Joshua Sternin and Jeffrey Ventimilia, the episode writers, were working on Jean and Reiss's show The Critic at the time, and pitched an episode where Homer joins the Naval Reserve.
Sam Simon pitched an episode for one of the first seasons which saw Homer getting a gun and nobody wanting him to have it.
When meeting the other writers, Gould pitched an episode in which Homer becomes the owner of a security company, which then became "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge".
Although the episode was written by Frink and Payne, the idea for the episode was conceived by staff writer Matt Selman, who pitched an episode in which Bart likes a girl because she has "awesome things," while the girl likes him for his personality.
Brooks pitched a crossover episode as a way to promote The Critic and decided that a film festival would be a good way to introduce Sherman.
Tina Fey, the head writer and a performer on NBC's Saturday Night Live, pitched a pilot episode for a situation comedy about a cable news network to NBC in 2002.
Schmerer pitched an idea for an episode to producer D.C. Fontana called "The Chameleon", and together with the series creator Gene Roddenberry, it was developed into the final script.
The meeting, which was eventually immortalized in the "Seinfeld" episode that has Jerry and George pitching "a show about nothing" to NBC, was notably tense.
Renewed for a second series, Spike Lee is said to be pitching to direct an episode after John Singleton, the Boyz n the Hood director, helmed an episode during the first run.
Though he was initially a bit apprehensive when pitching the episode idea to CNN, he says the experience (which included the comedian witnessing a cross burning in the woods) was contrary to what people would expect.
