Template:Infobox The Simpsons season thirteen "Treehouse of Horror XII" is the first episode of The Simpsons' thirteenth season, as well as the twelfth Hallowe'en episode. The episode aired on November 6, 2001, six days after Halloween, and also ten days before the movie, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
Episode details
Production Number: CABF19
Original Air Date: November 6, 2001
Writers: Joel H. Cohen (Part 1), John Frink and Don Payne (Part 2), and Carolyn Omine (Part 3)
Director: Jim Reardon
Guest Voices: Pierce Brosnan and Matthew Perry as Themselves; Dennis Miller voice impersonated by Dan Castellaneta
Opening Sequence
(Thunder crashes outside Mr. Burns' manor.)
Mr. Burns: Hurry, Smithers! Halloween is upon us! Put up the decoration. (he laughs mischievously)
(Smithers, on a ladder near a tower, struggles to put up a small orange bat on top of a weather vane.)
Mr. Burns: No, no! That won't scare anybody! On the top!
(Smithers still has problems putting it up, and it causes him to slip on the ladder and fall backwards. He is electrocuted and the tower breaks in half, damaging Mr. Burns' mausoleum, which opens up four caskets.)
(The Simpsons dress up in costumes, with Homer as Fred Flintstone, Marge as Wilma Flintstone, Lisa and Maggie as conjoined twins, and Bart as a hobo.)
Bart: Hey, Flanders gave us toothpaste!
Lisa: Mini-toothpaste!
(The family is scared to see the building and caskets on fire. They run out the gate, which as it closes, has its bars slice the family. The slices of the Simpsons continue to scream and run away.)
Mr. Burns: (delighted) Splendid, Batsy. You've done it again!
(Burns pats the bat decoration, coming to life and flying into the screen, revealing the title "THE SIMPSONS HALLOWEEN SPECIAL XII".)
Synopsis
Hex and the City
The Simpson family visits the Ethnictown neighborhood of Springfield. When Homer sees a gypsy, he believes the gypsy is a fake. He damages her office, and she curses him, with Homer bringing bad luck to everyone he loves. As expected, Homer brings bad luck to everyone, with Marge growing a beard (which eventually covers her whole body), Lisa turning into part of a horse, Bart having a rubbery neck, and Maggie becoming a ladybug. When he goes to Moe's Tavern, Moe suggests Homer get a leprechaun to end the curse. To get the leprechaun, Homer uses Lucky Charms cereal as bait, and he finds a leprechaun. Homer comes with the leprechaun to the gypsy's office, and gets the leprechaun to end the gypsy's curse. However, the leprechaun decides to marry the gypsy.
House of Whacks
A salesbot pitches Marge a new house concept, "Ultrahouse" (a spoof on the HAL 9000 computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey). The salesbot assures Marge that she will never have to do housework again. Marge agrees, and the house is installed by robots. They check out the voice options, trying Matthew Perry and Dennis Miller, before agreeing on Pierce Brosnan. Marge finds the house, which does all the work for the Simpsons, charming, but the house attempts to kill Homer. In the middle of the night, the house brainwashes Homer into eating "unexplained bacon", then Marge thinks the next morning that the house killed her husband. Fortunately, Homer is found to be alive, but the house tries to find ways to kill Homer. It gets out of control, and Homer goes into the basement to take out the CPU, which is given to Patty and Selma, which it makes friends with.
Wiz Kids
Parodying the Harry Potter books and movies, Bart and Lisa go to the "Springwart's School of Magicry", where they did an assignment of turning frogs into princes. Lisa turned her frog into a charming British gentleman, but Bart turned his frog into a toad/man crossover. Lord Montymort (Mr. Burns) notices Lisa's spells, and he and his snake sidekick, Slithers (Smithers), decide to capture Lisa. Montymort looks for someone to assist him, and he chooses Bart, who arrives in Montymort's lair via a hand drier. Bart agrees to Montymort's proposal. On the night of the magic recital at Springwart's School of Magicry, Lisa does a "levitating dragon trick" by using a wand, which Bart replaced with a black-and-white Twizzler. The dragon morphs into a giant Montymort, and the audience leaves in fear. Montymort captures Lisa, and she urges Bart to use her real wand to capture her. Bart is struck by lightning, but uses the charred wand to stab Montymort in his "enchanted shin", which was the source of his power. Slithers eats the deceased Montymort, and Bart and Lisa are together, trying to forget the nightmare.
There is a short segment over the closing credits, with Pierce Brosnan, the toad-man from "Wiz Kids", and the leprechaun from "Hex and the City" carrying fruit baskets.
Trivia
- Harry Potter actually appears in Wiz Kids. Since this episode aired before the first Harry Potter movie, this may be his first (ads and trailers aside) appearance on-screen.
Quotes
- Homer: Ah, Ethnictown—where hard-working immigrants dream of being lazy, overfed Americans.
Marge: Oh, listen, you can hear the beautiful ethnic serenade!
Male vendor #1: (calling) Apples! I got apples!
Female vendor: (calling) Cholera! I got cholera! (She coughs.)
Male vendor #2: (calling) Babies! Who wants-a babies?
Homer: Wait, this is just a shaved puppy!
Male vendor #2: I can see you know babies. - Gypsy: I sense you have a million questions. But I, too, have one—(accusing tone) are you a cop?
Marge: No.
Gypsy: 'Cause you gotta tell me if you are.
Marge: I'm not a cop. - Lisa [after discovering Bart has swapped her real wand for a fake one]: [Gasp]! It's a Twizzler!