bright muumuu and excited jabbering make him seem like a lunatic. After hijacking an ice cream truck, Homer arrives at the power plant during a workout program and reaches the shutdown switch, which is situated over a tank of radioactive gas that is about to explode. He falls onto the hatch just as it bursts open and becomes stuck in it from the waist down, blocking the gas from escaping. In recognition of Homer's bravery and action to minimize the environmental damage caused by the gas release, Burns gives him a medal and offers him any reward he chooses. Homer asks Burns to help him lose weight, having seen the effect his obesity has had on his family. After Homer demonstrates his inability to do any exercise, Burns angrily decides to simply pay for him to get liposuction. Production "King-Size Homer" was written by Dan Greaney, and directed by Jim Reardon. It was the first episode Greaney wrote for The Simpsons. Prior to this episode he was working as a lawyer and was contemplating moving to Ukraine to work for a start-up company. He said that this episode "saved" him from doing so. Greaney pitched some ideas to the writing staff, but none of them were satisfactory, so then-show runner Bill Oakley gave him the idea for this episode. Oakley had Greaney come to Hollywood to write it, and when Greaney showed the first draft to the staff, they liked it, so Oakley hired him. The writers wanted the title of the episode to make Homer sound proud about his weight, so they decided to name it "King-Size Homer". Greaney really enjoyed working on the episode because Homer is constantly happy and goal-oriented in it, instead of being a slob who is "eating all the time". Animator David Silverman designed the obese Homer for the episode. There was a discussion about what Homer would wear when he became fat, and they decided to go with a muumuu. The writers were also discussing about how they were going to treat Homer's obesity. They did not want Homer to come off as a "hog", so they decided that the viewer should barely see him eating after he reaches his 300 pounds goal. As the writers were trying to figure out a way to get Homer back to his old weight by the end of the episode, it was suggested that Homer should