Why Marge Simpson's death suddenly has viewers talking about The Simpsons again
Crack open a Duff beer and pour one out for Marge Simpson, the blue-haired, raspy-voiced matriarch of The Simpsons who has left behind her beloved but sometimes dysfunctional family.
Don't fire off the emails about spoilers just yet.
News of Marge's death in the recent season finale may suddenly be trending, but it's likely not the last we've seen of television's longest-serving mom.
Though the season 36 finale aired on May 18, recent articles lamenting the loss have reinvigorated a conversation about a pop-culture institution some critics say is long past its prime.
What happened to Marge?The episode titled Estranger Things, is a look into the future of the Simpson family in a world in which brother and sister Bart and Lisa have drifted apart.
In a flash forward, we learn that Marge's life was cut short.
"Marge passed before Homer, if you can believe it," Canadian musician Sarah McLachlan sings in a montage showing family and a few friends standing over her headstone that reads, "Beloved wife, mother and pork-chop seasoner."
We don't know exactly how or when Marge dies, but the plot moves 35 years ahead of the present day, when a very successful Lisa returns to Springfield to find deadbeat Bart living in the family home with Homer, who was supposed to be residing in the same retirement home where his own father, Abe, a.k.a Grandpa Simpson, had languished.
A senior's protection agency buses Homer off to Florida, sending Lisa and Bart on a mission to get him back.
In the process, they discover a video Marge recorded before her death urging her eldest children to stick together.
Eventually, the family is reunited again at 742 Evergreen Terrace (minus "chatterbox" younger sister Maggie, who is off somewhere living her dream as a farm equipment auctioneer.)
And don't worry about Marge. Though she said in her posthumous message she looked forward to reuniting with Homer in heaven, she appears to have found a new love in the afterlife — Ringo Starr, her high school crush.
Marge's apparent death seems to have struck a nerve on social media, but The Simpsons has a history of poignant goodbyes to beloved characters, dating back to its early seasons.
TVGuide.com has tallied a dozen recurring character deaths since the show's inception. Sometimes it was because actors left the show, other times it was due to their real-life deaths.
One of the show's first deaths of a recurring character 30 years ago this year was Bleeding Gums Murphy, a local jazz musician and Lisa's sax-playing idol.
But that wasn't quite the shock that came with the untimely death of Maude Flanders, wife of mustachioed, hi-diddly-ho-ing neighbour Ned Flanders.
Maude's death by t-shirt cannon at a baseball game followed actor Maggie Roswell's departure during the show's 11th season over a pay dispute.
The plot twist reverberated through future seasons as Ned navigated life after the devastating loss of his wife, raising sons Rod and Todd.
But a truly heartbreaking moment happened in season 25, as Bart stood at the chalkboard inside Springfield elementary
The message this time was "We really miss you Mrs. K." — a tribute to his teacher, Edna Krabappel, which followed the October 2013 death of actress Marcia Wallace, 70, from complications due to pneumonia and breast cancer.
The character's death was addressed in a later episode — and dealt a second blow to Ned Flanders who'd fallen in love with and married Krabapple years after Maude's death.
The Simpsons dealt with another actor's death quite differently. When Canadian-born actor Phil Hartman was murdered in 1998, two of his popular characters — B-movie star Troy McClure and shady lawyer Lionel Hutz — were permanently retired rather than written out.
But cast departures don't always mean characters disappear. Pamela Hayden, who voiced Bart's friend Milhouse for 35 years, retired in 2024. Singer Kelly Macleod replaced Hayden and debuted in the same episode that Marge dies.
Even after 790 episodes, The Simpsons isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Fox, which has aired the series in the U.S. since its 1989 premiere as a standalone show, announced in April it had renewed the show through its 40th season, taking it up to 2029.
And there's no indication that the principal voice actors, including Julie Kavner, who voices Marge, are going anywhere either.
But the sudden attention on Marge's death — again, it takes place several years in the future and she'll likely be back to scolding Homer when the series returns this fall — could signal that love for The Simpsons endures even if its popularity has waned since its peak in the 1990s.
Matt Groening, who created the series, told Variety this month that The Simpsons fandom is "as intense as ever" even after decades on the air.
Groeing made the remark at the Annecy Animation Festival in France, where the show was honoured as an "Icon of Animation."
He also took the opportunity to remind fans of his close, personal connection to the characters.
"I have a real father called Homer, a real mother called Marge, real siblings called Lisa and Maggie and a real grandfather called Abe," he told the festival audience, according to Variety.
Unlike the show's characters, the real Marge did outlive Homer: Marge Groening died in 2013, Homer in 1996.
cbc.ca
