Talking Simpsons - Treehouse of Horror III
Added 2023-09-13 04:00:04 +0000 UTCThe Simpsons celebrate Halloween for the third time, and we get scarily accurate in our history of this episode! We've got the original script to help us note the many changed lines, plus all the references will finally be demystified. We also discuss our thoughts on scary dolls, the many King Kong films (especially the 1933 original), zombies, and tons more. So get ready for the terror of oodles of research in a podcast that may contain potassium benzoate (that's bad)!
Comments
I quote "Is this the end of Zombie Shakespeare?" more than I have any right to.
Jay in Madison
2023-09-26 04:30:55 +0000 UTCAs someone who is way too interested in the world of toy production, I'll offer my two cents on errors when a product hits retail. Most of these (all?) are produced in factories in either China, Vietnam, or Hong Kong, but designed and approved by companies stationed elsewhere. Usually, the factory receives a prototype and creates a series of samples that get passed around and only when it's considered done does it get approved for production. Even if the final sample is perfect, what comes out of production can still be wrong. It's sort of like taking a test with no supervision as some factories will do things they're not supposed to in order to cut corners and save some money since they basically bid for the project most of the time. Only the biggest toy producers (Hasbro, Mattel) own their own factories. The plastic quality could be different, paint hits could be reduced, etc. and they have a pretty good idea of what errors would be considered unacceptable and what would not. It seems to happen a lot with Super7, producer of Simpsons figures, as illustrated by Moe's missing apron. Some of their other lines have had missing paint or bad plastic. They blame the factory, but unless they show what they approved, we technically don't know and they could be making up excuses. It happens somewhat frequently with that company though so I'm a bit skeptical. All that is to say, whoever approved the Evil Krusty doll may have signed off on the Good/Evil blunder or the factory messed it up and no one wanted to pay for it to be corrected. And as an aside, it looks like Simpsons Ultimates Wave 4 (Devil Ned, King Size Homer, Radioactive Man, Tatum) has been quietly cancelled as Super7 removed it from its open orders page. That's a bit of a bummer and hopefully it doesn't mean we never get a chance to pre-order Wave 5 (Marge (with Maggie), Lisa, and Groundskeeper Wily).
Joe Hodgson
2023-09-19 16:33:38 +0000 UTCAll 3 segments of this episode have such damn good, memorable lines that I often quote to myself. As someone who vaguely works in tech support (class support at a university), the Bronson-voiced blue collar worker who says somebody switched it to Evil is highly relatable, especially the way he says "somebody" to not directly accuse Homer or whomever he may have gotten the doll from, as professors often do very stupid things to the tech and then it's an immediately visible and solvable problem when you get to the classroom.
Dylan (batmanboy11) Freitag
2023-09-19 16:14:04 +0000 UTCI own the Evil Talking Krusty Doll and there is more wrong then the good/Evil switch being inverted. Here are the good phrases: "I'm Krusty The Clown, and I love you very much" "Here you go buddy" "Coming home to you makes it all worthwhile" "Hey Hey *Krusty laugh* Okay 3 out of the 4 are perfect. I can give the last one a pass even though the evil doll never said it, it is at least believable the doll would have said it. Now after hearing those, you would expect the evil phrases would include "I'm Krusty the Clown and I don't like you" and "You think your dirty socks can stop me" but you would be wrong. The evil phrases are: "Come on move it" "What have you done for me lately" "You sir, are an idiot" "Shut your hole!" Hear it for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg1FQBYI4Xc All things Krusty said, not the doll. I think I remember Ralph saying "I sleep in a drawer" on one of the playsets as well so there were multiple mistakes in the playmates line.
Alex Forsyth
2023-09-17 18:45:13 +0000 UTCAs the UKs biggest evil dead fan, I have to pop a few things on here. The Evil dead was revolved from sale under the vide9 nasties list, but palace pictures who released it successfully took the government to court and won the case. This ment that while censored it was re-released with labels saying "at last it's back" it's now obviously fully uncut and released via Sony.
