This is the only episode of The Simpsons in which Bart does not appear. However, he is seen in a picture in Marge's room. His voice actress, Nancy Cartwright, is still present as Ralph and Kearney.
Maggie's segment of this episode is based on Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. In the episode "A Streetcar Named Marge," she was sent to a daycare center called the "Ayn Rand School for Tots."
In the first story we see Homer, playing Sir Water Raleigh, bringing tobacco to England for the first time. The most common date given for the arrival of tobacco in England is 27 July 1586, when it is said Sir Walter Raleigh brought it to England from Virginia. However, tobacco had been around in England long before this date. Spanish and Portuguese sailors smoked tobacco for many years and it is likely British sailors had adopted the habit of pipe smoking before 1586. Sir John Hawkins and his crew could have brought the plant to these shores as early as 1565.