This Longtime 'Simpsons' Character is the Latest Springfieldian To Die Twice
As we’ve mentioned before, The Simpsons’ continuity is about as hard to keep track of as Troy McClure’s filmography. And even death itself has become a source of confusion for many fans.In addition to Marge Simpson’s non-canonical passing, Simpsons viewers called the fate of music teacher Mr. Largo into question earlier this season after a student joked about his demise. And before that, The Simpsons pronounced psychiatrist Dr. Marvin Monroe dead in Season Seven’s “The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular,” only to bring him back to life in Season 15’s "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife” (although he did explain his absence by noting that he’d been “very sick”).
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Not to mention how Dr. Nick Riveria seemingly died off in The Simpsons Movie, yet still came back, and Hans Moleman has suffered nearly as many fatalities as Kenny McCormick.
Well, in the most recent Simpsons episode, the show, once again, killed off a longtime character: Alice Glick.
Originally voiced by the late great Cloris Leachman (and later by Tress MacNeille), Mrs. Glick first popped up way back in the Season Two episode “Three Men and a Comic Book,” in which she hired Bart to do a number of backbreaking chores, then paid him a measly 50 cents to spend on “penny whistles and MoonPies.” Mrs. Glick became a regular fixture in the world of Springfield, memorably charging $90 for a candy dish at the Evergreen Terrace rummage sale.
This past Sunday’s episode, “Sashes to Sashes,” opened with Mrs. Glick collapsing on the church organ during one of Rev. Lovejoy’s sermons. It then abruptly cut to Principal Skinner’s school memorial for the “dead lady you’ve never met.” Mrs. Glick, it turns out, left her entire estate to the school.
It didn’t escape fans’ notice that this was the second time that The Simpsons bumped off Mrs. Glick. In Season 22’s "Replaceable You,” a robotic baby seal killed poor Alice. If there was any doubt about her fate, the episode concluded with Mrs. Glick dancing to David Bowie with Jesus in heaven. Also, she later turned up as a ghost in Season 29’s “Flanders’ Ladder,” along with other deceased characters like Bleeding Gums Murphy, Shary Bobbins and Rabbi Krustofsky.
While fans have good reason to be skeptical about Mrs. Glick’s most recent death, Simpsons executive producer Tim Long suggested that this one will actually stick. “In a sense, Alice the organist will live forever, through the beautiful music she made,” Long told TV Line. “But in another, more important sense, yep she's dead as a doornail.”At least Springfield Elementary has more money to spend on a new music program and/or a lifetime supply of MoonPies.
