Bart of Darkness - Cultural References

Cultural References

The episode is largely a parody of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. As in the film, a wheelchair-using Bart witnesses an apparent murder through his telescope, with musical cues from the film also being used. James Stewart's character L. B. "Jeff" Jefferies appears twice, caricatured as he looks in the film. Also, the pictures on the wall of Jeff's room are a racing car accident and a plane, the same as in Rear Window. The barn building scene with the onlooking Amish man is a reference to Peter Weir's film Witness. The Itchy & Scratchy episode's title is a reference to The Planet of the Apes, with the mutants being a reference to the Star Trek episode "The Menagerie", as well as Beneath the Planet of the Apes. At the end of the episode Martin sings Frank Sinatra's "Summer Wind". Springfield's wax museum features models of The Beatles and the cast of M*A*S*H, and Bart plays Stratego on his own. The pool dance scene sees Lisa in a role like those of Esther Williams, while Bart's play has similar elements of the works of Anton Chekhov.