The scene in which Bart welds on his racer resulted in an argument between the staff of the show and the Fox network's censors. The censors were concerned that children would imitate Bart by misusing welding tools; however, the staff was able to convince them that very few children have access to welding tools.
At the institute, Dave gives Homer a copy of the book Fatherhood by Bill Cosby. In a subsequent episode, Dog of Death (1992), Homer throws the book into the fireplace as replacement for wood.
The line "Bill Cosby, you've saved the Simpsons" is tongue-in-cheek since The Cosby Show was airing opposite The Simpsons at the time. This season would turn out to be the final one for The Cosby Show due to The Simpsons clobbering it in the ratings.
The idea for the subplot of Homer's parenting originated from a real fatherhood test executive producer Sam Simon found and brought to the Simpsons studio. Ken Levine later commented on writing the episode, "At the time David and I were writing this, my son, Matt, was about Bart's age. [...] So for me there was a certain amount of guilt associated, like 'Do I know my son's hobby? Do I know my son's best friend?' etc."
The inspiration for the episode originated from a line in Itchy & Scratchy & Marge (1990), a previous episode in which Marge bans Bart and Lisa from watching their favorite cartoon, The Itchy & Scratchy Show, and Bart says "I'm gonna go build a soapbox racer instead."