This is the only episode of the Simpsons directed by Shaun Cashman.
One of the Simpsons comic books published by Bongo featured a similar plotline in which Springfield is divided over the issue of use and access to a lake.
The phone number for the exterminators is 983-7668 (X-TERM-N-8).
This was the first ever episode broadcast by British television network Channel 4 .
Despite being a Simpson, Abraham is shown to be on the Olde Springfield side.
Censorship[]
Bill and Marty's radio joke about the mattress being on the road meaning that Joan Collins was back in town (and Homer saying that Joan Collins sleeps with everybody) was cut in Sky Showcase airings, but this was later added back in.
Homer saying that The Who used to be called “The Hillbilly Bugger Boys” was cut in Channel 4 airings. It was once cut in Sky Showcase airings, but was later added back in.
Homer and Bart fighting with the telephone (Homer strangles Bart with the cord and Bart bashes Homer's head in with the receiver until the two of them pass out) was cut in Channel 4 airings. It was once cut in Sky Showcase airings, but was later added back in.
The news report about the Evian water factory being brought to old Springfield was cut in Sky Showcase airings, due to Sky Showcase not allowing mentions of commercial brands at the time of the episode's broadcast, but this was later added back in.
Kent Brockman's "golden showers" line (and the crew members snickering over it) was cut in Channel 4 airings. It was once cut in Sky Showcase airings, but was later added back in.
Despite these cuts, Homer showing Lisa his innards after the badger attacked him was never cut on any UK channel, nor was Homer with a suicide belt on, threatening to blow himself up, only to blame Bart for not wiring it right (and Bart's line, "It worked on the test corpse"), and the running gag of Homer misusing choloform, including the end where he dopes Marge up on choloform to keep her from ranting about all the chaos he caused throughout the episode.
Cultural references[]
Homer imagines himself as a mayor, walking down the street in a Western town, wearing a cowboy hat and firing a rifle, in a parody of the opening credit of the Western show The Rifleman starring Chuck Connors.
The title of this episode comes from the Charles Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities.
Todd's woodpecker is a reference to the Woody Woodpecker show, especially its laugh after attacking Bart.
The wall which New Springfield erected to keep Olde Springfield from entering their town is a parody of the Berlin Wall which East Germany erected to keep West Germany from entering their country. Marge even mentions the Berlin Wall when Homer thinks about constructing the wall. New Springfield plays the role of East Germany and Olde Springfield plays West Germany. Like the Springfield Wall, the Berlin Wall which also stood at the divided West and Berlin would also fall in November 1989, one month before The Simpsons debuted as a regular television series. Like when the Berlin Wall fell, several local residents were on hand to witness the event as it happened. However, this wall was stronger and needed to be taken apart with sledgehammers and jackhammers rather than the vibrations of rock music.
After Homer hears about the change of area code, the badger shows up and Homer goes "Go away! We got bigger problems now." This is a reference to the recurring sudden plot changes in most Simpson episodes, including this one.
The self-referencing blackboard gag refers to the presidential election which was two days after the episode was aired. A controversy surrounding the election was the supposed use of subliminal messages.
The timing of the episode coincides with Matt Groening's native northwest Oregon splitting into two overlapping area codes (Area code 503 and Area code 971). Such a split plan was often unpopular due to existing phone numbers changing, and now the alternative method of an overlay plan, whereby an area is given a new code for new numbers but existing numbers do not change.
The scene with Homer, Lenny and Carl having lunch in the nuclear power plant has a reference to the movie Pulp Fiction. While writing the new area code on his hand, Homer complains that he already has enough things to remember and a close-up of his hand shows the writing "Lenny=White, Carl=Black." This is a reference to the second last scene in Pulp Fiction, in which The Wolf is called to help resolve a problem. On a pad of paper before he meets up with Vincent and Jules, he writes "Vincent-White, Jules-Black" in order to distinguish between the two.
The last part of the final scene - where the badgers descend upon Springfield - shows one badger, much smaller than the rest, some distance behind the others. This is probably a reference to several similar Looney Tunes cartoons starring Sylvester, in which he is originally terrorized by a group of mice, but subsequently develops enough courage to "show them who's boss" and drive them all away. In each of these cartoons, the mice are shown fleeing the house, screaming and squeaking in fear, followed a little later by a baby mouse chattering incoherently in a voice that has been recorded at high speed.
Homer telling the Arizona Cardinals representative to "keep walking" is a reference to how poor the Cardinals franchise has been.
After they receive the gold from the river, Kent Brockman does an editorial about it and thanks Homer, saying that they will all be covered in golden showers (a sexual term for peeing on your partner). He does not get it but the people off to the side laugh hysterically.
When The Who orders Homer to tear down the wall, the moment is quite similar to movie The Wall by Pink Floyd, in which the main character is ordered to tear down the wall in his head, that alienates him from the world.
The Who references[]
When Kent Brockman's newscast shows a picture of Homer and friends on the steps of a home, the layout and poses match the back cover of The Who's Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncycompilation album.
Moe's line "That fat, dumb, and bald guy sure plays some real hard ball" is a variation of a lyric in the song "Pinball Wizard" by The Who. The original lyric is "That deaf, dumb, and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball."
The scene where Bart attempted to trash the band's hotel room to the band's dismay was a reference to The Who's reputation in the late 1960s and 1970s where they had a habit of destroying every hotel room they stayed in while on tour. The first reported incident occurred on the 4th April 1968 when the band was kicked out of the Gorham Hotel in New York after the band's drummer Keith Moon dropped lit cherry bombs on two NYPD officers from the band's room on the ninth floor, before using another cherry bomb to destroy the toilet in his room, knocking out the entire plumbing on the floor in the process. The next incident occurred the following day on the 5th April 1968 at the Waldorf Astoria when Moon used another cherry bomb to blow open the door of his room to retrieve his luggage after the band was kicked out for failing to provide a cash surety.
The Who's habit of destroying their hotel rooms had prompted the one of the hotel chains, the Holiday Inn to ban the band from staying at every Holiday Inn throughout the US after it was reported that Moon drove a new Lincoln Continental into the Holiday Inn's swimming pool in Flint, Michigan during Moon's 21st birthday on the night of the 23rd August 1967. Along with the ban from staying at every Holiday Inn, it was reported that some members of the band were held in jail during the band's stay in Montreal on the 2nd December 1973 after the band held a party in an empty suite at the Hotel Bonaventure. During the party, Moon took off a painting off the wall and replaced it with an abstract tomato ketchup design before he and fellow band member Pete Townsend used the suite's marble table to crash through a connected wall and throwing it through a window (resulting in glass getting into Townsend's eyes) and into the hotel's pool below along with a TV set.
Goofs[]
Lisa with two heads
After the badger attacks Homer, he lifts up his shirt. Homer's organs are exposed, and yet his white shirt has no visible bloodstains.
As the Simpson family's picture is taken, the flash effect is misaligned so that it looks like Lisa briefly has two heads.
The credits list Gary Coleman as a guest star, even though he didn't appear in this episode.
