Ringo Starr was the first of The Beatles to appear in the series. George Harrison would appear in Homer's Barbershop Quartet (1993) and Paul McCartney would appear in Lisa the Vegetarian (1995).
Ringo Starr was initially supposed to have only one line, but after asking for his part to be expanded, the producer agreed.
Matt Groening said of Ringo Starr's guest spot, "We were so excited that we got Ringo Starr coming in to do the show and we recorded him over at the Complex in West Los Angeles. We were given a list of rules about what we couldn't do to Ringo, such as 'Don't touch him', 'Don't approach him', and 'Don't ask for his autograph'. But of course when he shows up in this big limo, Brian brings out a big poster and asks him to sign it!" Brian K. Roberts explained that he had not received the memo with the rules so he showed up with a copy of the script cover and asked Starr to sign it.
The network didn't want the word 'genitalia', spoken by Mr. Burns at the end of the show talking about his portrait. Co-creator Sam Simon fought back with the network about it, and they finally agreed to have Simon write a letter of apology to every person who felt offended by the use of the word and complained to Fox.
Matt Groening asked Ringo Starr if he wanted to be animated the way he was in Yellow Submarine (1968) or the way he was in The Beatles (1965). Starr chose the former because he did not like his appearance in the latter.