It only took 25 years for the producers of The Simpsons to accept the script Judd Apatow submitted back in 1990. The episode titled "Bart's New Friend," written by the comedy director/super producer before he was any of that, is set to finally air Jan. 11.
Apatow wrote the spec script and sent it in to The Simpsons when the show was only a few weeks into its record-breaking 25-year run.
Apatow, in an inteview with TV Guide said:
"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. I sent it in — in fact, I sent it to all my favorite shows — and got no job offers.
I also wrote a spec script for the great Chris Elliott show Get a Life.They at least brought me in for a meeting, but that didn't lead to any work, either. Then, all these years later, [Simpsons executive producer] Al Jean calls and says, 'Hey, we'll make it now!'"
Apatow, who last season played the honorable Judge Judd Apatow as a guest voice on The Simpsons episode "Steal This Episode," said he thinks Jean remembered the script after Apatow talked about it on stage during an interview at the L.A. County Museum last year.
[Via Comicbook.com]
