The premiere of this episode was watched by 5.75 million people in America.
Trivia[]
This is the last/final episode for a handful of things:
This is the last episode to have the old opening (which was around since the show'ssecond season).
This is the last episode of the series to be presented in the original standard definition, 4:3 aspect ratio (which has been in use for the series since 1989). It is also the only episode in this format to air in 2009.
It's also the only 4:3 ratio episode to not have a fade out after the intro; this also happens for the subsequent episodes of Season 20, after the switch to widescreen.
This feature gives viewers a bit of a preview of what the 16:9 ratio episodes will look like when they air.
This is the last episode to have a Season 19's KABF## production code.
This is also the last episode to use the 1995 20th Century Fox Television logo (though some prints have the 1998 "enhanced" widescreen version of the logo instead).
The episode title in German, "Die Chroniken von Equalia"[1], is a reference of the novel franchise The Chronicles of Narnia.
Elements of the plot loosely resemble the 1994 film Heavenly Creatures, which is based on the murder of Honorah Rieper, who was beaten to death by her daughter Pauline Parker and her friend Juliet Hulme at Victoria Park in Christchurch, New Zealand on the afternoon of the 22nd June 1954. As Parker was 16 and Hulme was 15 at the time of Honorah Rieper's murder, they were considered underage for the death penalty and instead were sentenced to five years imprisonment. After their release in November 1959, both Parker and Hulme left New Zealand and went their separate ways.
In some of the scenes, the girls imagine themselves in their fantasy world and Marge forbids Lisa from hanging out with her friend Juliet, who is loosely based on Hulme. Also, the girls obsession with Josh Groban mirrors the obsession of the girls in Heavenly Creatures with opera singer Mario Lanza. The song "Wipeout" was played while they were visiting the Folk Art Museum (although the wipeout at the beginning was replaced by folk art).
Lisa ends up buying Almond Joys at Apu's suggestion.
The song played in the credits is a cover of The Simpsons theme song by the rock band Fall Out Boy. The band was named after the character Fallout Boy.
Juliet references the law film 1996 A Time To Kill, where she points out that her father discovers that the legal system is the true villain in the film.
Goofs[]
The fairy missing a wing
At the Recreation Center, the kids only have one painting frame per easel, but when the teacher orders them to paint twenty laps, they all have two painting frames.
Lisa's saxophone case disappears when the girls go to sleep.
When Homer was giving his friendship advice to Lisa, his "Ned" mug and newspaper disappear.
As she introduces the musical playlist in Equalia, the fairy's left wing (from the viewer's perspective) disappears for a frame.
One of the Yo! Gurt customers disappear between scenes.
When Jimbo and Dolph are about to burn the Equalia book, Lisa's clothing is for no reason pink instead of red.
