The spec episode of The Simpsons that comedy kingpin Judd Apatow wrote 22 years ago is finally getting made next season, Apatow announced in a nice, long interview with former Simpsons writer Conan O’Brien yesterday. Apatow revealed onstage at a screening of his new movie This Is 40 earlier this month that the first thing he ever wrote was an unsolicited episode of The Simpsons during the show’s first season in 1990, with the episode revolving around Homer acting like a kid again after a hypnotist has a heart attack in the middle of performing on him. Homer then becomes carefree and irresponsible and best friends with Bart. Sounds a little like the plot of Office Space, yeah?
Simpsons producer Al Jean saw the story about Apatow’s Simpsons episode (let’s face it, probably here on Splitsider) and got in touch with him about it, explaining to Entertainment Weekly, “I thought, ‘Well, we’re always looking for good shows and good writers.’ I sent word to him: ‘If you’re interested, we’ll buy it.’ I think he had to find it — it was in one of his boxes.†Jean hasn’t received Apatow’s script yet but said it’ll be produced for the 2013-2014 season, adding “I’m sure he’ll want to have a hand in the rewrite, which is great.†Rewriting that script is a great idea because I bet those Dan Quayle references don’t play so well in 2013.