The Front (The Simpsons Episode) - Cultural References

Cultural References

The episode focuses on animation and includes several in-jokes about The Simpsons and the animation industry in general. In a scene depicting the Itchy & Scratchy writer's lounge, each of the writers shown is a caricature of someone working on The Simpsons at the time. The joke was conceived by the show's animators. Later in the episode, Roger Meyers fires a Harvard alumnus who resembles Simpsons writer Jon Vitti. At the awards ceremony, The Simpsons creator Matt Groening is shown in the audience. Lisa is also seen reading a book titled How to Get Rich Writing Cartoons by John Swartzwelder, a Simpsons writer credited with nearly sixty episodes of the show. The credits at the end of Bart and Lisa's Itchy & Scratchy episode (shown in very small print) are a copy of the credits at the end of The Simpsons.

At the cartoon award ceremony, the clip from the nominated The Ren & Stimpy Show is merely a black screen with the text "clip not done yet". This was a counter-attack against Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi, who had attacked the Simpsons staff by saying that "the show succeeded despite the writing" and similarly derogatory comments. Another industry reference is the "Animation Wing" door at Itchy & Scratchy studios; the door is identical to a door at the Disney animation building.

Besides copying the Simpsons credits, the Itchy & Scratchy credits also parody the sequence seen at the end of the credits of many TV shows produced by Stephen J. Cannell, where Cannell sits at the typewriter in his office and throws a sheet of paper into the air, with it forming of part of his production company's logo. In the episode, Itchy and Scratchy are seen at a desk; Scratchy pulls a sheet from his typewriter and throws it into the air, where it forms an "I & S Productions" logo. Mike Reiss later met Cannell, who was so pleased with the homage that he hugged Reiss. The title of the episode is a reference to The Front, a 1976 film about writers fronting for blacklisted writers in the 1950s. The Simpsons writers considered trying to make the episode plot resemble that of the film, but in the end decided against it.

The Annual Cartoon Awards are basically a spoof of the Primetime Emmy Awards.