The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror XXXVII airs Sunday, October 25, at 8 p.m. on Fox, and it opens with a stop-motion Nightmare Before Christmas sequence that turns Bart into Jack Skellington, Marge into Sally, and Homer into the Mayor of Halloween Town. The date is 36 years to the day after the first Treehouse of Horror aired in 1990.
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When Treehouse of Horror XXXVII Airs and Where to Watch
The episode airs at 8 p.m. ET/PT, the half-hour The Simpsons holds on Fox on Sundays this season. Fox mailed the episode’s poster and art to press this week, and Bloody Disgusting and Dread Central published photos of the package.
For streaming, the poster carries the Hulu on Disney+ logo and the line “For Hulu and bundle subscribers,” and Disney+ lists a Simpsons Treehouse of Horror playlist among the Halloween playlists it says are coming soon.
Joel H. Cohen, Jessica Conrad, and Tim Long wrote the episode and David Silverman directed it, according to the poster, which also bills the Simpson family, Hans Moleman, the Bouvier sisters, and Kang and Kodos.
The Nightmare Before Christmas Opening
The episode opens with a stop-motion mashup of The Simpsons and The Nightmare Before Christmas, the 1993 stop-motion musical in which Jack Skellington, the king of Halloween Town, tries to bring Christmas home. Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, the studio behind Robot Chicken, produced the opening, Dread Central reported, citing Variety’s interview with executive producer Matt Selman.
The art in Fox’s package rebuilds six characters as stop-motion figures:
- Bart as Jack Skellington in the pinstriped suit, leaning on a tombstone
- Marge as Sally in the patchwork dress, with her blue hair
- Homer as the Mayor of Halloween Town in the tall hat, with a ribbon that reads “Homer”
- Krusty the Clown on a unicycle
- A one-eyed creature with Sideshow Bob’s hair
- A figure in overalls with a hatchet in his head
On the poster, a ghost dog with a red nose floats beside Bart. Dread Central identifies it as Santa’s Little Helper playing Zero, Jack’s dog.
The Three Stories
Fox’s package lists three stories, and a letter inside it, written as Ralph Wiggum, gives one more line on each:
- Marge’s husbands. “Marge gets a horrifying new perspective on marriage.” Ralph’s letter says Marge’s shed keeps giving her new husbands. On the poster, Marge screams beside a burst of Springfield men, Ned Flanders among them.
- Bart and his dog. “Bart and Santa’s Little Helper embark on a bone-chilling adventure.” Ralph’s letter says Bart and his dog switch bodies. On the poster, Homer stands with a shovel over a grave with a pair of sneakers and two paws sticking out of the dirt.
- Homer’s driving lesson. “Homer takes a driving lesson.” Ralph’s letter says Bart’s dad is in scary driver’s ed movies. On the poster, Patty and Selma ride broomsticks beside a car, in traffic cones marked “DMV” for witch hats.
Patty and Selma wear the same DMV traffic cones as witches on the side of Jack in the Box’s Munchie Meal of Horror box, shown in my review of the Treehouse of Horror menu. Selman called that meal “dense with deep references” in Jack in the Box’s announcement.
Treehouse of Horror Food and Merchandise This Halloween
Jack in the Box. The Treehouse of Horror menu has been in restaurants since September 10, with a Munchie Meal of Horror and six glow-in-the-dark collectible cups. Some locations have run out of cups, and Jack in the Box is giving vouchers.
Halloween Horror Nights. Universal Studios Hollywood is serving five Treehouse of Horror food and drink items in Springfield on select nights through November 1. Universal Orlando sells the Pumpkin Spice Cold Boo, a Treehouse of Horror cold brew, for $10 during the day and at Halloween Horror Nights.
JAKKS Pacific’s countdown calendar. The Treehouse of Horror Countdown Calendar in Fox’s package is a JAKKS Pacific product. It has 31 days of 1.5-inch figures and accessories and a pop-up Springfield Cemetery scene to stand them in. JAKKS Pacific’s page links to Costco, and that Costco page was gone on October 1. A third-party seller lists the Treehouse of Horror Countdown Calendar on Amazon.
Kidrobot’s blind boxes. Kidrobot’s Treehouse of Horror Blind Box Mini Figure Series 2 has 13 figures, including Homerzilla, Evil Krusty Doll, and Raven Bart, and two of the 13 are mystery chase figures. Each figure is about 3 inches tall, and a blind box is $14.99 on pre-order at Kidrobot.
Funko. Funko’s Patchwork Itchy and Scratchy Pops are $14.99 each at Funko.com, and both are in my Patchwork Funko guide.
More Nightmare Before Christmas This Season
The Nightmare Before Christmas returns to theaters on October 2 at AMC and Regal with a light-up Jack Skellington popcorn bucket, and it reaches Cinemark on October 16 and Harkins on October 23. Freeform airs the film during 31 Nights of Halloween, including a Tim Burton night on October 16.
Treehouse of Horror XXXVII airs Sunday, October 25, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox. The rest of the season’s Halloween television is in my Halloween TV specials guide.
