This past Sunday’s episode of The Simpsons was a dream come true for Judd Apatow.
According to Rolling Stone, Apatow helped create the episode around a script he wrote over 20 years ago. In a recent interview with EW, Apatow talks about writing the script and a spec script for Get a Life (1989).
“I sent them all around town and I did not get a job from anybody,” Apatow said. “I got a meeting at Get a Life and didn’t get a job there either. But I heard that they liked it at The Simpsons.”
After working shortly for The Ben Stiller Show, Al Jean and Mike Reiss (Simpsons producers) hired Apatow for the cartoon The Critic but did not consider pursuing his episode. It was not until a few years ago after reading an interview with Apatow that Jean looked at the script.
“The reason I brought up The Simpsons episode is because I realized while doing this interview that everything I had ever written was the premise of the first thing I had ever written,” Apatow told EW. “All of my stories are about people trying hard not to grow up.”
In the script, the family goes to a “hypnotism show,” but the act is cut short when the hypnotist has a heart attack. Homer is then left thinking he is 10 years old.
“It’s about Bart and Homer becoming best friends because they’re the same age, and then Homer doesn’t want to be revived because he’d rather be 10 than have adult responsibility,” Apatow said. “I wrote it in what I thought was the style of The Simpsons after only six episodes had aired.”
Apatow felt that developing the episode was “a real full-circle moment” for him.
“I wanted to be a part of it from the second it was created,” he said. “I knew it was one of the landmark moments in comedy and now that I have become a part of it, there is a small part of me that thinks I should retire… There’s nothing else to dream for.”
Apatow reviewed the script once more before the episode aired. This Sunday’s episode, ‘Steal This Episode’, follows Homer and Bart as Bart teaches Homer how to download movies illegally. Apatow was joined by familiar voices on Sunday’s episode including wife Leslie Mann, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, Channing Tatum and Judas Priest front man Rob Halford.
Apatow is best known for the films such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and This Is 40. He also executive produces HBO’s TV series Girls.