a Star". At the beginning of the episode, Homer has a dream that is a spoof of Hanna-Barbera's series The Yogi Bear Show (1961), with Homer as Yogi Bear, Bart as Boo Boo and Ned as Ranger Smith. He then dreams he is Magilla Gorilla and mauls Mr. Peebles after he takes his banana. The episode contains multiple references to the series Happy Days, on which Ron Howard played Richie Cunningham. Homer mistakenly refers to Howard as "Potsie" (another Happy Days character) and "Horshack" (a character from Welcome Back, Kotter played by Ron Palillo). When Howard secures the movie deal with Homer's screenplay, a snippet of the Happy Days theme song is played. The time machine drawing in Homer's screenplay contains a Flux capacitor, the device from the film Back to the Future (1985). The drinks wobbling as the townspeople approach Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin's house is a reference to the film Jurassic Park (1993). Posters for 9½ Weeks (1986) and L.A. Confidential (1997), both starring Basinger, are seen in Homer's museum. At the end of the episode, Brian Grazer has a poster of the movie Titanic (1997) in his office. Reception "When You Dish Upon a Star" finished 32nd in the weekly ratings for the week of November 2–8, 1998 with a Nielsen rating of 9.2. In his review of The Simpsons' tenth season, James Plath of Dvdtown.com noted "When You Dish upon a Star" was written to be "one of the funnier episodes". In a Simpsons flashback review, Robert Canning of IGN reviewed the episode positively, commenting "I'm not saying this episode is one of the greatest the series has ever produced, but it is very, very funny, and it features one of my all-time favorite guest performances." The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, wrote in a negative review: "Despite three very high-profile guest actors, this episode is really rather dull and uninspired. The only real moment of interest is the car chase at the end, and Kim Basinger's delightfully self-deprecating quips about her constant adoration of her Oscars, Alec Baldwin apparently not having one himself." IGN rated Ron Howard as the twelfth-greatest guest appearance on The Simpsons. Total Film's Nathan Ditum ranked Baldwin and Basinger's performances as the second-best guest appearances in the show's history. References External links The Simpsons