Treehouse of Horror V

Marge warns that the episode is frightening and should not be viewed by children. During the warning, she is informed it is so scary that Congress will not allow its broadcast, and that the Western film 200 Miles to Oregon will be shown instead. Bart and Homer interrupt Marge's warning with an Outer Limits parody and the episode begins.

In a parody of The Shining, the Simpsons are employed as caretakers at Mr. Burns' haunted lodge while it is closed for the winter. Burns cuts the cable television wire and confiscates the beer, thinking this will ensure the family's hard work. When Groundskeeper Willie discovers that Bart has the power to read his thoughts, he advises using it to summon him should Homer go insane.

The deprivation of his two favorite things — beer and television — causes Homer to go crazy. A phantom Moe informs Homer he must kill his family to get a beer. Marge is attacked by Homer and fends him off with a baseball bat. Homer faints in horror after seeing his reflection in a mirror, so Marge locks him in the pantry to calm him down. Eventually, Homer returns to sanity and eats happily with his favorite foods. Then, he hears Moe demanding to get out of the pantry to kill his family. When Homer refuses, Moe and a gang of ghouls drag him from the pantry.

While Marge and the children are enjoying dinner, Homer (after several false starts) begins chasing them with an axe. Bart uses his powers to summon Willie, who abandons his portable TV in the snow to come to the family's rescue. Homer kills him by burying the axe in his back and continues his pursuit of the family. As he is about to kill them, Lisa discovers Willie's abandoned television outside in the snow. Homer's insanity abates and the family is frozen stiff by ice and snow while watching TV.

Homer breaks the toaster after getting his hand stuck in it twice. While trying to fix it, he accidentally turns it into a time machine. While testing the toaster, he transports himself to prehistoric times, where he remembers Grampa Simpson's advice to be careful not to change anything should one travel back in time. Homer fails to heed this and swats a mosquito, turning the present into a dystopia where Ned Flanders rules the world.

Homer time-travels again to set things right, but he accidentally kills a walking fish. Returning to the present, he finds Bart and Lisa are giants and narrowly avoids being crushed by them. Homer sneezes during his next trip and infects a Tyrannosaurus with the common cold, which causes the dinosaurs' extinction. At first he is pleased when he returns to the present — the Simpsons are now extremely wealthy and about to drive their Lexus to Patty and Selma's funeral — but he is horrified to find no one knows what donuts are. He flees this reality, where donuts soon start raining from the sky.

In another realm, Groundskeeper Willie tries to help Homer but is again struck in the back with an axe by Maggie, who says, with James Earl Jones's voice, "This is indeed a disturbing universe". On his next trip back, Homer, at his wit’s end, destroys everything in sight with a baseball bat. He arrives in a present where everything appears normal. When he finds the rest of his family eating a meal with amphibian tongues, he decides this reality is "close enough".

Principal Skinner worries the detention hall is becoming overcrowded. Due to budget cuts, Lunchlady Doris is reduced to serving "Grade F" meat in the cafeteria. Skinner discovers a common solution to both problems: eating children. Jimbo Jones is the first student to be killed and served, followed by Üter. Bart and Lisa discover Skinner and Doris' scheme, as one by one their classmates are "sent to detention", where they are caged and butchered.

Eventually, Ralph Wiggum, Wendell, Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse are among the only students left. After Wendell is sent to detention, Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse try to escape, but Skinner and Doris corner them on a ledge above a giant food processor. Willie tries to help them escape but is once again felled with an axe to the back by Skinner. Milhouse, Bart, and Lisa fall to their grisly deaths.

Bart wakes up from the nightmare to find his family near his bed. Marge assures him he has nothing to fear except the "fog that turns people inside out", which seeps in through the window and turns the Simpsons' bodies inside out. The family then perform a parody of A Chorus Line's "One" with Willie during the end credits, but near the end of the number, Santa's Little Helper drags Bart off-screen by his intestines and eats him alive.

Since airing, "Treehouse of Horror V" has received critical acclaim. Entertainment Weekly ranked this episode as the ninth best of the entire series; The Shinning segment was described as "a parody [...] with such detail [and] comic timing" and that it "ranks with the great [...] spoofs of all time", and the Time and Punishment segment as "one of the most beautifully random moments in [The] Simpsons history", but also said that the Nightmare Cafeteria segment "doesn't shine as brilliantly".[10] It ranked fifth on AskMen.com's "Top 10: Simpsons Episodes" list. The list stated that the episode "offers three completely different tales, [...] boasting a potent combination of wit and humor" that, "the laughs never end", and that it "does a great job of incorporating Halloween-themed stories with the standard Simpsons charm".[11] IGN called the episode "the funniest Treehouse of Horror to date".[12] In 2006, they also named it the best episode of the sixth season.[12] Adam Finley of the weblog TV Squad called it "possibly one of the best Halloween episodes ever".[13] Michael Passman of Michigan Daily said the episode "is largely regarded as the best, but a weak final third holds it back".[14] Entertainment.ie named it among the 10 greatest Simpsons episodes of all time.[15] Screen Rant called it the best episode of the sixth season and the greatest Halloween episode of The Simpsons.[16] Consequence of Sound called it "a true benchmark of the series," ranking it the second greatest "Treehouse of Horror" episode of all time.[17] In 2019, Time ranked the episode third in its list of 10 best Simpsons episodes picked by Simpsons experts.[18]

The Shinning is particularly highly praised. As well as Entertainment Weekly's praise, IGN voted it first on their list of the best segments in the Treehouse of Horror series, with Time and Punishment coming fourth.[19] It came ninth on the blog Noise to Signal's list of "The Ten Best Treehouse of Horror Vignettes".[20] Adam Finley of TV Squad opined that it "could [...] be the best Treehouse of Horror segment ever" and praised the opening of Time and Punishment.[13] When putting together the perfect Treehouse of Horror episode, Passman of Michigan Daily included The Shinning as "a shoo-in".[14] Empire named "No TV And No Beer Make Homer Go Crazy" the sixth best film parody in the show's history.[21] The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, called it "Another fine entry to the Treehouse canon".[1] Vulture named The Shinning the best "Treehouse of Horror" segment ever, stating, "When you can’t think of the original without also thinking of the spoof. That’s The Shining and 'The Shinning,' easily the best Treehouse segment of all time."[22]

James Earl Jones' guest appearance in this episode, as well as in "Treehouse of Horror" and "Das Bus", was listed seventh on IGN's "Top 25 Simpsons Guest Appearances" list.[23] Jones ranked 25th on AOL's list of their favorite 25 The Simpsons guest stars.[24] Matt Groening said that this line is among his favorite lines in the show.[25] David Mirkin said that Homer's line, "Oh I wish, I wish I hadn't killed that fish", is one of his favorites in the show, and that the alternate future in which the family are rich "breaks [his] heart every time".[3] Homer's line "close enough" from Time and Punishment was later used in the Stargate SG-1 episode "Moebius".[26]

Alf Clausen's musical score for this episode received an Emmy Award nomination for "Outstanding Dramatic Underscore — Series" in 1995.[27]

In its original broadcast, "Treehouse of Horror V" finished 27th in ratings for the week of October 24–30, 1994, with a Nielsen rating of 12.2, equivalent to approximately 11.6 million viewing households. It was the second highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following Beverly Hills, 90210.[28]