“We'll Never Speak of This Matter Again”. Matt Groening Named This Episode of The Simpsons a “Mistake” and Disowned It
Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, considered one episode of the TV series to be such a big “mistake” that he disowned it and decided to never again return to the story told there.
The Simpsons is now 35 years old and it doesn't look like it's going to end anytime soon, as the show's producer, Al Jean, has assured. There have been better and worse episodes over so many years, but there is one particular one from the latter category that the creators would like to forget. Besides, they are not the only ones, as some of the old guard of fans consider it the end of the “golden era” of the Simpsons.
We are talking about the episode The Principal & The Pauper, which is the 2nd episode of the 9th season. In it, it was revealed that Director Skinner was actually impersonating Seymour Skinner, whom he met in the army. The truth comes out when the real Seymour Skinner returned to Springfield.
In 2002, during an interview with Rolling Stone, Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, confessed that he thought the episode was a mistake, and he and his team decided at the end of their work on it to retire the idea and never return to it again. Of course, the episode aired, but the issue of the fake Skinner never returned to the TV series again.
We make some missteps, but we acknowledge it on the show. We had an episode where it was revealed that Principal Skinner was an impostor. By the time we finished the episode, we realized it was a mistake, and we had a judge say, "We'll never speak of this matter again." And we never did.
The case of the fake Skinner was indeed never talked about again after the real one was banished from Springfield and the fake one was judicially recognized as the only one. In the TV show, one gets the impression that this situation never happened, as it had no impact on further events in The Simpsons. The creators fully retracted the idea, apparently not intending to pursue this “mistake” further. Groening completely disavowed The Principal & The Pauper.
