After faking his own death to get a day off work, Homer reunites with his mother Mona, who he thought had died over two decades prior.

After learning that Mr. Burns wants his employees to clean litter from a highway maintained by his company on a Saturday, Homer fakes his own death using a dummy to avoid it.

Lisa soon bonds with her paternal grandmother, but notices Mona runs inside the house when a police car drives by.

Suspicious, Lisa shares her concerns with Bart, who raided Mona's purse and found several driver's licenses with different names.

In 1969, Mona joined a group of hippies to protest a germ warfare laboratory owned by Mr. Burns, which was preparing to poison everyone in Springfield.

When Mona went back to help Burns, she was recognized as one of the perpetrators, forcing her to leave Homer and his father Abe and go into hiding.

The tipster is later revealed to be Chief Wiggum, who was a security guard at Burns' lab until the antibiotic mist cured his asthma and allowed him to finally enroll in the police academy.

[5] The inspiration for the character comes from Bernardine Dohrn of the Weather Underground, although the writers acknowledge that several people fit her description.

[4] Mona becoming a radical after seeing Joe Namath's sideburns is a parody of how many 1960s films have a sudden transformational moment and play music such as "Turn!

[3] The song originally intended to be taped over Mr. Burns' cassette of Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" was "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" by Wham!, but it was too expensive to clear, so ABBA’s "Waterloo" was selected instead.

Three songs from the 1960s appear in this episode: "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream, "Blowin' in the Wind" by Bob Dylan, and the Jimi Hendrix cover of "All Along the Watchtower".

It was the fourth highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following Beverly Hills, 90210, The X-Files, and Melrose Place.

[9] "Mother Simpson" is one of Oakley and Weinstein's favorite episodes; they have called it a perfect combination of real emotion, good jokes, and an interesting story.

[5] Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, praised the episode, calling it "Gag-packed, and very touching".

In fact, it was the showiest bit of dialogue she just couldn't nail down: When Mona bonks her head at the end of the episode, the Simpson family's signature exclamation had to come from Pamela Hayden's scratch vocals.