‘The Simpsons’ writer Josh Weinstein has uncovered a lost scene from the memorable and divisive episode, ‘22 Short Films About Springfield’.
Straying from the show’s usual format, ‘22 Short Films...’ originally aired in 1996 and gave fans of the show a closer look at what the residents of Springfield got up to when the Simpson family weren’t around.
Plots featuring Principal Skinner, Mr Burns and Chief Wiggum were all included in the episode, but one character who never got his time to shine was shady lawyer Lionel Hutz, whose scene was cut from the final edit.
Josh has now shared the script for what Lionel Hutz’s scene would have been, seeing him attempting to bribe a jury made up of Marge’s mother and Maud Flanders with flattery and a nice cake, on his Twitter page.
He remarked: ″’22 Short Films About Springfield’ never had 22 stories but the second draft did have 20! Here’s the Lionel Hutz story that was cut. And just noticed this draft is from 22 years ago!”
The script he tweeted then leads into a scene in which Homer traps Maggie inside a newspaper stand, which did make the final episode.
Lionel Hutz was arguably the most recognisable of Phil Hartman’s ‘Simpsons’ characters, having played a number of roles in the show’s early years, including actor Troy McClure and Lyle Lanley, who famously provided Springfield with an ill-fated monorail in the episode ‘Marge vs. The Monorail’.
Phil’s characters were retired following his death in 1998, with his final voice appearance as Troy McClure being in the season 10 episode ‘Bart The Mother’.