Saturdays of Thunder

American actors Larry McKay and Phil Hartman voiced guest appearances as a television announcer and Troy McClure respectively.

"Saturdays of Thunder" is the first episode to feature the full Alf Clausen arrangement of the show's theme song, which is still in use to this day, though it was slightly revamped beginning with "'Round Springfield".

After a pep talk at the National Fatherhood Institute, Homer offers to help Bart build his own Soap Box Derby racer.

At the qualifying race, Bart and Martin Prince form an alliance vowing to beat bully Nelson and his intimidating racer, the Roadkill 2000.

Martin wins the race, but his aerodynamically designed vehicle veers out of control and crashes into a wall at high speed, leaving him with a broken arm.

[1] The idea for the subplot of Homer's parenting originated from a real fatherhood test executive producer Sam Simon found and brought to the Simpsons studio.

[1] When Homer calls the National Fatherhood Institute, he is put on hold and Harry Chapin's song "Cat's in the Cradle" plays while he waits.

[2] Cast member Harry Shearer based the voice of Dave, the director of the Fatherhood Institute, on actor Mason Adams.

[1] When Homer and Bart build the soapbox racer, Mac Davis's song "Watching Scotty Grow", sung by Bobby Goldsboro, plays on the soundtrack.

[1][4] The idea of Nelson's racer being "armed with every dirty trick in the book" was based on the 1973 Soap Box Derby World Championship scandal, when a 14-year-old boy was stripped of his title two days after winning the national race for cheating.

It received high ratings due to the fact that it was immediately followed by the premiere of the music video for Michael Jackson's song "Black or White".

[13] Bill Gibron of DVD Verdict looked unfavorably on the episode, writing that it "has a premise—Bart builds a soapbox racer—that frankly has very limited modern day appeal.

He thought the racing sequences featured "good animation and direction", but considered the highlight to be the clip from the film McBain that Homer watches in the video store.

"[15] Like Meyers, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide thought the highlight of the episode was the McBain clip.

[4] Nathan Rabin writes: "If 'Saturdays of Thunder' is formulaic that’s probably because at this point the show was operating at such a high level that it didn’t need a constant influx of new ideas to remain vital...