Writer:	Reid Harrison
Director:	Steven Dean Moore
Star:	Julie Kavner (Marge Simpson, Patty Bouvier, and Selma Bouvier),  Hank Azaria (Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Lou, and others),  Yeardley Smith (Lisa Simpson),  Nancy Cartwright (Bart Simpson, Nelson Muntz, Ralph Wiggum, Todd Flanders, and others),  Dan Castellaneta (Homer Simpson, Grampa Simpson, Barney Gumble, Krusty the Clown, Groundskeeper Willie, and others),  Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders, Principal Skinner, Waylon Smithers, Kent Brockman, and others)
Recurring Role:	Pamela Hayden (Milhouse Van Houten, Rod Flanders, Jimbo Jones, and others),  Tress MacNeille (Agnes Skinner, Brandine Del Roy, Dolph and others)
Guest Star:	Leonard Nimoy (Himself),  David Duchovny (FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder),  Gillian Anderson (FBI Special Agent Dana Scully)

This episode won the 1997 Annie Award for Best Individual Achievement: Producing in a TV Production. (edit) When Homer tries to identify the alien, he sees the following characters:

Marvin, the Martian
Gort (from "The Day the Earth Stood Still")
Chewbacca
ALF
Kang or Kodos
(edit) Blackboard Joke: The truth is not out there.
Couch Gag: Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa fly into the living room wearing jet packs and they land on the couch. Maggie flies in and make a couple of loops and then lands on Marge's lap. (edit) This episode was shown prior to the final episode of the X-files in Australia on Jan 29th 2003. (edit) When Scully is setting up the lie-detector test for Homer, there's a certain cigarette-smoking man in the background... (edit)

Homer: T.G.I.F. Guys, I'm off to Moe's. (edit) Homer: Whatever you do don't tell Marge. God how I love her and, oh a penny! (edit) Lisa: Dad, according to Junior Skeptic Magazine, the chances are 175 million to one of another form of life actually coming in contact with ours.
Homer: So?
Lisa: It's just that people who claim they've seen aliens are always pathetic lowlifes with boring jobs. Oh, and you, dad. He, he, he. (edit) Homer: I can't believe it. I'm being mocked. By my own children. On my birthday.
Bart: It's your birthday?
Homer: Yes. Remember, it's the same day as the dog's.
Lisa: Santa's Little Helper, it's your birthday? Ooh, we've gotta get you a present. Yes, we do. Yes, we do.
Bart: We love you, boy.
Marge: Good, doggy. Good, doggy,
Homer: Lousy lovable dog. (edit) Nimoy: And so, from this simple man came the truth, that we are not alone in the universe. I'm Leonard Nimoy, good night.
Squeaky-Voiced Teen: (from off-screen) Uh Mr. Nimoy, we have ten minutes left.
Nimoy: Oh, fine. Let me, uh, just get, uh...something out of my car.
(runs off and car is heard driving away)
Squeaky-Voiced Teen: (walking into camera shot) I don't think he's coming back. (edit)

When Bart says, "I got it all on tape," his mouth is reversed in the middle of the line. (edit) When Mr. Burns is in the appearance of an alien, he appears to be completely bald, even on his back, and his nose appears to be very short. But when Lisa shines the flashlight on Mr. Burns, his nose goes back to normal and his hair appears where it normally is. (edit) When Mulder shows Scully an article about Homer it say's 'Human Blimp sees Flying saucer' but Homer saw an alien not a UFO. (edit) This is the first non-Halloween episode appearance of Kang/Kodos. (edit) Three frogs imitate the Budweiser commercial (edit)

Mulder: Voodoo priests of Haiti . . .

A 1995 episode of The X-Files called Fresh Bones had a plot involving Haitian voodoo curses. (edit) High Anxiety
The scene with the Springfield Philharmonic playing the suspenseful music on their bus is reference to the Mel Brooks film High Anxiety which features a scene where we Mel is riding in a car and we hear highly suspenseful music and then we see the Los Angeles Symphony going by on their bus. (edit) Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the 1977 Steven Spielberg film
- Devil's Tower is pictured on Lisa's Junior Skeptic magazine and on Mulder's office wall.
- Brockman muses on a "Close Encounter of the Blurred Kind".
- The school band plays the notorious five-note music.
- Clouds swarm around Marge's hair before the alien appears just like around Devil's Tower before the mother ship appears. (edit) Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock's classic film from 1960

The Springfield Philharmonic is playing the famous Bernard Herrmann score from the shower scene. (edit) Waterworld, the 1995 movie starring Kevin Costner

Milhouse putting in 40 quarters for a crappy videogame! This is a reference to this movie's over-the-top budget, which only equaled the disappointment it caused. (edit)