Picture if you will the picture of an episode of “The Simpsons” revolving around Prince. Because it was almost a real thing that actually happened.
Following the death of the “Purple Rain” music legend at age 57 on Thursday, “Simpsons” executive producer Al Jean revealed script pages from an episode that would have featured the Purple One as a guest star, but alas was never produced.
In a series of Twitter posts over the weekend, Jean revealed that Prince had misgivings about appearing on the episode. One possible objection? A joke about his much-maligned film “Under the Cherry Moon.”
In the script, Marge Simpson’s sister Selma tells the singer, “I’ve seen all your movies. I loved ‘Under the Cherry Moon.’”
The singer replies in an amazed voice, ‘”You’ve seen ‘Under the Cherry Moon?’”
In the episode-that-never-was, Prince tells Lisa Simpson that he’s written a birthday song for her, only to have her reply, in a seeming reference to a “Simpsons” episode in which Michael Jackson penned a birthday song for her, “Another birthday song? For once, couldn’t I just get a dollar or a bicycle for Christ’s sake?”
Prince was found unresponsive in the elevator of his Paisley Park home in Minnesota on Thursday morning, and responders were unable to revive him via CPR.
The singer’s death remains under investigation.
.@TheSimpsons page from unproduced Prince script thank you Jacqueline Atkins for finding! pic.twitter.com/GvYaJKXxgD
— Al Jean (@AlJean) April 23, 2016
.@TheSimpsons possibly another objection Prince had to the script… pic.twitter.com/OgRxlZ5EKJ
— Al Jean (@AlJean) April 23, 2016
.@TheSimpsons Tonight fland canyon written by Burns directed by Polcino canyon by God. Here’s one more prince page pic.twitter.com/eBMQR44LEq
— Al Jean (@AlJean) April 24, 2016