Trivia / The Simpsons S1 E7 "The Call of the Simpsons"

• Alan Smithee: Albert Brooks did not want to be credited for lending his voice to a primetime cartoon, so, instead, he was credited as "A. Brooks", which is how would be credited in his future appearances.
• Deleted Scene: The sequence with Marge and Lisa by the bonfire was originally longer and included a conversation between the two about boys, but it was cut from the episode.
• First Appearance: Rod Flanders. In the production order it was Ned's as well — hinted at by the fact that he has a slight lisp and differently-colored glasses to usual — but the reshuffling of the episode order meant "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" ended up being his actual debut.
• Throw It In!: According to the DVD Commentary, Albert Brooks improvised so much good material that the scene of Homer buying the RV could have been the whole episode (making it similar to Seinfeld's "The Chinese Restaurant" episode in that it's a Bottle Episode). Only a bit of the ad-libbing was used.
• What Could Have Been:
  • A plot twist that involved Homer being carried away to an eagle nest and being raised as a baby eagle was suggested for this episode by James L. Brooks, but they ended up going with Maggie being raised by bears instead.
  • In the original script, Homer and Bart were not talking in the scene where they concealed their private parts with mud and moss, but Sam Simon thought it would be "too funny to leave as a stage direction" and they added dialogue to the scene.
• Woolseyism: The episode's European French title is "L'Abominable Homme des bois", or "The Abominable Man of the woods". As you can see, "homme" ("man") is just a few letters off from "Homer".

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