the episode was written by rob thomas and directed by mark piznarski, the same creative team who wrote and directed the pilot. the episode's title is a play on words: "give credit where credit's due" is a phrase, and the episode is about credit card fraud. "credit where credit's due" features the first appearance (a small cameo) by dick casablancas (ryan hansen), who would later become a series regular the following season. on casting the character, thomas elaborated, "[w]e hired him because we liked his look; he looked like a blond california surfer boy." the character was created so that logan would have another friend besides duncan. the writers came up with dick's name through referring to the character as "a dick".