The episode was written by John Enbom and directed by Michael Fields, marking Enbom's eighth writing credit and Fields's fourth writing credit for the show. The episode's title is a spoonerism of the title of the novel "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck. Phil Klemmer, another of the series' writers, thought of the episode's title. Both writers knew that this episode's serial rapist case would later be used in the third season. The writers planned for one of Veronica's classmates to be dating Don Lamb before they decided on Madison. The episode features guest appearances by Michael Cera and Alia Shawkat, then best known for their roles on "Arrested Development" as George Michael Bluth and Maeby Fünke, respectively. Their two characters had briefly mentioned the show in a season three episode titled "Family Ties". The show had previously been alluded to on "Arrested Development" when some of George Michael's dialogue is redacted and replaced by a subtitle that reads, "reference to off-network high school private eye drama censored by Fox."