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Bart the Mother |
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Trivia[]
- This episode marks the last speaking appearance of Troy McClure, and the last episode that Phil Hartman was involved with, as he was murdered four months before the episode aired. The episode was dedicated to his memory.
- This episode was actually a B-story that had been unused for a long time due to having no place in the plot. The original story, however, focused on Homer finding a bird's nest in one of the nuclear plant towers and trying to find a home for the birds before the winter comes.
- Running Gag: Homer falling down the basement stairs.
- This is the final episode to have a short version of the intro until season 13's "She of Little Faith".
- Normally, The Simpsons is rated TV-PG on American television since the start of the TV content ratings in 1997 (mostly for offensive language [L] and suggestive dialogue [D], but some episodes can be rated TV-PG for sexual situations [S] and/or violence [V] and a lot of later episodes have been rated TV-14 due to use of stronger language, crude humor, drug abuse, stronger violence, and sexual content that would be too much for the TV-PG rating). However, this episode, joining season eight's "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" and season nine's "All Singing, All Dancing", is rated TV-G, despite containing scenes of animal violence (the lizards attacking and eating birds), upsetting scenes (Marge emotionally cutting off Bart as punishment for killing a mother bird and Bart getting upset over the prospect of having his pet lizards decapitated), sexual innuendo (Skinner naming off birds that have sexual-sounding names, like titmouse, booby, and woodpecker), threat (Bart trying to save the lizards from getting killed), and comic violence (Homer getting hit with baseballs, Nelson crashing into Milhouse's go-kart, and Homer falling down the stairs three times).
Previous Episode References[]
- Marge Be Not Proud: Marge is so upset over something bad Bart has done that she shuns him/emotionally cuts him off, until Bart does something to redeem himself (go back to Try-N-Save and pay for a photo of him/take care of the bird eggs he orphaned).
- El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer): A couch gag where Homer falls from a great height (because his parachute won't open/misses the couch when the firefighters are rescuing the family).
- Lisa the Simpson: reference to FOX's reality specials (Homer, Bart, and Lisa watch "When Buildings Collapse" and "When Surgery Goes Wrong"/the Family Fun Center was seen on "When Disaster Strikes 4").
- Selma's Choice: cars at an amusement park/fun center get abused (Dolph, Jimbo, and Kearney steal three bumper cars while Bart was being rescued from The Barrel Roll/Nelson crashes Milhouse's go-kart).
- Homer Badman: reference to the sexual innuendo behind the word "titmouse" (Homer tells Marge that he's so bashful, he can't say the word "titmouse" without giggling like a schoolgirl/Skinner mentions the titmouse alongside other sexually-named birds like the woodpecker and the booby).
- Homer at the Bat, Life on the Fast Lane, and Burns, Baby Burns: Homer gets hit with a baseball (or, in the case of "Burns, Baby Burns", a baseball bat).
- Bart on the Road and Lisa's Date with Density: Nelson lives in a shack with little to no parental supervision.
- Homer's Phobia: Bart refuses to kill an animal.
- Two Dozen and One Greyhounds: The family gathers around to see the birth of an animal.
- Lisa on Ice and There's No Disgrace Like Home: The kids argue over who gets to ride in the front seat with Homer.
- Bart Gets Famous: A character voiced by Nancy Cartwright (Bart/Nelson) hums or whistles the theme to The Simpsons.
- Bart Carny: The "In Memoriam" screen for Phil Hartman is reused for this episode.
- "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" and "All Singing, All Dancing": A Simpsons episode was initially rated TV-G in America, despite the episode containing problematic content that would be more suited for its normal rating of TV-PG.
Goofs[]
- The “Bolivian tree lizard” is a fictional species. However, its behavior mirrors the habits of birds which are brood parasitic, such as the cuckoo and cowbirds. Its impact on birds may also be a reference to the brown tree snake and its impact on Guam's native birds.
- The go-karts are first shown going counterclockwise, but in the next cut with Bart and Homer, they are shown going counter-clockwise.