“Simpsons” Episode Featuring Michael Jackson Kept Off Disney+

Michael Jackson, Concert, Market Square Arena, 1988
Photo credit (Photo by Mike Fender/IndyStar)
The launch of Disney+ meant that fans had access to every episode of The Simpsons ever made.

Well, all except for one.

The episode “Stark Raving Dad” from the show’s third season, featuring the voice work of Michael Jackson, was left off the Disney+ archives.  Jackson voiced Leon Kompowsky, a patient in a psychiatric hospital who thinks he is a pop star and ends up rooming with Homer Simpson.

Simpsons showrunner Al Jean believes that Jackson used his appearance on the show to “groom boys.” He told the Daily Beast, “It looks like the episode was used by Michael Jackson for something other than what we’d intended it.  It wasn’t just a comedy to him, it was something that was used as a tool.”  

Longtime executive producer echoed Jean’s sentiments saying, “It feels clearly the only choice to make.”

Via Fox Business