In the episode, Homer refuses to pay a five dollar airport tax to fly to Delaware, which forces the family to ride in a livestock car of a train instead.
The staff had noticed that viewers responded well to "Simpsons Bible Stories", and decided to write another trilogy episode because of the warm response.
In its original broadcast, the episode was seen by approximately 7.8 million viewers, finishing in 33rd place in the ratings the week it aired.
After Homer violates the Anti-Fist Shaking Law, the family jumps onto a freight train where they meet a singing hobo who tells them three stories.
Homer portrays Paul Bunyan, a giant who quickly becomes a great burden on the local townspeople, as he crushes their houses and greedily eats all their food.
Out of loneliness, Bunyan carves a block of stone from the mountains into a blue ox that he calls Babe, who is rendered alive by the Northern Lights.
Eventually, she changes her last name to "Appleseed", and leaves her family to journey across the United States and plant apple seeds wherever she goes.
Huck is caught holding hands with Becky (Lisa) after he falls over in her garden from the fence and is forced to marry her by her father, Homer.
When pitching stories for the twelfth season, the writers decided to make another episode based around three segments that are all related to a certain theme.
[2] "Simpsons Tall Tales" was written by Matt Selman, John Frink, Don Payne, and Bob Bendetson.
The idea for a trilogy episode based on tall tales was pitched by Frink and Payne, according to co-executive producer Ian Maxtone-Graham.
[2] Like many other trilogy episodes, "Simpsons Tall Tales" ended up very long and the staff were obliged to cut some scenes in order to fit with the program's maximum running time.
When noticing the guard, Bunyan tugs his collar in a similar way as American comedian Charles Nelson Reilly.
[10] In its original American broadcast on May 20, 2001, "Simpsons Tall Tales" received a 7.6 rating, according to Nielsen Media Research, translating to approximately 7.8 million viewers.
[11] On August 18, 2009, the episode was released as part of a DVD set called The Simpsons: The Complete Twelfth Season.
Mike Scully, Ian Maxtone-Graham, John Frink, Don Payne, Carolyn Omine, Matt Selman, Tom Gammill, Max Pross, Bob Anderson and Joel H. Cohen participated in the audio commentary for the episode.
In his review of The Simpsons: The Complete Twelfth Season, Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide disliked the episode.
He also argued that "Simpsons Tall Tales" and trilogy episodes in general are an excuse for the series' writers to not have to come up with new stories for the characters.
He wrote that the episode is "filled with great gags", including the hobo's sponge bath and Bart and Nelson's discussion about "backtacks" and "tackbacks".