The Simpsons boss thinks Michael Jackson used the show to "groom boys"

The Daily Beast

In a wide-ranging interview with The Daily Beast, longtime Simpsons showrunner Al Jean discusses everything from the Disney merger to satirizing President Trump. Jean also addresses last week's joint decisions by The Simpsons creators and producers to yank the Season 3 "Stark Raving Dad" episode featuring the King of Pop's voice. "Yes. It wasn’t something that makes me happy," Jean says of pulling the episode. "It’s something I agree with completely. What saddens me is, if you watch that (Leaving Neverland) documentary—which I did, and several of us here did—and you watch that episode, honestly, it looks like the episode was used by Michael Jackson for something other than what we’d intended it. It wasn’t just a comedy to him, it was something that was used as a tool. And I strongly believe that. That, to me, is my belief, and it’s why I think removing it is appropriate. I lose a little bit of money financially, it’s not something that’s great personally to lose one of the most successful things I ever did, but I totally think it’s the right move. I don’t believe in going through and making judgments on every guest star and saying 'this one was bad, that one was bad,' but the episode itself has a false purpose, and that’s what I object to about it now." Asked to specify the false purpose, Jean responds: "I think it was part of what he used to groom boys. I really don’t know, and I should be very careful because this is not something I know personally, but as far as what I think, that’s what I think. And that makes me very, very sad."