Twilight Zone, and the Simpson's Halloween Specials

Starting in season 2, The Simpsons began airing a Halloween anthology episode every year, and as I've been watching "The Twilight Zone" this month, it dawns on me how much these episodes were influenced by TZ. Many segments were directly based on certain episodes, like "Terror at 5 1/2 Feet" which is on an episode where the wraparound is like Night Gallery, with Bart hosting the anthology at a gallery with a lot of paintings.

The first special had an alien-themed segment with a direct rip on "To Serve Man", which was a wonderful TZ episode about aliens who treat humans with luxury, but they have an ulterior motive. The gag is still pretty funny.

Perhaps the most blatant segment is the one where Bart can think anything into happening. Just like the episode of TZ, and there's even a narrator doing his best Rod Serling impression. Jack-in-the-box included.

There's another episode where Lisa creates the small society. "Clown without Pity" is another one, about a doll who tries to kill its owner. The Simpsons had a lot of great episodes back in the day, and they were inspired by a lot of these cool classic tv episodes.

What got me thinking about the influence of these TZ episodes was one that seemed very blatant when I watched it earlier today. It's an episode called "Little Girl Lost", in which a girl is lost in another dimension, within her house. This one is also parodied by Simpson's in the episode "Homer3", where he goes into the wall and into another dimension, where he's 3D. Come to think of it, this episode is a lot like another movie we all know, called "Poultergeist", don't you think?


There are probably a bunch more out there, too. The Simpson's never tried to hide their blatant parodies of these, and their Halloween specials had a lot of other great episodes that were parodies of other horror media. Segments based on things like The Raven, The Shining, Bram Stoker's Dracula '92/Salem's Lot, The Monkey's Paw, Nightmare on Elm Street, and plenty more. There are a bunch of shitty Halloween specials they released that I've never seen, so I've got some catching up to do. I'm sure there will be more Twilight Zone references, too.