The Simpsons 10 Classic Characters You’ll Never See Again
It's not just Apu who has been removed from Springfield.
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00:00Matt Groening's culture-changing, all-time great animated sitcom was built on the strength of its cast of characters.
00:05However, not everybody that has come through the town has stuck around.
00:09I'm Sci for WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 classic characters from The Simpsons you'll never see again.
00:14Number 10, Herb Powell.
00:16Having a famous brother can come with its drawbacks.
00:18In the case of Homer Simpson, the drawback is that you almost never see him.
00:22In Brother Where Art Thou, Homer learns that he has a half-brother.
00:25Upon connecting with Herb, the two get along great, despite their differences.
00:29Compared to Homer's lazy nature, Herb has worked all of his life for success and is an affluent individual because of it.
00:35By the episode's close, his fortune is squandered by placing his trust in Homer's class and sensibilities.
00:41Herb was so popular with fans and with the producers that he was brought back for an episode one year later.
00:46In 1992, Powell returned for Brother Can You Spare Two Dimes to overcome his strained relationship with Homer and regain his riches.
00:54Because Unky Herb is voiced by Danny DeVito, a world-famous actor who can pretty much do what he wants this late into his career,
01:00it makes his future on the show questionable.
01:03Despite burying the hatchet, Herb is never seen and barely mentioned after 1992.
01:08As part of a gag in 2011's Changing of the Guardian, it's briefly mentioned that Herb is poor again.
01:13He's more likely toiling away on another get-rich scheme and too busy to visit the humble town of Springfield.
01:18Number 9, Alice Glick.
01:20Alice Glick is hardly going to be a character that most people call their favorite,
01:23but she's had her moments as part of the ensemble of Springfield senior citizens.
01:28Mrs. Glick has been around since season two, where Bart did all of her worst chores to save up for a comic book.
01:33She was also memorably part of a yard sale where she was intent on getting $90 for her candy bowl.
01:39Most importantly, Alice Glick is part of the elite group of Simpsons characters that have been killed off.
01:43In the 2011 episode Replaceable You, Bart collaborates with Martin for a science project to create Robopets,
01:49which are eventually given to the folks at Springfield Retirement Castle.
01:53However, bitter funeral directors cause the pets to go on a rampage that results in the death of Alice.
01:58What a supremely strange way to go, part of an extremely stretched storyline thread and not to mention off-screen.
02:04This entry is a bit of a wildcard though, because despite her death,
02:07it seems that Mrs. Glick, or someone who looks remarkably like her,
02:10has appeared in the background in several episodes set thereafter.
02:13However, despite this, in Flanders Ladder in 2018, she appeared alongside other dead Simpsons characters as a ghost,
02:20presumably an official answer to the confusion to her fate.
02:25Even in its earlier seasons, when it wasn't building upon the classic American sitcom,
02:29The Simpsons was paying homage to and referencing a great many films.
02:32In You Only Move Twice, we are introduced to Hank Scorpio, CEO of Globex and passionate James Bond villain,
02:38or in this case, Super Agent Bond.
02:41He also just so happens to be Homer's new boss when the family moves to Cypress Creek.
02:45Despite being designed as a one-off guest star, Hank remains today one of the most beloved characters that the show's writers ever crafted.
02:51There was something brilliant about the mad double-sidedness to his personality,
02:55the supervillain that world leaders feared that also was an affable employer who treated Homer with respect,
03:00which is exactly what has stopped him from returning.
03:03At one stage, Hank was considered as the villain for The Simpsons movie, before writers decided he was too nice.
03:08To anyone watching, it was clear that Russ Cargill, also played by Albert Brooks, was just a second-rate Scorpio.
03:14Hank did make a speaking cameo in 2011's episode 500 Keys,
03:18but beyond that, he's become his own Simpsons man of mystery due to his prolonged disappearance.
03:23According to IMDB users, You Only Move Twice is the second highest-rated episode that the show has ever produced.
03:32If you came here looking for an obscure entry, look no further than Mr. and Mrs. Winfield.
03:36This elderly, agitated couple actually made their debut in only the third episode of the entire show.
03:42The breakout hit of Homer's Odyssey shows Homer dragging a rock to a bridge as he contemplates suicide,
03:48and the Winfields make some cutting remarks about it from their porch.
03:51They would appear as bit-part players numerous times early in the show's run,
03:54including the time Mr. Winfield told Homer in his new flowing locks in Simpson and Delilah to get a haircut, hippie.
