Michael Jackson's Simpsons episode pulled by producers
A 1992 episode of The Simpsons featuring the voice of Michael Jackson is to be removed from circulation, following the allegations of child abuse in the new documentary Leaving Neverland.
James L Brooks, one of the Fox cartoon's creators, told the Wall Street Journal that he and fellow showrunners Matt Groening and Al Jean reached the decision after watching the film.
"The guys I work with – where we spend our lives arguing over jokes – were of one mind on this," he said. "It feels clearly the only choice to make."
Brooks added that, although he had wanted to believe in Jackson's innocence, he was swayed by the documentary's "evidence of monstrous behavior" allegedly committed by the pop singer.
The documentary, which aired on HBO in America and on Channel 4 in the UK this week, features interviews with two men, James Safechuck and Wade Robson, who claim to have been groomed and abused by Jackson as children.
Jackson's estate has firmly denied their claims. The singer, who died in 2009, was tried for child abuse charges in 2005 but acquitted.
In the 1992 episode, Stark Raving Dad, Homer Simpson befriends a man called Kompowsky, a bulky inmate at a mental hospital who believes himself to be Michael Jackson.
Although the actor playing Kompowsky was listed in the episode's credits as "John Jay Smith", it was in fact Jackson himself. Jackson's involvement in the episode was not common knowledge until 2018, when Groening confirmed rumours of the singer's uncredited performance.
Jackson had contacted Groening unexpectedly to ask for a cameo in the long-running show. "I was sitting in the office late at night," Groening explained last year. "The phone rings, and I pick it up: 'Hi, this is Michael Jackson.'" The singer was forced to phone back after Groening hung up on him, having assumed it was a prank call "because he has a voice that sounds like somebody doing [an impression], doing a Michael Jackson bit".
Although Jackson recorded Kompowsky's spoken dialogue, another voice artist was brought in to record the song he sings in the episode, "Happy Birthday Lisa".
Brooks told the Wall Street Journal that work has already begun on withdrawing the episode from future TV broadcasts, streaming platforms and DVDS.
"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 said. "I'm against book burning of any kind. But this is our book, and we're allowed to take out a chapter."