segments in which the Simpsons play different characters from the Bible, was written after Fox requested a Bible-themed episode that would air on Easter. The Simpsons' staff enjoyed writing the episode and it was generally well received by viewers. When pitching stories for the twelfth season, the writers decided to make another episode based around three segments that are all related to a certain theme. "Simpsons Tall Tales" was written by Matt Selman, John Frink, Don Payne, and Bob Bendetson. The idea for a trilogy episode based on tall tales was pitched by Frink and Payne, according to co-executive producer Ian Maxtone-Graham. While the episode's introduction was written and conceived by Selman, the first segment was written by Frink and Payne. The second and third segments were written by Bendetson and Selman respectively. Writing segments for "Simpsons Tall Tales" was much different from normal episodes; for example, the writers only had one day to outline each segment's plot, and three to four days to write the first draft of each script, which is much less time than the writers usually get for an episode. Still, Selman has said that working on the episode was "very fun" for the writers. While writing the third segment, Selman listened to Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective on tape to "get some of the lingo" that Mark Twain used in his books. He found so many unusual words in the books that he compiled a "giant" list of them. "We wanted to cram in every single [jargon from the books] as we could", Selman said in the episode's DVD commentary. "Simpsons Tall Tales" was directed by Bob Anderson and is one of his favorite episodes that he directed. Because the segments take place in different places and time periods, the animators had to create new designs for characters and backgrounds. Even though it took a lot of work, Anderson maintained that the episode was "fun to work on." In a scene in the episode, Moe holds a giant pill that makes Homer fall asleep - at one point in the episode's production, the pill would read "Roofie", but it was eventually removed. Another scene that changed during production was the scene in which Homer uses Marge's hair to clean him up for their date. After he takes Marge's hair out of his ear, her hair would originally be covered