SPOILER ALERT: The identity of the character who perished in last night’s season premiere of The Simpsons WILL be revealed, so read no further if you don’t want to know.
For nearly a year, fans of The Simpsons have been anticipating last night’s episode in which producers revealed a character would die, giving viewers clues about the character’s demise in an episode titled “Clown in the Dumps.”;
Despite rampant speculation that it would be Krusty meeting the Grim Reaper, instead viewers witnessed the unexpected death of Krusty’s dad, Rabbi Hyram Krustofsky (voiced by comic Jackie Mason).
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Simpsons exec producer Al Jean explains that the character death actually wasn’t meant to be mystery it was, but that it just sort snowballed after he revealed it would be happening. “It was something that we did not plan in any way as a possible event,”; Jean says. “The whole thing has been pretty funny in the way that people took something that was not intended to be a brainteaser and completely tied themselves into a knot and then wouldn’t believe it when someone told them the truth.”;
RELATED: THE SIMPSONS DEATH POOL – WHO’S GOING TO DIE?
When Jean hinted that the character who would die was played by an actor who had won an Emmy for that portrayal, his clue “turned into this huge puzzle,”; he says. “People all over the world were trying to solve this mystery. … When we titled [the episode], we said we weren’t going to play games; that we’d give it a title that’s a pretty good clue and we had people going, “You’re going to kill Krusty?!’ “
Jackie Mason, by the way, did indeed win a 1992 Emmy for playing the Rabbi.
In fact, Jean admits all the speculation over the past year was “a little over-hyped,”; especially when people pondered whether it would be Homer who’d bite the dust. That, Jean admits, will never happen. “I’d lose my job in two seconds if I killed Homer,”; he chuckles. “Nothing is happening to him, trust me!”;
The Simpsons airs Sundays on Global.
