Scully has noted that "there was a lot of discussion about making sure we staff did deal with some of the emotional ramifications of death the episode and not just make it all joke, joke, joke. But at the same time, we're a comedy, they're animated, they're not real." In one of the first scripts for the episode there was a scene in which Rod and Todd discuss their mother's death. However, according to Maxtone-Graham, the writing staff decided to cut it because "it just never played anything but sad." He added that the writers "really wanted to address how children would feel" but they "could never pull it off without it just being sad." Scully has commented that it was a "very sweet scene" but it was too difficult to "get out of it comedically to the next scene."