The only major recurring characters who were introduced this season were Disco Stu, who appeared in " Two Bad Neighbors," and Brandine Spuckler, who appeared in " Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield". To decide who would write each of the segments, all of the writers chose their top three favorite characters and put them into a hat, the names were drawn out and the writers were assigned their parts and Greg Daniels put all of the segments together and ordered them. The episode features multiple stories about different characters. " 22 Short Films About Springfield" has twelve credited writers, the most of any episode of the series. McCartney agreed, but only on the condition that Lisa stay a vegetarian and not revert. Cohen and the producers felt it would be a surefire way to get Paul McCartney to guest star.
The episode " Lisa the Vegetarian" features one of the few permanent character changes in the series when Lisa officially becomes a vegetarian. Several critics said the special tainted Walsh's credibility and was described as gimmicky, tacky and "blatant groveling for viewers". The special was criticized for taking the publicity of the episode too far. Burns, by laying out the potential clues and identifying the possible suspects.
It was preceded by "Springfield's Most Wanted", a TV special hosted by John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted and was parody of Walsh's television series, this special was designed to help people find out who shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)", which was the resolution to the first part, which had been a cliffhanger. The season started off with the heavily publicized " Who Shot Mr. From season nine until season eighteen, she appeared only as a background character but had a speaking role in " The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer" where she was voiced by Tress MacNeille. After that, Lunchlady Doris had speaking parts in " Lisa's Sax", which Grau had recorded before her death. The episode " Team Homer", which aired eight days later, was one of the last episodes to feature her voice and featured a dedication to her.
ĭoris Grau, script supervisor for the show and voice of Lunchlady Doris died on December 30, 1995. Anderson, who had previously worked on the show as part of the animation staff, both directed their first episodes. Wes Archer, a long-time director for The Simpsons who helped define the look of the show, left following this season. Jon Vitti, who had left following the fourth season, returned to write " Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily" as well as " The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular". Although the majority of the writing staff stayed on for the next season, both Greg Daniels and Brent Forrester received their last writing credits during season seven. Steve Tompkins, Dan Greaney, Richard Appel and Rachel Pulido received their first writing credits while Spike Feresten and Jack Barth received their only writing credits this season. Burns? (Part Two)", " Radioactive Man", " Lisa the Vegetarian" and " Team Homer". ĭavid Mirkin, who had been executive producer for the previous two seasons, was credited as a consulting producer for the seventh season but also executive produced the episodes " Who Shot Mr. Lee Ermey, Donald Sutherland, Kirk Douglas and Lawrence Tierney. Their preferred choice of guest stars were those with unique and interesting voices, and several of their guest stars were "old grizzled men with distinctive voices" such as R.
They also wanted to produce a Treehouse of Horror episode, episodes about Sideshow Bob, Itchy & Scratchy and several "format-bending" episodes such as " 22 Short Films About Springfield". When they took over the series they wanted many of the episodes to be realistic ones that focused more on the five members of the Simpson family, exploring their feelings and emotions towards each other.
They were chosen partly because they had been with the show since the third season and understood many of its dynamics. The season was the first season executively produced by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, who had written episodes for previous seasons.