 The episode's title is a pun. It refers to both cartoonist Rube Goldberg, who was famous for his drawings of incredibly complex machines made out of everyday objects that performed rudimentary tasks, as well as the harpsichord piece, the "Goldberg Variations", by Johann Sebastian Bach. The elaborate contraptions Henry Weems created are physical examples of such machines. Episode writer Jeffrey Bell noted that he wanted the episode to function "as a Rube Goldberg device" and so he wrote the story to revolve around the ideas of good luck and bad luck. Originally, the episode's opening scene was to have featured Weems falling thirty thousand feet from an airplane and walking away unscathed. Although Bell's pitch was met with enthusiasm, many writers and producers for the show were cautious, because they realized the episode would have several humorous moments. Executive producer Frank Spotnitz explained: "The episode had a lot of humorous moments that we were afraid of doing because as many people who like the funny ones hate the funny ones." Eventually, the episode was green-lighted, but pushed to later in the season because, according to Spotnitz, "we wanted to scare the hell out of everybody during the first few episodes."
