In common with all previous Halloween episodes of The Simpsons, the show is made up of three self-contained stories; "G-G-Ghost Dad", "Scary Tales Can Come True" and "Night of the Dolphin". In the first story, Homer Simpson dies and has to do one good deed to avoid going to Hell. The second story is a retelling of the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel" in which Bart and Lisa Simpson are taken prisoner by a witch. The third story is a parody of the 1973 science-fiction thriller movie Day of the Dolphin and also contains visual references to the 1993 movie Free Willy and Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 suspense film The Birds. The aliens Kang and Kodos make a brief appearance at the end of the episode.