The Springfield Files/References

Previous Episode References

 * Marge vs. The Monorail: Leonard Nimoy guest stars as himself on a strange episode of The Simpsons.
 * Dog of Death: Mr. Burns goes through a bizarre longevity treatment to cheat death.
 * Cape Feare: An elderly character has a strange reaction to not taking or taking the wrong medication: in Cape Feare, Grampa turned into a woman after not taking his medication; in this episode, Jasper turns into a white, hairy monster when he took Wednesday's pills on Friday.
 * A Star is Burns: A Simpsons episode is crossed over with another show from FOX (though the difference between this one and A Star is Burns is that Matt Groening's name is in the credits in this episode).
 * Last Exit to Springfield: The vocal cord scraper looks like the dentist's gouger at Painless Dentistry.
 * Bart on the Road:
 * Homer and a Simpsons kid (Bart in this episode; Lisa in Bart on the Road) spend the night camping out, complete with Homer roasting multiple marshmallows on a stick over a fire.
 * Homer mentions that beer is for "daddies" and "kids with fake IDs." Bart had a fake ID in Bart on the Road and he nearly tried beer (but saw how pathetic the patrons of Moe's Tavern looked and refused to drink).

Trivia/Goofs

 * According to DVD commentary, none of the writers got permission to use any of the aliens in the police line-up (except for Kang/Kodos, which is the show's creation), making this "the most illegal shot in animation history." The only complaint the writers got was when the man who voices ALF told them that they should have called him up to voice his character.
 * Mrs. Glick (the old lady for whom Bart did chores in exchange for comic book money in "Three Men and a Comic Book) is seen at the Springfield Retirement Center, but Three Men and a Comic Book established that, despite her age, she was capable of caring for herself.
 * If it's implied that all of Leonard Nimoy's lines were from a teleprompter (or cue cards) [as seen when The Squeaky-Voiced Teen ended the story and referred to himself as Leonard Nimoy], then why would he have nothing to say for the last ten minutes?
 * The only explanation for this is that the writers wanted Leonard Nimoy to make a cheap appearance at the alien sighting carnival.
 * All of Homer's camping equipment when he and Bart are in the woods looking for the alien have labels that read "Property of Ned Flanders."
 * Leonard Nimoy looks the same way he did when he first appeared in Marge vs. the Monorail (in real life, Nimoy's hair was graying and he had a beard. Why the animators couldn't draw him as he was then is unknown).
 * In this episode, Bart has a camcorder that was borrowed from Ned Flanders, but in Bart the Lover, Homer tells Flanders that he lost his camcorder (unless that was a different one Flanders bought or Homer was lying).

Cultural references

 * When Homer says "a movie about a bus that had to speed around the city, keeping its speed over fifty" he is referring to the 1994 film Speed.
 * Much of the episode contains references to TV show The X-Files. Mulder and Scully are FBI agents from the series, and are voiced by their actors. The Cigarette Smoking Man from the show also appears. The show's theme song plays when the 'alien' appears. Also the photo of Mulder in a speedo shown in his FBI badge is a reference to an episode of the series where Mulder is shown wearing one.
 * Milhouse is shown playing "Kevin Costner's Waterworld" at the arcade. The game is shown to be both expensive (costing 40 quarters to play) and underwelming (with game over occurring after the player walks a single step). This references the large budget for the film (which prior to Titanic was the most expensive film produced) and it's weak critical reception and box-office performance.
 * When Homer is asked to identify which alien he saw, the line-up includes Marvin the Martian (Warner Bros.), Gort (from The Day the Earth Stood Still), Chewbacca (from Star Wars), either Kang or Kodos, and ALF.
 * After Homer is been examined by Scully and Mulder, a view on Moe's Tavern is shown with brief description, after which "ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY" text is repeatedly written on screen. This refers to famous scene from "The Shining" by Stanley Kubrick.
 * The bus of musicians that Homer encounters while in the woods play the music from the shower scene in the movie Psycho.
 * The Budweiser Frogs appear in the lake near the woods before getting eaten by a gator that says "Coors!"