Opening sequence " The
first,
second, and
fifth Treehouse of Horror episodes open with
Marge standing on a stage and warning parents about the content of the episode, advising them to put their children to bed. The warning in the first episode was put in as a sincere effort to warn young viewers, as the producers felt it was somewhat scary. Marge's warnings quickly became a burden to write, particularly because – as she herself noted – they were mostly ignored, so after "
Treehouse of Horror V", they were dropped. Other
Treehouse of Horror episodes have opened with parodies; for example, "
Treehouse of Horror III" had
Homer introduce the episode in a manner similar to
Alfred Hitchcock in
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The tombstone gags were easy for the writers in the
first episode, but like Marge's warnings, they eventually got more difficult to write, so they were abandoned. However, after two decades, this gag made a brief comeback in "
Treehouse of Horror XXIX" at the very beginning, this time appearing before the main opening sequence and title. While the early
Treehouse of Horror episodes featured a Halloween themed opening sequence, the later ones only included the title and the "created by" and "developed by" credits. Every episode between "
Treehouse of Horror III" and "
Treehouse of Horror X" featured a
couch gag with a Halloween theme, including the Simpson family dressed as skeletons, "
Treehouse of Horror II" presented all of the segments as being nightmares of Lisa, Bart and
Homer; "
Treehouse of Horror III" had Lisa, Bart and
Grampa telling stories at a Halloween party; After a few years, the amount of broadcast time for an episode was shortened, allowing less time to tell a proper story. There were no wraparounds for "
Treehouse of Horror V" because they had been cut to make more time for the segments. Following that, the writers permanently dropped them (until "
Treehouse of Horror Presents: Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes").
Kang and Kodos Two characters that are virtually exclusive to the
Treehouse of Horror series are
Kang and Kodos, a pair of large green space aliens who were introduced in the "Hungry are the Damned" segment of "
Treehouse of Horror". Kang and Kodos have since appeared in every
Treehouse of Horror episode, often in
cameos. In some episodes, they only appear in the opening segment, but often they will make a cameo appearance in the middle of a different story. For example, a story about zombies attacking the town briefly cuts to them in their space ship, watching the events and laughing maniacally at the Earthlings' suffering. The action then switches back to the actual story. According to
Al Jean in 2022, an unofficial rule is that they must be in every episode, Kang and Kodos were prominent characters in the 2015 episode "
The Man Who Came to Be Dinner", which was not Halloween themed.
Scary names ". Beginning with "
Treehouse of Horror II", the producers decided to give the cast and crew of the show 'scary names' in the opening and closing credits. Although the names quickly became more silly than scary, there have been a wide variety of special credits, from simple names like "
Bat Groening" or "
Chains Hell Brooks" to complex ones like "
Dan CastellanetarghaGAHEGGA (Smash) Gurgle Mr. Hyde". The idea for 'scary names' came from executive producer
Al Jean, who was inspired by
EC Comics because some of the issues also used 'scary' alternate names.
Cultural references References to films, novels, plays, television shows, and other media are commonly featured, and many segments have been parodies of a specific work in the horror, science fiction, or fantasy genre. Many segments are spoofs of episodes of
The Twilight Zone, and entire segments will be based on a single episode. Some of the
Twilight Zone episodes parodied include "
A Kind of a Stopwatch", "
To Serve Man", "
A Small Talent for War", "
Living Doll", "
Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", "
Little Girl Lost", and "
The Little People". The "Bart's Nightmare" segment of "
Treehouse of Horror II" parodies the episode "
It's a Good Life" and is even presented in a format similar to an episode of
The Twilight Zone.
A Nightmare on Elm Street,
Paranormal Activity, and
Dead Calm. Science fiction films have also occasionally been used as inspiration for segments, and in later episodes, many of the segments were based more on science fiction than horror. Science fiction works parodied include
The Omega Man, the novel
Nineteen Eighty-Four,
The Island of Doctor Moreau, and
Orson Welles's
The War of the Worlds radio broadcast.
Sweeney Todd; the
Twilight film series; and
Jumanji. ==Production==