"The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular" and "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase". Network notes Back when The Simpsons was developed as a half hour show, co-creator James L. Brooks negotiated an unusual provision in the contract with the Fox network that prevented Fox from interfering with the show's content. He was able to do that, because Fox back then was a minor fledgling network. Former showrunner Bill Oakley considered working on the show to be similar to working in a bubble due to the lack of interference from the Fox network's executives, as is commonplace on other shows. This allowed them to produce any episodes they wanted, as showrunner Josh Weinstein commented: "The great thing about The Simpsons is that we pretty much were able to get away with everything, so there weren't any episodes we really wanted to do that we couldn't do. Even the crazy high-concept ones like 'Two Bad Neighbors' and 'Homer's Enemy' we managed to put on the air because honestly there were no network execs there to stop us." Network notes were parodied at the beginning of the episode "Day of the Jackanapes". Krusty is shown being pestered by network executives who comment on every choice he makes. He announces his departure of The Krusty the Klown Show after the executives give him notes during filming of a sketch. At the end of the episode, Mr. Teeny is uncertain of where he should throw the plastic explosives that Bart wore. When he sees the two executives discussing in a room, he throws it onto them. Instead of dying of the explosion however, the pieces of the executives reconstitute into what Jean describes as a "super-executive". These sequences were inspired by Jean's dissatisfaction with some network executives, who he felt took control over a television series he was working on before he returned to The Simpsons in 1999. "I had just worked on a show on another network [...] we had a show where there were a lot of notes from executives", Jean said of the inspiration for the scenes. In "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" The Simpsons writers mocks the notion of network executives forcing ideas onto a show. The interaction between the writers and the network executives in the episode underscore the differences between them. The writers understand the show's inner workings, but the network executives' approach improvements to the show from a business