Simpson and Delilah

[1] In the episode, Homer uses the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant's medical insurance plan to buy Dimoxinil (a parody of Minoxidil), a miracle hair growth formula.

When Homer's bald head sprouts a full mane of hair, he is promoted at work and hires a gay secretary named Karl.

The episode was written by Jon Vitti and directed by Rich Moore, and guest starred Harvey Fierstein as Karl.

After this, workplace safety improves and accidents decrease, and Smithers' correct observation that is due to Homer no longer being in a position to cause problems is mocked and dismissed by Mr. Burns.

Homer is nervous about giving a speech at the plant, and discovers Bart has spilled and ruined the contents of the miracle hair drug.

At home that night, Marge insists that Homer's old "dead end" job as a safety inspector has always provided for the family and the kids will get over having less than their friends.

Groening had originally intended to design Karl to look like Fierstein, who objected to the idea because he felt he did not "look like gay people, how they're supposed to look."

Fierstein however felt that "the script was a lot of very clever gay jokes, and there just wasn't that Simpsons twist" and turned the role down.

In the Bible, Delilah is Samson's lover, who betrays him by ordering a servant to cut his hair in his sleep and turns him over to Philistine lords.

[3] The scene in which Homer receives the key to the executive washroom is a reference to the movie Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?

The classical music heard in the executive washroom scene is from French composer Claude Debussy's string quartet in G minor.

[12] "Bart Gets an 'F'", the season premiere and episode that aired the week before, averaged an 18.4 Nielsen rating, had 29% of the audience and was watched by an estimated 33.6 million viewers.