In a 2001 interview, Harry Shearer, the voice of Principal Skinner, recalled that after reading the script, he told the writers, "That's so wrong. You're taking something that an audience has built eight years or nine years of investment in and just tossed it in the trash can for no good reason, for a story we've done before with other characters. It's so arbitrary and gratuitous, and it's disrespectful to the audience."
In a later interview, Shearer added, "Now, the writers refuse to talk about it. They realize it was a horrible mistake. They never mention it. It's like they're punishing the audience for paying attention."
In a later interview, Shearer added, "Now, the writers refuse to talk about it. They realize it was a horrible mistake. They never mention it. It's like they're punishing the audience for paying attention."
Originally this episode was to be titled "Skinnersby" after the movie Sommersby (1993), which has a similar plot about a man who returns home from war after his wife and his friends thought he had perished.
Although it aired during the show's ninth season, it was a holdover from season eight.