'The Simpsons' Treehouse Of Horror Returns To November, But In A Funny Way

Remember the weird old days

Photo: 20th Television Animation

The latest edition of The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror, “Treehouse of Horror XXXIV” is not airing tonight on Fox. And it’s not because of baseball.

Yes the long-standing Halloween tradition for the long-running series has found its way back to one of its most mocked practices: The episode will be airing next Sunday, November 5 in its usual 8 PM timeslot. But again, it’s not because of baseball. Yes, the World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers started on Friday, but they also played Saturday. The 2-3-2 format persists, making Sunday a travel day, going from Texas to Arizona. So wait, they’re not airing the “Treehouse of Horror” on the Sunday before Halloween and no baseball in the way? What’s going on? Actually, only Family Guy is without a new episode of the Animation Domination slate on Fox tonight. And that includes an entirely different brand-new episode of The Simpsons: “Thirst Trap: A Corporate Love Story.” Its synopsis reads “In a parody documentary, a young college-dropout CEO embraces the Silicon Valley “fake it until you make it” philosophy and bewitches Mr. Burns into funding her highly dubious dream project.”

The episode’s guest stars include Elizabeth Banks as Persephone, Kara Swisher as herself, Andrew Ross Sorkin as himself, filmmaker Ken Burns as himself, journalist Christiane Amanpour as herself, actor Peter Coyote as himself and director Peter Jackson as himself. It is followed by Krapopolis’s “Woods-Stock” and Bob’s Burgers “Running Down a Gene”. Family Guy is rerunning “Happy Holo-ween” from last season.

As for “Treehouse of Horror XXXIV”, it will see that “Bart is turned into an NFT and Marge must fight through the Blockchain to rescue him; Lisa turns to a murderer from her past; an outbreak transforms Springfielders into a plague of lazy, beer-loving oafs.” The second segment in particular is a direct Silence of the Lambs parody with Lisa as Clarice Starling, Nelson Muntz, and Sideshow Bob as Hannibal Lecter, in Bob’s first speaking appearance since season 31’s “Bobby, It’s Cold Outside” just about 4 years ago. The first segment is apparently a Bandersnatch parody while the third is apparently one of Quarantine, bringing a new breed of hybrid Homers. While segment titles are still unknown, check out the images below.

Photos: 20th Television Animation

While Treehouse of Horror gained a reputation for not airing until November, it’s only done so twice since 2009. One was 2010 so there was a stumble to getting a streak going to counteract the nine editions where the reputation was built, from XI to XIX (11 to 19). The other was 2020, when somehow Fox didn’t account for the NLCS going 7 games, and it landed on the scheduled airdate of October 18. With Game 5 of the World Series set for October 25, that Treehouse went to November 1. However, the Paley Center held a virtual Front Row event hosted by Lisa’s voice actress Yeardley Smith and featuring honoring Treehouse of Horror that was held on October 14, giving attendees (like myself) what became an extra early screening. So some of us got to see it in October, and it was pretty great even when it finally aired.

When “Treehouse of Horror XXXIV” airs next Sunday, it will air with Krapopolis “Praise Demeter”, Bob’s Burgers “Bully-ieve It Or Not” and Family Guy “Old World Harm”. Maybe next year it can return to October for proper airings going forward. Happy Halloween everyone!

Sources: ComicBook, SpoilerTV