of this beloved old movie here, let's do that beloved 'Twilight Zone' episode there, then maybe we'll do an original thing.'" The show would give us six clear "Twilight Zone" riffs in the first eight seasons alone, averaging almost one of them per special, and that's not even going into all the minor references they've thrown into the other specials over the years. 

"The Simpsons" has always preferred to parody older shows, films, and books, to avoid the sense that they're chasing whatever's hot at the moment. "The movie 'It' is about a scary clown, and we've got Krusty –- but we didn't do it. We don't try and jump on the obvious thing," Reiss said. "We didn't want to parody that because by the time we get our parody out, everyone will have parodied it." Of course, the show would go on to do an "It" parody, but at least they waited until 2022, rather than try to squeeze one in the same year "It: Chapter Two" released. If "The Simpsons" is gonna cover a big piece of pop culture, it's gonna give itself the time to do it right.