Burns is accidentally pushed from a third-story window and seriously injured, forcing him to rely on Smithers completely again. In gratitude, Smithers sends Homer a fruit basket with a thank-you note. Production The episode was written by John Swartzwelder, who got the story from another member of the writing staff, Mike Scully. When the show runners of this season, Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, took over the job from David Mirkin, they wanted to "take the show back" to the Simpson family. Their goal was to have at least fifteen episodes per season that revolved around the family or a member of the family, but they still wanted to do the annual Halloween episode, a Sideshow Bob episode, an Itchy and Scratchy episode, and a "format bending" episode, which in this season was "22 Short Films About Springfield". They wanted the family episodes to be realistic, and Oakley thought "Homer the Smithers" was a good example. When Scully pitched the idea to the writers, Oakley was surprised that it had not been done earlier on the show. He thought the story sounded like something that would have been done by the third season because it was "simple" and "organic". Weinstein said that this episode was an opportunity for him, Oakley, and Swartzwelder to "go nuts" with the "Burns-ism". He said that they enjoy writing for characters such as Burns and Abe Simpson because of their "out-datedness", and because they get to use thesauruses for looking up "old time slang". For example, Burns answers the phone by saying "Ahoy, hoy!", which was suggested by Alexander Graham Bell to be used as the proper telephone answer when the telephone was first invented. Burns' kitchen is full of "crazy old-time" devices and contraptions. For inspiration, Weinstein brought in "a bunch" of old books with designs of old kitchen devices. Oakley commented that the stuffed polar bear had always been in Burns' office, and they were excited to "finally" have a use for it. Matt Groening has noted the challenges of sound mixing with this episode, the results of which influenced future episodes of the show and Groening's other series Futurama. When the animation for the episode returned, the production staff found the scene of Homer fighting Smithers "horrifying", as the sounds of character exertion made it seem too violent. After experimenting with the sound, they were eventually able to make the scene humorous