[1] McClure is a washed-up actor who is usually shown doing low-level work, most notably hosting manipulative infomercials and questionable educational films.

In most of his appearances in the show, he hosts short video clips that other characters watch on television or in a public place.

[5] They are often low-quality, highly erroneous and too short and incomplete to be useful, and feature bizarre topics such as Dig Your Own Grave and Save and Smoke Yourself Thin.

[7] In the episode, McClure begins a relationship with Selma Bouvier, whom he meets when she gives him an eye test at the Department of Motor Vehicles and agrees to go out on a date as a condition for passing him.

McClure ultimately gets the role, but turns it down in order to direct and star in his own pet project, a 20th Century Fox film called The Contrabulous Fabtraption of Professor Horatio Hufnagel.

[10] McClure was made into an action figure as part of the World of Springfield toy line, and was released in the "Celebrity Series 1" wave in 2002.

B movie actors Troy Donahue and Doug McClure served as inspiration for his name and certain character aspects.

[1][14] According to show creator Matt Groening, Phil Hartman was cast in the role due to his ability to pull "the maximum amount of humor" out of any line he was given.

[17] According to executive producer Al Jean, the writers often used McClure as a "panic button" and added the character when they felt an episode needed more humor.

He enjoyed interpreting Hartman's voice-over performances, and the episode allowed him and the other animators to "open [McClure] up visually as a character".

The writers did not initially know what the "unsavory" sexual preference would be, but eventually decided on a fish fetish, using a suggestion from executive producer James L. Brooks.

[19] Rather than re-casting the role with a new voice actor, the production staff retired McClure, along with Hartman's other recurring character, Lionel Hutz.

[20] Before his death, Hartman had often expressed an interest in starring in a live-action film about McClure, which would be penned by some of the show's writers.

McClure has become the apotheosis of the stereotype, a gut-achingly funny reinterpretation whose trademark introduction ... has become a shorthand way to describe any grossly artificial media figure.

[38] The title of a song on American indie-rock band Yo La Tengo's ninth full-length album, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, "Let's Save Tony Orlando's House", is based upon a telethon that McClure hosts in the episode "Marge on the Lam".

Club, Ira Kaplan, the singer and guitarist of Yo La Tengo, states that James McNew, the band's bassist, titled a series of instrumentals from the Troy McClure filmography.