to expose Ned's poor leadership to Chalmers with Homer's help, though Skinner and Bart sadly note that it will mean their friendship cannot continue unless Bart becomes a good student, which Bart bluntly says is unlikely to happen. Despite the chaos at the school, Chalmers is unconcerned because he always disliked Skinner and thinks the school is no worse under Ned than most public schools end up being. After hearing Ned utter a brief mention of God during school announcements, however, Chalmers realizes in horror that Ned is conducting a school prayer in a public school and resolves to fire Ned and re-hire Skinner. Bart and Skinner share a friendly chat about their typically antagonistic relationship and affectionately hug each other. During their hug, Bart tapes a "Kick Me" sign on Skinner's back; Skinner tapes a "Teach Me" sign on Bart. The two chuckle to themselves as they walk away. Production "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song" was written by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, and directed by Bob Anderson. Oakley and Weinstein decided to do a Skinner and Bart episode because the staff wanted to take a diversion from the relatively wacky, fast-paced episodes that had comprised Season 5 so far and, according to show runner David Mirkin, "slow down parts of the show to take time for more emotional episodes like this one". Much of Principal Skinner's behavior in the episode is based on teachers Oakley and Weinstein had in high school who, according to Oakley, were "sad, lonely guys who lived with their mothers". It was selected to air as the 100th episode of the show because the staff wanted that particular episode to focus on Bart. Baby Gerald, Luigi Risotto, Assistant Superintendent Leopold, and Flanders' parents make their first appearances on the show in this episode. Leopold and Luigi were designed by David Silverman, one of the show's directors. Anderson thought Luigi was one of the funniest characters on the show when he first read Luigi's lines in the script during a table read of the episode. When Anderson skimmed through the script and saw Luigi's lines, he said he "frightened Julie Kavner because I was laughing to myself, but trying to keep the laughter in because it was so damn funny." "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song" originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 28, 1994. The episode was selected for release