Ha ha!
Bart as Charlie Brown, Lisa as Lucy Van Pelt.
Bart throttling Lisa. Homer rolling Bart and Lisa into a carpet and bashing them with a baseball bat.
Marge with a shotgun.
Kang and Kodos having fun at the expense of corporate tyrant Rupert Murdoch and FOX for showing the Halloween episode in Smarch
When I saw Professor Frink’s father was going to speak, I thought it would be cool if Jerry Lewis did the voice.
Brilliant episode. 
This is a grand misuse of the spoiler tag, but I’ll bite.
Jerry Lewis did do the voice of Frink’s father. He’s older (and chubbier) now, so I guess he can’t do his Nutty Professor voice that Frink Jr. parodies.
My favorite segment of the three was Stop the World, I Want To Goof Off! The idea of Bart and Milhouse with a watch that can freeze time is a simple one, but can cause great hilarity. Especially funny was the scene in which they strip Homer, bring Nelson in to say his famous line, and then strip him before he can finish it.
The opening sequence was very funny, and a good example of the non-canonical mayhem that can be done in a Halloween episode. (The mayhem started when Lisa stole a Butterfinger from Bart. I guess he was right when he said to never lay a finger on them.) Grampa, set on fire: “I’m still cold.” And the scene following, poking fun at a Halloween show in November, was inspired.
Hopefully, the Simpsons are back in the swing of things. (I laughed long and hard at a line in the preview for next week’s show. Something about Homer hiding his mother in the most deserted place he knows-Disney’s California Adventure.)
Homer calling god a chump? Priceless. Even with a (very) weak ending this was a great episode.
They did that death not killing people thing before on Family Guy. Although it was funnier there.
My favorite part was were Homer as Death offers up Marge to God and asks for his life back. When it’s discovered that the body’s not really Marge, God just gets funny. “This isn’t Mage, this is her sister, Selma”
“Wrong, it’s Patty!” So much for the omnipotence, but the best was when the beam of light is chasing Homer and the train gets in the way.
“I’m too old and too rich for this.”
I didn’t care too much for the Frinkenstien episode, but the stopwatch one ones great. And another shout of kudos for the Kang and Kudos bit. “We’ve already got our Christmas decorations up!” The multilegged stockings and red and green saucer were classic.
Woo hoo! Great episode! Jerry Lewis was the only weak part.
My favorite line was from Frink’s rampaging father, to Flanders.
“Hey you, 700 Club, …”
I was amazed that the bit where Homer kills Death then asks, “Does that mean the Jim Belushi show will NEVER get cancelled?” made it to the air. I saw it on a commercial for the episode a couple weeks ago and figured that since this is the week when John Ritter’s character “dies” it would strike too close to home for some people so I was going to place odds on that never being seen again.
Do you remember the Twilight Zone episode that inspired this? The episode ended right after the watch was broken, IIRC. It was great to see this taken past that ending, too.
Oh, and dropzone…Ritter’s character was on 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. Maybe they thought that, since it was a different show, it’d be okay.
The Jim Belushi line also made me think of his brother John.
I liked the Homer-Death epsiode best, then The Watch and then Frink (which was kind of lame). It was neat seeing the adult Bart from “Lisa’s vision.” Great continuity.
But the best was the Kang and Kodos beginning combining the lateness of the Halloween episode and the earliness of Xmas decorations.
Silly boy, I know that! But Belushi has a similar (identical?) show on the same network. Coming so close to Ritter’s death that joke was in bad taste, even for The Simpsons.
I am thankful I like bad taste.
Quick question: The show was followed by a rerun of the 300th episode. Marge made a comment to the effect that it was really the 302nd, but that was a secret. Is the inside story worth revealing?
The watch that stopped time was an old Twilight Zone episode. As long as there is still some ore in that mine, we’ll keep having Treehouses of Horror.
There’s some debate as to how to count the original Simpson’s Christmas special – an episode of the series or not?
Elvis,
I believe the reference is there because there are two “clip” episodes, which people debate (quite heatedly) whether to count in the total…
My favorite bit in the episode (which was otherwise somewhat weak) was the hyperkinetic chase with Death, done to the “Benny Hill” chase music. Inspired.
But the show overall was nowhere near as good as the Salem story a couple of years ago: “This scaring people into giving us candy is great!” Yeah, I just wish we hadn’t filled up on children before we got the Flanders’ house." “BRAAAPPPP!”
Actually, I thought this would have been better had the show not already done this with Helen Fielding a season or two back.
Actually, I thought this would have been better had the show not already done this with Helen Fielding a season or two back.
The Death and Stopwatch stories were pure gold, and was the introduction. The Frick bit, not so much. But the way over the top violence was amusing with the slaughter and the mayhem, and glavin!
“Heatedly”? OK, I’m staying out, but thanks.
The Benny Hill music is “Yakety Sax” by Boots Randolph, if you wanna know.
“And I though Haley Berry went nuts with HER acceptance speech!”
Bwahhahahahahahahaaha!