Replace Harry Shearer on The Simpsons? Balderdash, but His Legacy is Intact

Try to imagine The Simpsons without: Mr. Burns, Flanders and Seymour Skinner. Now try to think of a Springfield where Lenny, Kent Brockman, Rev. Lovejoy, Dr. Hibbert, Otto, Jasper and Waylon Smithers (and too many others to list) no longer exist. Impossible, right?

How about an even more dispiriting thought — a version of The Simpsons where many of those characters still exist, only they’re voiced by a different actor? That’s what apparently will happen as Harry Shearer decided to leave the show after its 26th season. In the grand scheme of human affairs this is admittedly trivial and inconsequential. But this is the Internet. Fans of beloved pop culture such as The Simpsons take it seriously.

As a Simpsons nut myself, I’d like to think some good may come from this — mainly the show finally comes to a merciful end. We’re well past the point where the “Golden Era” episodes are far surpassed by the crummy, newer episodes, aka Zombie Simpsons. (Not my term, but apt.) As it has always been — remember Don’t Have a Cow t-shirt mania? — The Simpsons is a media commodity to Fox, nothing more, nothing less.

In a corporate boardroom the value of our fond memories for the classics lose out to 40+ new episodes that can be recycled forever into syndication/streaming deals, even if, say, the lead singer from Smash Mouth were to take over for all of Shearer’s characters. One voice, however many iconic characters he brings to life, isn’t bigger than the brand.

Sigh.

The show will keep trudging along — people still watch. Apparently an average of 4.1 million for the 26th season is good enough for Fox on a Sunday night, meaning we’ll get a couple seasons of erstwhile McBain, Kang, et al. Such is the way with animated series, you can keep the character and replace the voice actor, unlike replacing the character as Fox previously did on shows like The X-Files (T-1000 stepping in for Mulder) and Married … with Children (Jefferson replacing Steve).

Still, replacing the voice of a character simply doesn’t feel right in any way, shape, or form. Thankfully Fox and the show’s producers had the good sense to retire Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz after the sad death of Phil Hartman in 1998. Of course, it was McClure during “The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular,” who offered up this telling quote, “Who knows what adventures they’ll have between now and the time the show becomes unprofitable?”

That episode came out in 1995. Now there are over 500 episodes, total.

Now Simpsons fans will get someone else doing the voices. The fortunate thing is nobody really has to watch them, they just need to exist to take up digital steaming real estate. The show’s legacy isn’t going to be tarnished because of it. If you fire up a DVD or stream of the show, it’s always going to be Shearer’s voice telling Homer “If I want you to bunt, I will touch my belt buckle not once, not twice, but thrice,” during the all-important Power Plant softball game, not an impostor.

Look at it this way, I tend to doubt many people on planet Earth immediately associate Michael Jordan with his brief, disappointing tenure with the Washington Wizards unless you happen to be Kwame Brown. Whomever steps in to take over Shearer’s characters — I’d imagine it would take 2-3 bodies at minimum — is going to be an afterthought or a footnote, in the long history of the iconic show. This isn’t George Lucas going back through the original Star Wars movies to make Greedo shoot first. Yes it’s mildly disappointing the show has to go out on this sort of note, but it still can’t offset the greatness of Seasons 1-8 .. or 9 …. or 10 … or wherever your personal cutoff for the show’s golden era ends.

As for Shearer? Fans of the show don’t need to be reminded of his brilliance bringing so many different and unique characters to life for 26 seasons. If you have time, go back to some of the era-early Burns-centric shows. Before he became a modern-day Mr. Magoo, trying to capture the Loch Ness Monster. Originally he was much more real-life evil — a character who was actually written to be feared. The Season Two episode where he used his vast wealth to run for governor holds up great — perhaps too well. “Last Exit to Springfield” — the one where he turns off the power to Springfield — is probably the series’ best offering, thanks in no small part to Shearer making Burns the personification of evil and greed.

At least, as fans, we’ll always have our “dental plan” and, of course, “steamed hams.”