“The Simpsons” is still a thing in 2024, even though nobody you know is watching it. While the general consensus is that the show hasn’t been good for a while, it still manages to churn out the odd highlight, including a fake series finale inspired by a common fan question. What’s more, you can still count on the “Treehouse of Horror” episodes to deliver top-quality “Simpsons.”
Inspired by a ’50s comic, the “Treehouse of Horror” Halloween episodes started in the show’s second season, and have become a “Simpsons” tradition ever since (though that tradition almost ended before it began). The anthology episodes are responsible for some of the most memorable moments in the series’ long history, and have developed their own mini traditions in and of themselves — one being renaming all the cast and crew in the episode credits to give them spooky-sounding names.
Over the course of 35 Halloween episodes, series creator Matt Groening has become “Matt “funk lord of usa” Groening,” executive producer James L. Brooks has been renamed to “James Hell Brooks,” and voice actor Hank Azaria has, lamentably, been dubbed “Yank My Area.” But one of these seemingly harmless gags actually had some real-life consequences.
The Treehouse of Horror credits that caused real-world scares
“The Simpsons” has been running for so long that “Treehouse of Horror” episodes have even begun referencing “Simpsons” episodes of old. The spooky installments are still cranking out novelty credits, too, with the 35th edition changing the names of executive producers Matt Selman and Al Jean to “Stay Puft Mattselman Man” and “A.I. Jean.”
While all these gags are just harmless fun, back in the day, one instance of spookifying the cast and crew names caused some real world scares. For season 7’s “Treehouse of Horror VI,” writers Josh Weinstein and Bill Oakley had their names changed to “The Estate of Josh Weinstein” and “The late Bill Oakley.” The credits in question appeared at the end of the segment, “Homer^3,” which was the first time “The Simpsons” used 3D animation and real-world footage, and remains one of the best “Treehouse of Horror” segments ever made.
According to Weinstein (via Twitter), his and Oakley’s name changes were taken slightly too literally by their former high school’s alumni office, which called the show to make sure the pair were still alive.
When this Halloween credit first appeared, someone from our high school’s alumni office called to make sure we were okay. https://t.co/7qnYrwjjJS
— Josh Weinstein (@Joshstrangehill) November 1, 2024
In a reply to a comment, Weinstein confirmed that, “Yes, this actually happened,” and also responded to a question as to whether the pair were actually OK with, “We were pretty much alive.” Spooky, indeed!
