The episode is a parody of the 1962 film, Cape Fear, starring Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, though the episode is more in line with the remake that was released the year this was made.
The Simpsons and Sideshow Bob watch the movie Ernest Goes Somewhere Cheap, an obvious parody of Jim Varney's Ernestmovies.
Sideshow Bob's knuckle tattoos ("luv" and "hāt") are a reference to the film The Night of the Hunter, in which the murderous Harry Powell (also played by Robert Mitchum) has the words "love" and "hate" tattooed, on his knuckles.
The Itchy and Scratchy cartoon is called Spay Anything, referencing the movie Say Anything, and spoofs the laser scene from Goldfinger, the third James Bond film released in 1964.
To stall for time, Bart asks Sideshow Bob to sing the entire score of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera, H.M.S. Pinafore.
Trivia[]
This episode was the last episode produced by the original show writers and runners.
Beginning with this episode, the showrunner credit (in this case, Executive Producers Al Jean and Mike Reiss) now appears at the end of the episode, before the Executive Producers credit for James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, and Sam Simon. Prior to this, the showrunner credit was usually the first opening credit to be superimposed during the first scene of an episode.
Much like season four's "Kamp Krusty" and season 17's "Bonfire of the Manatees", this episode was originally conceived as the plot for a feature film version of The Simpsons. However, the writers did not know how to stretch the story past the thirty-minute mark (which they already had difficulty with when writing this episode), so it was turned into a regular episode.
This episode has a rare opening with the show's name "The Simpsons" replaced with the name "The Thompsons" this time.
Censorship[]
This episode was originally banned in Germany for depicting violence against a child and the appearance of Up Late with McBain's show announcer Obergruppenfurher Wolfcastle dressed in a full Gestapo uniform (Modern-day Germany has strict laws prohibiting the use of Nazi references and symbols unless it is for educational or historic reasons. Displaying the Hakenkreuz/swastika alone is enough to get someone put in prison for a year). The episode was eventually dubbed and aired on ProSieben on October 2, 1999, with the first scene edited, making it start with Lisa receiving her letter from Anya/General Krull and Bart getting his threatening, blood-written note. Despite this, there was no controversy or edits done to the famous line, "No one who speaks German could be an evil man," during the parole sequence
Goofs[]
The houseboat changes designs between shots.
The rakes Sideshow Bob walks into in some scenes seem to be coming out of nowhere.
Although the kids are watching Up Late With McBain (which is implied to be a late night talk show), Marge announces mail delivery, which occurs during daylight hours. Up Late With McBain probably did so bad in its original timeslot that it got canceled and whatever remaining episodes the show had aired during daytime hours when barely anyone would be watching. It's rare, but it does happen to television shows (at least before the days of streaming and Internet-based series). It also could have been canceled after one episode and now airs as filler, which is another antiquated television practice.
When Sideshow Bob is listing the residents of the neighborhood who would not be killed, he does not mention Rod and Todd Flanders. Sideshow Bob probably didn't know that Ned and Maude Flanders have children.
When Clancy Wiggum, Lou and Eddie pull out their weapons towards Sideshow Bob at the end of the episode, the guns make shotgun reloading noises despite being pistols.
When Sideshow Bob says, "...that little baby Simpson...", Maggie's right eyelash disappears when she looks at Bob's direction. When she goes back to her looking direction, her eyelash appears back on.
In a deleted scene, when Homer asks Wiggum where he got the sloppy joes, his mouth doesn't move.
