James Bond in film of the funding for the Bond films, fell into financial difficulties following the box office failure of "Heaven's Gate" (1980), bringing uncertainty to the future of the funding. The situation was resolved in May 1981, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquired United Artists. Following "For Your Eyes Only", Roger Moore had expressed a desire to stop playing James Bond. His original contract had been for three films, a requirement fulfilled with "The Spy Who Loved Me". Subsequent films had been negotiated on a film-by-film basis. The producers engaged in a semi-public quest for the next actor to play Bond, which would be for
The Spy Who Learned Me Lisa notes "he is tough on nerds, but easy on the eyes" as Bart stares at her in disbelief. The name of the episode is a pun on the James Bond Film 'The Spy Who Loved Me' Stratavarius Cain is a take on James Bond. Blue-eyed man is based on Tony Montana of Scarface (1983) Rowan Kaiser of "The A.V. Club" said the episode was a "simple, emotional story", noting that most of it had been done many times before by the show, but it still "worked" and was funny, thus earning a B+ grade. The Spy Who Learned Me