— and for funneling profits to the Viet Cong). Lisa and Lovell decide to create a new talking doll, Lisa Lionheart, voiced by Lisa herself. The doll, designed to look more realistic than Malibu Stacy and costing $46,000 to mass-produce and market, says inspirational and encouraging phrases for girls. However, the Malibu Stacy executives learn of its development and worry that Lisa's doll poses a real threat to their sales. After a slow initial release, Lisa Lionheart suddenly gains popularity among Malibu Stacy fans after being featured in Kent Brockman's news show at the behest of his daughter. As kids and Smithers rush to the mall to buy Lisa Lionheart, a cart of Malibu Stacy dolls with new hats is wheeled into their path. Though Lisa protests at the cheap reissues of Malibu Stacy dolls, the kids and Smithers ransack the cart regardless. However, one little girl selects a Lisa Lionheart doll, which gives Lisa hope for her brand. Production The episode was written by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, and directed by Jeffrey Lynch. Before the episode aired, Malibu Stacy had already appeared many times on the show as one of Lisa's dolls. The staff were trying to come up with an idea for an episode by going through the companies in the Simpsons universe, and Oakley suggested an episode involving the Malibu Stacy company. The plot of the episode was inspired by the Teen Talk Barbie talking doll that caused controversy in the United States in the early 1990s. In July 1992, Mattel released Teen Talk Barbie, which spoke a number of phrases including "Will we ever have enough clothes?", "I love shopping!", and "Wanna have a pizza party?" Each doll was programmed to say four out of 270 possible phrases, so that there were over 200 million combinations. One of these 270 phrases was "Math class is tough!". Although only about 1.5% of all the dolls sold said the phrase, it led to criticism from the American Association of University Women because they regarded it as demeaning to women. In October 1992, Mattel announced that Teen Talk Barbie would no longer say the phrase, and offered a swap to anyone who owned a doll that did. Oakley and Weinstein decided to include Abe in the episode because they had an "obsession" with old people. Weinstein said they both "love them and seem to really hate them" at