The Simpsons Suddenly Kills Off Longtime Character After 35 Seasons

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Warning: This story contains spoilers from the film season 37 of The Simpsons.

One character has officially said goodbye to television’s warm glowing warming glow.

In a recent episode of The Simpsons, a character who had been on the show for many years passed away. Alice Gluck, the organist at Springfield’s First Church, unexpectedly died while playing the organ during a sermon led by Reverend Lovejoy.

The episode, called “Sashes to Sashes,” really took off after a character passed away. She left her fortune to Springfield Elementary to help start a music program. But the school’s plans were almost ruined when the mayor’s son proposed using the money to put on a three-day music festival instead.

Honestly, when I heard about this situation with Lisa and Bart, I was immediately intrigued! Lisa wasn’t thrilled with a certain suggestion and, being the resourceful person she is, really went to work uncovering some family history – the Quimbys, to be exact! She then cleverly encouraged Bart to challenge the younger Quimby for student council president. Thankfully, it all worked out and Mrs. Glick’s vision for a great program was ultimately realized. It just goes to show a little digging and a proactive approach can really make a difference!

Interestingly, this wasn’t the first time Alice Glick had ‘died’ on The Simpsons. In season 23, she was seemingly killed by a malfunctioning robot seal. The writers then brought her back, sometimes as a living character and other times as a ghost, depending on what the story needed.

This time however, executive producer Tim Long confirmed that Mrs. Glick has said goodbye for good. 

He told People magazine that while Alice the organist’s music will live on, she has unfortunately passed away. He stated, ‘Her music will ensure she’s remembered, but she is, without a doubt, gone.’

The character first appeared in the season two episode “Three Men and a Comic Book,” originally voiced by Cloris Leachman. Later appearances featured Tress MacNeille as the voice actor.

And fans were sad to see her go.

“Alice Glick died once again in Season 37, Episode 7,” one user wrote on X. “Nooo.”

Someone else mentioned the recent passing of a recurring character, Larry “The Lush” Dalrymple, from season 35, commenting, “First Larry, now Alice Glick. It feels like The Simpsons are getting rid of all their characters….”

After being on television for more than 35 years, The Simpsons constantly works to stay innovative and interesting. Read on to discover a wealth of behind-the-scenes details and secrets from the show’s history.

The Simpsons began as short animated segments on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987. Creator Matt Groening had originally been asked to adapt his Life in Hell comic strip into animation, but he declined. He quickly sketched the Simpson family while waiting for his meeting, and that became the basis for the shorts.

Matt Groening decided to name all the characters in his show after members of his own family. He used ‘Bart’ instead of his own name, choosing it because it’s an anagram – a rearrangement of the letters – of the word ‘brat’.

As a lifestyle and pop culture observer, I remember when those little animated shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show just exploded in popularity! James L. Brooks, the producer, quickly realized they had something special and decided they deserved their own series. What’s really fascinating is he fought for, and got, a deal with Fox that guaranteed the show’s creators complete creative control – they could make the show they wanted, without network interference. That kind of artistic freedom is pretty rare, and it clearly worked out brilliantly!

The Simpsons’ signature yellow color wasn’t a random choice. Creator Matt Groening explained to the BBC that an animator suggested it, and he immediately knew it was perfect. He wanted a color that would instantly catch viewers’ eyes while channel surfing, making the show instantly recognizable whenever a flash of yellow appeared on screen.

The very first complete episode, titled “Some Enchanted Evening,” didn’t air until May 1990. It was the final episode of the first season, and its release was delayed due to animation issues. Originally planned for a fall launch, the show finally premiered on December 17th.

Matt Groening designed the Simpsons with very specific silhouettes – instantly recognizable outlines – which is why they have such unique hairstyles and head shapes.

Matt Groening asked Danny Elfman, the frontman and composer of Oingo Boingo, to write a theme song with a classic, retro feel for the show’s opening. Remarkably, Elfman composed this now-famous piece – considered by many to be his most successful work – in just two days.

The show’s long opening was created to reduce the amount of new animation needed each week. However, three parts always change: the message Bart writes on the chalkboard, the song during Lisa’s saxophone performance, and the final couch gag, which is sometimes longer or shorter depending on the episode.

Matt Groening decided to set ‘The Simpsons’ in a town called Springfield because it’s a very common city name – found in at least 29 states. While he later told Smithsonian Magazine in 2012 that the name was inspired by Springfield, Oregon, near where he grew up in Portland, he’s deliberately kept the town’s specific state a mystery. He explained that he hoped the common name would lead people to believe Springfield was their hometown, and he says that’s exactly what happened.

The Bush family publicly disapproved of The Simpsons. In 1990, First Lady Barbara Bush famously called it “the dumbest thing [she] had ever seen,” which led the show’s writers to have Marge Simpson write a playful response. Mrs. Bush later apologized. Then, in 1992, President George H.W. Bush, while campaigning for re-election, contrasted his vision for American families with the show, saying he wanted families to be more like The Waltons and less like The Simpsons. The show quickly responded with a rerun episode featuring the Simpsons watching the President’s speech, with Bart quipping, “Hey, we’re just like the Waltons. We’re praying for an end to the Depression, too.”

