The Simpsons Delivering Horror-Themed Thanksgiving Episode

The Simpsons opened its 31st season in a pretty epic way earlier this year, with a "Treehouse of Horror" episode that parodied some modern horror hits. While Halloween has officially come and gone, it sounds like the show will still be bringing a fair share of spookiness to FOX's Animation Domination block. A new synopsis for the series' November 24th episode, "Thanksgiving of Horror" hints that the family will be facing off against "various Thanksgiving nightmares".

"The Simpsons are forced to face various Thanksgiving nightmares, including the first Thanksgiving, an artificial intelligence mishap and a dangerous space mission complicated by a sentient cranberry sauce."

Season 31 is bringing a new era of sorts to the long-running animated sitcom, now that it is officially part of The Walt Disney Company following the Disney/Fox merger. In August of last year, FOX confirmed that they would be working to keep the series on their network, something that still appears to be the case.

"Simpsons is so much a part of the brand," FOX CEO Dana Walden said at the time. "There's been such an incredible halo effect of that show and the other animated series that are on our Sunday night. There are no plans for them to go anywhere other than FOX. We have a couple years of episodes already in progress on The Simpsons. So down the line, what kind of decision is made I can't really speak to. But for the foreseeable future, there's so much upside and benefit to having a great Emmy Award winning, smart, provocative, quality show, that there's no consideration of not ordering more Simpsons."

In an interview with The Daily Beast earlier this year, Jean spoke about the Disney/Fox deal, and what impact it would have on The Simpsons going forward.

"In terms of milestones, I thought if it ended it would be 30, but it didn't—we're doing 32—so now, I think the biggest variable is we're obviously going to be a Disney property, and what Disney wants to do with the show." Jean explained. "I like doing it as we do it for Fox but I don't know what's going to happen. I think they want it to continue, and think it's one of the reasons they paid so much for Fox."

"There couldn't have been [any decisions from Disney] yet because, which I found out, prior to the merger the acquiring company can't even give a suggestion or make a note—they need to remain at arm's length." Jean continued. "So the decision was to pick it up for two years just because if we had waited for the merger, we would have had too much downtime for our animation crew. So what Disney will do we'll know after the two years."

Are you excited to see The Simpsons do a horror-themed Thanksgiving episode? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!