Brother From Another Series - Production

Production

The episode was written by Ken Keeler, who had been watching a lot of Frasier at the time and had been assigned to write a Sideshow Bob episode and he thought it would be a good idea to mix the two. Pierce was cast as Sideshow Bob's brother, causing Pierce to joke, "Normally, I would not do something like this. But how often do you get a chance to work with an actor like Kelsey Grammer and, more importantly, play his brother?" While Sideshow Bob is addressing the crowd, a man near the back raises his hand and says "probably"; he is also voiced by David Hyde Pierce, who had wanted to be a man in a crowd.

An early draft of the episode originally featured an Opera house explosion, which was changed because the writers felt using a dam would be more exciting. An early rule of Sideshow Bob episodes was to recap what had gone on in previous Bob episodes, in case the viewer had forgotten who he was. The original script was run by the Frasier producers to make sure they were okay with it, and they only had one problem. There was a very brief scene in which Cecil talks to a visible character and refers to her as "Maris", who in Frasier is an unseen character, and the producers of Frasier said the scene should go. The writers spent a long time trying to figure out a civilization that considered chief hydrological engineer a true calling and chose the Cappadocians, who were famous for underground cities although not specifically dams.

Cecil was drawn to resemble David Hyde Pierce, but still look similar to Bob. According to director Pete Michels, it was difficult to draw Bob and Cecil standing together because their feet are both so big. There was a scene featuring Hans Moleman and his house, which was cut, but his house can still briefly be seen in the scene where Cecil throws Bart off a cliff. The sequence was cut in order to make room for the explanation of why Bob was sent back to prison. Ken Keeler has said that it is his favorite deleted scene.