Treehouse of Horror III

"Treehouse of Horror III" is the fifth episode of the fourth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons.

The third annual Treehouse of Horror episode, it features segments in which Homer buys Bart an evil talking doll, Homer is a giant ape who is captured by Mr. Burns in a parody of the 1933 version of King Kong, and Bart and Lisa inadvertently cause zombies to attack Springfield.

The episode was written by Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Jay Kogen, Wallace Wolodarsky, Sam Simon, and Jon Vitti, and directed by Carlos Baeza.

The natives of Ape Island capture Marge and tie her to a post as an offering for King Homer, who is summoned by the sound of drums.

He abducts Marge and attempts to climb a skyscraper, but is unable to get past the second story of the building and collapses in exhaustion.

That night, he tries to resurrect the family's dead cat, Snowball I, but accidentally reanimates corpses from the nearby human cemetery instead.

Aided by Homer wielding a shotgun, Lisa and Bart find a book at the library to cast the appropriate counter-spell, causing all of the zombies to return to their graves.

The names Jay Kogen and Wolodarsky (two of The Simpsons writers who worked on the episode) are written on the tombstones, but both are misspelled.

[6] The "Clown Without Pity" segment is based on the Twilight Zone episode "Living Doll" and the film Trilogy of Terror.

The title itself is a play on the song "Town Without Pity", written for the movie of the same name and performed by Gene Pitney.

[2] The song Marge hears while put on hold after calling the Krusty doll hotline is "Everybody Loves a Clown" by Gary Lewis & the Playboys.

[8][9] In the pet cemetery, there are tombstones that read Fish Police, Capitol Critters and Family Dog, each a short-lived animated series intended to capitalize on The Simpsons' success.

[10] Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, thoroughly enjoyed the episode.

Ferrell mentions that his favorite joke from The Simpsons was the line "Women and seamen (semen) don't mix", said by Smithers during the "King Homer" segment.