It was a grounded show like “Recess” or “Fillmore!” devoid of crazy plots, but relatable and earnest. Of course, being relatable and earnest doesn't guarantee a lack of notes, and for [Doug] Langdale, the worst note was being told an episode wasn't funny ‘So you should add something dumb to it — like a monkey’. “I thought it was the dumbest note I'd ever gotten,” the creator said. “And they thought it was the dumbest note they'd ever given, but they still wanted to do it.” But Langdale didn't just add a monkey, he turned that note into a whole joke, taking inspiration from the infamous note given to “The Brady Bunch” that forced them to add a kid to the aging cast. Langdale had worked with Robbie Rist, who played Cousin Oliver in “The Brady Bunch,” and decided to add a layer of meta commentary on the monkey note by hiring Rist to play the monkey. “[He] was just like, 'So do you literally just want me to go ooh, ooh, ahh, ahh?' And I was like, 'Yep.' 'And the whole joke is, because I did this thing when I was a kid?' And I was like, 'Yeah, sorry.'”
- Source: slashfilm.com