Homer Defined - Production

Production

The episode was written by freelance writer Howard Gewirtz. It was one of many stories he pitched to the producers of the show. According to executive producer Al Jean, Gewirtz's script ended up featuring one of the longest first acts (an act being the amount of time between commercial breaks) in the history of the show when the episode was completed. Gewirtz's script originally contained two uses of the word "ass", once from Bart and once from Burns. This was the first time a character in the show had used this word, and it led to problems with the network censors. Eventually, the censors forced the producers to remove one instance, so that Bart's line was changed to "bad influence, my butt."

Basketball player Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers guest stars in the episode as himself. He was the first professional athlete to do so on the show. Johnson appears in two sequences: first in a scene in which he calls to congratulate Homer on saving the plant, and later in the episode in a basketball game when he "pulls a Homer" by accidentally getting the ball into the basket after slipping on the floor. The recording of the episode was done during the National Basketball Association's regular season, so the producers had a hard time scheduling Johnson's session. With the deadline approaching, the producers traveled to Johnson's home to record his lines. According to the San Jose Mercury News, the recording equipment brought to his home did not work at first and "almost doomed the guest spot." Lakers sportscaster Chick Hearn also guest stars in the episode, commentating on the game that Johnson plays.

Another guest star that appeared in the episode was actor Jon Lovitz, who provided the voice for Aristotle Amadopoulos and a minor character that appears in a soap opera. This was Lovitz's third appearance on the show. The character Amadopoulos that he played was designed to look like the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. The character's dialogue was written to emulate Lovitz's comedic style, such as his ability for rapid mood swings. Amadopoulos returned a few episodes later in "Homer at the Bat", though in that episode he was voiced by cast member Dan Castellaneta rather than Lovitz.

Milhouse's mother, Luann Van Houten, makes her first appearance in this episode. She was designed to look very similar to Milhouse. Maggie Roswell was assigned to voice the character and she originally based it on Milhouse, who is voiced by Pamela Hayden. The producers felt that her impression sounded out of place so she ended up using a more normal sounding voice. It was Gewirtz who in this episode gave Milhouse his last name, Van Houten, which he got from one of his wife's friends.

Director Mark Kirkland wanted the Springfield Power Plant to "look the best it had to date" and inserted shadows and back-lighting effects to make the panels in Homer's control room glow.