customers enthralled and asking to hear it again. He wonders why tales of misfortune are so popular. Production The episode was written by Ken Levine and David Isaacs, and directed by Mark Kirkland. It was the first episode of The Simpsons Kirkland directed. He has since directed over 50 episodes. Levine, a former minor league baseball announcer, pitched the idea of using that sport as a background, and once he came up with Homer as a dancing mascot, producer Sam Simon was initially resistant given Bart had been the biggest draw of the series, only for the writers to reply they found Homer a more fun character to write. Executive producer James L. Brooks came up with the idea of the Moe's Tavern wraparounds at the beginning and the end of the episode. It was added because the writers did not know how to end the episode. Along with giving the animators orientation regarding looks and ambience of minor league games, many of the new characters introduced in the episode were named after Levine's friends from his announcer career. The minor league announcer in the episode, whom Levine voiced, was named Dan Hoard after his broadcasting partner in Syracuse, New York. The major league announcer was named Dave Glass after Levine's partner in Norfolk, Virginia, and the Capital City Capitals owner who fires Homer was named Dave Rosenfield after the general manager of the Tidewater Tides. When conceiving the name for Springfield's own team, Levine started to think of connecting it to the nuclear power plant, with Isotopes chosen as "the funniest, goofiest name we could come up with". The episode features a guest appearance by singer Tony Bennett, who was the first guest star to appear as himself on The Simpsons. Bennett appears in a scene in which the Simpson family meets him while taking a tour of Capital City. He also sings a song called "Capital City" over the closing credits. The lyrics and music of the song were written by Simpsons writer Jeff Martin. Tom Poston guest starred in the episode as the Capital City Goofball. The mascot has appeared in many episodes later on in the show, but he has spoken only once since "Dancin' Homer" and has been reduced to making minor background appearances. Ron Taylor was meant to reprise his role of Bleeding Gums Murphy, who he had played in the first-season episode "Moaning