Over the summer of 1990, Bart's rebellious nature was characterized by some parents and conservatives as a poor role model for children while several American public schools banned T-shirts featuring Bart next to captions such as "I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?" and "Underachiever ('And proud of it, man!'). "Several critics thought that the episode was a response to these controversies. However, executive producer James L. Brooks responded that it was not, but added, "we're mindful of it. I do think it's important for us that Bart does badly in school. There are students like that. Besides, I'm very wary of television where everybody is supposed to be a role model. You don't run across that many role models in real life. Why should television be full of them?" Sam Simon commented that "there are themes to the shows we did last year, important themes, I think it's a tribute to how well we executed them that nobody realized we had a point.
Mayor Quimby makes his first appearance in this episode, without his trademark sash that says "Mayor". The sash was later added because the writers feared that viewers would not recognize him.
The episode was the first to feature a new opening sequence, which was shortened by fifteen seconds from its original length of roughly 1 minute, 30 seconds. The opening sequence for the first season showed Bart stealing a "Bus Stop" sign; whilst the new sequence featured him skateboarding past several characters who had been introduced during the previous season. Starting with this season, there were three versions of the opening: a full roughly 1 minute 15 second long version, a 45 second version and a 25 second version. This gave the show's editors more leeway.
David Silverman described the "Snow Day" sequence as one of the hardest things he ever had to animate. It features several long pans which shows many different characters engaging in various activities and was difficult to time correctly.
Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish (1990) was the first episode produced for the season, but this one aired first because Bart was popular at the time and the producers had wanted to premiere with an episode involving him.