George Clooney was a vocal fan of the series and was largely responsible for generating news about The Spirit of Christmas (1995) animated short film by Trey Parker and Matt Stone that served as a precursor to the series. Parker said they decided to cast a famous actor in the small role of Sparky because "we thought it was funny", and because they wanted to do something different from The Simpsons (1989), which is known for having prominent guest appearances on a regular basis. Parker added, "Since South Park is sort of a show that rips on celebrity, we wanted to degrade them in other ways too. And we thought let's have celebrities on, but have them do really minor, unimportant things". Comedy Central executives were excited at the prospect of having Clooney appear on the show, but Parker said they were disappointed to learn his role was so small.
When the episode was under production in 1997, it was relatively uncommon for a television series to openly address homosexuality in such overt terms, especially in a cartoon. As a result, Trey Parker and Matt Stone said Comedy Central executives expressed more concern about this than any other previous episode. Parker said of the network, "I don't think they ever really discouraged it, but they were definitely freaked out". The network, however, did object to scenes in which one of the football sports commentators made offensive jokes and was silenced by the other commentator. The network particularly objected to a joke in which, after watching Kyle run, the commentator said, "I haven't seen a Jew run like that since Poland 1938", a reference to the country's invasion by Nazi Germany (which actually took place in 1939). The jokes were based on a number of real-life offensive remarks sports commentators made and gotten in trouble for. Stone said the scenes were meant to parody the commentators, not the subjects of the jokes. However, they were only allowed to stay in after what Stone called "a big fight" with Comedy Central.
After the episode was scheduled to air, TV Guide refused to advertise it under its true title for fear of offending readers, and instead called the episode "Big Al's Boat Ride"
Trey Parker and Matt Stone considered this their favorite episode of the first season, and they credit it with helping elevate the credibility and relevance of South Park during the early days of the series.
The announcer makes an incomplete remark about a tackle, "I haven't seen so many children molested since...". This was rumoured to have been followed by a line, "since Michael Jackson came to town", which was supposedly censored after the broadcast premiere, but there is no evidence of this.