Once Again Fox Waits Until November to Air the Simpsons Annual Halloween Special

For the seventh year in a row, The Simpsons annual Halloween extravaganza popularly known as the Treehouse of Horror will not air until November. I wonder if it would be possible for somebody at Fox or News Corp. to shell out a few bucks and buy Rupert Murdoch a calendar. And then could they kindly point out to him that Halloween falls at the end of the October.

Showing a Halloween episode in November is kind of like airing How the Grinch Stole Christmas on New Year’s Eve. What’s the point, you know? I’m certainly not asking that Murdoch arrange things so that the Treehouse of Horror is shown on Halloween night, but it would be nice if he could air it during one of the two or three months out of the year that Halloween decorations can be found in most stores. Why wait until November? Is there some reason he wants to wait until all the air has gone from the holiday before showing it?

I realize that ever since Fox made the ghastly mistake of getting the rights to baseball and football that Sunday night simply isn’t good for them in the month of October. News flash, Rupert: Most Simpsons fans would much prefer to watch the Halloween episode on another night than Sunday during October than waiting for the first available Sunday in the fall in which you don’t have grown men tugging at their testicle protector as they wait to sling a piece of wood at a piece of rawhide or eagerly pile on top of another in a submissive position. (Not that I’m suggesting there’s any homoerotic tendencies among football players.) Sunday night Simpsons means far less to most fans than October Treehouse of Horror. You mean to say there’s not one single night in the week leading up to Halloween that you can’t find room for a half-hour pre-emption for a special off-night airing of the Simpsons? I find that hard to believe.