The 1st part of the intro was a spoof of "Wizard Of Oz".
When the newspaper is shown with Abe on it, his face resembles the popular internet meme The Awesome Face
Trivia
The Hollywood stars seen departing the train are Jimmy Durante, Shirley Temple, W.C. Fields, James Cagney, Laurel and Hardy, and Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's Monster.
The license plate Marge takes a photo of is "MABF02", which is the production code for the episode.
Marshall Goldman's laptop is a Mapple computer, a company which has been seen before in a few other episodes.
The song in the background of Abe's flashback is "Chattanooga Choo-choo" by Glenn Miller.
Abe is almost surprised after he understands of being created by Jim Henson.
This is the second episode where a Simpson makes an improvised zip line. The first was A Streetcar Named Marge.