(HEY FOX GET YOUR THUMB OUT OF YOUR ASS, see below for credits BS.)
Well, that was fairly enjoyable. Actually, all three stories - as well as the opener (the Mayans dooming us all for 2012). I enjoyed the time travel one best, since I'm a sucker for that theme. Yep. (Also, I was just watching Poltergeist on Friday, so the house folding up into the black hole was fun to see again.)
DYN: ...we get two peeks into the past (act 3 of course and also Marge's childhood in act 2)? ...Homer and Marge are once again in high school in 1974 (as established in season 2)? Once I saw the year, I knew what to expect. This date may never technically been contradicted/updated (I forget), but of course we've had other milestones (children's births, further courtship) take place in the 80s and 90s. To further complicate things, present-day Marge refers to how she should have gone with Homer "20 years ago", which wouldn't have been right either, but does roughly match their currently stated age (about 38). ...Lisa Ziff says "ach'em" (as Jay Sherman does)?
Previous episode stuff 3F04 (also a TOH): rolling Lard Lad donut (in opening here) 7F12: Much from the canon established here, including Marge's entrance and hair swinging, "Close to You" (though a new version now), and Artie Ziff DABF04, LABF01: Alternate timelines such as this explored (and in DABF04 Homer quotes the "never be born" line)
Goof? Mayan Moe suggests to Mayan Homer that the sacrifice will involve showing the victim his beating heart, but that doesn't happen after all.
Oh I don't like this After many years of consistent "good credits" for the show - the last combined text+promo credits seem to be in 2009 according to a quick glance at my notes - what on earth is this? Even in the bad decade, this show seemed to be in the unique position of getting to show cast credits correctly, then production logos and the text credits (actually South Park does something like this now, interestingly enough). Tonight: Act 3 ends, Gracie/Fox logos immediately, then text. It wasn't even a long episode (actually it was fairly short) - I guess Fox reallllly wanted to make sure we come back in 2 weeks when new episodes run, maybe.
But I see that the cast credits are missing completely... as if it was meant to behave like the previous style, but didn't quite work out! (As a result, there are no cast credits anywhere to be seen - doubly annoying because they'd be special Halloween ones!) I am hoping this whole thing is just a fluke, and that new episodes (and repeats of this) will continue to have good credits, but ugh. I can't help but think also of the Gracie quote slip-up in AABF01 (when the split credits were new) - also a TOH.
A bit early for Halloween, isn't it? This is by far the earliest premiere for a Treehouse of Horror episode; previously it was LABF14 (TOH XX) on 10/18, and 7F04 (TOH) and AABF01 (TOH IX) on 10/25. At least it's better than those several years of November airings. I suppose it makes sense, if 10/14 and 10/28 are baseball, and 10/21 may also be baseball. Not that it couldn't be a Wednesday special on 10/31, but... well, at least it's before Halloween and the mood is in the air. The entire Fox lineup tonight (except for Family Guy and maybe American Dad) is also Halloween episodes - in fact, The Cleveland Show is #4APS04, which would be a good code for an episode anticipated to air in late October, if not for a season premiere.
Speaking of Family Guy Homer made a cameo tonight (Ratings Guy, AACX01[!]) - voiced by Dan Castellaneta - where he rushed in with the same problem Peter faced. Peter was happy to note that this time FG beat OFF to it.
Finally For Don: The third airing of TOH XXII (NABF19) was joined in progress (in Cleveland, after the CHI/JAX game). At 7:19, the entire 2-minute opening ran, then 2 minutes of commercials. At 7:23, there was a "joined in progress" note (over visuals from the end of the opening, containing the title), and it picked up in the Avatar story with Bart mentioning the other side of the planet. Now you know.