Episode 3.1 "Stark Raving Dad" is the only episode that does not appear on streaming platforms due to the guest appearance of Michael Jackson. Oddly, MJ only spoke as character Leon Kompowsky's "Michael Jackson" voice and was credited as "John Jay Smith"*. Leon's singing was handled by MJ impersonator Kipp Lennon. Leon's "true voice" was handled by Hank Azaria.

*In the early years of the show, celebrities were often credited using pseudonyms as the show had not yet cemented itself in the pop culture sphere.

Episode 9.1 "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson" is available but I believe all references to the WTC have been excised, particularly the "they stick all the jerks in Tower 1" line.

I firmly believe the sole reason the show is still alive is due to the merchandising.

Last edited by Binson Echorec (April 2, 2025 3:00 pm)

AI-generated voices. These are so impressive that it's a no-brainer to just harvest the existing episodes to teach the AI how to speak like the characters. The family of the deceased voice actors would happily get royalties forever from FOX.

James Earl Jones gave permission for Disney to use his voice to create an AI archive for future Darth Vader appearances...so it's not off the table. If the performer agrees to it, is that enough leverage for a strike?

These animated shows must be cheap to produce or Fox has a co-production partner to pick up some of the tab.  Interesting that they all got 4 year renewals when the ratings are so bad on Sunday for all of them. 

Last Sunday none of the shows even came close to 1 million viewers in the US.   Family Guy and The Simpsons were the best at 720,000 and 620,000.  The Great North and Krapopolis both a bit over 500,000.  The only non animated show on Fox last Sunday was Extracted with a humbling 350,000 people watching.
 
 With 245 Fox stations, this averages about 1,400 viewers per station if the numbers are accurate.  Since larger markets like New York, LA, Chicago etc. would have more than 1,400 viewers, smaller markets like Billings, Erie even Buffalo would have almost nobody watching the show live.  

RadioActive wrote:

Not to be morbid but after 40 years, eventually one of the main cast voice-over stars is going to get sick or die. Then what? (It already happened with Marcia Wallace, who played Bart's teacher Mrs. Krabappel.) Their characters will outlive them. 

The cast has an agreement that once a voice actor dies, the character(s) that person voiced also gets retired. 
No AI, no nothing. 
I am not aware what will happen to the voice of Milhouse though, since the voice actor (Pamela Hayden) did not actually die.
The decision to retire is all that happened there. 
 

I still remember the first time I saw Julie Kavner.
She was in a short-lived but very hip childrens; TV show called The Electric Company.
She played herself in the variety-oriented show.
Another actor who get his start there was an an unknown black guy name Morgan Freeman who played a character called Easy Reader.
Basically he was a cool guy who read things.
Legendary actress Rita Moreno was also in the show.
It also had a Spider man character.
It was an odd show in that it didn't talk down to kids.



 

Radiowiz wrote:

The cast has an agreement that once a voice actor dies, the character(s) that person voiced also gets retired. 
No AI, no nothing. 
I am not aware what will happen to the voice of Milhouse though, since the voice actor (Pamela Hayden) did not actually die.
The decision to retire is all that happened there. 
 

I mean, that's crazy...Dan Castellaneta dies are they seriously going to retire Homer Simpson?  The show is over.  Or Nancy Cartwright, Bart Simpson just vanishes?

Whatever the agreement is now, those major characters are not going to be retired, to paraphrase Jeff Goldblum, Money finds a way.