Summary
D’oh! It seems as if numerous fans ofThe Simpsonswere prematurely mourning the end of a franchise mainstay despite the character not even really being dead.The Simpsonsis an animated series, after all… main characters aren’t usually killed off on these kinds of shows.
Despite airing on May 18th,The SimpsonsSeason 36 finale “Estranger Things” has caused a whole lot of hand-wringing over the past week or so. The episode depicts Bart and Lisa drifting apart later in life after Marge dies, before eventually reconciling due to a video of Marge telling the siblings to look after each other. You know, a simple, typicalSimpsonsepisode thatjumps forward in timeto show what happens to the character in the future. We’ve seen Lisa become President of the United States after running against Eva Longoria’s Isabel Gutiérrez in “The Kid Is All Right.” We’ve seen Maggie as a 22-year-old rock star in “Holidays of Future Passed.” We’ve seen Homer himself killed by the police after leaving a food bank in “Flanders' Ladder.” Flash-forwards happen all the time inThe Simpsons, so you’d figure fans would be familiar with the process by now, right?
The online outrage has gotten so bad,The Simpsonsexecutive producer Matt Selman basically had to speak toVarietyto set the record straight.“Obviously, sinceThe Simpsonsfuture episodes are all speculative fantasies, they’re all different every time,” Selman said. “Marge will probably never be dead ever again.The only place Marge is dead is in one future episode that aired six weeks ago.” Well, that certainly sorts that out, but Selman wasn’t quite finished: “Here’s my take: Websites need traffic, and headlines equal traffic. And then you may explain that the headline was misleading at the very end of the article. Every single media outlet that ran this story knew that in no way was Marge dead. They all knew it, but they ran the headline anyway.”
Shockingly, The Internet Made A Mountain Out Of A Molehill
Fox renewedThe Simpsonsfor four more seasons back in April, which will take the series toa landmark 40th season. It seems highly unlikely that they would’ve done so if the creative team had actually planned on eliminating Marge Simpson from the show. What wouldThe Simpsonseven be without one of its five main players?
“I guess this speaks to the fact that people care about Marge. At the end of the day, it’s probably good for business even when these ridiculous, misleading stories go viral." - Matt Selman
Can you even imagine Homer and the kids existing without Marge? How would anything get done? Would Lisa essentially have to take over the household at the ripe old age of eight? How much chaos could Bart cause in such a situation? Who would provide sweet motherly love to little Maggie? We shudder at the thought. Heck,we shudder at the show ending, let alone killing off a main character.
Alas, all of this pontification is for naught, as Marge Simpson isn’t dead, andThe Simpsonswill continue carrying on as it has for nearly four decades now.
