Production
"The Bart Wants What It Wants" was directed by Michael Polcino and written by John Frink and Don Payne. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 17, 2002. Although the episode was written by Frink and Payne, the idea for the episode was conceived by staff writer Matt Selman, who pitched an episode in which Bart likes a girl because she has "awesome things," while the girl likes him for his personality. Because the Simpsons visit Toronto in the episode, the Fox network decided to promote it as the episode's main focus, even though Canada is not mentioned before the third act. To help promote the episode, Fox requested that the city of Toronto declare February 17, 2002, the day the episode first aired, to be "The Simpsons Day" and award the Simpson family a key to the city. However, the request was turned down because the city does not allow for-profit companies to receive a key. According to executive producer and current showrunner Al Jean, Fox's request "upset" Canada, and a "sternly worded" editorial in The Toronto Star criticized the network's ways of promoting the episode. The newspaper also credited Canadian The Simpsons staff writers Joel H. Cohen and Tim Long for pitching the episode, but this was refuted in the episode's DVD commentary. While "The Bart Wants What It Wants" features the Simpsons' first travel to Canada, the family would return in two later episodes: season sixteen's "Midnight Rx", where Homer and Grampa visited Winnipeg so they could smuggle cheap medication; and season 21's "Boy Meets Curl", where Marge and Homer travel to Vancouver, so they can participate in the 2010 Winter Olympics.
The beginning of the episode shows the Simpsons being chased by Olympic employees. The scene was included because the staff knew that the episode would air during the 2002 Winter Olympics. In order to avoid a lawsuit from the International Olympic Committee, the animators slightly altered the design of the Olympic rings, which can be seen on Olympic employees' helicopters. At one point in the episode, the Simpsons visit the Springfield Preparatory School fair, where Lisa notices how much more developed the school is in comparison to Springfield Elementary School. Jealous, Springfield Elementary principal Skinner breaks in and steals some school equipment. Shocked, Lisa asks Skinner why he stole the equipment, to which he replies "welcome to Dick Cheney's America." Originally, he would say "welcome to George W. Bush's America", but because none of the series' regular cast members could do an impression of him, and because the staff found it to be in bad taste, they decided to change it. When Lisa scolds Bart for being oblivious to Greta's feelings, he replies "Hey, I didn't lead her on. I always played it light and breezy." The line was written by Frink and, according to Selman, it became very popular with the staff writers, having "stayed with for years." The song that plays while the Simpsons visit the Skydome in Toronto is "Take Off" by the fictional comedy duo Bob and Doug McKenzie, the chorus of which was sung by Geddy Lee, the lead vocalist and bassist of the Canadian rock band Rush. The episode features American actress Reese Witherspoon as Rainier Wolfcastle's daughter, Greta. Jean stated that Witherspoon was "brilliant", and noted that she was "very young-looking". The episode also features Austrian-American celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck as himself.
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