For much of its history, the show aired on Sundays and was a reliable part of the evening. However, after a successful first season – becoming one of Fox’s highest-rated shows – the network moved it to Thursdays to compete with the then-number one show, The Cosby Show. It stayed on Thursdays for five seasons before returning to its original Sunday timeslot.

Yeardly Smith, who voices Lisa Simpson, is unique among the show’s main actors because she consistently provides the voice for just that one character.

For the first 13 episodes of its second season, Fox and the show’s creators deliberately kept the voice actors’ roles hidden, even closing recording sessions and avoiding publishing any photos of the actors. However, with the episode “Old Money,” they decided to reveal which actor played each character, giving the cast the recognition they deserved.

For many years, the six main actors on the show earned just $30,000 per episode. This changed in 1998 after a disagreement with the network, where the actors were threatened with replacement until the show’s creator, Matt Groening, intervened on their behalf. Their pay then increased to $125,000 per episode. Later, in April 2004, the cast went on strike for a month, skipping table reads to negotiate a larger share of the show’s growing profits. This resulted in salaries rising to between $250,000 and $360,000 per episode.

Oh my gosh, can you believe it? Back in 2011, Fox almost canceled the show! It was so scary! They said they needed to seriously cut costs, and that meant our amazing cast had to take a huge pay cut. They’d been making around $400,000 per episode – they deserved every penny, honestly – but after some tough negotiations, they ended up with just over $300,000. It was awful, but thankfully, the show lived on! I was so relieved, and they still delivered incredible performances even with that stress!

Matt Groening, the creator of the show, actually provides the baby sounds for Maggie. When Maggie surprisingly said her first word – “Daddy!” – in 1992, the producers asked Elizabeth Taylor to record the line.

The 1990 album The Simpsons Sing the Blues featured the hit single “Do the Bartman,” which many people thought was written by Michael Jackson. While Jackson’s friend, Bryan Loren, is officially credited as the songwriter, Matt Groening later revealed in 1998 that Jackson actually co-wrote and co-produced the song. He couldn’t receive official credit due to contract limitations. When Jackson appeared as a guest on the show, he was listed under the name John Jay Smith, and a soundalike, Kipp Lennon, provided the singing voice for his character.

Michael Jackson wasn’t the only well-known actor to use a fake name on the show. In the second season, Dustin Hoffman played Lisa’s substitute teacher, Mr. Bergstrom. He was hesitant to be associated with a cartoon, so he used the pseudonym ‘Sam Etic,’ a humorous reference to the term ‘Semitic.’

The surprising resemblance between Krusty the Clown and Homer Simpson was intentional. Creator Matt Groening explained he originally wanted to explore the idea of a child who didn’t respect his father but idolized a clown who looked just like him. They even considered a storyline where Homer secretly worked as Krusty, but it was deemed too complex and was ultimately cut.

As a lifelong Simpsons fan, I still remember when they revealed Homer’s email address on a 2003 episode – ChunkyLover53@aol.com! It was amazing, but also predictable considering his character. The writer, Matt Selman, was a genius – he actually registered the address beforehand. And can you believe how fast it happened? Within minutes of the show airing, the inbox was completely flooded with messages! It was a testament to the show’s popularity and a really clever bit of planning.

Although Homer Simpson’s famous exclamation, “D’oh!” is now in the Oxford English Dictionary, it was originally written in show scripts as just “annoyed grunt.” Dan Castellaneta, who has voiced Homer for over thirty years, explains that he created the sound by imitating the “Doooooh!” sound made by Jimmy Finlayson in the classic Laurel and Hardy films.

Almost all the characters in The Simpsons have four fingers, but God is the only one depicted with five.

The show has a surprising history of seeming to predict the future. For example, a 2000 episode jokingly suggested Donald Trump would one day be president and leave the country in financial trouble. Even more remarkably, an episode from 1998 featured a plot point about 20th Century Fox being owned by Disney – something that actually happened 19 years later.

In 1992, Sheri Ullman sued Fox, arguing that her show had been instrumental in making The Simpsons a hit and that she deserved a portion of the earnings. However, the court dismissed her claim.

In 1997, Fox and Pepsi teamed up to build an exact replica of the Simpsons’ house in Henderson, Nevada, as part of a contest. The house, which had four bedrooms and covered 2,200 square feet, was meticulously decorated to match the cartoon version. Surprisingly, the winner – a retired factory worker from Kentucky – chose a $75,000 cash prize instead of the house itself (which cost $120,000 to build). The house was later sold in 2001 after its distinctive paint job was removed.

The show is now available in Japanese, German, Spanish, Portuguese, French (both standard and Quebec versions), and Arabic. To make it suitable for viewers in Arabic-speaking countries and respect Islamic customs, some changes were made: Homer drinks soda instead of beer, and he enjoys Egyptian beef sausages instead of hot dogs. In the Arabic version, Homer is known as Omar Shamshoom.

The voice actors who dubbed Homer and Marge into French, Philippe Peythieu and Veronique Augereau, first met while auditioning and later married ten years after that initial meeting.

28. Homer is the only character who has dialogue in every single episode.

In 1999, Time magazine named Bart Simpson to its list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. He was the only cartoon character to ever make the list.

Watching all the episodes of this show, as they’ve aired over the past three decades, would take more than 14 straight days.

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2025-11-19 01:19