The Ramones were "gigantic obsessive Simpsons fans" and their characters were designed by Wesley Archer. Marky Ramone later called their appearance "a career highlight".
Originally, the backstory for Bobo included several much darker scenes, including one where the bear was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The scenes were cut because the writers felt it was in bad taste
In honor of his birthday, Smithers 'arranges' for the people of Australia to spell out Mr. Burns's name with candles across the large country, so that it can be seen via satellite. This is a reference to an effort the people of Australia made during the first spaceflight of John Glenn. People across the country left their outdoor lights on, to give the astronaut a nice light-show as he flew over. Glenn even remarked on how pretty it was. Incidentally, when John Glenn returned to space a second time, in recent years, a similar effort was encouraged across Australia, so as to recreate the experience for the elderly astronaut.
The ending of the episode was originally longer, but two segments were cut. The first saw Washington D.C. destroyed by invading Canadian troops, who found Bobo. The second featured the entire planet being overrun by giant Redwoods and spotted owls.
David Mirkin and Matt Groening describe the sequence where Homer eats 64 slices of American cheese as "one of the most hilarious segments ever done".