Michael Jackson worked with Al Jean on the 1991 episode of The Simpsons titled, “Stark Raving Dad” and the later still remembers it very much. Jackson gave the voice of Leon Kompowsky, “a big white guy who thinks he’s a little black guy”, under the pseudonym John Jay Smith.

According to Jean, Jackson, a long time fan of the show, had unexpectedly called up the executive-producer of the show James L. Brooks and offered to lend his voice to role as a guest.

Jean and his co-writer of that time, Mike Reiss was initially asked by Brooks to write the script for an idea of an overweight patient who thinks that he is Michael Jackson.

“Like a lot of things involving Michael, it was full of mystery and intrigue,” Jean recalled of the experience. “Musically, there was no doubt he was a genius. I’m not the first person to say that. But it was also probably the most high-pressure assignment of my life, except for doing The Simpsons Movie.”

Jean also remembered that Jackson could not give an assurance for the episode until the actual table read.

“Which is the only time that’s happened in the history of The Simpsons.”

During the table read at Michael Jackson’s agent’s home, in the presence of Jackson himself, one cast member arrived half an hour late. But Jean refused to reveal the identity of the person.

“So we’re just sitting there in silence, very nervously,” Jean said.

“Then, finally, we have everyone there, and we start to read. And we come to his lines, and — thank God — he laughs.”

In the next morning, however, Michael Jackson gave a clause that he wanted a sound-alike to do the singing in the episode, but agreed to record his own dialogues.

Okay, Jean thought, that’s a little uncommon. But, what the heck, it’s Michael Jackson. Roll with it.

The chores for the song were written by Kipp Lennon, the lead singer of a rock band called Venice, at that time and to everyone’s relief Jackson thought that Lennon was extremely funny.
But things got complicated after that.

According to Jean, the song written by Jackson “Happy Birthday Lisa” and which appears on the episode, was later included in the album, Songs in the Key of Springfield.

“Singing in the show is Kipp,” Jean explained. “Speaking in the show is Michael. And the song, ‘Happy Birthday Lisa,’ was written by Michael, but sung by Kipp.”

The show was re-aired shortly after Jackson suddenly died of heart failure on 25th June.

Jean wanted to tweak a little bit with the episode before it got repeated.

“I wanted to make sure it was OK,” he explained. “We had to make one fix, but it had nothing to do with Michael. There was a phone number there that is now a real phone number, so we had to blot that out digitally. Otherwise, it was unchanged.”

Jean admitted that it was hard him to look back after Jackson had passed away.

“I’d met him briefly when we did the episode, but I wouldn’t say I knew him well. Obviously so much happened between then and now that, when you watch the episode, you can’t help but have mixed feelings. I think he was brilliant. And he was very nice to us. He was a genius, but clearly a troubled guy. It’s sad the way it ended, and it’s sad he’s not with us here today.”