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Mr. Plow
Lisa's First Word
Homer's Triple Bypass

Citations[]

  • In this episode, Bart says, "Suffering succotash!" when he heard Lisa talk for the first time, which is a common phrase spoken by Sylvester Cat (though Daffy Duck used it first) in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons.
  • "We Welcome You To the Neighborhood", the song sung by Ned and Todd Flanders is a parody of "We Welcome You to Munchkinland", a song from "The Wizard of Oz".
  • When Scratchy's skeleton's picture is taken for a Wheaties cereal box, it is a parody of Olympic-winning athletes who also have their picture taken for a Wheaties box.
  • Marge mentions the classic arcade game Ms. Pac-Man, when she tells how Ms. Pac-Man struck a blow for women's rights.
  • The song Homer sings when he is walking home from work at the beginning of the March 1983 flashback is "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper. An instrumental version of the song plays during the montage where baby Bart is fooling around.

Trivia[]

  • Lisa's birthday was revealed in this episode. The date isn't mentioned, but Homer is watching the women's 100-meter butterfly when Marge goes into labor. Therefore, her birthday - according to this episode - is August 2nd, 1984.
  • This is one of many aging inconsistencies throughout the series' impressive run. When the series began in 1990, it was established that Bart was ten, Lisa was seven (later eight), and Maggie was in her first eleven months (later one year old). That would put their birth years in 1980, 1982, and 1989 respectively. But it's a moot point since the characters' birthdates change as the series continues and because of that, Bart has been 10, Lisa has been 8, and Maggie has been 1 for 34 years as of 2024.
  • Lisa's first word was different from the episode "Lisa's Pony", when Homer was watching a home video when Lisa was a baby.
  • Bart's first words were also revealed in this episode: "¡Ay, Caramba!" He said that after seeing his parents having sex. This is a story Marge refused to bring up.
  • Homer once again finds the Wendy's advertising slogan "Where's the beef?" hilarious. He previously expressed similar amusement at the campaign in "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie".
  • The Krusty Burger scratch & win cards were inspired by a promotional game McDonald's did for the 1984 Olympics where an event would be revealed and prizes would be awarded dependent on whether Team USA scored a gold, silver, or bronze medal. Prizes ranged from free McDonald's food to a $10,000 cash prize. McDonald's lost millions of dollars paying out prizes on that promotion. One main difference of the plot was that the Krusty Burger executive rigged the game, which backfired. In actuality, McDonald's had done an earlier scratch & win promotion with the 1976 Olympics, which had been more successful. The marketing executives based the winning cards on an estimate of the medal count of the United States in those Olympics and publicized the game prior to the Soviet Bloc nations declining their invitations to the 1984 Olympics, which itself was a backlash to President Carter's embargo on any American athletes participating in 1980 Olympics.
  • The footage of Homer building Bart's clown bed was recycled from him building his Wonderbat in "Homer at the Bat".
  • Whilst Marge is doing a flashback, some women mention the TV show M*A*S*H. One woman says she misses Klinger, a man who dressed as a lady to get out of the war, another woman says she loved Mike Farrell (B.J.).
  • This episode shows Lisa was very intelligent as a baby. This was expanded on in the Season 9 episode "Lisa's Sax".
  • Shortly after Lisa's birth, Homer tells her that he has already started a college fund for her at Lincoln Savings and Loan [Association]. The Lincoln Savings and Loan Association was the financial institution at the heart of the Keating Five scandal during the 1980s savings and loan crisis. When American Continental Corporation, the parent of Lincoln Savings, went bankrupt in 1989, more than 21,000 investors lost their savings, which would explain why, in "Lisa the Greek", Homer only has $23 in Lisa's college fund.

Goofs[]

  • Even though it is obvious Grandpa is a younger man in 1983, a picture of his elderly self hangs in the wall of his house.
  • In the couch gag that appeared before the episode started, the unicycling jugglers wear orange shirts when they first appear, but when they go into the background, they are wearing green shirts.
  • In one of the shots of Marge reading a young Bart a bedtime story, he has eight spikes of hair instead of the correct five for him at that age.
  • In the Season 1 episode "Krusty Gets Busted," Krusty says he is (and always has been) illiterate. In this episode, however, when Krusty is handed the wire communique, he quickly reads it over and understands it is about the Soviets boycotting the Olympics. (He could be functionally illiterate, in that he can read something, but not know the deeper meaning of what's being read, but "Krusty Gets Busted" suggests that Krusty is a garden-variety illiterate). There's a possibility he'd been lying about being illiterate all along, especially since subsequent episodes like "I Love Lisa" show he is capable of reading cue cards. Judging from that, he may have learned how to read between "Krusty Gets Busted" and "I Love Lisa".
Blackhairflanders

Rod Flanders with black hair

  • In one scene, Rod Flanders has black hair. Sideshow Bob is also shown with blue hair.
  • In this episode, it's suggested that Todd is the same age as Bart and Rod is about two years older, while in other episodes, it's suggested that Rod is the same age as Bart and Todd is the same age as Lisa, which means he shouldn't even be born in the flashback scenes.
  • Despite calling her dad "Homer" like Bart in this episode, Lisa does call him "Dad" in other episodes. It's possible she didn't call him "Dad" yet.
  • At the beginning of the March 1983 flashback, Homer is singing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper while walking home from work. However, that song wasn't released yet in March of 1983, and it wasn't released until September 6th, 1983, which was six months later. 
  • This was one of the few episodes to have the Flanders family featured without Maude at a time when she was still a living woman. Her absence may have been explained that she was out of town.
  • When the camera switches after Bart says, "I'm leaving! Goodbye!", the door is missing, as well as Lisa and Bart switching to different places. After Lisa says her first word, "Bart", they once again switch to different places.


Season 3 Season 4 References/Trivia Season 5
Kamp KrustyA Streetcar Named MargeHomer the HereticLisa the Beauty QueenTreehouse of Horror IIIItchy & Scratchy: The MovieMarge Gets a JobNew Kid on the BlockMr. PlowLisa's First WordHomer's Triple BypassMarge vs. the MonorailSelma's ChoiceBrother from the Same PlanetI Love LisaDufflessLast Exit to SpringfieldSo It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip ShowThe FrontWhacking DayMarge in ChainsKrusty Gets Kancelled
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