The episode was written by Dan Greaney and Allen Glazier and directed by Mike Frank Polcino.
When a visiting and newly converted Christian minister from Indonesia pleads with Springfield churchgoers for a donation to help sick children, Bart sympathizes with a boy his own age.
Soon enough, Bart receives offers to eat used chewing gum, orthodontic wax, cinnamon, St. John's wort, and a preserved frog prepared for dissection, even though Lisa warns her brother to not consume the animal.
Just when the school bullies are about to attack Bart, a new transfer student named Diggs saves the day with his falcon, Freedom.
As Bart spends more and more time with Diggs, he learns about falconry and conducts some mischief around town by teaching Freedom to snatch Springfielders' belongings.
Bart is told to leave the room by an uncharacteristically sober and blunt-sounding Dr. Hibbert and an unidentified doctor and overhears that Diggs will transfer over to a mental hospital.
Bart goes back to school and leaves the bullies stunned and silent when he responds to their taunting by angrily saying how much it sucks that his friend is mentally ill.
Executive producer Al Jean described the character as a mix of Holden Caulfield, Finny from A Separate Peace, and the children in Lord of the Flies.
Radcliffe previously appeared as a different character in the twenty-second season episode "Treehouse of Horror XXI.
There’s no connection made between his initial generosity toward the kid in the church story and his willingness to remain loyal to his new friend.