"Brother's Little Helper" was written by George Meyer. The episode was first named "Bart a Go Go". "Bart's Inner Child" was the last episode he wrote himself before this one. He was tired after writing that episode. He came back to writing with this episode. He thought it was not easy to write the episode because he was going through "psychological problems". He did not like what he wrote, so he showed it to the other writers using a fake name (a pseudonym). Tim Long said that it was "an amazing draft". Matt Selman came up with the idea of Bart getting a tank. He said that he got the idea after watching the news on a guy who died going "nuts with a tank".