Dvdmike
2023-09-17 09:04:42 +0000 UTCFWIW with the writing credits, I believe Jay and Wally wrote "Clown Without Pity", Al, Mike, and Sam wrote "King Homer", and Jon Vitti wrote "Dial Z for Zombies". The Final Delivery draft displays the names like so on the front page: Jay Kogen & Wallace Wolodarsky and Al Jean & Mike Reiss & Sam Simon and Jon Vitti Also, the George Meyer script files credits the Krusty doll segment to Jay and Wally: https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt9m3nf6v1/entire_text/
Vance Jericho
2023-09-16 01:13:27 +0000 UTCAn absolute classic of a Treehouse of Horror episode. It's the one I remember seeing live, actually scaring me and it gets a rewatch every Halloween.
Thoren Murphy
2023-09-15 20:37:48 +0000 UTCThis was a great episode, and I hope you guys continue to do more 1-on-1 episodes because the chemistry is too great. I always had a soft spot for this one, because they finally figured out what the Treehouse specials could really be, before going guns a-blazin' in next season's. Thanks for all the research on the script, the change of Patty's line may justify the whole concept of ADR. Had the Evil Krusty doll as a kid, got lots of laughs.
Thad Komorowski
2023-09-15 20:36:25 +0000 UTCHrm. Looked to try and find it. Didn’t. This seems to imply that it was Groening’s idea. https://forum.dvdtalk.com/tv-talk/610715-no-love-maggie-simpson-shame-you-matt.html
Drew Mackie
2023-09-14 16:24:56 +0000 UTCSo there was an unofficial Simpsons book-like publication that came out maybe before the second season aired? And one of the pages in the book was a round up of things famous people said about the show, and it included a quote from Whoopi Goldberg saying she’d volunteer to voice Maggie if she ever talked. Not only did they never get/ask Whoopi to be on the show, but then they did this. Whether they knew about her enthusiasm for the show or not, I remember thinking this was mean.
Drew Mackie
2023-09-14 16:23:06 +0000 UTCI say only the doll segment of Trilogy is worth watching. The other two are boring as hell — and maybe by design? Because when you get through them, it makes the final vignette pop all the more.
Drew Mackie
2023-09-14 16:19:47 +0000 UTCI know the Halloween eps were tough on the staff but this is such a funny episode. Next season's might be a bit funnier and there are a few that are scarier, but I was always disappointed if this wasn't included in a Halloween block. Also loved the King Kong talk. I know what Henry meant but I laughed out loud at his phrasing that Shirley Temple was a contemporary of Kong.
Chris Dobson
2023-09-14 16:04:19 +0000 UTC"Clown Without Pity" has to be the best Frankenstein job The Simpsons ever pulled off. It's like half ADR jokes but they're so memorable and hilarious that it's definitely in my Top 5 Treehouse segments of all time. The frogurt bit, "Someone set this thing to evil," Milhouse getting smashed into the wall, Grandpa just wanting attention, "Ew, dog water"...in fact, one of my strongest Simpsons-related memories is watching this episode the following Monday on VHS at my friend's house and rewinding the part where Krusty is overwhelmed by Homer's dirty socks like 20 times, particularly the last time the doll throws up his arms before passing out. Absolute gold.
SlothIsLegend
2023-09-14 07:46:06 +0000 UTCAn epic episode and cut above in the grand scheme of the Halloween specials! Lots of primo Krusty material in this one 'To enterrr send me a parent's BRAINS' As a child this episode taught me about a number of film tropes, Hitch, Alex DeLarge, Kong, Romero etc etc etc. Dial Z has always reminded me of My Science Project (1985). Mario Land 1 is like original Bros on NES, only way harder, somehow way faster but with very poor visibility.. For a modern equivalent to VHS box art being more potent than the film inside, goto Amazon Prime. Its the only one of the steaming services to have more content than all the other streamers combined and 90% of it is PURE garbage, films impossible to release eventually sold to Prime, straight to dvd dreck, film's with covers 100% designed to trick you into pressing play. RLM recently did a great breakdown video called 'Beyond the Black Void' where they explore how deep the trough of crap goes, delving into the B & C tear streamers (tubi et al) and all their watchbait trash. Its educational, its a public service even. Make sure and watch the Mitchum original of Cape Fear if you've not seen it. Its an amazing watch.
