Michael Jackson episode removed from The Simpsons

THE Simpsons episode Stark Raving Dad is considered one of the most iconic episodes from the show’s early run – but it will now be harder for fans to view.

Michael Jackson infamously provided a voice for the episode, which aired as the show’s Season Three premiere on Sept 19, 1991.

His involvement was uncredited, and only rumoured to be Jackson’s voice until it was finally confirmed to actually be him, years later. But now, following the extensive allegations of sexual assault by Jackson as chronicled in the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland, The Simpsons producers have decided to pull the episode from rotation.

“It feels clearly the only choice to make,” executive producer James L. Brooks told the Wall Street Journal.

He said fellow executive producers Matt Groening and Al Jean agreed with the decision. “The guys I work with – where we spend our lives arguing over jokes – were of one mind on this,” Brooks said.

Reached by email, Jean told

Variety that “I agree with

Jim, nothing else to add.”

In the episode, Jackson voiced the character Leon Kompowsky, who meets Homer Simpson in a mental institution. Simpson brings home the character, a large white man who claims to be Michael Jackson. Ultimately, Leon helps Bart Simpson celebrate his sister’s birthday by singing one of the show’s most memorable tunes,

Happy Birthday Lisa. Jackson didn’t actually sing on the episode; Kipp Lennon mimicked Jackson’s voice on all of the episode’s songs.

“This was a treasured episode. There are a lot of great memories we have wrapped up in that one, and this certainly doesn’t allow them to remain,” Brooks added.

He said it would take time, however, for the show to be removed from syndication, and future reissues of its DVD sets.

“I’m against book burning of any kind. But this is our book, and we’re allowed to take out a chapter,” he told the Journal.

Stark Raving Dad is also remembered for another famous

Simpsons moment: After then-President George H.W. Bush made a speech in which he said, “We are going to keep on trying to strengthen the American family, to make American families a lot more like The Waltons and a lot less like The Simpsons”, the producers quickly added an open where the family was watching that speech – with Bart turning to his family to say, “Hey, we’re just like The Waltons. We’re praying for an end to the Depression, too.” –

Reuters