Trivia / The Simpsons S 2 E 3 "Treehouse of Horror"

• Celebrity Voice Actor: James Earl Jones stars as the voice of the mover, Serak the Preparer and the narrator of The Raven.
• First Appearance:
  • Of Kang and Kodos.
  • In the real world, this was the first episode of The Simpsons to be scored by Alf Clausen, who was one of several composers the show was trialling to replace Season 1 composer Richard Gibbs. They eventually settled on Clausen as Gibbs' permanent replacement starting with "Bart vs. Thanksgiving".
• Method Acting: James Earl Jones chewed cookies close to his microphone in order to get the drooling sounds for Serak.
• Reality Subtext: The opening segment of Marge warning that the episode might be too scary for children was intended as a real disclaimer - because the concept hadn't really been done before on network television.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The "To Serve Man" gag, long as it was, was going to have one last punchline where the aliens removed the last of the dust on the book cover so it read "How To Cook For Forty Humans and Then Eat Them."
  • The aliens were written to drool all the time but it was suggested scrapping that to make it easier on the animators. They said it was no problem, so the aliens continued to drool.
  • Word of God is that a theremin was meant to play an alternate version of the show's theme for the end credits, but one couldn't be found that could hit all the right notes.

---