Santa's Little Helper event; however, their plan fails and a drunk shark that's discovered at the event becomes the new mascot instead. Santa's Little Helper gladly returns to the Simpson family. Santa's Little Helper's initial appearance on "The Simpsons" was in the first episode of the series, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", which aired on Dec. 17, 1989. Since then, he has become a recurring character. "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening told "TV Guide" in 2000 that "we [the staff] painted ourselves into a corner with our Christmas episode. Once we wrote the dog into the show, we were stuck with him."
The Simpsons: Night of the Living Treehouse of Horror a side-scrolling platformer. The game features seven levels, each one of which re-creates a tale from the annual "Treehouse of Horror" episodes of the American animated television series "The Simpsons". All five members of the Simpson family have their own level, with the exception of Homer, who has three. The levels include Marge in a zombie tale, Maggie as a fly, Lisa fighting cannibalistic teachers, Bart rescuing Santa's Little Helper in a haunted house, and Homer as a vampire killer, a robot, and the large ape King Homer. "The Simpsons: Night of the Living Treehouse of Horror" was developed by