of the war, and had befriended many of the Iraqis, leading him to want to try to escape. Kevin and the family then begin fighting over the United States's occupation of Iraq, with Brian sympathizing with him, and several others, including Ida, herself a war veteran, disagreeing with Kevin's choice to desert the army. Joe then begins to take his son to jail. Kevin reminds his father of a time when he let a homeless man get away with stealing a can of tomato soup to feed his hungry family, for whom he had felt sorry. Emotional and sympathetic, Joe agrees to let his son off the hook, and the two make amends. As the family goes to finish eating dinner, another man resembling Kevin, but with a deeper voice, enters the house and declares the other Kevin to be an imposter, but Peter abruptly ends the episode by nonchalantly declaring "Guys, I don't think we have time for this". Production and development The episode was directed by series regular Jerry Langford, shortly after the conclusion of the ninth production season, in his first episode of the season. Langford joined the series in its seventh season, directing the episode "Tales of a Third Grade Nothing". The episode was written by series regular Patrick Meighan, who joined the show as a writer in its fourth season, writing the episode "8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter". Series regulars Peter Shin and James Purdum served as supervising directors, with Andrew Goldberg, Alex Carter, Spencer Porter, Anthony Blasucci, Mike Desilets, and Deepak Sethi serving as staff writers for the episode. Composer Ron Jones, who has worked on the series since its inception, returned to compose the music for "Thanksgiving". The role of Kevin Swanson has been portrayed by several people, including actor Jon Cryer, in the second season episode "There's Something About Paulie". In subsequent appearances, Kevin was voiced by series creator and executive producer Seth MacFarlane, until his eventual disappearance from the series, when it was revealed that he had supposedly died in Iraq. Actor Scott Grimes, who notably portrays the character Steve Smith in MacFarlane's second animated series American Dad!, took over the role of Kevin in the episode. In addition to Grimes and the regular cast, actor Max Burkholder, actor Jackson Douglas, actor Kevin Durand, voice actor Colin Ford, actor Zachary Gordon, actress and model Julie Hagerty, actor Jonathan