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Unproduced episodes

Wikisimpsons - The Simpsons Wiki


These are Unproduced episodes of The Simpsons where full scripts were written but the episode was never produced. This page refers only to full scripts, and not subplots or jokes that were dropped from episodes.

Unproduced episodes[edit]

Mike Reiss claims only a small number of scripts haven't been produced because they are difficult to work on and thus are rarely completely thrown away. All of these episodes are either mentioned by Mike Reiss in the "Stark Raving Dad" commentary or Bill Oakley in the "Ask Bill & Josh" question session they did at NoHomers.net in 2005.

"The Prince episode"[edit]

"The Prince Episode" (unofficial title) was started a year after "Stark Raving Dad" aired. The writers decided to make a sequel where Leon Kompowsky returns and thinks he is the musician Prince.[1] It was slated to air during the fifth season.[2] According to Mike Reiss, it was written by some freelance writers and polished by Conan O'Brien,[1] however, Bill Oakley says it was written by Conan O'Brien.

In the episode, Prince gets everyone in the town to "loosen up, become more flamboyent, everyone becomes more sexually open, they're dressing in paisley."

The script was sent to Prince and he sent back a page of notes about what he was wearing in various scenes. The notes didn't correspond to the writers script. As it turned out, Prince was talking about a completely different script. According to Reiss it was sent to him by someone,[1] Oakley says a friend of Prince's wrote it[2] and in an interview Matt Groening said Prince's chauffeur wrote it.[3] Prince absolutely hated the writer's script and demanded the other one be made, but the writers didn't like it.[1]

The episode eventually fell through.[1]

"Thirtysimpsons"[edit]

"Thirtysimpsons" was made for Season 3[2] and was a cross-over episode about the TV series Thirtysomething. Homer meets a group of Yuppies and hangs out with them. It was written by David Stern but "never seemed to work"[1] and wasn't in the "style of the show"[2] and wasn't produced.

A Military School episode[edit]

A script written in the first few years of the show sees Bart sent to a military school. The script never worked and was thrown out. In Season 8, a similar episode called "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson" was made.[1]

Marge and Homer and Moe and Maya[edit]

"Marge and Homer and Moe and Maya" is an episode written by Al Jean. Work on the episode began before the 2023 WGA and the SAG-AFTRA strikes. However at the moment the episode has not resurfaced in the Production Seasons 35 or 36, despite the production code, 35ABF00. All twenty-two 35ABF episodes have now aired.[4]

The Beautiful Shame[edit]

Originally "The Beautiful Shame" had a production code 35ABF08.[5] However, in January of 2024 "The Yellow Lotus" script was read with this code, while "The Beautiful Shame" never materialized.

Pitched ideas[edit]

  • For the seventh season: "Greg Daniels pitched an episode about racism in Springfield. It never got past the planning stages because the topic was just too incendiary to be dealt with effectively."[2]
  • For season eight: "A hilarious and fully worked out story by George Meyer. I can't reveal the subject matter here but we never went forward with it because of 1) legal ramifications and 2) the fact that at least a couple of people on the staff/cast would've felt personally attacked by the episode and we just didn't want to deal with the fallout."[2] Scientology, the basis of 'Scientopterans', would later be one of several bases for the Movementarians in the Season 9 episode "The Joy of Sect"
  • Oakley and Weinstein had an idea for an episode about Lisa "discovering the joys of campy things", to be entitled "Lisa and Camp". It was never produced and eventually became "Homer's Phobia".[6]
  • In February 2012, Oakley tweeted what he felt were the ten best episodes pitched but never produced:
  1. "Prince Comes to Springfield" by Conan O'Brien (above)
  2. "Lisa the Scientopteran" by George Meyer (above)
  3. [Homer's $1000 Suit] - index card left on bulletin board by Sam Simon
  4. "Homer vs. Dr. Hibbert on the Issue of Race" by Greg Daniels (above)
  5. [Amusement Park] by Matt Groening
  6. "thirtysimpsons" by David M. Stern (above)
  7. "Homer the Narcoleptic" by David X. Cohen
  8. "Bart Gets 144 Jeeps" by Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein (Inspired by this urban legend.)
  9. [Homer Privately Tells Bart He Loves Him Best] by Ken Keeler
  10. "Homer's Sexual Fantasy" by Dan Greaney
  • In February 2017, Weinsten tweeted a photo of a wall of unused ideas for episodes circa 1996:[7]
  1. [Bart the Locksmith]
  2. [Marge the Cartoonist]
  3. [Wacky Races]
  4. [The Naked & The Ned]
  5. [Moe Gets Caller ID]
  6. [State Fair]
  7. [Homer Finds Marge's Old Love Letters]
  8. [Burns & Smithers Love Triangle]
  9. [New Speed Limit]
  10. [Science Class Robot Battle]
  11. [Fried Cake]
  12. [Springfield Donates White House Christmas Tree]

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Reiss, Mike. (2003). The Simpsons season 3 DVD Easter Egg commentary for the episode "Stark Raving Dad" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Oakley, Bill. "Ask Bill and Josh Q&A Thread - Post #24"NoHomers.net. Retrieved on 2008-03-04. 
  3. George Rush and Joanna Rush Molloy. "In the Fox family, they live in fear of a Bart attack"New York Daily News. Retrieved on 2008-03-04. 
  4. Al Jean's Twitter (account closed)
  5. EIDR Record - "The Beautiful Shame" (archived on Wayback Machine)
  6. Oakley, Bill. (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Homer's Phobia" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  7. https://twitter.com/Joshstrangehill/status/829732898819305472