Bart to the Future
In the episode, Bart is shown a vision of his future as a wannabe rock musician living with Ralph Wiggum, while Lisa has become the President of the United States and tries to get the country out of financial trouble.
Several designs were made by the animators for future Bart, but Greaney did not think they matched the personality of the character and had to give clearer instructions on how he wanted him to look.
He lives with his bandmate Ralph Wiggum in a beach cottage by the shore, where they are struggling to make ends meet and have resorted to mooching off Bart's parents and their neighbor Ned Flanders.
Homer does not appreciate the metaphor and angrily curses Lincoln; when present-day Bart asks the manager about this subplot, he claims that he needed filler after the main vision became "too thin".
His conscience manifests in the form of Billy Carter's ghost, who reminds him that he is an embarrassment because of his actions and suggests he atone for his mistakes (although he does endorse the casino within the vision).
"[5] The Simpsons showrunner Mike Scully also noted that future Bart is the kind of person who is "always waiting for some big sort of cash payoff that he feels he's owed whether it be an insurance settlement, an inheritance, or something that's gonna come sooner or later.
"[7] Greaney said that everyone in the writing room recognized these traits from people they knew and therefore everyone contributed to the episode by suggesting lines for Bart to say and things for him to do.
"[5] Greaney did not think any of these designs went along with the personality he and the other writers had assigned to future Bart, so he told the animators to draw the character with belly fat, a ponytail, sags under his eyes, and one earring.
[5] Scully said on the audio commentary that he thought the design of Bart looked "great", though he added that it was "slightly disturbing" to see the older versions of Homer and Marge in the episode, and joked that it is "a little bit sad to watch cartoon characters age.
"[7] Greaney needed a setpiece for the episode that enabled him to get into a vision of the characters in the future, and The Simpsons writer George Meyer came up with the idea of the Indian casino.
Staff members Mike Scully, Dan Greaney, Matt Selman, and George Meyer participated in the DVD audio commentary for the episode.
[12] While reviewing the eleventh season of The Simpsons, DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson commented on "Bart to the Future", writing: "This kind of fantasy episode can be hit or miss, and that trend holds true here.
'"[4] In 2003, Ben Rayner of Toronto Star referred to "Bart to the Future" as "a lame 2000 outing" and noted that Entertainment Weekly "rightly dubbed [it] the 'worst episode ever'".
[13] Winnipeg Free Press columnist Randall King wrote in his review of season eleven that the episode "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily" (which features the death of the character Maude Flanders) was "proof that the dependably brilliant series could – and did – go seriously wrong when it turned 11.
"[15] The episode heavily implies that real estate mogul Donald Trump became president, and caused a budget crisis that Lisa inherits.
Dan Greaney told The Hollywood Reporter in a 2016 interview that the thought of a Trump presidency at the time "just seemed like the logical last stop before hitting bottom.
[19][20] Four days later, in the opening credits of the episode "Havana Wild Weekend", aired on November 13, 2016, Bart writes "Being right sucks" as the chalkboard gag.
