David Silverman, who also did not want to be credited, and used the pseudonym "Pound Foolish" in the closing credits. During the early years of the show, Fox network officials forced the staff of The Simpsons to produce clip shows in order to save money. Originally, the producers were ordered to produce four clip shows per season in order to meet episode limits imposed by the network. Fox network officials reasoned that clip shows could be produced at half the cost of a normal episode, but syndication rights could be sold at full price. The staff, however, felt such a large number of clip shows would alienate fans of the series. Former show runner Bill Oakley thought the episode was one of the better clip shows of The Simpsons, because it had more original and interesting material than the others. Oakley enjoyed showing deleted scenes from previous episodes and the Simpsons shorts, and particularly enjoyed the montage of couch gags at the beginning of the episode. The staff tried to entertain themselves while producing the clip show, and Oakley said by having the only actor be Phil Hartman as Troy McClure, it was "guaranteed to be fun". Hartman's lines in this episode were recorded during the sessions for "A Fish Called Selma", which also aired during Season 7. A lot of the humor in the episode comes from the show's staff mocking themselves and their own work. Troy McClure is shown off put after watching "Good Night", the very first short produced for The Simpsons, and falls asleep while deleted scenes from various episodes are being played. At one point, supposed early designs of Grampa Simpson and Krusty the Clown are shown, which were a "satirical jab at the primitiveness of the [actual] early drawings". Animator David Silverman got defensive over the joke, explaining that the crude drawings were due to a lack of time for proper animation during that era. The fan mail segment showed letters supposedly sent in by extinguished professors and diplomats; Oakley said the joke was that no one of their pedigrees would actually watch the series, let alone write to the staff. The show's producers are also depicted as animated characters in this episode. Creator Matt Groening is shown as a "radical right-wing" conservative and active gun user who supports the National Rifle Association, which is a deliberate subversion of the political stance most of