Last weekend, a rare and wonderful event took place: The annual Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror" Halloween special actually aired before Halloween! Elderly Simspsons fans like myself may recall a time when Fox would broadcast the special on or before Halloween - way back in the heady days of the '90s - but ever since 2000, we've had to wait until after the 31st to see what diabolical parodies the Simpsons had in store. But not this year! Woo hoo!Although it didn't approach the unabashed brilliance of classic Treehouses of Horror, I still thought the twentieth (!) edition of the annual special was pretty entertaining, especially for a "new" Simpsons episode. The opening bit, with Dracula, the Wolfman, Frankenstein's monster and the Mummy crashing the Simpsons' Halloween party, was inspired, and the first two segments - a nod to Hitchcock starring Bart and Lisa and a 28 Days Later spoof - were similarly clever and funny. I thought the episode lost some momentum with the final segment, a loose reworking of Sweeney Todd featuring Marge, Homer and Moe - but, to be honest, I'm not even a fan of the actual Sweeney Todd. (I like the cannibalism/revenge stuff, but egads, the singing!)
At the moment, my favorite THOH bits are probably The Shining - oops, I'm sorry, The Shinning - and last year's Great Pumpkin parody, which I really liked after revisiting it on Sunday. What's your all-time favorite Treehouse of Horror segment?
