An old, crumpled The Simpsons pitch from roughly 23 years years ago has people talking once again about the Who Shot Mr. Burns episode, and what could’ve been. The piece of comedy and animation history was brought to light by writer Josh Weinstein, who was originally thought it could be Barney (for good reason).
Spoilers: it was Maggie who shot Mr. Burns, but seeing how they eventually got there after a host of their other characters were given solid motivations for trying to kill Mr. Burns is definitely interesting to see. Selma, Patty, Smithers, and Moe are all suspects, just like they were on the show, but instead of that far more serious and somewhat dark turn for a resident of Springfield, thankfully they just went with a lollipop heist gone wrong.
Summary of our pitch for "Who Shot Mr. Burns" from the June '94 story conference notes.
Neat to see how this developed (we thought it could be Barney but on the very next page -so within minutes of discussing it- someone suggests Maggie) And Patty & Selma could've been suspects. pic.twitter.com/8O3mOdY7vr
— Josh Weinstein (@Joshstrangehill) March 11, 2018
Later on, it was revealed that The Simpsons went so far as to create fake endings for the arc, but they failed at leaking the red herrings to the press so they’re just floating around in the ether of Simpsons jokes lost to time.
Whoa, I totally forgot about this scene from the table draft we cut from “Who Shot Mr. Burns, Pt. 2” of Homer on the run as a fugitive.
(We took all scripts at the end of the read for security. This was Dan’s script.) pic.twitter.com/KG9aJtK7Kx— Josh Weinstein (@Joshstrangehill) December 9, 2017
The finished product does indeed deliver on the Twin Peaks references and parodies. Groundskeeper Willie is in a Basic Instinct scene, and the episode sends Chief Wiggum to the Black Lodge/Red Room from Twin Peaks, which means The Simpsons and Twin Peaks share a universe and that is absolutely canon. David Lynch just doesn’t like to talk about it.
