An episode of The Simpsons featuring Michael Jackson is being taken off the air, producers confirmed this week.
“It feels clearly like the only choice to make,” James L. Brooks told The Wall Street Journal. “The guys I work with – where we all spend our lives arguing over jokes — were of one mind on this.”
Jackson voiced a character named Leon Kompowsky, a psychiatric hospital patient who tries to convince Homer Simpson that he’s the King of Pop, in the 1991 episode “Stark Raving Dad.” Old episodes of The Simpsons air around the world in syndication.
The decision to pull the episode was made following the broadcast of Leaving Neverland, a two-part HBO documentary in which Wade Robson and James Safechuck chronicle alleged sexual abuse by Jackson when they were boys.
“The documentary gave evidence of monstrous behaviour,” said Brooks. “I’m against book burning of any kind. But this is our book, and we’re allowed to take out a chapter.
“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.”