Trivia / The Simpsons S7 E8 – "Mother Simpson"

• Actor-Shared Background: Glenn Close, much like Mona Simpson, is also an activist, specifically for women's rights and mental health.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: This is one of Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein's favorite episodes; they have called it a perfect combination of real emotion, good jokes, and an interesting story.
• Deleted Scene:
  • "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular" reveals there's one for this episode, where Homer eats the care packages while he and Mona discuss his job (which he's trying to take down from the inside) and him going into space.
  • The Complete Series 7 DVD has a slightly extended version of the scene where Bart and Lisa determine Mona must be a con artist.
    Bart: What kind of self-respecting con artist would choose Homer Simpson?
    Lisa: A lazy one, looking to ease into retirement?
• In Memoriam: The episode is dedicated to Jackie Banks, a scene planner and animation checker on the show who died in 1995.
• The Other Marty: As Mona gets in the van, accidentally hitting her head and saying "D'oh!", Pamela Hayden (who normally voices Bart's blue-haired, luckless friend, Milhouse, and bully/petty thug Jimbo Jones^note though some early episodes had Pamela Hayden as Dolph Starbeam while Tress MacNeille voiced Jimbo) voices her because Glenn Close couldn't say "D'oh!" properly.
• Reality Subtext: The iconic ending of Homer staring into the sky matches up very well with the dedication to Jackie Banks.
• Technology Marches On: The joke of Smithers taping over Mr. Burns' tape of "Ride of the Valkyries" with "Waterloo" wouldn't work if Burns was using a CD, MP3 player, or a smartphone.
• Tuckerization: Mona is named after novelist Mona Simpson, who was married at the time to the episode's writer, Richard Appel.
• What Could Have Been: Originally, the song that Smithers taped over "Ride of the Valkyries" with was "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" by Wham!. The rights to that song ended up being too expensive, so they used ABBA's "Waterloo". The joke still works, as both Wham! and ABBA have a cult following with gay men. Some closed captioned versions of the episode use the lyrics for The Human League's "Don't You Want Me" instead of those for "Waterloo".

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