The opening poker game marks the first time Homer's bar buddies (Barney, Moe) interact with his work buddies (Lenny, Carl). Later, Lenny and Carl would become regulars at Moe's.
While Bart had been the star of the show during the early years, by Season 5, the focus had clearly shifted to Homer. Al Jean stated that because Homer is an adult character, he has more depth to him and thus storyline possibilities. David Mirkin commented: "Bart, to write him accurately as a child, he can only have so much depth at a certain age. With Homer, we try to explore all levels of adulthood. There are just more places to go. Writing Homer properly is the trick, he's our main rock of the whole series. Homer's IQ is fairly flexible, he won't necessarily understand how to open a door at some point, but he can name the Supreme Court justices. Finding that balance is key to making the show work and making it surprising and making it believable and emotionally grounded."
This is the first episode to express Moe's feelings toward Marge.
David Mirkin was very fond of the fact that Homer and Marge have the biggest fight they have ever had on the show in the episode, and he thought it was a "really great" exploration of their marriage. He noticed that because Homer is thrown out of the house, the audience really worry about their relationship. Mirkin had been asked many times why Marge and Homer are still together, to which he replied that all people stay together even if they argue, "there's some sort of connection".
This was the second script Greg Daniels wrote for the show. He thought the staff had previously done many episodes where Homer "wasn't good at anything", so he tried to figure out something Homer was really good at, and he came up with the idea of Homer being a good husband.