The All-Timers: 'The Simpsons' Gets Spooky and a Halloween Tradition is Born

There are good episodes of television, and there are great episodes of television. And then there are the All-Timers: those episodes that represent the very best the medium has to offer. In this ongoing series, Yahoo TV will delve into the histories behind these classic hours and half-hours from TV’s past and present, speaking with members of the cast and crew that brought them to life.  

You can’t say they didn’t warn us. On Thursday, Oct. 25, 1990 — six days shy of the annual costume ‘n candy bacchanal known as Halloween — Marge Simpson emerged from behind a curtain to introduce that evening’s episode chronicling the misadventures of her cartoon family. It was one of the first times that a member of the Simpsons had directly addressed the audience, and Marge had an especially important message to impart. “You know, Halloween is a very strange holiday,” the blue-haired matriarch mused in her signature gravelly voice (provided, both then and now, by Julie Kavner). “[There are] things on TV that are completely inappropriate for younger viewers. Things like the following half hour. Nothing seems to bother my kids, but tonight’s show — which I totally wash my hands of! — is really scary. So if you have sensitive children, maybe you should tuck them into bed early tonight, instead of writing us angry letters tomorrow.”

Now, you may not have been one of those “sensitive kids” who switched off the TV a half-hour later slightly spooked out. (Full disclosure: I was.) But there’s no way you’ve forgotten the episode Marge warned you about. That’s because it launched a Simpsons Halloween tradition that continues to this day: “Treehouse of Horror,” the annual triptych of horror-themed tales that will air its 26th edition on Sunday, Oct. 25, exactly 25 years to the day that Bart, Lisa, and Maggie first told each other spooky stories in their backyard treehouse. Over the decades, the “Treehouse of Horror” episodes have been responsible for — as Comic Book Guy might say — some of the Best. Simpsons.Segments. Ever. from Homer entering the 3D dimension (“Treehouse of Horror VI”) to the entire clan coming face-to-face with their Tracey Ullman Show selves (“Treehouse of Horror XXV”). “It’s the most popular episode every year,” longtime Simpsons executive producer Al Jean confirms to Yahoo TV. “There’s no question that it’s the one people look forward to the most.”

Even when placed alongside its many descendants, there’s something special about the original “Treehouse.” And that, in large part, goes back to its creepiness factor. “We thought we were doing a scary Halloween episode,” says Jay Kogen, who was part of the Simpsons writing staff from 1990 to 1993. “We weren’t writing the show for kids, ever, so when we did a show that was going to be scary, we didn’t mind.”

In fact, the inspiration for “Treehouse” came directly from a previous generation’s source for childhood terrors: the horror comics published in the early 1950s by EC Comics, which boasted gruesome cover art resting beneath chilling titles like Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror,and Shock SuspenStories. That’s what Simpsons creator Matt Groening had in mind when he first pitched the idea of a horror anthology to the writers’ room. “It was Matt’s baby,” Kogen says, adding that the staff didn’t immediately embrace the suggestion. “It took a while for the idea to ferment with the writers; eventually our showrunner, Sam Simon, said ‘That’s a great idea, let’s do it.’” (One of the founding creative voices on The Simpsons, Simon stayed with the series until 1993; he passed away from cancer in March of this year.)