(I'm a little preoccupied as I go about my business tonight, so I'll be brief.)
I'm not a huge fan of "travel" episodes (though there are exceptions). I enjoy many character-centered episodes. I'm torn by this episode, and it seems that the episode was too. The prospect of revisiting Selma's urge to be a mother was intriguing, as was the idea of adopting a baby from China, but I wish they had been able to spend a little more time exploring her side of the journey (both figuratively and literally), along with Homer, Marge, and Patty. Not that this didn't occur to some degree, but I certainly didn't feel as involved as in "Selma's Choice" (I do realize that the basic ideas are somewhat different). Visit mode (and the ensuing wackiness) kicked in in the second act, and the humor level was about on par with other such episodes, so by itself that was fine. I must wonder why they had to drag Bart and Lisa (and even Marge) along, since that only caused problems (and was much more expensive and complicated than, say, their trip to New York in 4F22); assuming everyone had to have a presence throughout the episode, a subplot (or home-based angle on the main plot) would have worked much better, since it wasn't primarily a travel episode after all. I was happy to see that the resolution was not crazy, and I guess we have a permanent addition to the Bouvier family! So, overall, pretty funny throughout if a bit wacky at times, and could have used more time for Selma's side, but a solid episode in general, especially for (what I believe is) writer Lawrence Talbot's first outing. Um, B+ I guess.
DYN: ...Marge messed up the adoption scam pretty much all by herself? ...the orphanage is having great deals on 2004s, but apparently making no effort to unload the 2003 models?
Previous episode references 9F11: Selma wants a baby 3F15: Selma doesn't want a baby (if it's in a loveless marriage, anyway - does this count? har har) AABF03: Dramboie (sp?) mentioned DABF15: Krusty Fried Chicken poster remind me a bit (though certainly not in style) of the large Krusty mural in toy factory FABF20: Drawing of Bart in credits presumably from this episode
Other references Seinfeld ("The Pitch"/"The Ticket"): I'm sure it's a very widely-used idea, but Selma's extemporaneous naming of Homer as her beau, and having to follow through on it, reminded me of Elaine (with Kramer) in these episodes Futurama (2ACV11, "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back" in particular): Forms, signatures, notarization/stamping between bureaucrats, very much like in this episode
Goofs Standard age discontinuity, but it's worth noting that in 9F15, in 1909 Burns was a few years old (and not 0). Did I miss something, or couldn't Selma have gotten another baby from the Springfield orphanage? When Selma writes Homer's name on the adoption form, the typing is standard "skjhfkhs" gibberish.
Other That was certainly an odd credits sequence (David Silverman drawing Bart), in that it had nothing at all to do with the episode. (Cool, but odd.) Is this going to be a trend?