church. Just as the townspeople are about to cannibalize Homer, Reverend Lovejoy returns in a helicopter and leads everyone in prayer, asking God to forgive them. The flood subsides, and afterwards Lisa gives logical reasons for the cause of the events that had happened, with the storm and flood caused by bonfire and trees being cut down, but when questioned about why the rain suddenly stopped, Lisa just says "I don't know. Buddha?". The camera then pans to God, Buddha and Colonel Sanders watching from Heaven, rationalizing that the humans have suffered enough, with God asking for Colonel Sanders' popcorn chicken. Production The show has delved into religious themes many times in its history. In this episode, the theme of prayer is given center stage. The episode had a freelance pitch. O'Neal and Boushell wanted to ensure they came up with a unique idea that had never been done before, as they knew they were approaching the show's 300th episode. The original pitch was based on an NPR story about the "gospel of prosperity". This episode opens with a WNBA game because many NBA players had turned them down for a guest spot a couple of years before in the episode "Children of a Lesser Clod". The lenticular card of a "vengeful god" and "loving god" was animated by creating two images which cross dissolved with white lines interspersed. Al Jean explained that a valid point made in the episode was why God should care about the average man's first world problems when there are natural and man-made disasters that could use his help. Castellaneta did a longer falling noise at the table read than the one that appeared in the final cut of the episode. Jean explained that due to the loss of Phil Hartman – and therefore Lionel Hutz – it was tough to introduce new lawyers to the show. This episode includes one such attempt. The staff had a fight with the broadcast standards over Homer dancing around the church in his underwear. In regard to the sunset shot, up until this point in the show's history, there was not much graduated shading used because it had to be painstakingly drawn. In contrast, it is very quick and easy using computers, which is why Polcino prefers digital over the hand painted; many more color and shading options are made available. Reception The Orlando Sentinels Gregory Hardy named