HBO's Leaving Neverland documentary placed a huge spotlight on the decades-old allegations of child molestation Michael Jackson faced during his career. James Safechuck and Wade Robson spoke out in the documentary and since it aired, many have distanced themselves from Michael Jackson's estate. Radio stations across the world have pulled the late singer's music from rotation. The Simpsons also recently revealed that they've pulled Michael Jackson's episode from the series but what's more shocking is that the showrunner thinks the singer used his cameo as a way to "groom boys."
Speaking to The Daily Beast, Al Jean explained why The Simpson's episode "Stark Raving Dad" from season 3 was pulled from the series. While the allegations in the documentary were enough to make the decision, Jean said that he thinks the episode was used as a tool for the iconic pop singer to draw in underage boys.
"It wasn’t something that makes me happy. It’s something I agree with completely. What saddens me is, if you watch that documentary—which I did, and several of us here did—and you watch that episode, honestly, it looks like the episode was used by Michael Jackson for something other than what we’d intended it. It wasn’t just a comedy to him, it was something that was used as a tool," he explained. "I think it was part of what he used to groom boys. I really don’t know, and I should be very careful because this is not something I know personally, but as far as what I think, that’s what I think. And that makes me very, very sad."