Rob MacBride
2023-09-14 00:13:02 +0000 UTCIt absolutely is a JFK reference
Bob Mackey
2023-09-13 19:32:30 +0000 UTCHomer holding a gun and calling the library a "book depository" always read to me as a JFK reference. I remember at least three frozen yogurt places in Berkeley (that's good!): the one on Shattuck, the one near Telegraph near the south side of campus, and the one on Euclid on the north side. I think they're all closed down. (That's bad.)
Bradford A Barker
2023-09-13 19:23:46 +0000 UTCThey still exist. There's one in Vancouver at our huge mall here. I think Bob bought a matcha frogurt from them
nina matsumoto
2023-09-13 18:51:57 +0000 UTC"A Town Without Pity" is a fucking BOP.
Erin Hardy
2023-09-13 17:41:16 +0000 UTCAre kids today looking through Netflix and getting scared by horror movie thumbnails? Like Henry and Bob, I too remember browsing the video store and being terrified by VHS boxes... so I'm happy to report that, in the instance of my kid at least, this tradition is alive and well. My kid is almost 13 and loves horror movies, and will endlessly flip through all the apps looking for horror thumbnails and judging how scary they look. We allow her to watch horror movies now, but when she was younger she'd ask me to describe in detail the plots of The Shining, The Exorcist, and any other scary thumbnail that showed up. This same kid was actually deeply affected by the murderous Krusty doll segment. When she was four years old, she was in the same room with me as I watched this episode. I didn't think of it as a scary episode, but it freaked her out, and she talked about it for years afterward. She would ask to watch The Simpsons with me, but always made sure to specify: "But not the mean clown one." I felt like a terrible parent for letting that happen, but hey, she loves The Simpsons and horror movies now.
Matt Stokes
2023-09-13 15:32:01 +0000 UTCDoing new nightmare and dream master a disservice. Both are excellent additions to the franchise. And about nightmare 2....everyone but the director and writer claim they knew it was gayish. But I call bs. Both had to have known....check out both never sleep again and scream queen for excellent nightmare 2 breakdown...especially scream queen
Frank Grimes
2023-09-13 15:18:57 +0000 UTCWe used to have these frozen yogurt places in Canada called Yogen Früz where you’d pick frozen fruit to blend into your frozen yogurt, like peach and banana and kiwi. It was so good. I don’t understand these new frozen yogurt places with the candy and the weird flavours.
Hoonser
2023-09-13 15:07:55 +0000 UTCLove this episode! A couple quick comments about the movies references you talked about: Trilogy of Terror is pretty good, especially the final segment with the killer doll. Totally worth checking out. (Even if it is weirdly hard to find officially streaming, like many old made for TV movies, someone has just dumped a copy on youtube.) It was one of the inspirations for Child's Play, not just in theme, but in how it was shot. Director Tom Holland (not that one) said the shots from the doll's perspective in Trilogy of Terror made them think they could pull off some of the effects for Chucky. Also, your comments about the promoter from King Kong not getting arrested at the end are answered in the opening scene of The Son of Kong. It picks back up a month after the first movie with Carl Denham hiding from process severs and talking about getting sued by half of New York before skipping town on the first ship that will have him.
Echo Cimarron
2023-09-13 13:49:41 +0000 UTCClassic Treehouse. Probably in my top 5.
Frank Grimes
2023-09-13 13:45:42 +0000 UTCDead Alive will always be the vhs cover that is burned in my brain!
T
2023-09-13 06:57:27 +0000 UTCThis ToH is special to me because when I was 10 in 1996, my older brother and I started writing a transcript for this episode, though we dropped it at some point during Dial Z for Zombie.
Rhomega
2023-09-13 04:42:50 +0000 UTC
