 Homer's first flashback shows a clip of him falling down Springfield Gorge on a skateboard, a scene taken from the episode "Bart the Daredevil". The Simpsons' staff were concerned that this would make people think the episode was in fact a clip show, so they kept the clip short. The staff also debated how horrific Smithers'father's corpse would look. The first design was "more horrific" than the one seen in the episode, and it more closely resembled Smithers. The corpse seen in the episode was an altered version of the first design. The video recorded by Mr. Burns'security camera was originally supposed to be shot in the same angle as a real security camera, but according to director Steven Dean Moore, to follow the narrative, the staff "had to lose [the camera angle]". This led to some confusion, since one of the shots were from inside the core, making it look as if the security camera was actually inside it. The staff intended to cut the shot, but they later decided to keep it in; Jean explained in the DVD audio commentary for the episode that "Nobody ever notices it". The end of the episode originally had Chad Sexington showing up for his date with Marge, causing Homer to scream uncontrollably again; however, it was cut in favor of Hank Azaria's improvisation as Moe, which, according to Simpsons writer Carolyn Omine, was Azaria's "favorite thing [he] had ever done" on The Simpsons.
