24 Year Old Simpsons Script By Judd Apatow Will Air In January
It’s been nearly 25 years coming, but a script Judd Apatow wrote for “The Simpsons” is finally going to air. The script that Apatow wrote just weeks after series premiered will air on FOX on Sunday, January 11th at 8 pm et.
Apatow told TV Guide about his motivation at the time and what his story was about. “I was 22, a huge fan of The Simpsons, and hoping for a TV writing career. At the time I was a fledgling standup comic and people said, ‘If you want to write for sitcoms, you need to do spec scripts.’ Only six episodes of The Simpsons had aired at that point but I tried to copy the style and did a spec script where Homer gets hypnotized and thinks he’s a 10-year-old. He has such a great time being Bart’s friend that he doesn’t want to become an adult again.”
Apatow said he did an interview at the L.A. County Museum where he talked about writing the script all those years ago and he got a call from “Simpsons” showrunner and executive producer Al Jean saying, “Hey, we’ll make it now!”
Being at the table read for his episode with the “Simpson” cast was a highlight for Apatow, The whole process blew my mind. Sitting at the table read, listening to Dan Castellaneta [Homer], Julie Kavner [Marge], Nancy Cartwright [Bart] and Yeardley Smith [Lisa] putting their brilliant spin on something I wrote back when I was a dreamer, was one of the greatest days of my life. These are legends! It was as thrilling as if I’d been allowed to sit in on the making of The Honeymooners.”
However the staff was making a few changes that Apatow didn’t mind. “They know their business. They were very collaborative and very respectful but everything they wanted to do was so much better than anything I could think up. They turned my messy little effort into Cinderella.”
So it turns out Judd Apatow wrote a script for the Simpsons in 1990. They thought it was shit. Now it’s 2015 and he’s a big deal and “The Simpsons” are shit. So they love it.
Judd Apatow’s episode of “The Simpsons” titled “Bart’s New Friend” airs Sunday, January 11th at 8 pm et on FOX.
