During the production of the episode they developed a way to hide the fact that Joe used a wheelchair. This was done by showing the character Joe from the waist up during part of the episode. "A Hero Sits Next Door" is notable as it is the first episode of "Family Guy" not to feature words in its title pertaining to "Death" or "Murder". This convention was originally started due to creator Seth MacFarlane being a fan of 1930s and 1940s radio programs, particularly the radio thriller anthology "Suspense"; however, this convention was dropped after individual episodes became hard to identify and the novelty wore off.