Production
The episode was written by Brian K. Roberts and directed by Jim Reardon. Prior to writing the episode, Roberts had been an audio and visual editor on the show. Musician Ringo Starr made a guest appearance in the episode as himself. He was the first Beatle to appear on the show; both George Harrison and Paul McCartney would later guest star on the show in the season five episode "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" and the season seven episode "Lisa the Vegetarian" respectively (John Lennon was killed before the show began). When the story of Marge having a crush on Starr was pitched out, Roberts took the opportunity to write Starr into the script because he had always wanted to meet a Beatle. He then sent the script to Starr, who was then in Southern France. Starr agreed to do the guest appearance after only reading two lines, and he told Roberts that he would be able to do it when he visited Los Angeles a few weeks later. The staff of the show was thrilled when Roberts revealed that Starr had agreed to do it, and they immediately decided to expand Starr's role in the script. The Simpsons creator Matt Groening said of the guest appearance: "We were so excited that we got Ringo Starr coming in to do the show and we recorded him over at the Complex in West Los Angeles. We were given a list of rules about what we couldn't do to Ringo, such as 'Don't touch him', 'Don't approach him', and 'Don't ask for his autograph'. But of course when he shows up in this big limo, Brian brings out a big poster and asks him to sign it!" Roberts explained that he had not received the memo with the rules so he showed up with a copy of the script cover and asked Starr to sign it. Groening asked Starr if he wanted to be animated the way he was in Yellow Submarine or the way he was in the cartoon series The Beatles. Starr chose Yellow Submarine because he did not like his appearance in the cartoon. In addition to Starr, the episode features a guest appearance by Jon Lovitz as Lombardo and the doughnut delivery man that delivers doughnuts to the nuclear power plant. Lombardo's physical appearance was based on an art teacher Reardon had in art school.
Read more about this topic: Brush With Greatness
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