When the scene changes to Santa's Little Helper's point of view, a small explosion sound is heard; this sound is used in Predator (1987), when the camera switches to Predator's point of view.
Tracey Ullman guest stars in this episode. The Simpsons (1989) started out as shorts that aired on The Tracey Ullman Show (1987). Matt Groening, the Simpsons creator, wanted Ullman to make a guest appearance in one of the shorts, but was told that she was too busy with the rest of the show. When her show was cancelled in 1990, Ullman agreed to do a guest appearance after being asked by Groening once again. Shortly after this episode aired, Ullman sued 20th Century Fox, claiming she was owed money related to merchandising of The Simpsons. Ullman lost the suit, which soured her relationship with Fox, and has not made an appearance on The Simpsons since.
When Santa's Little Helper is chewing on the remote changing the channels, Kent Brockman is shown talking about a woman hunt is out with a picture of Lucille Botzcowski, showing that she is still on the run after Some Enchanted Evening (1990).
When Lisa shows Marge her sewing finger, the music from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) plays. Lisa touching Marge's finger is reference to the final scene of that film.
Dr. Hibbert's home and family resemble that of the The Cosby Show (1984), a program that at the time competed with The Simpsons (1989) for the Thursday 8:00 p.m. time slot.