04:00If you're a Simpsons hit-and-run fan, you'll recognize Sylvia Winfield instantly,
04:04as she appears very prominently as an NPC in that video game.
04:07In the 1992 episode New Kid on the Block, the Winfields are written out of the show.
04:11Making her final appearance, Sylvia tells Homer that they are retiring to Florida and moving out of the street,
04:17making way for Bart's love interest, Laura Powers.
04:20For a time, the Winfields did show up in the background of a few shots up until around 1996.
04:24What's funny is that the seniors actually appeared briefly in the opening titles for the Simpsons all the way up to season 20 in 2009.
04:32Since then, though, the Winfields have stayed firmly down in Florida,
04:35wherever that is relative to the state that Springfield is apparently in.
04:38Number 6, Fat Tony.
04:40Springfield explores all walks of life, from schoolchildren to the retirement home,
04:43from the police force to the criminal underworld.
04:46Mob boss Fat Tony and his henchmen are part of some great episodes, not to mention one-off gags, throughout Simpsons history.
04:51However, if you abandoned the show before 2010,
04:54it seems pretty likely that you don't know that Fat Tony has joined the dead Simpsons Characters Club.
04:59Then again, if you tuned in today, you'd see a character that is essentially the same person, so what gives?
05:04In a supremely weird turn of events, season 22's Donnie Fatso has Fat Tony suffer from a heart attack and pass on.
05:11When Homer visits the grave of the former Mafia Don, he is abducted by Tony's cousin, Fit Tony.
05:16Taking over the syndicate gets the better of the skinnier mob boss,
05:19and he begins to pile on weight, becoming indistinguishable from the former character.
05:23Thus, Fit Tony became Fit Fat Tony, most often just referred to as Fat Tony.
05:28This character change is so pointless, but they are, technically speaking, different people.
05:33Fat Tony's replacement has gone on to appear a great many times in the last decade,
05:37despite the fact that his cousin, the original Fat Tony, is dead and buried.
05:40Number 5, Maud Flanders.
05:42The last mention on this list of deceased Simpsons characters, and no doubt one of the most impactful,
05:47Maud Flanders' passing was quite a big deal.
05:49It wasn't entirely designed as a ratings grab, but that was definitely a contributing factor,
05:54and was mostly a response to Maud's voice actor quitting the show.
05:57Maggie Roswell had been flying from her home in Denver to Los Angeles, often twice a week,
06:01to record her lines, and was tired of the process and rising prices of airline travel.
06:06As Marcia Mitzman-Gavin stepped in to pick up Roswell's roles,
06:09the show's writers realised it was an opportunity to do something dramatic,
06:12and have the characters of the show react to real tragedy.
06:15Thus, Maud Flanders is killed in an incident involving, in typically silly Simpsons fashion,
06:19a t-shirt launching cannon.
06:21Whilst Maud did contribute to the show a little, her death definitely allowed her widower, Ned, to evolve.
06:26The episode in question, alone again, Natra Diddley, saw him have a crisis of faith,
06:30and face the very real struggles of being a single father,
06:33the kind of hard subject matter that the show used to face head-on.
06:36Roswell returned to the show in 2002 to continue to voice her other roles,
06:40but Maud Flanders is one deededly that can't be undone-edly.
06:46With Bart and Lisa being school kids, it was important for the Simpsons writers
06:49to get a handle on members of the town's school staff.
06:52More than just props, many of these characters became beloved in their own right.
06:56Few are more memorable than Bart's fourth-grade tutor, Edna Kroboppel.
06:59Rather than the rosy and soft teachers of other sitcoms and TV shows, Edna was given dry wit,
07:04a smoking habit, and a loud, sarcastic laugh.
07:07Her more character-centric episodes were focused on her desires to find Mr. Right,
07:11which almost always inevitably panned out for the worse.
07:14Making her first appearance in the second-ever episode of the show,
07:17Mrs. Kroboppel was portrayed for 23 years by Marcia Wallace.
07:20However, in 2013, Wallace passed from complications due to breast cancer.
07:25At the very least, later appearances of Edna saw opposites attract,
07:28and her pursuit of love finally found a happy conclusion.
07:31Despite her very sarcastic and cynical nature, she wound up marrying the always-chipper Ned Flanders.
07:36This meant that, even after already losing Maud,
07:38Ned was the character that was chosen to carefully mourn Edna when the show acknowledged Wallace's death.
