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King-Size Homer
Mother Simpson
Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming

Trivia[]

  • The episode is dedicated to Jackie Banks, a scene planner and animation checker on the show who died prior to the episodes release date.
  • The pieces of trash picked up towards the beginning of the episode incluce:
    • A dead frog picked up by Charlie
    • A toilet seat picked up by Carl
    • A New Bedlam Asylum straightjacket picked up by an unnamed worker
    • A bird's nest erroneously picked up by Lenny
  • This marks the second time Mr. Burns was associated with the 1988 "Dukakis in a tank" gag. The first time was during his gubernatorial campaign in "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish".
  • The old hippie who interrupts Homer and Mona's goodbye by yelling "This electric van has only got 20 minutes of juice left!" was seen in the 1960s flashback as the one who was commanding the sabotage on Mr. Burns' biological warfare laboratory.
  • Mona's "D'oh!" when she bangs her head on the top of the van was done by Pamela Hayden, as Glenn Close couldn't say it properly.
ECP

Squeeze-credits and voice-over announcements on Channel 4 during the closing credits of this episode.

  • Due to the emotional tone of the final scenes, Matt Groening and his coworkers insisted that the closing credits be shown in full (with no squeeze-credits or voice-over announcements for other shows).[1]
    • Despite this, squeeze-credits and voice-over announcements still appeared on Channel 4 during the closing credits in an airing of this episode on September 15, 2020.[2]
  • The book: "The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family" refers to Mona as "Mother Simpson", due to Marge calling her that.
  • The scene at the end of the episode is considered to be one of the saddest scenes in the entire series.
  • This is the only episode where Smithers in his catchphrase does not refer to Homer by a condescending noun, mostly due to believing Homer had died.
  • When Abe is watching the Super Bowl in 1967, the tv seems to have a 60's style color filter.
  • Although Chief Wiggum does help Mona escape this episode, he will later actually arrest her in "My Mother the Carjacker".
  • This episode aired the same day Toy Story premiered at the El Capitan Theater.

Citations[]

  • Lenny and Carl make alternating remarks about Homer's supposed death (actually the fake dummy's plunge off the waterfall) such as how something disadvantageous is followed by something advantageous. This was reference to the 1964 children's book "What Good Luck! What Bad Luck!", where a man has a series of misfortunes followed by good fortune, only for another misfortune, such as "What bad luck! The party was in Florida and he was in New York. What good luck! A friend lent him an airplane. What bad luck! The motor exploded! What good luck! He had a parachute."
  • The Lindbergh capturing was mentioned when Abe admits he is the Lindbergh baby.
  • Three songs from the 1960s appear in this episode: "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream, "Blowin' in the Wind" by Bob Dylan and "All Along the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix.
  • Child Homer has a Lite-Brite, Operation, suitcase turntable, Hang in there, Baby poster and peace sign in his room.
  • Abe Simpson is watching Super Bowl III, which featured quarterbacks Johnny Unitas of the Baltimore Colts and Joe Namath of the New York Jets. The Jets, led by the long-haired, hard-partying Namath, defeated the Colts, led by the crew cut-wearing, strait-laced Unitas, 16-7. Incidentally, both men appeared on The Simpsons, Unitas in "Homie the Clown" and Namath in "Bart Star".
  • Mona sings to young Homer a commercial jingle for Fig Newtons.
  • Young Homer sleeps holding a stuffed doll of the Pillsbury Doughboy.
  • Mona mentions that she worked a number of jobs while on the run, including "marketing Jerry Rubin's line of diet shakes, proofreading Bobby Seale's cookbook, and running credit checks at Tom Hayden's Porsche dealership." Rubin, Seale and Hayden were three liberal radicals from the 1960s and Rubin did indeed have a line of diet shakes, and Bobby Seale did write some cookbooks. However, Tom Hayden never owned a Porsche dealership.
  • The grave that Abe Simpson lied to Homer about where Mona was buried belonged to Walt Whitman.
  • The radicals use a Spiro Agnew alarm clock, which is based on a real item.
  • Two of the germs destroyed by the antibiotics are labeled "Rocking Pneumonia" and "Boogie-Woogie Influenza". This refers to Huey "Piano" Smith's 1957 song "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu".
  • When Mr. Burns drives a tank towards the Simpson house, he is wearing oversized headgear. This is a reference to a public relations stunt by Michael Dukakis during his presidential campaign in 1988, which backfired on him as Dukakis looked awkward wearing a helmet that looked too big for his head and was derided by critics and comedians as "Dukakis in the tank".
  • When Mr. Burns plays a tape of "Ride of the Valkyries", it has been recorded over by Smithers with "Waterloo" by ABBA, a reference to Smithers' suspected homosexuality (ABBA have a large gay following) and to the helicopter beach attack scene in Apocalypse Now, in which "Ride of the Valkyries" is famously played.
    • Originally, the song Smithers taped over Ride of the Valkyries with was WHAM!'s Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, but the producers couldn't get the rights to the song in time. Coincidentally, WHAM! (or, rather, the lead singer, George Michael) also has a gay following, so whether or not the original song was used wouldn't change the character subtext of Smithers.
  • Maggie is shown dancing in her diaper and covered in slogans and it is a parody of the filler scenes of Laugh-In in which Goldie Hawn and other female cast members like Ruth Buzzi and Jo Anne Worley danced in a bikini with slogans and drawings painted on their bodies.
  • The two FBI agents are Joe Friday and Bill Gannon from Dragnet. Bill Gannon is voiced by Harry Morgan, the man who played Gannon in the original series.
  • While lying on the couch, Mona is reading Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman.
Whiteline

The leftmost sign has a line in the middle which is supposed to be red but is painted white this frame.

Goofs[]

  • In the opening scene, the BurnsoDyne logo is written in black in the faraway shot but white in the close-up.
  • Homerfrontbed

    Homer in front of the bed

    One of the protestors' signs has a red line that repeatedly turns white.
  • When Homer and Mona go into Homer's room, Homer is incorrectly layered in front of his bed instead of behind it.
  • Mr. Burns is initially wearing a black suit in the post office, but when the camera angle changes it becomes its usual blue-green color.
  • Mr Burns who always seems to forget names somehow managed to recognize Mona with sunglasses on.
  • The radicals used antibiotics to kill the various kinds of germs, including smallpox, diphtheria, typhoid, "rocking pneumonia," and "boogie-woogie influenza" (the latter two are fictional, as a tribute to the song mentioned in citations section of this page) in Burn's lab. However, smallpox is caused by virus and thus cannot be killed by antibiotics. Diphtheria was also mistakenly written as "Diptheria."
    • Also, the antibiotics wouldn't have cured Chief Wiggum's asthma back when he was a security guard for Mr. Burns (but it would have cleared up his acne).


Season 6 Season 7 References/Trivia Season 8
Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)Radioactive ManHome Sweet Homediddly-Dum-DoodilyBart Sells His SoulLisa the VegetarianTreehouse of Horror VIKing-Size HomerMother SimpsonSideshow Bob's Last GleamingThe Simpsons 138th Episode SpectacularMarge Be Not ProudTeam HomerTwo Bad NeighborsScenes from the Class Struggle in SpringfieldBart the FinkLisa the IconoclastHomer the SmithersThe Day the Violence DiedA Fish Called SelmaBart on the Road22 Short Films About SpringfieldRaging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish"Much Apu About NothingHomerpaloozaSummer of 4 Ft. 2
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