‘The Simpsons’ team is pulling a classic episode from all platforms that carry the show because it features the voice of Michael Jackson.
The Season 3 episode ‘Stark Raving Dad’ will be removed from circulation because of the sexual assault accusations made in HBO’s ‘Leaving Neverland’ documentary,
Speaking with the Wall Street Journal, ‘Simpsons’ executive producer James L Brooks said it was “clearly the choice to make” after he, creator Matt Groening and executive producer Al Jean saw the documentary.
Brooks said that because “the documentary gave evidence of [Jackson’s] monstrous behaviour,” it was important to pull the episodes despite it being one of his favourites.
In the 1991 episode, Homer Simpson meets a man who claims to be Michael Jackson in a mental institution. Voiced by the real Jackson, he is invited home with Homer and helps Bart write a birthday song for Lisa before revealing he is actually a man named Leon Kompowsky.
The episode will be removed from streaming services, TV stations and Blu-ray/DVD box sets and all other forms the show is available.
In the four-hour documentary ‘Leaving Neverland’, Wade Robson and James Safechuck allege they suffered years of sexual abuse as boys at the hands of Jackson.
The Jackson Estate has denounced the documentary, dismissing Robson and Safechuck’s accounts, and attempted to block HBO from airing it. Last month, the estate filed a lawsuit against the network claiming it is violating nondisparagement agreements HBO made with Jackson prior to his death.