07:43Out of respect for her work, Edna's character was retired from the Simpsons with dignity.
07:49Speaking of Springfield School Board, where would the Simpsons be without Principal Skinner?
07:53The bureaucratic bookworm was always a strong cornerstone of the show,
07:56playing the perfect foil to the rebellious Bart,
07:59and featuring in several moments that have become classic meme templates and viral hits.
08:03Naturally, he's not going anywhere.
08:05So, let's get into the controversy that is The Principal and the Pauper.
08:09In this Season 9 episode, a party in Skinner's honour is crashed by a war veteran
08:13who claims to be the real Seymour Skinner.
08:15It's then explained that The Principal, real name Armin Tamzerian,
08:19returned from Vietnam to tell Agnes Skinner of her son's presumed passing,
08:22but wound up pretending to be him instead to save the heartbreak.
08:26The episode memorably finishes right where it began.
08:29Despite this revelation, the real Skinner, played by Hollywood megastar Martin Sheen,
08:33is tied up and sent out of town, and Springfield agrees to never speak of it again on threat of death.
08:38Whilst this might have been a gag, it's something that the show has pretty much kept to
08:41with very few exceptions ever since, surely just because of the backlash.
08:46Fans hated the episode, and it's often called the end of the show's golden era.
08:50Delightfully devilish, this ain't.
08:52As such, the real Seymour Skinner will never be seen, heard from, or likely mentioned ever again.
08:57Number 2, Apu Nahasipinapetilon.
09:00The strength of The Simpsons was always in its extensive cast.
09:03Outside of the family, the show had buckets of brilliant and funny characters,
09:06from the gibberish, blurting Professor Frink to the adorably slow-witted Ralph Wiggum,
09:10from the belligerent Krusty the Clown to the warmth of the quickie-marts Apu Nahasipinapetilon.
09:15As the years went on, however, Apu appeared less and less
09:18due to a rise in conversation about the character as a negative stereotype.
09:21Despite being enjoyed by many fans,
09:23a lot of The Simpsons Asian viewers found understandable issues with the character.
09:27They compared Apu's stereotypical accents, performed by the Caucasian Hank Azaria, as brown voice.
09:33Several Desi creators made comments across the years about the character,
09:36with Indian actors telling stories of being told to do the Apu voice.
09:40In 2017, the controversy reached full peak
09:42with the release of Harry Kondabolu's The Problem With Apu documentary.
09:46Hank Azaria himself went to the studio to ask to be relieved of the role in 2020.
09:51Despite the show at first desperately trying to stick to its gun,
09:53it has in recent years started to correct its unconscious harm
09:57by recasting the likes of Carl and Dr. Hibbert with black actors.
10:00As of March 2020, creator Matt Groening has said that he's looking for a new actor
10:04and a way to reintroduce the character of Apu,
10:07but more than a year and a half later, it remains to be seen.
10:12When it comes to characters that had so much left to give,
10:14Phil Hartman's duo of Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure are about as big as you can get in The Simpsons.
10:20The two characters occupied very specific roles in the show's canon.
10:23Hutz, the fraudulent lawyer and persistent shyster,
10:26and McClure, a washed-up actor reduced to appearing in infomercials and educational videos.
10:31Despite Springfield growing every season with new faces,
10:34these two guest characters always shined.
10:36Hutz's better-called Saul-esque tomfoolery is still quotable today,
10:40and,
10:42is one of the show's simplest and most memorable catchphrases.
10:46With such strong identities,
10:47together these two characters provided some of the consistently biggest laughs between seasons 2 and 10.
10:52Phil Hartman's inimitable voice and presence made them solid fan favorites,
10:56which makes it all the sadder that they were retired from the show due to the shocking murder of the actor.
11:01Hartman's contributions to The Simpsons are immovable.
11:04In honor, season 10's Bart the Mother, the final appearance of Troy McClure, is dedicated to his memory,
11:09and Matt Groening even went on to name the main character of his next creation, Futurama,
11:13after him as Philip J. Fry.
11:16And that's the list!
11:17Let us know what you thought of this video down in the comments below.
11:20Which of these classic Simpsons characters would you most like to see a return of, if possible?
11:24And, of course, let us know of any others that we missed down there as well.
11:28Make sure you like this video, share it with your friends, subscribe and hit that notification bell.
11:33I've been Si for WhatCulture, and have a good week.