Creepypasta (Rewritten)

Dead Bart (REDUX)

A/N: Hi. Sorry for missing a week, I had stuff to do and I didn't feel like posting. Anyways, today we have Dead Bart. It was probably one of the last Creepypastas I wanted to add. But after listening to a rewritten version made by Dead Pallette and I really enjoyed the improvements. But the redux does not match the timeline I want, so I changed a few things along the way to fit. But enough talk, go sit on the couch and enjoy what Dead Pallette wrote.

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You know how Fox has a weird way of counting Simpsons episodes?

They refuse to count a couple of them, making the amount of episodes inconsistent. The reason for this is an unaired episode from Season 1. Finding details about this missing episode is difficult. No one who worked on the show at the time likes to talk about it.

If you know about Dave Chappelle leaving Comedy Central and not wanting to talk about it? This is a similar situation, although less well-known. From what little is known, this scrapped episode was written entirely by Matt Groening, the creator of the Simpsons. During production of the first season, stress and opportunity were in the air. The Simpsons is now basically a cultural institution, even if most fans aren't thrilled with the later seasons.

So bear in mind, Mr. Groening couldn't have known what impact he'd make. He was very concerned that viewers of Fox wouldn't understand his 'vision.'

If you watch the documentary "My Wasted Life" about Matt Groening, you'll see his vision for the Simpsons was to take the bland aspects of sitcoms he grew up with like Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best, and inject some realism into them. He talks about bridging the gap between the 'zombified TV world' as he describes it, with what he knows to be real life.

Matt describes watching TV as research. The point of this little documentary is to say that no time was wasted.

The impetus for Bart Simpson was what if Eddie Haskell, the bratty kid from Leave It to Beaver, was the focus of the show? What kind of trouble and conflict would arise from having a real menace, not a placid one, be the reason for a conflict in the story?

According to one of the few comments on the subject by James L. Brooks, executive producer of The Simpsons, this scrapped episode was almost completed but went unreleased because it didn't jive with what Fox wanted out of the Simpsons.

Not only that, but much of the staff also felt the same way. It took a pre-screening with a focus group for Groening to realize it was best left on the cutting room floor. But during production, Groening insisted on going full steam ahead with the episode, explaining it'd be excellent once finished.

The episode's production number was 7G06. The title was "Dead Bart".

The episode labeled 7G06, Moaning Lisa, was made later in given Dead Bart's production code. This would have been enough to erase Dead Bart from existence... if murmurs didn't start after the pre-screening.

Said murmurs didn't describe much, only to say that the episode revolved around Bart dying after being jettisoned from an airplane window and that it depicted a family in mourning.

Now rumors are just rumors... but the reaction to rumors can tell you a lot about their possible validity. I believed in the absence of proof that Dead Bart was real for years and years.

Matt Groening has always had a more morbid side to him, just beneath the gregarious exterior.

Simpsons staff outright denied Dead Bart's existence at fan events and conventions until around 2002. With the return of Al Jean as the head writer, he was the focus of questioning at a fan meetup in Pittsburgh Comicon that year. Al Jean had been with the Simpsons since the start and openly, although politically, fielded any controversial questions.