Portal:The Simpsons/Selected episode/28

"Stark Raving Dad" is the season premiere of the third season of American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 19, 1991. In the episode, Homer is forced to wear a pink shirt to work one day as a result of a laundry accident and is mistaken for a "free thinking anarchist". He is sent to a mental institution, where he shares a room with a large white man named Leon Kompowsky who pretends to be Michael Jackson.

Al Jean and Mike Reiss wrote the episode while Rich Moore served as director. Jackson guest starred in the episode as the speaking voice of Leon Kompowsky. Jackson was a fan of the show and called creator Matt Groening one night offering to do a guest spot. Jackson pitched several story ideas for the episode and wrote the song "Happy Birthday Lisa" that is featured in the plot. He also stipulated that he would provide Kompowsky's speaking voice, but his singing voice would be performed by a sound-alike (Kipp Lennon) because he wanted to play a joke on his brothers. A sequel to the episode was later written, in which Kompowsky was being voiced by Prince rather than Jackson, but it was never produced. During the January 30, 1992, rerun of the episode, a short alternate opening aired before the credits, produced in response to a speech made by the President of the United States, George H. W. Bush, three days earlier in which he said Americans needed to be "a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons".