The Simpsons is partnering with the folks from Stoopid Buddy (“Robot Chicken”) to take on “Venom” in this fall’s annual “Treehouse of Horror” extravaganza. In this case, Homer meets his match with “Denim.” It’s the 35th “Treehouse of Horror,” and the show is promising “the scariest 35th Halloween special ever.”
Creator Matt Groening, showrunner Matt Selman and producers Rob LaZebnik, Jessica Conrad and Tim Bailey joined guest moderator Kevin Smith to discuss “Treehouse of Horror,” other episodes and special voices from the upcoming season.
In the case of “Denim,” Selman told PvNew that the segment will center on Homer’s “deep relationship with a simple alien symbiotic pair of jeans. It’s a really funny, silly segment about the jeans are going to be actual actual stop motion denim created by the Stoopid Buddies animators that do the ‘Robot Chicken’ shows.”
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To discuss the segment, Stoopid Buddy’s Seth Green and Harv Harvatine joined the panel. Harvatine brought out some of the actual denim jean puppets used in the animation. “It was a few months of shooting it,” he said.
“Treehouse of Horror” won’t be the only spooky “Simpsons” event this season, as the producers announced that a “second scary trilogy” will focus on a trio of stories inspired by Ray Bradbury. Dubbed “Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes,” Selman said the stories will be “dark and funny and in the Halloween spirit.”
Conrad noted it is under the umbrella of “Treehouse Presents.” Inspired by Selman reading Bradbury, she and other writers found several more episodes to parody. Among guest stars on that episode: Andy Serkis.
Groening noted that Bradbury once slammed the show in the press after its launch. He eventually met Bradbury, who said he had a bone to pick with the show because it borrowed from a “Twilight Zone” episode he had written. “He was mad,” Groening said of the late writer. “I wonder what Ray Bradbury would think about this episode. Oh wait!”
Quipped Selman: “Hopefully his estate is equally loving.”
As currently scheduled, the 35th “Treehouse” will run right after Halloween, while the Ray Bradbury episode will air in November.
“The Simpsons” panel also shared a new opening credits sequence from guest animator Jorge Gutierrez (“Book of Life”), which will air as the opening to this year’s “Treehouse.”
And the producers teased the “Simpsons” Season 36 opener, “Bart’s Birthday,” which will feature former “Simpsons” writer Conan O’Brien returning in a major guest appearance. Other guests on that opener include John Cena, Danny DeVito and Tom Hanks.
“It’s kind of crazy, star-studded premiere,” Selman said. “It’s a pretty bold, big idea.”
Among other upcoming stories, another “Treehouse” segment looks at how divided our country is — in this case, literal red versus blue monsters in a “kind of ‘Pacific Rim’ style pool.” There’s also a parody of “The White Lotus” coming, dubbed “The Yellow Lotus.” And another episode is being framed as a spirtual follow-up to the landmark episode “22 Short Films about Springfield” — but with a twist.
Also during the panel, Selman asked the audience to screams — and promised the recording would be recorded for use in the “Treehouse” episode. There has perhaps never been a louder scream in the history of Comic-Con Ballroom 20 panels, and it left the audience a bit hoarse.
The biggest surprise came at the end, when Groening introduced a phone video clip of Vice President Kamala Harris quoting a famous line from the Season 8 “Treehouse of Horror” episode (via Kodos, disguised as Bill Clinton): “I say, we must move forward, not backward; upward, not forward; and always twirling, twirling,twirling towards freedom!”
(Apparently that video was actually recorded several years ago by a group of college students tasked with getting an elected official to recite a line from ‘The Simpsons.’ Per “UChicago Scav,” the video was recorded in 2013 for a team of University of Chicago students who were participating in a scavenger hunt and were tasked with getting an elected official to recite that exact line.)
Here’s a first look at the teaser poster for “Denim”:
