The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror Delayed Until November

The Simpsons‘ Treehouse of Horror special will have to wait until November. With COVID-19 turning the entire entertainment world on its ear, it’s normal to see some of the cultural mainstays on broadcast television get shuffled around. The Simpsons‘ official account actually tweeted about the delay and told fans not to worry, there will be plenty of Halloween shenanigans, but they might have to wait until November to firmly take hold. This hasn’t been the first time that the special had to be pushed to November. A lot of fans who don’t enjoy the slide due to the sports calendar, but the show has to deal with the hand that it’s dealt. People can take some solace in the fact that XXXI looks to be a good time with a lot of wild concepts including a riff on the excellent Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse this season. But, next month does feel quite a ways away.

Comicbook.com’s Patrick Cavanaugh covered the fresh trailer for the 31st iteration of Treehouse of Horror. He had a history lesson for us. This is a long-establised tradition for most of the fanbase and this interaction is early into the Disney tenure of the show.

The first installment in the tradition, which unfolded in the second season of the series, took the “Treehouse of Horror” name literally, as it saw the characters in the Simpson family treehouse telling each other creepy stories, filled with the show’s signature wit. Subsequent entries saw similar wraparound narratives being told through partygoers attempting to unsettle their friends or having too much candy resulting in nightmares for the Simpson children.

As time went by, not only did this wraparound structure get abandoned, but so did the adherence to the concept of “horror” stories. In their quest to craft dozens of episodes, each consisting of at least three segments, the series would find itself offering lampoons of nearly any piece of pop culture, so long as none of the segments were considered canon for the series. As evidenced by this latest episode parodying Pixar films and Into the Spider-Verse, clearly the major force behind these annual episodes is parodying pieces of pop culture the series wouldn’t otherwise commit entire storylines to.

Will you be watching Treehouse of Horror this year? Let us know in the comments!