What? How does the comment made in The Simpsons equate at all to wishing death on someone? As far as I could interpret, (1) Lisa mentions that without Death around, nothing ends and (2) Homer asks if the Jim Belushi show will ever be cancelled. Cancelled. Not “will Belushi ever die, thus ending his show?”
Best line was Homer in the stands of the Nobel Prize presentation: “Remember when I was Death? That was great.”
Although I believe that episode was based on a film called Death Takes A Holiday, in which Death took a holiday, therefore, nobody could die.
Flanders’ brief bit in Frinkenstein was pretty funny “I finished first in Walk For The Cure Of Homosexuality!” “Confucious…and Milton Berle? Boy, was I barking up the wrong tree!”
Perhaps the most obscure guest star ever. A guy who won the Nobel Prize, co-presented with Jennifer Garner, parodying the absurd combinations of award show presentees.
“This was the wildest Nobel Prize ceremony ever!”
“I disagree.”
Did Jerry Lewis even say “glaven”? The reason I said I was disappointed with the Frink section was that I was expecting Frink (who does Frink’s voice?) and Lewis to get in a Nutty Professor-off where each of them tried to upstage the other. As it was, Frink ate Lewis’ Nutty lunch! Was Lewis too worried about being dignified to Frink Out?
I’m harping on that one little thing, but I was very impressed wih the episode. I think it bodes well for the new season.
it was also done in ancient lore before TV was invented, so i don’t know what you’re getting at…
I recall a short story (Ray Bradbury, maybe? King?) where a man and his family find an empty house in the middle of enormous fields of wheat. They’re broke, so they just move in. The man finds a sickle with some sort of inscription on it, and goes out to the wheat field and starts cutting wheat, which he then does obsessively from then on.
Gradually, you and he come to realize that he is Death, reaping souls in the wheatfield. Eventually, he comes across a stalk of wheat that he knows he is supposed to harvest, but he also realizes that it represents his wife.
I forget whether or not he actually cuts it, but he flips out and starts hacking down great stands of wheat that are not yet ready for harvest – and armies march across Europe, bombs fall on Hiroshima, etc.
This story may have been the specific inspiration for this episode.
By the way…the writers missed a Golden Opportunity in this episode: When Homer’s hand shrivels into a skeleton, Lisa exclaims "Dad! You’ve become Death!"
How much better would it have been if she had said "Dad! You’ve become Death, destroyer of worlds!"
BrotherCadfael: Bradbury, “The Scythe”.
not that much better…
I think the stopwatch segment was inspired by the book by John McDonald The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything.
And helped along mightily by the 1999 movie Clockstoppers.
I didn’t notice the final credits, so I’m surprised to learn it was Jerry Lewis. I could’a sworn Frink’s father was voiced by Stan Lee.
Yeah, sorry about that.
I think the stopwatch segment was closest to the movie ‘Clockstoppers’. Also, we see Bart aged about 15 years - probably a bit younger than in ‘Lisa’s Wedding’ but with the same mullet.
I recall another episode where Lenny and Carl are talking to eachother on the phone (I forget if they were wearing seatbelts then) - this time they crash into eachother.
Moe has a scary pre-occupation with suicide, which spans quite a few episodes. Strange that he ordered a pizza and left the money out (no tip!)
I don’t know, this Treehouse was good, but I like the specials where the segments don’t have real endings.
Oh, there’s more than two, baby. Cheap a-holes.
It was…okay, but not great. Especially when compared to Halloween Specials past.
I was thankful it was better than last year’s.
Well, they still show the episode that takes place in NYC where the guy hollers out of the WTC, “They put all the jerks in Tower 2.”
Loved how happy Lenny looked to as he was flying towards Carl.
The Christmas decorations on the spaceship were a bit of a freeze-frame joke: one of the alien figurines looked about to eat Santa while the other was about to eat a reindeer. 
That’s like saying that you’re grateful a movie was better than Manos: The Hands of Fate
Homer becoming Death was one of their best Halloween stories. I thought they used the idea better than Family Guy.
Was the naked woman directing traffic supposed to be a joke, or just something they did because they’re probably the only show that could get away with it?
I just watched this last night – the first episode of the Simpsons I’ve seen in well over a year. The first thing I thought was “Is this how bad the Simpsons is now?”
I mean, it was okay, but I never laughed out loud once. Unlike, say, Family Guy, which can make me laugh every 2 minutes. Ah, for the days of the GOOD halloween specials, like the “Shining” parody, or the “Sound of Thunder” bit…
Oh, and what is up with the halloween episode in November? Seriously, why don’t they just make the Halloween episode the season premiere?