The episode features former poet laureate Robert Pinsky as himself. Pinsky was chosen to guest star because the writers wanted an intellectual reference for Lisa, and because they knew that Pinsky was a fan of the show, having read an article of "The Time" in which Pinsky stated that he "admired the writing" of "The Simpsons". In the DVD audio commentary for the episode, Pinsky stated that he flew to the "Simpsons" recording studios in Los Angeles on September 10, 2001, and, following the September 11 attacks, was "stranded" there for four days, since no planes were flying following the attacks. Pinsky enjoyed his stay however; "Ian [Maxtone-Graham and "The Simpsons" people were very nice to me," he said. "... One of the things they did for me is they invited me to a table-read of another episode[...] Thursday the 13th[...] I remember everybody laughed like hell[...] It felt really good. People just went to work and everybody laughed a lot."