Richard Dean Anderson voices an animated version of himself and returns the favor, sort of speak, after Dan Castellaneta guest starred on Anderson's show, Stargate SG-1 (1997), the previous year. Anderson's Stargate character, Jack O'Neill, is known to be a big fan of The Simpsons (1989) and often makes references to the show.
This episode was written by Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer and many other characters in the Simpsons, and his wife Deb Lacusta.
Richard Dean Anderson states he greatly prefers Stargate SG-1 (1997) and bashes MacGyver (1985). In Children of the Gods (1997) his character becomes visibly annoyed when another character talks about how they had to "MacGyver" a control system together for Earth's stargate.
The episodes of MacGyver that Richard Dean Anderson refers to, 'L is for Lake Tahoe (Part 2)' and 'Bless Me MacGyver For I Have Sinned' don't actually exist.
When Homer is looking for Apu's relative named Kavi in Bangalore, Kavi is found standing in front of a shop on the busy street. The board on the shop reads as "Shoemaker", written in the local language Kannada.