We now know for a fact that the Purple One almost became yellow.
Al Jean, executive producer of
The Simpsons,
has shared some pages from an unproduced '90s episode of the comedy series that was to feature Prince as a guest star.
https://twitter.com/AlJean/status/723893322926809088
Jean
confirmed on Twitter that the planned episode would have happened around series 4 or 5 - which was the start of the Golden Age of classic seasons of
The Simpsons - and pointed to
another interview with
Simpsons writer Mike Reiss, who explained the concept of the lost episode.
The plot
would have seen the return of Homer's psychiatric patient pal Leon Kompowsky (who was pseudonymously voiced by Michael Jackson in the 1991 episode 'Stark Raving Dad'). This time round, Leon would have been convinced he was Prince instead of Jacko.
https://twitter.com/AlJean/status/723919611985416192
Reiss added that the episode would have involved the singer teaching Springfield's residents to "loosen up, become more flamboyant", the result then being "everyone becomes more sexually open, they're dressing in paisley".
But Prince rejected the initial script, and even a rewrite by Conan O'Brien couldn't convince him to co-operate.
However, a
Simpsons-ised animated version of Prince has actually appeared in the show: there's a very brief appearance of the singer in the 1995 episode 'Radioactive Man' in a scene where Comic Book Guy is spreading gossip via the nascent world wide web about the
Radioactive Man movie.
https://twitter.com/zabu_san/status/553678152527249409
Simpsons fans will now always be left wondering how a Prince episode would have played out. D'oh!
https://twitter.com/cjzero/status/503430613794172928
Do you have more random trivia about The Simpsons that we might not be aware of? Email us Hello@JOE.co.uk or message us on Facebook. 
