The long running animated television show THE SIMPSONS may be saying goodbye to the problematic character of Apu for good, according to a new report from Indiewire.
Fans of the show have made their concerns known, calling Apu's character a hurtful portrayal of Indian-Americans. In April, producer Adi Shankar addressed "The Apu Problem" by launching a contest in which he asked fans to write and submit a spec script that would handle the character "in a clever way subverts him, pivots him, writes him out, or evolves him in a way that takes a creation that was the byproduct of a predominately Harvard-educated white male writers’ room and transforms it into a fresh, funny and realistic portrayal of Indians in America.”
Shankar was looking for the "perfect script" and he found it. Grand Prize winner Vishaal Buch, a family doctor in Bethesda, Maryland, wrote a script that Shankar believes to be a story that all fans of THE SIMPSONS can enjoy, whether they believe Apu's character to be an issue or not.
“The contest was never meant to be an attack against anyone, but I think in a lot of ways we weren’t asking for anything too radical than to be viewed in three-dimensions,” said Shankar. “I think the beauty of Vishaal’s script is it did just that. It wasn’t preachy. It wasn’t hammering us over the head. When a lot of people hear ‘The Problem with Apu’ they roll their eyes, ‘there is no problem with Apu, it’s these millennials, they’re out of control.’ I think in a lot of ways those people will really like this episode.”
Unfortunately, just as the winner was announced, so, too, was the termination of the character Apu from THE SIMPSONS. Shankar calls the decision "a mistake", arguing that a show about cultural commentary shouldn't be afraid to comment on the cutlure.
Not to be discouraged, Shankar has decided to produce Buch's script himself. Though his Bootleg Universe YouTube page, Shankar will bring THE SIMPSONS story to life, even if it's not aired on the show's channel FOX. Shankar's company is known for previously producing big budget movies such as DREDD and THE GREY.
What do you think? Is it a mistake to get rid of Apu or is it time to let him go?