The Simpsons will air its annual “Treehouse of Horror” special on Sunday, one of two Halloween-themed episodes this year. “Treehouse of Horror XXVI” will have Sideshow Bob finally killing Bart and Frank Grimes returning as a zombie, as well as segments about Lisa, Bart, and Milhouse gaining the power of telepathy and “Homerzilla.” It’s a sort-of sequel “King Homer” from “Treehouse of Horror III,” and the episode’s most obvious pop-culture parody.
The pop-culture spoof is a time-honored “Treehouse” tradition, dating all the way back to season two’s “Bad Dream House.” Below, you’ll find the complete collection of every TV show, movie, and book that The Simpsons has paid direct late-October homage to (I say direct, because, for instance, “The Fright to Creep and Scare Harms” claims to parody The Terminator, but the only real connection is time travel; that doesn’t count). I only included the segments themselves, not individual jokes in them, otherwise this post would reference The Twilight Zone 4,248 times. You’ll have to settle for 1,824 times.
Treehouse of Horror
–The Amityville Horror
-“To Serve Man” from The Twilight Zone
–The Raven
Treehouse of Horror II
–The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs
-“It’s a Good Life” from The Twilight Zone
–Frankenstein
Treehouse of Horror III
-“Living Doll” from The Twilight Zone
–King Kong
–Night of the Living Dead
Treehouse of Horror IV
–The Devil and Daniel Webster
-“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” from The Twilight Zone
–Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Treehouse of Horror V
–The Shining
-“A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury
–Soylent Green
Treehouse of Horror VI
–Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
–A Nightmare on Elm Street
-“Little Girl Lost” from The Twilight Zone
Treehouse of Horror VII
–Basket Case
-“The Little People” from The Twilight Zone
Treehouse of Horror VIII
–The Ωmega Man
–The Fly
–The Crucible
Treehouse of Horror IX
-“Hell Toupee” from Amazing Stories
Treehouse of Horror X
–I Know What You Did Last Summer
–When Worlds Collide
Treehouse of Horror XI
–The Munsters
–Ghost Dad
–Grimm’s Fairy Tales
–The Day of the Dolphin
Treehouse of Horror XII
–Thinner
–2001: A Space Odyssey and Demon Seed
–Harry Potter
Treehouse of Horror XIII
–Multiplicity
–The Island of Dr. Moreau
Treehouse of Horror XIV
–Frankenstein
-“A Kind of a Stopwatch” from The Twilight Zone
Treehouse of Horror XV
–The Dead Zone
–Fantastic Voyage
Treehouse of Horror XVI
–A.I. Artificial Intelligence
–The Most Dangerous Game
-“The Masks” from The Twilight Zone
Treehouse of Horror XVII
–The Blob
–The Golem
–The War of the Worlds
Treehouse of Horror XVIII
–E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
–Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Treehouse of Horror XIX
–Transformers
–It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Treehouse of Horror XX
–Strangers on a Train
–Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Treehouse of Horror XXI
–Jumanji
–Dead Calm
–Twilight
Treehouse of Horror XXII
–The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Spider-Man
–Dexter
–Avatar
Treehouse of Horror XXIII
–Paranormal Activity
–Back to the Future
Treehouse of Horror XXIV
–The Cat In the Hat
–The Thing with Two Heads
–Freaks
Treehouse of Horror XXV
–A Clockwork Orange
–The Others
