Also, the episode has a new opening scene. This was the first big change of the intro since Season 2.
The HDTV transition is referenced in this episode's chalkboard gag, "HDTV is worth every cent."
The idea of the change comes from Matt Groening's interview to the New York Post: "The clouds at the very beginning of the main title were always unsatisfying to me. My original direction to the animators was to make the clouds as realistic as possible, and as we go through the clouds we enter this cartoon universe of The Simpsons. Finally, after a couple of decades, they've gotten closer to what I had in my mind. Not perfect, but better."
The description on Rainer Wolfcastle's plaque says "Movie Star, Former Gov," showing him once being the Governor of the State the Springfield is in. This is a reference of his real-life counterpart, Arnold Schwarzenegger, being the ex-Governor of California.
Homer is now run over by Marge's car in the new HD intro. In the old intro, whenever he saw her car, he would scream and run through the door.
The food prices have gone down in the new HD intro.
The total is now $486.52 ($847.63 in the old intro).
Maggie is worth $243.26, exactly as much as the other items put together.
This is also the series's 430th episode.
During the new HD title sequence, the Simpsons family has an HDTV. But for the remainder of season 20, they still have the old TV set.
This is the second episode where a Simpson loses a class president election. The first was Lisa's Substitute.
The credits still occupy the middle 4:3 area, presumably to allow a space for pan and scan presentations.
The Gracie Films logo is stretched vertically in the 4:3 episodes, it is at about a 2.35:1 theatrical ratio, letterboxed, but now it fills the 16:9 frame.
The 20th Century Fox logo is the 16:9 version that basically includes the 4:3 one in the center.
This is the first episode to use the 16.9 widescreen ratio. However, fullscreen prints continued to use the standard 4:3 ratio.
This is the first episode of The Simpsons to use the 2007 20th Century Fox Television logo.
Goofs[]
Maude is seen in the crowd even though she died in “Alone Again, Natura-Diddly.”
Even though Maude Flanders died 190 episodes earlier in Alone Again, Natura-Diddily, she can be seen next to Ned, Rod and Todd when an overview of the crowd is seen.
Maude Flanders is seen crushing on Homer in high school, although a few episodes back teenager Homer and Marge were picked up by an adult Maude and Ned who were married.
Homer dived into the sauce, however it was boiling hot and therefore he would have been severely burned.
It is shown that Smithers was already working for Mr. Burns when Homer went to high school, meaning that he is older than Homer. However, in "The Blunder Years" it is shown that he was a baby when Homer was 12 years old. On the other hand, in a flashback of "Bye Bye Nerdie", it was shown that both were studying together at the same time which would mean that Smithers could still be older than Homer and thus that Smithers was a baby and his father died before Homer was born as the corpe of Smithers Sr could be hidden under the power plant for many years.
Jessica not colored right
During the school band scene in the intro, Jessica Lovejoy is not colored correctly. This was fixed in the following episode.
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