After 35 seasons and hundreds of Springfield residents cycling through the series, The Simpsons has officially said a permanent goodbye to one of its most enduring background characters.
The most recent death in The Simpsons is permanent, confirms Tim Long
The November 16 episode, “Sashes to Sashes,” of the long-running animated sitcom confirms the death of Alice Glick, the First Church of Springfield’s organist and a recurring character since 1991. Her unexpected passing happens in the opening sequence, when Reverend Lovejoy’s sermon is suddenly interrupted by a loud blast from the pipe organ.
“And Moses raised his staff unto the sky, and the Lord sent forth a mighty tempest that thundered like—,” he begins, only to stop as the organ roars mid-sentence. “Oh, come on now, Alice, that’s a bit much,” he says without realizing that something is wrong. “Alice?” Moments later, viewers see Alice slumped over the organ keys, lifeless, her tongue out and eyes fixed. The abrupt scene is one of The Simpsons’s more startling introductions in recent years.
While The Simpsons occasionally toys with canon, co-executive producer Tim Long emphasized that Alice’s death is final. “In a sense, Alice the organist will live forever, through the beautiful music she made,” he told Entertainment Weekly, adding, “But in another, more important sense, yep, she’s dead as a doornail.”
Alice Glick first appeared in Season 2, originally voiced by Cloris Leachman before Tress MacNeille took over the role. This is not the character’s first on-screen death; she previously died in Season 23. Earlier, she died at the hands of a Robopet.
But, because she appeared in later episodes, fans largely dismissed that storyline as non-canonical. Earlier this year, the show’s Season 36 also got the internet talking by killing off Marge in a flash-forward storyline. It was later clarified as irrelevant to the show’s continuity.
