Trivia / The Simpsons S1 E12 "Krusty Gets Busted"

• Creator's Favorite Episode: Matt Groening listed it as his ninth favorite episode and added "I have a peculiar love of TV clownery".
• Deleted Scene: The original teleplay was 78 pages long and many scenes had to be cut. One scene that had to be cut down was the scene where Patty and Selma show the slideshow of their vacation; it originally contained images of them being detained for bringing heroin into America.
• Distanced from Current Events: In early UK broadcasts of the story, the footage of Krusty's on-air heart attack was reduced to just Kent Brockman briefly describing it in voice-over, due to the similarities between the scene and the death of British comedian Tommy Cooper, who died from a heart attack on live television just a few years earlier (they couldn't cut all references to Krusty's heart attack, as it was a major plot point in Bart and Lisa figuring out that the "Krusty" who robbed the Kwik-E-Mart was an imposter).
• First Appearance: Of Kent Brockman, Judge Snyder, and Scott Christian. While Sideshow Bob previously appeared in "The Telltale Head", this marks the first significant appearance of Kelsey Grammer as the character.
• Orphaned Reference:
  • In the script, Maggie was written as coming with Bart and Lisa to the Kwik-E-Mart, but she was left out in the animation. The final episode still has Bart saying he discovered evidence of Krusty's innocence with his "sisters".
  • The photo of Bart and Krusty has Krusty's signature on it, despite it being an important plot point that Krusty is illiterate. In the original script, there was a final joke explaining that he learned how to read and write while incarcerated.
• Recycled Script: This episode's plot parallels that of the Garfield and Friends episode, "Binky Goes Bad!" Both episodes involve the respective series' clown characters getting framed for robbery by someone who hates them (Sideshow Bob/Stinky Davis) and having their name cleared by the main character (Bart/Garfield).
• What Could Have Been: Originally it was intended that Scott Christian would be the show's regular news anchor character, with Kent Brockman only making sporadic appearances despite his name being the one used to advertise the news bulletin. This plan was dropped almost immediately when the producers realized they'd succeeded a little too much in making Christian a crushing bore, though they kept him around for occasions when either Brockman was reporting in the field, or they needed a second anchor to act as a foil for him.