• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, October 17, 2025

A macabre graveyard of defunct educational kids’ shows is a centerpiece of “The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror” annual Halloween special.

Airing Sunday night on Fox, this is the 36th edition -- XXXVI -- of these seasonal anthology specials, which traditionally take up contemporary topics and reveal the horror in every one of them.

In the second installment of this three-part episode, the devil appears to Krusty the Klown to collect a debt.

The debt stems from a deal made in the early years of “The Krusty the Klown Show” in which Krusty’s soul was sold to Satan. 

In return, Satan would destroy all of the wholesome, well-meaning, educational kids shows of decades past so that Krusty’s non-educational, unsocially responsible show would have the kids show field all to itself.

In one scene, we see the gravestones of kids shows that disappeared long ago -- “Zoom,” “Romper Room,” “3-2-1 Contact,” “Pinwheel,” “The Magic School Bus,” “The Electric Company,” “Captain Kangaroo” and “The Great Space Coaster.”

This storyline takes place in 1995 and then cuts to the present day when Krusty and Satan are seen in a conference room pitching the story as a documentary -- complete with “newly discovered” footage -- to content execs at one of our biggest streaming services. Needless to say, they react skeptically -- and hilariously.

In the 1995 portion of the segment, Krusty is alarmed when he reads in the trades that the ratings for his show are threatening to dip below a 30 share.

“No show has ever gotten a rating that low!” he declares. Those were the days, right?

Throughout this “Treehouse of Horror” episode, references are made to cultural and TV history from long ago, which makes you wonder how many of those watching the show will get the references.

One detail that comes and goes in the first story on the show pays homage to “Sanford and Son.” In the Krusty segment, a character utters one of the famous catchphrases of Steve Urkel.  “Sanford” goes back to the 1970s. “Family Matters” premiered in 1989.

For that matter, who will remember the names of all the kids shows whose names are on tombstones? Many might ask: “Captain Kangaroo? Who’s he?” 

The first segment of this year’s “Treehouse of Horror” takes place in the ’70s. It has to do with lard, and the copious quantities consumed by the residents of Springfield.

The third segment has the Simpsons and other characters battling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where hundreds of feet of discarded plastic objects cover every inch of land on the planet. 

The animation in this segment, in which some of the characters appear as animated, plastic lifeforms, is one of the highlights of the show.

A great experience awaits all who watch “Treehouse of Horror XXXVI” this Sunday, especially those who pay close attention to the fleeting details in both background and foreground that make watching “The Simpsons” one of the richest experiences in all of television -- even in its 36th season.

“The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror XXXVI” airs Sunday night at 8 Eastern on Fox.