The episode was written by Joshua Sternin and Jeffrey Ventimilia — based on a story idea by Al Jean and Mike Reiss — and was the first episode directed by Steven Dean Moore. Jean and Reiss, who were previously the series' showrunners, returned to produce this episode (as well as "A Star Is Burns") to ease the workload of the show's regular staff. They worked on it alongside the staff of "The Critic", the series they had left "The Simpsons" to create. The episode marks the series' first time that a recurring character was killed off, something the staff had considered for a while. The episode features numerous cultural references, including Carole King's song "Jazzman", the actor James Earl Jones and the "Kimba the White Lion/The Lion King" controversy.