The song "We Love You, Matlock" is a parody of the song "We Love You, Conrad" from the musical Bye Bye Birdie.
Homer playing the giant floor piano in the store is likely a reference to the 1988 film Big which was produced by Gracie Films and features a similar scene with Tom Hanks's character playing a giant floor piano.
Also, when Homer first uses the giant-sized piano, he is shown playing "Rock Around The Clock".
The main plot of the episode is a reference to several controversies centered on Barbie, more directly the "Math is Hard" talking Barbie controversy.
The girl whose Stacy doll says Spider-Man quotes is based on actual events. Feminist activists calling themselves the "Barbie Liberation Organization" replaced Talking Barbie's sound chip with ones from Hasbro's GI Joe and ToyBiz's Marvel Super Heroes figures and placing them back on store shelves.
While Abe Simpson is going through his elderly citizen complaints on the way back to the Simpson House (and promptly driving his family to immediately avoid him upon returning), one of the things he complained about was that "The president is a Demmycrat." At the time the episode aired, Bill Clinton, who indeed adhered to the Democrat party, had been the President.
Trivia[]
Funnily enough, Krusty's gaffe at the voice recording studio (where he breezes through several lines and leaves before the recording even started) would be repeated during the development of the game Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days where Christopher Lee ended up delivering his line as Ansem the Wise and leaving in a similar manner to Krusty (although unlike Krusty who did it largely out of arrogance, Christopher Lee did it due to having a very busy schedule that forced him to rush things).
Kathleen Turner and Nancy Cartwright previously worked on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, voicing Jessica Rabbit (speaking voice only; Amy Irving was Jessica's singing voice) and the cartoon shoe that gets dissolved in acid, respectively.
Goofs[]
Marge's necklace is white
Maggie without a head
When the Simpson family is about to leave for the mall, Marge's necklace changes from red to white while on-screen.
Abe can somehow reach the car horn despite claiming that he can't unbuckle his seatbelt. He could have said that for attention like he did everything else.
When the girls joke that Lisa said a dirty word, Nina's mouth did not move, even though she clearly appeared to be speaking to Janey.
The edge of the animation cel
In the close-up shot of the talking doll suggesting that people forget their troubles with a bowl of strawberry ice cream, the edge of the animation cel can be seen on the right side of the screen.
Part of the worker's jacket collar is white
At the factory assembly line, part of one of the worker's blue jacket collar briefly turns white like his shirt.
The speaker outside of Stacy's mansion changes depending on the angle of the shot. At first, it has lines going diagonally both ways, but then it only has horizontal lines.
When Maggie examines the Lisa Lionheart dolls, there is a frame where she is missing her head.
When Lisa threw her Talking Malibu Stacy out the window, the doll broke upon hitting the spokes of the wheels of the bike Abraham was riding, but at the beginning of Act 2, Lisa's Talking Malibu Stacy was still in perfect condition.
Though possibly intentional, on of the mall signs misspells "vinegar" as "vinnegar."
Why didn't Smithers buy the Lisa Lionheart doll? The other kids (except for the one girl) not buying it is understandable, as children are fickle and will go after whatever toy is considered popular, but Smithers is a doll collector who makes more than enough money being Mr. Burns' executive assistant and butler/home health care provider, and doll collectors with good money usually go after dolls that are either rare or had a limited run before being taken off the market.
