A Star is Burns/References

Episode	References	Gags	Appearances	Gallery	Quotes	Credits

◄ Homer vs. Patty and Selma

A Star is Burns

Lisa's Wedding ►

Trivia

• This episode aired in March 1995 to coincide with the premiere of The Critic on FOX. Matt Groening was against the idea of The Simpsons having a crossover with The Critic as the episode played out as an episode-long advertisement for the show. Groening removed his name from the beginning and end credits, making this the only episode (as of 2019) to not have Matt Groening credited.
• Jon Lovitz speaks in the DVD commentary for the episode. He also talks about his one similarity with Jay Sherman: His testicular size.
• A deleted scene shows the residents of Springfield Retirement Castle making a risqué movie titled What the Pool Boy Saw to enter in the Springfield Film Festival.
• According to a security camera in the Kwik-E-Mart on Apu's video, the videos were made on July 22, 1994. Assuming all the films were shown the next day on July 23, 1994, then the skip to six months later would be on January 23, 1995, safely within original run of Season 6, although this episode aired on March 5, 1995.
• In Burns's film, current Simpsons' writer Jeff Westbrook is mentioned as one of the writers in the film's opening credits. Westbrook began writing episodes of The Simpsons about 10 years after this episode first aired.
• This is one of two 2Fxx episodes where Al Jean and Mike Reiss serve as executive producers instead of David Mirkin, the other being "'Round Springfield".

Citations

• Early in the episode Krusty is acting in a movie as a man in a wheelchair, as the movie plays, he breaks character standing up and walking toward the actress, he abruptly stops his dialogue and returns to the wheelchair; this is a parody of a scene from Dr. Strangelove Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb from Stanley Kubrick, where Peter Sellers stands from his wheelchair breaking his character and then improvise this as a miracle.
• The episode title references the 1976 Barbra Streisand film A Star Is Born.
• At the beginning of Mr. Burns' first appearance in this episode, the Imperial March (AKA Darth Vader's Theme) from Star Wars is played. This is used as a piece of theme music for Burns throughout the series.
• Burns says he wants Señor Spielbergo to do for him what Steven Spielberg did for Oskar Schindler, a reference to the 1993 film Schindler's List.
• The desert sequence in Mr. Burns' film is a parody of Ben-Hur, although the line, "You truly are the King of Kings," may be a recasting of a similar line delivered by John Wayne in the movie The Greatest Story Ever Told, where in a cameo as a centurion, he says, "Truly, this man was the Son of God."
• Barney's film is (unfortunately) entitled Pukahontas, a pun on the 1995 Disney animated movie Pocahontas.
• When Jay Sherman first comes into the Simpsons's house, Bart is watching a Flintstones-Jetsons crossover cartoon special (A parody of The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones). He criticizes the crossover special despite the episode being a crossover special itself.
• Dr. Hibbert dressed up like Dr. Frank-e-Furter from Rocky Horror Picture Show.
• Moe played the character inspired by the Master of Ceremonies from movie Cabaret.
• Jay Sherman was based on Roger Ebert.
• McBain's "Woody Allen impression", which merely consists of him saying "I'm a neurotic nerd who likes to sleep with little girls", was a reference to the then-recent revelation that Woody Allen married his adoptive daughter Soon-Yi, as well as kept nude photographs of her while she was growing up.

Goofs

• In the theatre during the show Dr. Hibbert is behind Homer wearing a suit, despite being in the Rocky Horror Picture Show costume just before.
• In the theatre also, Reverand Lovejoy atypically wears a white shirt with a tie.
• When Jay calls for a taxi his mouth does not move.
• Mr. Burns bribed Quimby and Krusty, but didn't bother to bribe Homer, even though Homer is even his employee. Burns can never remember who Homer is, so this is hardly surprising.
• Patty was also mad at Jay when he said MacGyver was gay, even though she came out as gay herself in Season 16.
• Although Matt Groening didn't want to be credited in this episode, his name still appears in the opening credits in some FXX reruns.