No TV show has celebrated Halloween so consistently, so effectively or so happily as The Simpsons. With their annual Treehouse of Horror episode, featuring 3 vignettes typically parodying genre films, the Simpsons (for me, growing up) equaled Halloween.

The show was a huge part of my youth, and the Halloween specials something I desperately looked forward to seeing. Which movies would they spoof this year? When will it air? What new horrors and laughs lie in wait? These episodes allowed me to both revel in my love of Halloween and further reinforced that love in equal measure.

At one point in time, some of the only samples on the playlist were from The Simpsons Halloween Specials. Over the years, I’ve slowly replaced a good many of them, but some have been left in tact, leading in the same songs as they always did.

I’ve hosted parties where I had whatever episodes existed at the time just running in loops. Other years I’ve spent my Halloween night watching as many as I had.

Some of them (namely 4, 5 and 6) are among my favorite episodes of the entire series. And though, like the show itself, they have long passed their peaked, and grown weaker it seems with each passing year, I still enjoy watching the new ones all the same. I must concede however, that they don’t quite inspire the same giddy Halloween excitement in me as they did in my youth.

While the watching of any 4 Treehouse of Horrors would essentially constitute the length of a movie, I would suggest marathoning the first 12 for a good 4 hour dose of Halloween awesomeness.

Homer reciting Poe, Burns playing Frankenstein and Dracula, The evil Krusty doll, Mulitiple Twilight Zone spoofs, Kang and Kodos, Willie as Freddy, Homer as The Omega Man, Bart as The Fly! So many great Halloween horror moments await you.

Nostalgia rant ceasing. Happy 30th everybody.