A Star Is Burns/References

References/Trivia

Cultural References

The episode title is a pun on the 1976 Barbra Streisand film A Star Is Born.
At the beginning of Mr. Burns' first appearance in this episode, the Imperial March from Star Wars is played.
Burns says he wants Señor Spielbergo to do for him what Steven Spielberg did for Oskar Schindler, a reference to the 1993 film Schindler's List.
The desert sequence in Mr. Burns' film is a parody of Ben-Hur, although the line, "You truly are the King of Kings," may be a recasting of a similar line delivered by John Wayne in the movie King of Kings, where in a cameo as a centurion, he says, "Truly, this man was the Son of God."
Barney's film is (unfortunately) entitled Pukahontas, a pun on the 1995 Disney animated movie Pocahontas.
When Jay Sherman first comes into the Simpsons' house, Bart is watching a Flintstones-Jetsons crossover cartoon special (A parody of The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones). He criticizes the crossover special despite the episode being a crossover special itself.

Matt Groening was reportedly against the idea of a crossover, and demanded his name be removed from the episode.
This episode aired in March 1995 to coincide with the premiere of The Critic on FOX. The Critic would be cancelled two months later in May 1995.
Jon Lovitz speaks in the DVD commentary for the episode. He also talks about his one similarity with Jay Sherman: His testicular size.
A deleted scene shows the residents of Springfield Retirement Castle making a risqué movie titled What the Pool Boy Saw to enter in the Springfield Film Festival.