Seasons 16-20

Future-Drama (Season 16, Episode 15)

In this episode, Professor Frink uses a machine to show Bart and Lisa their teenaged selves. The episode aired in 2005 and the flashforward takes place in 2013. Lisa is still in High School, which varies from “Lisa’s Wedding”, in which she is a university student in 2010.  In the episode, Lisa is supposed to graduate early and go to Yale on a scholarship given by Mr. Burns, but after he saves Mr. Burns’ life, the scholarship is given to Bart. Bart accepts in order to impress his girlfriend, but later turns it down after returning to Professor Frink’s machine and seeing that Lisa ends up having a bleak future married to Milhouse. Lisa is seen married to Milhouse in another flash forward episode, “Holidays of Future Past”.

The episode exaggerates what would be expected of technological advancement over eight years. The first scene in the future shows that garbage trucks have been replaced with UFO-like ships. The Simpsons’ house is also newly equipped with sunroofs and a new, semicircular garage door. These are not new technologies, but show the change in style, and perhaps hint at solar power being more readily used. It also makes a joke about Global Warming, showing a postcard from future Maggie on a beach in “Alaska”. 

It is interesting to note that “Holidays of Future Past”, which aired in 2011, stresses the internet and social media developments of the future, while this episode portrays more robotics and futuristic machines such as Chief Wiggum’s new body.

That ‘90s Show (Season 19, Episode 11)

In this episode, Homer and Marge tell the story of how Homer paid for Marge to go to university when they were a young couple in the ‘90s. This flashback radically changes the Simpson family’s timeline, because not only did Marge and Homer have Bart in the 1980s in previous flashbacks, the show itself ran throughout the 1990s, and they were the same age the entire time.

The story is about Marge falling for her professor at University, while Homer is working at his father’s Laser Tag warehouse to pay for it. 

In the episode, Homer plays in a grunge band, which was a popular style of the decade. There is also a reference to popular Grunge band, Nirvana, in a scene where “Marvin Kobain” calls his cousin Kurt to talk about the new grunge style of music. 
Marge's hair in this episode is similar to "The Rachel", which was a hairstyle made popular in the 1990s by the character Rachel Green on Friends.