The third act of the episode is largely a pastiche of Rear Window (1954). As in the film, a wheelchair-bound Bart witnesses an apparent murder through his telescope, with musical cues from the film also being used. James Stewart's character, L. B. "Jeff" Jefferies, appears twice, caricatured as he looks in the film. The pictures on the wall of Jeff's room are the same as in the film.
The Springfield Pool-Mobile was based on a similar vehicle from David Mirkin's childhood, where a truck with a "spinning cars" fairground ride on the back would often come around his neighborhood.
Many of the heat wave jokes at the start of the episode were based on past events of the crew's lives. The sitting in front of the fridge-freezer joke came from Dan McGrath, who had done a similar thing as a child.
Krusty's mispronunciation of Ravi Shankar's name was an ad-lib that David Mirkin kept in after the editing process because he liked it so much.