Series creator Matt Groening has stated in interviews and commentaries that his favorite scene in the show's history is Homer's fall down the gorge at the end of the episode.
In The Simpsons Movie (2007), the ambulance carrying Homer that crashed into the tree in this episode is visible at Springfield Gorge, still crashed into the tree.
In the original script, Hibbert was a woman named Julia Hibbert, who they named after Julia Sweeney (Hibbert was her last name, through marriage, at the time). When the Fox network moved The Simpsons to prime time on Thursdays to compete against NBC's top-rated The Cosby Show (1984), the writing staff instead decided to make Hibbert a parody of Bill Cosby's character Dr. Cliff Huxtable.
To promote the album The Simpsons Sing the Blues, the music video for the album's lead single, "Do the Bartman", premiered shortly after this episode's first broadcast.