THE SIMPSONS: Matt Selman Previews the Ray Bradbury-Inspired ‘Treehouse of Horror Presents: Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes’

THE SIMPSONS dives back into the “Treehouse of Horror”-related world with the Sunday, November 24 episode, “Treehouse of Horror Presents: Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes.”

This marks the second time the branding has been utilized outside of the animated comedy’s annual Halloween installment—following 2022’s fantastic “Not It”—though the show has unofficially worked within the same space in episodes like 2019’s “Thanksgiving of Horror.”

When figuring out what to pay homage to, “nothing is super off limits,” THE SIMPSONS showrunner Matt Selman tells Give Me My Remote. “It’s more like, ‘What can we do to keep the show fresh every day, even though the characters haven’t really changed? What can we steal from the past? What can we steal from the present? What can we predict from the future—sure, why not?’ That’s our main directive. It’s like, have the characters be eternal, but the stories be interesting and new.”

For the “Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes,” the trio of stories is “based on Ray Bradbury short stories.” (The title is a play on the Bradbury book “Something Wicked This Way Comes.”)

“I bought a book of Ray Bradbury short stories, and the very first one, ‘The Screaming Woman’ [inspired a story] with Bart,” Selman previews. “No one believes him that the person is [in danger]. I just thought it was the greatest little Bart short story in the world. And then we started digging deeper into the Bradbury library and picked two other manageable stories.”

The middle segment is Selman’s favorite “because I just love Skinner and Chalmers.”

“I think it’s so elegant,” he says. “There aren’t a ton of jokes. It’s all about the tone of this idealized version of the not-too-distant future from the point of view of the 1950s—like what the ’50s thought the ’80s would be like. The dynamic between [Skinner and Chalmers] is so funny. The ending of it is so bleak, yet happy. I think it’s a little jewel of storytelling.” 

And, naturally, the show also does a homage to “Fahrenheit 451.” “The joke is the overall idea that there’s a dystopia of prestige [television] dramas that are being used to oppress the world, which used to kind of feel that way a little bit more than it does now,” Selman acknowledges. “When peak TV was really in its crazy, craziest, most intense form, the kind of oppressiveness of prestige felt a little more oppressive. Doesn’t quite feel as oppressive anymore, now that things kind of loosened up, [though] it’s still a ton of shows. The model is f—ed up, because of the way they’re released, and the fewer episodes [of] television. [The industry] is definitely trying to find its footing, if you even call it television anymore.”

Though it’ll nearly be Thanksgiving by the time this episode airs, Selman is (mostly) at peace with neither of season 36’s “Treehouse” episodes airing before Halloween. (“Treehouse of Horror XXXV” aired on November 3.) 

“In a perfect world, the first one would have aired right before Halloween, and the second one would maybe air right after Halloween,” Selman says. “Or they would have aired on one super scary night. But Fox did not want two Halloweens in a row, which I can kind of understand. And then [‘Treehouse of Horror XXXV’ aired] after Halloween, because more powerful than the night of Halloween itself is the football lead-in from the NFL…We’re pretty excited about [that]. We’d rather be after football [there and with ‘Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes’] and to get a bigger rating and have more people see our marquee episodes for the year than not.” 

THE SIMPSONS, Sundays, 8/7c, Fox

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