The Call of the Simpsons/References

Debut Appearances
Characters making a first appearance in this episode are:


 * Rod Flanders
 * Cowboy Bob

Trivia

 * The motto of Bob's RV Roundup is "We'd rather make a friend than a profit."
 * The episode marks the first appearance of recurring guest star Albert Brooks. In this episode, and all of his subsequent appearances he is credited as A. Brooks.
 * Flanders makes $27 more a week than Homer does (although this is based on Ned's original job at a pharmaceutical company, not the Leftorium).
 * Signs at Bob's RV-Roundup (formerly RVs R Us): "We want to make friends :-) Not Profit :-(" "We give credit to everyone!"; "Bad Credit. Good!"; "Bankruptcy Shmankruptcy."
 * The Ultimate Behemoth RV: two-stories high with a fireplace, a full kitchen, four deep fryers---"one for each part of the chicken," a big-screen television set, and its own satellite, the Vanstar I.
 * The breaking Bigfoot report interrupts the president's address.
 * Signs advertising the Bigfoot cottage industry include "Half-Man, Half-Ape Burgers" and "Get Your Photo Taken with Bigfoot."
 * The fact that Homer is indeed the missing link is referenced again in season 16's "The Monkey Suit".
 * This is the first episode to feature Albert Brooks as a guest star. Like all his appearances, he is credited as A. Brooks.
 * Bart wears his "lucky red hat" for the first time in this episode (but coughs it out multiple times in Bart the General). Also, this is the only time the hat is totally red (other episodes depict it as red with a white visor).
 * This is the first episode in which Rod Flanders appears, but it is very brief, and he does not make a second appearance until the next season, and would not speak again until "Bart the Daredevil".
 * This episode was the theme of a Burger King promotion including kids meal toys and collectable cups.
 * At the time of production, the writers and producers felt that this episode had the potential to be made into a two-part story. However, they eventually decided to make it as a single episode.
 * The scene with Bart and Homer making a trap was used in the season four episode "So It's Come To This: A Simpsons Clip Show" (the first clip show on The Simpsons). The part where Homer is naked after losing his clothes in the waterfall dive was used during the "hardcore nudity" montage at the end of the season seven clip show episode "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular".
 * In the United Kingdom, this was one of the first episodes released on video cassette in the early 1990s (on a tape paired with "Bart the Genius"), and thus was many viewers' introduction to the series (especially in the days before the series was shown on terrestrial television). A second tape featuring "Bart the General" and "There's No Disgrace Like Home" was released at the same time.

Cultural references

 * The tune for the camping scenes is called "The Happy Wanderer".
 * The episode title is a reference to the novella "The Call of the Wild" by Jack London.
 * When Homer is shot with tranquilizer darts, his last words to Bart before he loses consciousness are "Avenge my death." This is similar to Harry Dean Stanton yelling out to his two sons in Red Dawn.
 * When the camper is filming the deer grazing in the mud which Homer falls into, there is a short excerpt from the main theme of Claude Debussy's 'Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune'