All of the guest stars were recorded over a period of several months. One of the writers' goals was to get a musical act to appear, but several performers, including The Rolling Stones and Wynonna Judd, turned the role down (although the Stones did eventually appear in season 14's "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation"). The Red Hot Chili Peppers finally accepted, and were directed by George Meyer, who told them to ad-lib many of their lines. The celebrity aspect of the episode was almost canceled because the producers were unable to get an obligation before the record deadline. Johnny Carson appears in the episode, and it was one of the few televised appearances he made after he retired from "The Tonight Show". He recorded his lines the night after the 44th Primetime Emmy Awards. The original role pitched for Carson was one where he visited the Simpson family's house and mooched off them. Carson felt this role was too degrading, so instead the writers took the opposite route and portrayed him as extremely versatile and multi-talented. Bette Midler's condition for guest-starring was that the show promoted her anti-littering campaign. Elizabeth Taylor guest-starred as herself and also recorded a part as Maggie in "Lisa's First Word" on the same day. Luke Perry was one of the first guest stars to agree to their parts. Voice actors Julie Kavner and Harry Shearer both strongly objected to the celebrity cameos in the episode, which led to Kavner boycotting it entirely; as a result, this is the only episode of the series in which Marge does not have any speaking parts.