Remembering The Prince-Themed 'Simpsons' Episode That Never Was

UPDATE, 24 Apr: Following the publication of this article, The Simpsons writers have opened up about the abandoned 'Prince episode' on Twitter, clarifying several aspects of the fabled show.

ORIGINAL STORY:

It's no stretch to say that the death of music icon Prince is one of the most emotionally impactful such events of the past few decades, as countless peers, fans and industry legends alike pay respects to the fallen performer.

But it's not just the music world where Prince made an indelible mark; he was no stranger to screens both small and silver, from his 1984 cinematic debut Purple Rain and follow-up flicks Under The Cherry Moon (1986), Sign O' The Times (1987) and Graffiti Bridge (1990) to his wonderful appearances on shows such as Muppets Tonight (1997) and, more recently, New Girl (2014) — not to mention his seminal musical contributions to Tim Burton's 1989 Batman flick.

And, somewhere in the fabric of space and time, there's a universe where he was the central figure of season-five episode of fellow cultural juggernaut The Simpsons. Unfortunately, in our own world, the lofty plans of Fox's flagship animated series to have the 1999 mastermind guest-star on the show never quite came to fruition — but a lot of people don't realise just how close we came to having a Golden Age Simpsons episode dedicated entirely to The Purple One during his lifetime.

According to the lore — which, in this case, includes first-hand accounts from writer (and then co-showrunner) Mike Reiss and fellow scribes Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein — the episode, unofficially titled simply The Prince Episode, was to be a sequel to season three opener Stark Raving Dad, in which New Jersey bricklayer Leon Kompowsky comes to believe he is really (now-late) pop idol Michael Jackson.

As Reiss explained in the easter-egg DVD commentary for Stark Raving Dad, The Prince Episode would have seen the return of Kompowsky (who was originally voiced by Jackson as well as series regular Hank Azaria, with singing provided by MJ sound-alike Kipp Lennon), now convinced that, rather than the King Of Pop, he is actually Prince.

Dubious though the concept might sound these days, it pays to remember that this episode would have aired during the show's fifth season (1993-1994), universally recognised as being one of the strongest (if not the strongest) Simpsons seasons of the Golden Age.

According to Reiss, the episode would have seen Prince encourage the people of Springfield to "loosen up, become more flamboyant; everyone becomes more sexually open, they're dressing in paisley".

There was, according to the show's staff, a full script written for the episode, though its authorship remains a matter of some contention — Reiss remembers it being the work of freelance writers, with final touches applied by then-staff writer Conan O'Brien (who has author credits on two of the series' most iconic episodes from that time, Marge Vs The Monorail and Homer Goes To College), while Oakley says it was the work of O'Brien alone.

According to Oakley, the script was actually sent to Prince, but plans for the musician to appear on the show started to fall apart over disagreements about the episode. Firstly, the show's creative team received a page of notes from Prince referencing what he was wearing in different scenes — but the notes themselves didn't actually correspond to the script he had been sent by The Simpsons team.

He was, in fact, referring to another script altogether — between Reiss, Oakley and series creator Matt Groening, it's said that this alternative episode was either written by an unknown party (Reiss just says it was sent to him by "someone"), one of Prince's friends, or his chauffeur — that he was insistent on using after reacting negatively to the writers' submitted script. Similarly, however, The Simpsons team weren't fans of the revised work that was sent to them by the Prince camp — and so ended the chances for what could have been one of the most colourful and potentially memorable episodes of the show's peak years.

"An entire episode was written to showcase an appearance by Prince," Oakley wrote during an online Q&A session with fan-site No Homers back in 2008. "But it turned out Prince was on a completely different wavelength (imagine!) and actually had a friend of his write a script for the episode instead. No reconciliation was ever reached and the episode never happened."

Although the episode itself never eventuated, Prince still went on to become a persistent, if subtle, force throughout the remainder of the series, whether in throwaway references such as Milhouse saying, "So this is what it feels like when doves cry," upon meeting his Shelbyville doppelganger (Lemon Of Troy), the American founding fathers partying "like 'twas 1799" upon signing the Declaration Of Independence (Homer The Great), the puppies named Prince and The Puppy Formerly Known As Prince (Two Dozen & One Greyhounds), being namedropped in Lisa's Sax ("The Artist Formerly Known As Prince was currently known as Prince"), an appearance in Treehouse Of Horror XIX or even a quick visual nod in Radioactive Man, where he appears as one of several internet commenters (which is kind of ironic now) breaking news about the upcoming Radioactive Man movie.

So, at the end of the day, even if we were denied a full 22-minutes stretch of Prince-centric adventures in Springfield during his lifetime, at least we can take some comfort in the knowledge that his presence nonetheless flourished, over and over, in one of Western civilisation's crowning pop-cultural institutions.

For an artist like Prince, we wouldn't have expected any less.