Trivia / The Simpsons S8 E24 "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase"

• Approval of God: Mike Lookinland, Susan Olsen and Geri Reischl are all on-record as loving this episode's spoof of The Brady Bunch Hour.
• Creator's Favorite Episode:
  • Matt Groening feared that the fans would interpret the episode in a negative light and was uneasy about the episode when it was in production. He later went on to say that the episode "turned out great".
  • In an interview for Star-News, Simpsons writer Don Payne revealed that the episode was in his personal top six of the best episodes.
• Deleted Scene: A deleted scene during The Simpson Family Smile-Time Variety Hour segment has the "Just Stamp the Ticket" Man^note a.k.a "The Big-Nosed Jerk" from such past episodes as "When Flanders Failed", "Mr. Plow," "Homer Loves Flanders", and "Bart of Darkness" stand up in the audience and ask why the variety show is 10 years out of date.
• Reality Subtext: The character of Ozmodiar is a reference to an interview in which Matt Groening said that the surest sign that The Simpsons had outstayed its welcome would be if they introduced a Great Gazoo-like character.
• Sequel in Another Medium: The episode had a sequel in the comic series, dubbed the "Quickly Cancelled Comic Book Cavalcade". The stories are continuations of the three spinoffs proposed in the original episode, and true to form, they are as hokey as ever. In the "Wiggum, P.I." story, Wiggum becomes undead and Skinner suspects Big Daddy is behind it. Meanwhile, the eponymous "Lovematic Grandpa" finds his soul switched with that of Moe's Girl of the Week. Finally, "The Simpson Family Smile-Time Variety Hour" is forced to hold their salute to Rock & Roll on an island due to Homer crashing their plane on the way to their gig in Hollywood.
• What Could Have Been: The initial plan was to make The Simpson Family Smile-Time Variety Hour an even more direct parody of The Brady Bunch Hour, with Homer sporting a Robert Reed-esque perm and Rip Taylor as the special guest.

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