Leaving Neverland prompts The Simpsons to pull the episode featuring Michael Jackson's voice

The Wall Street Journal

It was just six months ago that Matt Groening confirmed a long-standing rumor that Jackson lent his voice to The Simpsons' 1991 Season 3 episode "Stark Raving Dad." Now Groening and his fellow producers have decided to pull the episode from circulation following the sexual abuse allegations in HBO's Leaving Neverland. “It feels clearly the only choice to make,” Groening's fellow Simpsons co-creator James L. Brooks told The Wall Street Journal of the joint decision. “The guys I work with — where we spend our lives arguing over jokes — were of one mind on this." Showrunner Al Jean, reached by email, told Variety: “I agree with Jim, nothing else to add.” Jackson voiced the role of Leon Kompowsky, a man whom Homer Simpsons meets in a mental institution who believes he's Michael Jackson. Last August, Groening finally confirmed Jackson's involvement, telling Australia's The Weekly: “We really did have him." Groening added that Jackson called him out of the blue one night and asked for a cameo. Groening said he assumed it was a prank call because he had "a voice that sounds like somebody doing a Michael Jackson bit.”