The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror VI (1989– ) Online
- Original Title :
- Treehouse of Horror VI
- Genre :
- TV Episode / Animation / Comedy
- Year :
- 1989–
- Directror :
- Bob Anderson,David Mirkin
- Cast :
- Dan Castellaneta,Julie Kavner,Nancy Cartwright
- Writer :
- Matt Groening,James L. Brooks
- Type :
- TV Episode
- Time :
- 30min
- Rating :
- 8.6/10
A freak lightning storm causes giant advertising mascots to come to life; The children are terrorized by Groundskeeper Willie in their dreams; Homer finds himself trapped in another dimension.
Episode cast overview: | |||
Dan Castellaneta | - | Homer Simpson / Squeaky-Voiced Teen / Kodos / Santa's Little Helper / Groundskeeper Willie / Grampa Simpson / Krusty the Clown (voice) (as Dan CastellanetaarghaGAHEGGA {Smash} Gurgle Mr. Hyde) | |
Julie Kavner | - | Marge Simpson / Patty Bouvier / Selma Bouvier (voice) (as Jooooolie Kavner) | |
Nancy Cartwright | - | Bart Simpson / Nelson Muntz (voice) (as Nancy Heart-Fright) | |
Yeardley Smith | - | Lisa Simpson (voice) (as Scudley Smith) | |
Hank Azaria | - | Man at Duff Beer Sign / Crazy Old Man / Chief Wiggum / Lou / Kirk Van Houten / TV Voice #1 / Professor Frink (voice) (as Angst Azaria) | |
Harry Shearer | - | Radio Announcer / Kent Brockman / Otto / Ned Flanders / Advertising Agent / Kang / Principal Skinner / TV Voice #2 / Reverend Lovejoy / Dr. Hibbert (voice) | |
Paul Anka | - | Himself (voice) | |
Marcia Wallace | - | Edna Krabappel (voice) | |
Russi Taylor | - | Martin Prince (voice) (as Russi Big Tombs Taylor) | |
Dennis Bailey | |||
Ron Brooks | |||
Trish Doolan | |||
Marsha Waterbury |
While Homer is walking in the Third Dimension, he walks by a string of hexadecimal numbers in the background: 46 72 69 6e 6b 20 72 75 6c 65 73 21. In ASCII, this translates to "Frink rules!"
When Homer is in the Third Dimension, we see the equation 1782^12 + 1841^12 = 1922^12. This is an allusion to Fermat's Last Theorem, which holds that if n is greater than 2, there are no non-zero integers x, y, and z such that x^n + y^n = z^n. The equation we see does not work, as 1782^12 + 1841^12 = 2,541,210,258,614,589,176,288,669,958,142,428,526,657, and 1922^12 = 2,541,210,259,314,801,410,819,278,649,643,651,567,616.
This is the first Treehouse of Horror episode to not have a cemetery motive or tombstones with humorous names in its opening. This is also the first Treehouse of Horror episode to have a short opening.
During his visit to the 3rd dimension Homer punctures the universe with a cone. The resulting funnel is a common used method of demonstrating the effect of a Black Hole on Space Time, which is how we describe the 4 dimensional universe.
In the final scene of the episode, Homer is sent to the real world in the first ever live-action scene in the show. It was filmed on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City and directed by David Mirkin, who later said that Fox "couldn't have been less supportive" because they thought it would be too expensive. The scene involves a crane shot which pulls back as the credits are shown. Fox "begrudgingly" allowed Mirkin to use a crane for the ending. The scene was filmed on a sidewalk with the crane on the street and Mirkin was not able to fully stop traffic for the shot. Because of this, when the camera swings around, a line of cars can be seen backed up on the street. Mirkin was also disappointed in the quality of the camera pan, again blaming the lack of support from Fox and the inability to halt the traffic.
The episode was "so long" because, according to Bill Oakley, "all three of these segments are very complex stories [...] and it's hard to fit three complete stories into 21 minutes". Because of the length, the episode featured a very short opening sequence and did not include several trademarks established in previous Treehouse of Horror episodes, such as Marge's warning or wraparounds.
