Voice actor Pamela Hayden is retiring from the Simpsons, after 35 years and over 700 episodes. Hayden played several important characters in the Simpsons, including Bart’s best friend Milhouse, School bully Jimbo Jones and Ned Flanders sons Rod and Todd. Hayden has been playing these characters since The Simpsons began back in 1989. Simpsons creator Matt Groening, Executive producer James L Brooks and writer Al Jean have praised Hayden’s performance as Milhouse, her most popular character and a favorite among the writers.
Groening said this of Hayden’s performance as Milhouse: “Pamela gave us tons of laughs with Milhouse, the hapless kid with the biggest nose in Springfield. She made Milhouse hilarious and real, and we will miss her.”
Hayden said this about Milhouse and the effect the character had on her: “People are always saying what a nerd he is, but one thing that I love about Milhouse is he’s always getting knocked down, but he keeps getting up. I love the little guy. It’s this wonderful analogy for life.”
With Hayden retiring, the Simpsons showrunners will have to work hard to find suitable replacements for the characters she played, with Fox announcing a casting call to replace these characters. This is not the first time characters have either been retired or replaced on the Simpsons. After Phil Hartman died in 1998, his characters, Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz were retired, with sad sack Gil taking Hutz’s role as Springfriend’s worst lawyer. The death of Marcia Wallace in 2013 resulted in the character of Edna Krabappel being retired, resulting in Bart having several different 4th-grade teachers after Edna Krabappel left the show. The death of Russi Taylor in 2019 resulted in her characters Martin, Sherri and Terri being played by voice actor Grey Delise-Griffin.
Recent controversies about white voice actors playing people of color resulted in characters like Homer’s friend and co-worker Carl and family doctor Dr. Hibbert being recast. This resulted in Alex Désert replacing Hank Azaria as the voice of Carl in 2020 and Kevin Michael Richardson replaced Harry Shearer as the voice of Dr. Hibbert in 2021. Similar controversies resulted in the character of Apu being retired in 2017.
With Hayden’s retirement, another of the voice actors from the original voice cast from 1989 will no longer be involved in the show. With several members of the original voice cast no longer being on the show and several characters being retired, the Simpsons has been changed from its original roots. Hayden’s last performance on the Simpsons can be heard in the upcoming episode “Treehouse of Horror Presents: Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes”, airing 24 November.
