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Episode
References
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Credits
Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington
When Flanders Failed
Bart the Murderer

Trivia[]

  • During the episode, The Simpsons slowly embrace the happy face message of Bye Bye Birdie song "Put on a Happy Face. However, they would soon afterwards begin to distance themselves from the message in "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk (Burns to Sell the Power Plant)" and against in "Treehouse of Horror V", which had unhappy people smiling and sympathizing more with the message of Jack Nicholson's Joker from 1989 film Batman, which is that smiles are deception of one's true feelings.
  • This is the last time the prototype theme music from the Season 2 opening titles is played. This is also the last time that Bart's chalkboard gag has its original high color saturation.
    • This is possibly because this episode was produced back in Season 2, making it the second episode to be a leftover.
  • The Jerky Hut is misspelled as The Perky Hut in this episode.
  • An Itchy & Scratchy cartoon scene was reused from the episode Burning Love and it also shows closing credits. This is the first episode where the cartoon shows closing credits.
  • This is also the first episode in the series that primarily focuses on Ned Flanders.
  • This is the first of a very few episodes (excluding the non-canon Treehouse of Horror specials) showing Homer technically having an antagonistic role as he wishes The Leftorium to be a failure and go out of business, and then (initially) show no remorse for his actions, although he then does so.
  • How the production went on this episode is fairly identical to how Some Enchanted Evening's (Which was the very 1st produced episode of the whole show with code 7G01) production went, as both episodes initially came back from South Korea with very high amounts of errors in the animation, and had to be redrawn and re-shot.
  • This is the first episode where Homer says, "Stupid Flanders!"

Continuity[]

  • Several characters from "There's No Disgrace Like Home" appear at Ned's barbecue.
  • Mr. Burns has been seen writing with his right hand before. He could be ambidextrous.

Cultural References[]

  • The title is a parody of the Canadian patriotic poem "In Flanders Fields".
  • The song "Put on a Happy Face" from the musical Bye Bye Birdie appears twice. Sung by Maude, Rod and Todd Flanders in the car and later by everyone in the Leftorium when the place becomes a success.
  • The episode features cultural references to playwright William Shakespeare and the film It's a Wonderful Life.

Goofs[]

Lovesnel

"Maude loves Nel"

Yellou

Lou with yellow skin

  • As discussed in the main page, this episode features an infamously high number of small errors in the animation. The crew went back to the episode to try to reanimate it to tone down these errors, but the final result still has quite a bunch of errors in it, including general sloppiness in line work and coloring.
  • During the opening scene, a piece of grass disappears while it is being cut.
  • In the Flanders' car, there is an antenna on the window that randomly appears and disappears.
  • Liseyes

    Lisa without eyes

    When Bart was wearing the shirt that said Maude loves Ned, it instead said Maude loves Nel. The rest of the D in "Ned" may be on the other side of Bart's belly. Or it could also be possible that Maude had had a boyfriend named Nel before she married Ned and that she kept the shirt with the writing since that.
  • Soon after the above scene, Lisa's eyes briefly disappear.
  • In the Moe's scene Lou is seen with yellow skin.
  • Homerclothe

    Todd with Homer's clothes

    In the Leftorium, Todd briefly is dressed in Homer's clothes instead of his regular outfit.
  • When Moe says 'my life begins today', captions[at least on the complete third season DVD] read 'my life today' lacking the word 'begins'.
  • Like many other episodes on YouTube, the title has a mistake in it, for this one the episode is titled "When Flander Failed" instead of When Flanders failed. 


Season 2 Season 3 References/Trivia Season 4
Stark Raving DadMr. Lisa Goes to WashingtonWhen Flanders FailedBart the MurdererHomer DefinedLike Father, Like ClownTreehouse of Horror IILisa's PonySaturdays of ThunderFlaming Moe'sBurns Verkaufen der KraftwerkI Married MargeRadio BartLisa the GreekHomer AloneBart the LoverHomer at the BatSeparate VocationsDog of DeathColonel HomerBlack WidowerThe Otto ShowBart's Friend Falls in LoveBrother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?
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