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Original Air Date: Sunday, October 29, 1995  A Quick Krusty Intro The episode opens with a headless Krusty the Clown, throwing his head at the screen, and a couch gag involving a family of hanging Simpsons. This is the first time there's really no introduction, and the episode just gives us our three segments. No longer will we be cautioned about the episode's scares. Bringing things down for a bit more time, a little more was able to be squeezed into each segment. Eventually, it would lead to a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Animated Program (or programming less than one hour). It actually lost it to the 'Pinky and the Brain Christmas Special' that year, and perhaps deservedly so at the time. But I ask you - which one have you watched more?  'Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores' When Homer stops at Lard Lad Donuts to order a Colossal Donut, he's given something much less than advertised. Homer then gets vengeance on the donut shop by stealing the giant metal donut from the sign. However an electrical storm rolls into town, zapping various eyesores around town and bringing them to life; Lard Lad included. Before Springfield can say "false advertising", the town is taken over by these ravenous advertising mascots. There's not a whole lot more to it than that of a spoof on any giant monster movie, namely 'Attack of the 50-Foot Woman' by the title. I will say that the end solution, featuring Paul Anka (asked to guest star after a brief back-and-forth), is rather humorous, but all in all, this segment never fully landed for me, story-wise. Not that I was looking for gold in just a few short minutes, but it's just monsters come to life, attack Springfield, and need to be stopped. The segment is generally saved by the dialogue written for it. Homer has a few rather memorable lines here, and when Flanders flees from his house, it gets me every time. It's also full of some great visual gags, having to do with each mascot. For example the Pep Boys end up having heads too big to carry, so they have to drag their heads down the street. All in all, not bad, but it's the rest of the episode that really shines. 3/5  'Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace' Here's another personal favorite of mine, perhaps for obvious reasons, if you know me well enough. Long story short, I'm a pretty die hard Fred-Head, and enjoy my 'Nightmare on Elm Street' movies. This is plain and simply a straight up spoof of the film, much like 'The Shinning' or 'King Homer'. Bart awakens from a horrible nightmare in which Groundskeeper Willie attacks him with a rake. The wounds from the rake carry through to the waking world, and soon Bart and Lisa find out the other kids are also getting attacked by Willie in their dreams. The whole thing is topped off with a great sequence when Martin gets attacked in the middle of class, letting out one of the more horrifically hilarious screams I've ever heard. Much like 'Elm Street', Willie was once burnt alive, but instead of an angry mob of parents doing it on purpose, it was an ignorant and stupid PTA, ignoring his suffering. Willie then plots revenge by attacking in their children's dreams, and thus we have the 'Elm Street' formula. The segment goes quickly, but it's tightly written, offering 'Elm Street' fans like myself a little bit of familiarity spoofed. This one is often classified as one of the scariest 'Treehouse' segments; as far as 'The Simpsons' being scary goes, anyway. An absolute classic. 5/5  'Homer³' Ready to feel old? If you can believe it, at the time this episode aired, CG animation was still very new to the mainstream. Until now, we had 'Toy Story'; the first full-length CG animated film, released just a few months before it. Otherwise, if you were lucky enough to have Y-TV, you might have enjoyed 'Reboot', which I believe was the first fully CG rendered cartoon, but I could be wrong. It aired just a year before this. So, if you were an adult and weren't particularly into kids stuff, this was a huge deal for your prime time TV lineup; especially as a 'Simpsons' fan. To this day, this segment is considered one of 'The Simpsons' biggest milestones. There's plenty to dip into, so for plot, let's just leave it at Homer stumbles into "the third dimension" when trying to hide from his sisters in law, and finds himself trapped, looking for a way out, while still able to communicate with the family. Pretty similar to 'Poltergeist'. Most impressive about this segment is the deep digging one can do on some of the background imagery, having a lot to do with famous physicists, scientific theory and even code. One line of hexadecimal code that can be found actually reads "Frink Rules!" if interpreted correctly, and that's just one minor, humorous example. There's also little Easter eggs like a Utah Teapot that shows up - the first 3D-rendered object; something I wouldn't have known if I didn't take a look at some of this stuff. It's pretty basic, but it will always hold a special nostalgic spot in my heart, recalling a time when CG was the wave of the future. It just kinda sucks looking back on some of it now. 5/5 There's nothing particularly special that happens to end the episode. This was a neat opportunity for the writers to make the segments stand out a bit bore by having them run a bit longer. With that, the show ends with the ending of 'Homer³', when a 3D Homer finds himself wandering a street in Sherman Oaks in our dimension. He's nervous about us humans, but stops at 'Erotic Cakes' to check things out, and the credits roll with that gag. Fun fact, in real life, this scene was filmed at a nice little shop called 'The Coffee Roaster'. It has since been renovated to the point that it's almost unrecognizable, but apparently that's the place - located on Ventura Blvd.
Overall Episode Rating: 87%
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