Bart's New Friend

"Bart's New Friend" is the 11th episode of season 26. It was written by Judd Apatow. It was aired on January 11, 2015.

Production
In an interview on Conan O'Brien's Internet show, , Judd Apatow stated that he wrote the episode in 1990 and "[he] got a call from The Simpsons, saying "We're going to shoot that episode next year".

During an interview with Slashfilm, Apatow revealed elements of the plot, saying that "they [The Simpsons] went to see a hypnotism show and at the hypnotism show, they made Homer think he was the same age at Bart. And then the hypnotist had a heart attack. So now Homer and Bart became best friends and they spent the rest of the show running away because Homer didn't want responsibility and didn't want to be brought back to his real age."

The table reading took place on April 25, 2014.