Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Everett Collection
When the average viewer catches a new episode of The Simpsons for the first time in a while, they typically have one immediate complaint: What’s up with the voices? Listening to long-running characters like Otto, Mr. Burns, and Smithers in particular, it’s easy for viewers to wonder whether the show has hired new actors to play them. But no, they’re all still played by the same guy: Harry Shearer.
So what’s the deal? Well, he’s gotten old. Shearer turns 80 this year, and after 35 seasons, his voice is getting tired. Even worse off in the cast has got to be Julie Kavner, the voice of Marge and the other Bouvier women, whose many decades of performing those raspy voices have taken their toll. “Marge sounds like she’s dying,” wrote one viewer on the Simpsons subreddit three years ago, and the complaints have only grown more common over time. Marge, who’s supposed to be in her late thirties, now sounds like an elderly smoker; when she talks, it’s hard not to wonder if Kavner’s in pain. For longtime Simpsons viewers who don’t want the show to end, it’s worth asking if the show should replace Kavner with someone new and, most likely, younger.
But many of those same fans think this idea is blasphemy. To many longtime or lifelong viewers, The Simpsons is not The Simpsons without the original voice actors at the wheel. Like the rest of the cast, Kavner is such an integral part of Marge that replacing her could lose so much of the charm and heart that endeared us to the character in the first place. Kavner’s been a core part of The Simpsons since its days as a recurring segment on The Tracey Ullman Show. After more than 35 years as Marge, surely no one could replace her, let alone mimic her, right? Without Kavner’s distinctive voice and her wonderful acting range, would any other version of Marge work?