Trivia / The Simpsons S7 E10 "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular"

• Alan Smithee: Jon Vitti wrote the episode under the pseudonym "Penny Wise", because he did not want to be credited for writing a clip show. Director David Silverman used the pseudonym "Pound Foolish".
• Deleted Scene: The episode showcases a lot of them — all of which are real, according to the crew members, and most of which have appeared on deleted scene reels on the DVD or have been talked about in the DVD Commentary, such as the James Bond card game scene in "$pringfield", the Bollywood movie scene in "Homer and Apu", the scenes in "Treehouse of Horror IV"^note Homer's head being used as a bowling ball by a demon during his stay in Hell, Bart nearly selling his soul for a Formula-One racing car, and Lionel Hutz returning to the house, thinking he lost the case, and revealing that the pizza box he had was empty when Marge tells him that he did win, and the robotic Richard Simmons scene.
• Edited for Syndication: Though Troy promises a look at clips cut from the syndicated run of the show in the introduction (over a brief clip of the Wartime Cartoon from "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie", which indeed falls under this trope), no such segment actually turns up in this episode, raising the possibility that this was a deliberate joke to confuse viewers when it went into syndication.
  • Played straight with some of the scenes from the Tracey Ullman shorts cut when the episode was put in actual syndication. The real end to the very first Tracey Ullman Simpsons cartoon (where Bart, Lisa, and Maggie rush to Homer and Marge's room and sleep in their bed) was cut so it ends on Homer and Marge congratulating themselves on being good parents and saying good-night to each other. Also cut was everything after Bart getting the vase stuck to his head on the Tracey Ullman short where Bart, Lisa, and Maggie play Space Patrol (Lisa breaks the vase and leaves Bart to be yelled at by Homer and Marge).
• Milestone Celebration: Parodied with the title.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends:
  • Several Sarcasm-Blind viewers were apparently unable to tell that the scanner in the opening credits reading "NRA4EVER" was a joke, as it has been repeated as fact by several reference guides about the show. (The actual display in the scanner is $847.63, which was the average monthly cost of raising a baby in 1989.)
  • Some to this day still assume the cranky, right-wing version of Matt Groening is who he really is in real life, instead of the left-wing hippie he actually is.
• What Could Have Been: Originally, the reference to Sam Simon would've simply been a "No Photo Available" caption. Simon disapproved when he heard about this and personally drew himself as a frail, Howard Hughes-esque caricature just so it can be used in the episode.

---