Last Exit to Springfield/References

==Cultural References==
*The title of the episode is a homage to Hubert Selby Jr.'s controversial book Last Exit to Brooklyn. Also, the story of Homer becoming a union boss is very loosely based on the book's fifth part called 'Strike'.
*The body of the union president is seen buried under a football field, a homage to the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of Jimmy Hoffa, who for years was widely believed to be buried under the now-demolished Giants' Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
*1909 Mr. Burns' outfit is based on Buster Brown.
*Homer's imagination of a life of organized crime is based on the famous San Gennaro sequence in The Godfather Part II, accepting donuts rather than a necklace and an orange.Jay Kogen, The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Last Exit to Springfield"
*Lisa has a dream that echoes the Beatles movie Yellow Submarine, which Al Jean says had to be changed enough so that everything was slightly different due to legal reasons.
**In that dream, George Harrison says, "Look, lads, it's Lisa in the sky." While Lisa is flying over their (purple) submarine, Paul McCartney says, "No diamonds, though." This is a reference to the famous song of the Beatles: "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", which also featured in the film. Another factor to the dream is that when Lisa is flying, clouds forming the word HATRED are shown (it was LOVE in the original movie).
*Mr. Burns' very long and narrow corridor lined with doors is another reference to Yellow Submarine.
*The scene where Lisa acquires her monstrous braces and breaks her mirror after laughing maniacally due to the trauma of witnessing her braces is based on when Jack Napier sees his new disfigured appearance during his transformation into the Joker in the 1989 film Batman.
*Rainer Wolfcastle saying the pun 'ice to meet you' is reminiscent of the film 'Batman and Robin', in which Mr. Freeze, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom Wolfcastle is based on-constantly recites ice puns. However, this episode aired in 1993, four years before the release of that film.
*The elaborate deadpan transition from the interior of the power plant to its main control grid is said by commentary to have been based off of Bruce Wayne's Batcave entrance scene from the 1989 film adaptation of Batman.
*The song played by Lisa is Mason Williams' "Classical Gas".Matt Groening, The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Last Exit to Springfield"
*Before Mr. Burns shuts off the power to the town in response to the strike, he says, "From Hell's heart I stab at thee" which is a reference to Captain Ahab's curse, from the film Moby Dick.Wallace Woolodarsky, The Simpsons season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Last Exit to Springfield"
*The workers' resistance to the power outage, and Mr. Burns' response, is a spoof of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. And the three final devices he names are nonsense words, which is very like.
**The scene where Mr. Burns puts his hand to his ear is a reference to the ending of the Grinch, in which he holds up his hand to his ear in order to hear the cries of Whoville, but ends up hearing their hopeful singing. Burns' subsequent rhyming is also a reference to Dr. Seuss.
**The way Mr. Burns reacted to the singing protesters after they refused to cave in after the power was shut off resembles how The Grinch reacted to The Whos still singing in the town square on Christmas Day in spite of the fact that he stole their presents in the 1966 television adaptation of Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Burns would even respond to Smithers after hearing the protestors still singing in way which resembled how The Grinch responded to his dog Max after hearing The Whos singing as well.
*This episode has been an Internet meme, particularly the lines "Lisa needs Braces." and "Dental Plan." which were used in some YouTube videos.
*Mr. Burns has a thousand monkeys typing on a thousand typewriters to write the best novel known to man on his mansion. This is a reference to the , that says that a monkey typing random letters on a typewriter for an infinite amount of time will be able to write anything, from simple words to complete recreations of famous novels and books.
*When Homer celebrates getting the dental plan from Mr. Burns, he spins on the floor in a manner reminiscent of Curly and Shemp] from The Three Stooges.
== Trivia ==
*"Swank," the drug which Senator Mendoza claimed was "ten times more addictive than marijuana," bore the same name as then developing actress Hillary Swank. This episode was released one year before she was shown in her first major starring role in The Next Karate Kid. She did not have a career breakthrough at this point in time, with Camp Wilder suffering from poor ratings and being cancelled after only one season. However, one of her earliest roles was in fact two guest appearances on Evening Shade, which had Simpsons co-producer James L. Brooks' former Taxi star Marilu Henner as one of its main stars.
*Ironically, Rainer Wolfcastle inspiration Arnold Schwarzenegger would play Batman adversary Mr. Freeze in the film four years after Wolfcastle's character McBain was seen in this episode popping out of an ice sculpture and saying "iced to see you." The Fox Broadcasting Corporation has also had a history with the Batman franchise and was even airing on the network at the time this Simpsons episode aired. Bart has also long had a comic book Batman parody called Bartman.
*This is the second time in season 4 that Lisa starts dreaming/hallucinating after she takes any kind of drug. The first was in "Selma's Choice" where she hallucinated after she drank some "water" at Duff Gardens.
==Goofs==
*In the McBain movie, the villain is initially laughing in front of a grey wall with bullet holes. However, when the scene cuts to the Simpsons watching the scene on TV, he is instead in front of a blue curtain.
*During the union meeting, Carl is colored yellow in one shot.
*When Lisa goes upstairs ashamed of her "new" braces, the flower pot and the fern that were near the staircase disappear.
*Not long before that, a black part of her braces turns gray for a frame.
*In Mr. Burns' basement, when Burns says that "he should stop ending the tour with it (the basement)", the white stripe on net of the ping pong table goes behind the electric box on the wall.
*When Homer gives his speech before the strike, the orange flag on the stage disappears. The same error happens during Carl's speech.
*Lisa's acoustic guitar has four strings in some scenes and six in others.
*When Burns and Smithers watch Homer "exercise," the candy stuck to his back isn't visible. This is somewhat necessary for the joke to work, but in context it can be viewed as an inconsistency.
*"The Big Book of British Smiles" has an extra "of" in its title.
*When Lenny asks Lisa to play "Classical Gas", his pants are light purple instead of the correct gray and the straps on his shirt are orange instead of the usual purple.
== Production Notes ==
* The final draft for this episode was published on August 8, 1992.https://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=2&ti=1,2&Search_Arg=the%20simpsons%209f15&Search_Code=FT%2A&CNT=25&PID=6R2mVDQ_fpuq9pZq9k694SPmyo7Y
== Citations ==
fr:Grève à la centrale/Références
Category:Trivia
Category:Goofs
Category:Cultural references