Bart Gets An Elephant - Production

Production

The episode was written by John Swartzwelder, and directed by Jim Reardon. The Simpsons' creator Matt Groening thought it was a "quintessential" Swartzwelder episode, and executive producer/show runner David Mirkin said it was a "fantastic job by one of the most prolific writers of the show". The most important thing to Mirkin while making the episode was to make sure that the elephant would be a "bastard" and behave rudely, unlike other animals on the show. For example, instead of putting people on his back, Stampy would put them in his mouth. Mirkin said the elephant "never quite bonds because it's a very cantankerous animal, a concept that was very important to this episode". Stampy has since been used several times in jokes later on in the series. For example, Stampy made an appearance in the season nine episode "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace" in one of Bart's dreams, and in the season fourteen episode "Large Marge", where he is used by Bart in a stunt to help Krusty the Clown win back his popularity. Stampy appeared briefly in The Simpsons Movie, where he tries to break down the giant glass dome lowered over Springfield. The episode also introduces the character Cletus Spuckler. He is shown as one of the "slack-jawed yokels" gawking at Stampy in the Simpson family's backyard. Cletus is not named in the episode, so the staff simply referred to him as the Slack-Jawed Yokel.