King-Size Homer - Production

Production

"King-Size Homer" was written by Dan Greaney, and directed by Jim Reardon. It was the first episode Greaney wrote for The Simpsons. Prior to this episode he was working as a lawyer and was contemplating moving to Kiev, Ukraine, to work for a start-up company. He said that this episode "saved" him from doing so. Greaney pitched some ideas to the writing staff, but none of them were any good, so then-show runner Bill Oakley gave him the idea for this episode. Oakley had Greaney come to Hollywood to write it, and when Greaney showed the first draft to the staff, they liked it, so Oakley hired him.

The writers wanted the title of the episode to make Homer sound proud about his weight, so they decided to name it "King-Size Homer". Greaney really enjoyed working on the episode because Homer is constantly happy and goal oriented in it, instead of being a slob and "eating all the time". The Simpsons animator David Silverman designed the fat Homer for the episode. There was a discussion about what Homer would wear when he became fat, and they decided to go with a muumuu dress. The writers were also discussing about how they were going to treat Homer's fatness. They did not want Homer to come off as a "hog", so they decided that the viewer should barely see him eating after he reaches his 300 pounds goal. As the writers were trying to figure out a way to get Homer back to his old weight by the end of the episode, someone suggested that Homer should feel bad about his obesity, and therefore become thin for Marge, but that idea was scrapped in early production. Action figurines based on fat Homer were made for the World of Springfield series shortly after the episode had aired.

Homer has a dream in which he is standing at the foot of a mountain with 300 pounds as the goal at the top. A pig wearing a tuxedo appears next to him in the dream, and motivates Homer to reach the top of the mountain. Homer takes a bite of the pig's arm, and runs up the mountain. This scene was inspired by the cover of the "Sweetness and Light" issue of the National Lampoon magazine. The staff thought that Cary Grant would have been the ideal for the pig in Homer's dream sequence, but he died nine years before the episode was made, so they used cast member Hank Azaria for that voice. Joan Kenley guest starred in the episode as the telephone lady who tells Homer: "The fingers you have used to dial are too fat. To obtain a special dialing wand, please mash the keypad with your palm now." The staff flew her down from Northern California to record her part for the episode.