The episode was directed by Mike Frank Polcino and written by Loni Steele Sosthand.
In this episode, Carl learns the origins of his belt buckle after trading it for clothes for a date.
When Ned Flanders breaks his arm, Marge organizes the townsfolk to cook food for him.
They learn it has been sold to the Rich Texan, who sold it to Henry Louis Gates Jr. Dr. Gates researches Carl’s background, and he learns that Carl descends from a slave who became a cowboy, and his father was a bull rider who won the belt buckle as a prize.
[1] After writing last season's "The Sound of Bleeding Gums," based on her deaf brother's experience, Loni Steele Sosthand wrote this episode based on her own experience struggling for identity as a mixed race person.
[2] She noted that black cowboys were being featured in Hollywood recently such as the Lawmen: Bass Reeves television series produced by Taylor Sheridan.
[6] Carl appears on the television series Finding Your Roots, hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr.[7] The songs "Beyond" by Leon Bridges and "Black Cowboy" by Eek-A-Mouse were featured in the episode.
He highlighted how the episode handed the delicate subject of Carl's identity with regard to race.