Trivia / The Simpsons S9 E2 "The Principal and the Pauper"

• Creator Backlash: Big time.
  • Matt Groening himself called the episode "a mistake" in an interview with Rolling Stone, even introduces it as "one of my least favorite episodes" on the DVD.
  • Harry Shearer was especially disdainful of the episode. In a 2001 interview, he recalled saying to the writers after reading the script:
    That's so wrong. You're taking something that an audience has built eight years or nine years of investment in and just tossed it in the trash can for no good reason, for a story we've done before with other characters. It's so arbitrary and gratuitous, and it's disrespectful to the audience.
    • In a December 2006 interview, he added:
      Now, [the writers] refuse to talk about it. They realize it was a horrible mistake. They never mention it. It's like they're punishing [the audience] for paying attention.
  • Al Jean himself (who was not a member of the writing team at the time this episode was produced) also inserted the "Principal Tamzarian" joke into "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot".
• Magnum Opus Dissonance: Ken Keeler has said this has been his best work for television, despite doing more-favorably received episodes on The Simpsons and Futurama, with then-showrunners Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein also defending the episode. Matt Groening, Al Jean, Harry Shearer, and a lot of Simpsons fans, however, hate this episode.
• Working Title: "Skinnersby", in reference to the 1993 film Sommersby, which was also a story about assumed identity.

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