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Farewell to Mrs. Krabappel

The Simpsons bid a brief farewell to Edna Krabappel -but who will replace her as Bart's teacher?

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2014-03-12_1030This week in the US The Simpsons bid a brief farewell to Edna Krabappel following the death of actress Marcia Wallace.

The scene involved Ned Flanders fondly recalling his second wife, acknowledging he would miss her laugh.

“Unfortunately those were the only two lines that we had left that Marcia had recorded,” executive producer Al Jean tells EW. “People had conjectured that we might have an episode where we said farewell to her but we didn’t have the material from her. So we thought that the best way to say goodbye would be to use what we had in a brief scene that said how much we missed her.”

Jean confirms that “out of great respect” for Wallace, Bart’s teacher is being retired. “She wouldn’t be in a background, and obviously we don’t have any more vocals,” he says. “What we would never do is say, ‘Here’s Mrs. Krabappel,’ and voice it with someone else.”

So who will replace Mrs. Krabappel in the fourth-grade classroom? For the time being, no one. The rest of this season’s episodes — which already have been completed — do not involve Bart with his teacher. As for season 26, “we have some ideas,” says Jean. “It’s also possible both given the way the show works and the state of public schools there won’t be a permanent teacher. We can get some great guest stars here and there before we settle on somebody. We’re looking at it from different angles.”

11 Responses

  4. maybe Bart could finally move tot he 5th grade after all this time. Its been so long since ive watched a new ep I didnt even know Mrs K and Ned were married.

  6. I was really bored and annoyed at the episode, especially about how they have ruined the SideShow Bob character. Then came the scene where we see Mrs Krabapple had died. It was tacky to put the death of a long running character at the end of a terrible episode. I was expecting more. Perhaps Edna could have passed in her sleep at the commencement of an episode (as there were no more voice recordings) and then we see the townsfolk at her funeral followed by those close to her like Bart, Skinner and Flanders deal with their loss. It just goes to show how bad the writers and producers have become.

  7. When Marcia died it was said [possibly by Al Jean] that her character wouldn’t be killed off,she’ll be retired,which they did.
    Watching it the other day I got a shock with that ending.
    I think having her character die was probably the right thing to do,otherwise how do you explain her never being seen again despite being married to Ned ?

  9. Testament to how much this show and its multitude of characters have lodged themselves into not only popular culture, but people’s hearts too. I still marvel at the achievement that is this series; not only for its longevity, but for its sheer brilliance in continually reinventing itself and its characters.

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