The episode includes a cameo appearance from Paul Anka, who sings the song "Just Don't Look". Anka was briefly mentioned by Marge in Los Simpson: Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy (1994). In response, he sent a letter to the producers in which he thanked them for the mention. After receiving the letter, they decided to ask him to guest star.
According to David Mirkin, he tried to get Al Gore to host the episode, but the producers got no response to their request. "There was an eerie silence", Mirkin said. He added that "if the VP decides now to pursue this showbiz offer, it's just too late [...] He missed his chance."
An edited version of "Homer3" would appear alongside several other shorts in the 2000 American 3-D animated anthology film, CyberWorld (2000) shown in IMAX and IMAX 3D.
One of the key shots in the segment was where Homer steps into the 3D world and his design transitions into 3D. Bill Oakley considers the shot to be the "money shot" and had a difficult time communicating his idea to the animators.
During the scene where Homer is in the third dimension. He walks by a building resembling the library from the video game Myst (1993).
In "Homer3", as he is about to fall in the black hole, Homer says, "There's so much I don't know about astrophysics. I wish I'd read that book by that wheelchair guy." This is a reference to the bestseller A Brief History of Time by astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who was quadraplegic.
The Erotic Cakes shop was filmed only 1 mile (1½Km) from a scene in Área 12: Log 15: Exactly 100 Yards (1969) where a young boy is asked by officers Reed & Malloy to open his jacket, and only ¼ mile (500 meters) from one of the locations showcased in Diners, Drive-ins and Dives: Gone Global (2010)(#10.7). See filming locations.
This was the first of two Treehouse of Horror episodes to be executive produced by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein.
The first segment, "Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores", was written by John Swartzwelder, who had previously worked at an advertising agency.
David X. Cohen described "Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace" as "one of the scariest [segments]".
The original idea for "Homer3" was that Homer would visit several dimensions, including one where everything was made out of paper cut-outs, but they decided that it would be too complicated.
A large portion of "Homer3" was three dimensional and computer animated. Supervising director David Silverman was aiming for something better than the computer animation used in the music video for "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits. The animation was provided by Pacific Data Images (PDI) and overseen by Tim Johnson. The animators at PDI worked closely with the normal animators and worked hard not to "reinvent the character[s]". The animators storyboarded the segments and showed the PDI animators how they would have handled the scenes. While designing the 3D model of Bart, the animators did not know how they would show Bart's hair. However, they realized that there were vinyl Bart dolls in production and purchased one to use as a model. One of the most difficult parts for the PDI animators was to make Homer and Bart move properly without making them look robotic.
In "Attack of the 50 Foot Eyesores", some of the mascots are parodies of real life mascots. For example, the giant walking unnamed peanut is a parody of Mr. Peanut.
In "Homer3", there is a deleted scene of after Frink saying "The third dimension", he sees Lisa has turned out the lights and Frink draws on a blackboard, that scene is cut in some countries to save time, but it was left in US airings but it is cut in FXX reruns.
At the end of Attack of the 50-foot Eyesores, Kent Brockman warns people watching the news about the statues coming to life in their town, "Lock your doors, bar your windows, because the next advertisement you see could destroy your house and eat your family." In Los Simpson: Lisa the Vegetarian (1995), when Lisa remembers Kent eating meat during his news segment, he says the same sentence, though most of it is cut out.
On the Gracie films logo, the jingle was played as a Myst/Philip Glass Homage as heard in "Homer³". The scream usually heard from Treehouse of Horror IV and onwards is not heard.
This is the fifth Treehouse of Horror to have the cast's names changed due to Halloween e.g. Bat Groening. The first four being Los Simpson: Treehouse of Horror II (1991), Los Simpson: Treehouse of Horror III (1992), Los Simpson: Treehouse of Horror IV (1993) and Los Simpson: Treehouse of Horror V (1994).
If you look closely, you can see Groundskeeper Willie is already stalking Bart from the Flanders' garden within seconds of the opening credits.
The first of two episodes to depict an erotic bake shop. The second was Los Simpson: Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes (2008).
The TV screen returns to its familiar color for the only time.
As with any other Treehouse of Horror episode, this is one of several Simpsons episodes which are considered anthology episodes that feature mini-stories.
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