Homer to the Max/References

Episode	References	Gags	Appearances	Gallery	Quotes	Credits

◄ Sunday, Cruddy Sunday

Homer to the Max

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Cultural references

• The TV show "Police Cops" is an homage to Miami Vice and is a lot like Starsky and Hutch.
• When Homer complains that the once-heroic character sharing his name was suddenly changed, Marge argues that the character is simply comic relief now, "like Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now".
• The theme song Max composes for himself is a spoof of the Goldfinger theme song.
• Homer mentions high school girl Debbie Pinson. She appears in a much later episode "Take My Life, Please".
• All in the Family is referenced when Carroll O'Connor says he wishes he kept the money from the first show in fact he had 3 fairly successful shows All in the Family (1971-79), Archie Bunker's Place (1979-83) and In the Heat of the Night (1988-95).
• Homer's new name being lifted from a label for a hairdryer was subtly taken from the backstory of the titular character of the series Max Headroom, Edison Carter, where his digitized copy had picked up the name from a sign just before he crashed.
• Marge, when attempting to convince Homer that it was only coincidental that the star of Police Cops shared the same name as him, alluded to a guy with the same name as Anthony Michael Hall (a former teen star in such 1980s movies as Sixteen Candles, National Lampoon's Vacation, and The Breakfast Club and was temporarily a Saturday Night Live cast member on that show's 11th season from 1985 to 1986, becoming the show's youngest cast member at 17 years old and the only SNL cast member who was under 18 and under 21 years old when hired) dug up his yard, though Bart's sarcastic "Yeah, coincidence" implies that the random guy named Anthony Michael Hall was actually him.
• Homer makes an allusion to Antena 3 in the European Spanish version.

Deleted scenes

• At least two scenes were animated although ultimately cut from airing:
  • Homer, or rather, "Max Power", when talking with some men, stated he once fought George Bush, with several people being shocked that he actually went through with beating up a president.
  • The leader of the Springfield Elites is told by Chief Wiggum that trees don't have the same rights as people, with the leader stating they will once a certain amendment was passed.
• One scene didn't make it through the storyboard process:
  • The original ending of the episode had Homer being directly shown to have his name changed back to Homer Simpson from Max Power. The plaintiff then states the next trial involves conspiracy of the Redwood Forest with Max Power as one of the defendants. Homer then smugly tells them to have good luck finding him, with the plaintiff finishing by stating that Homer is the same as Max, causing him to yell "d'oh" in irritation, as well as the entire courtroom, Marge included, to laugh at him.

Previous Episode References

• "Brush with Greatness" and "Homer Badman": Homer is publicly humiliated (for getting stuck on the H2-Whoa!/for allegedly sexually assaulting a college coed/for sharing the name of a bumbling TV show character).
• "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire": A Simpson (Bart/Marge) gets (or talks about) tattoo removal.
• "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge": A Simpson parent (Marge/Homer) gets humiliated by TV show writers (the I&S writers caricature Marge as a squirrel who gets her head knocked off by Itchy and Scratchy/The Police Cops writers use Homer's plea for giving him back his dignity as one of the lines for the bumbling Homer character).
• "Homer the Great":
  • Someone in the Simpsons family thinks a celebrity (Charles Kuralt/Anthony Michael Hall) ruined their yard.
  • More than one Homer exists in Springfield.
• "Cape Feare": Homer goes by a different name.
• "Treehouse of Horror VIII" ("The Homega Man"): The new actor playing Homer Simpson on Police Cops looks like the Chris Farley caricature from the unnamed movie Homer watches after discovering that he's the last man alive after the nuclear explosion.
• "Homer the Heretic": Homer's hatred for Saturday Night Live showrunner Lorne Michaels (Homer skips over a Playdude magazine article about Lorne/Homer refuses to talk to him at the environmentalist party).
• "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show": Meta jokes about the poor quality of American TV shows and how TV shows get changed due to executive meddling.
  • Both episodes also have jokes about voice actors (June Bellamy voicing both Itchy and Scratchy even though she's a woman/Homer's joke about how network TV likes animation because they don't pay the voice actors much and they can easily replace them with other voice actors).

Goofs

Judge Snyder with yellow skin

Lisa's necklace overlaps her paper

• Judge Snyder is depicted in this episode with yellow skin for the last time.
• When Lisa is reading Homer's new name, her necklace is in front of the paper even though it should be behind the paper.
• This is one of several episodes where Michigan is viewed as two separate states, with the U.P. a different color than the rest of the state. The U.P. is aqua colored while the lower part of Michigan is blue on the nuclear plant's map in the scene where Homer spills his fondue on the circuit board.