Film + TV

Simpsons producers reveal long lost Conan O'Brien penned Prince episode

by Jeremy Mersereau

With Prince’s passing last week, an unsurpassed bounty of stories, anecdotes, recollections and memories have surfaced from a wide variety of sources, both from the music world and otherwise.

Along with the usual suspects, an unexpected nugget of prime Prince info has materialized: Back in the heady days of 1994, there was apparently going to be a Simpsons episode featuring Prince, which would have served as a sequel to the show’s Michael Jackson-centered episode in the third season, “Stark Raving Dad”.

According to current Simpsons producer Al Jean, an untitled episode with a prominent role for the Purple One was written during the show’s fifth season by freelance writers Ian Deitchman and Kristin Rusk and punched up by none other than Conan O’Brien. The episode would have featured the return of “Stark Raving Dad” character Leon Kompowsky, the patient Homer meets in an asylum who believes he is Michael Jackson… only this time, of course, Kompowsky would believe himself to be, and would be voiced by, Prince Rogers Nelson.

Sadly, the script never went into production, due to Prince’s objections. The Purple One was reportedly unhappy with the direction of the script, and told Simpsons producers that he would only cameo if they used an alternate script submitted by an unknown writer. Of course, the show’s producers disliked the alternate script, and so the idea for the episode was shelved indefinitely.

Prince’s likeness would appear in the season 20 Treehouse of Horror segment “How to Get Ahead in Dead-Vertising” where Homer is hired as a celebrity assassin to strangle and stab the musician with his own guitar. Now, Jean has shared four tweets which include actual pieces of the original script from the season five episode. Try not sob as you contemplate the four saddest words in the English language: “It might have been.”