"The Front" was written by Adam I. Lapidus and directed by Rich Moore. In the early 1990s, Lapidus saw a news report on television about three 13-year-old girls – Renee Carter, Sarah Creef, and Amy Crosby – who had written a script for "Tiny Toon Adventures", titled "Buster and Babs Go Hawaiian". The show's executive producer, Steven Spielberg, liked the script so much that he brought the three to Hollywood to work on the episode with the show's writing staff. Upon seeing the report, Lapidus thought, "That would really be a neat idea for Bart and Lisa." He wrote a spec script, which made its way via executive producer James L. Brooks to the "Simpsons" staff, who hired Lapidus to work with them on the episode. "The Front" is the only "Simpsons" episode written by Lapidus, causing some dispute among the show's fans as to whether he actually exists or was perhaps a pseudonym. Lapidus' mother-in-law came upon one such debate on an Internet forum.