Fans want Julie Kavner and Harry Shearer replaced on The Simpsons

Harry Shearer sounds like he’s dying.

That. Show. Is. Still...On???

The Simpsons just needs to end, at this point. It would be a mercy killing for all involved.

It was a great show for most of its run, but it has nothing else to say.

True r3. I watch it out of old stale habit sometimes, but it's just not anything anymore. It's just there. It's like SNL, just keeps going but with no real reason. Although I think SNL is trying to get to its big 50th anniversary blowout special before dying. The Simpsons just keeps going for no reason at all.

The show has been a shadow of its former self for most of this millennium.

Julie Kavner still sounds like Marge - just much, much older. Marge is still supposed to be in her thirties, and Julie is in her seventies. That's the problem with a cartoon running for so long - the characters are ageless, but the actors aren't.

Some of Harry Shearer's characters, particularly Mr Burns, have sounded off for years.

Mr. Burns doesn’t sound like Mr. Burns anymore based on R1’s clip.

This is from 2002. Shearer is 80 now.

Wow! I hadn’t watched the show in years. That is sad

There are so many clips going around of Marge and Julie’s voice right now. They’re downright frightening. What is this show going to do when Julie or Yeardley Smith die? How can you replace those voices? Harry is in his 80s.

I think Julie Kavner smokes.

Ray Magliozzi, of Car Talk, is 74 and sounds good, still.

You can keep your voice in shape.

I still watch new episodes of "The Simpsons," mostly out of habit. Julie Kavner and Harry Shearer have sounded off for years now, and the fans have noticed. Kavner's Marge voice sounds like she's gargling gravel. Shearer's characters all sound about the same. Nancy Cartwright's Bart voice sounds a little off at times, too. I think the show's transition into a more digital production process has played a role in the voices sounding strange, besides the actors getting older.

Dan Castellaneta looked like he could throw a hot fuck back in the day.

If it bothers you, just don't watch it. For those who post that they haven't watched it in years,,,what's it to ya? What a ridiculous thing to bitch and moan about.

R12 you must be new here.

AI should fix this in few years.

I caught a recent episode, they definitely need a new Marge Simpson voice.

R10, Mr Burn sounds like he’s being voiced by someone else.

The show is completely unwatchable now. I tried multiple times to sit through one of the new episodes and I had to turn it off. It’s goddamn painful. They need to end this thing.

Ironically, Tracey Ullman is the only one who could pull off a believable Julie Kavner impersonation.

Apparently Harry Shearer has been phoning in his performances for about fifteen years now. He records his lines at home and sends them in. Understandable, given his age.

Anyway, the time has come.

[quote]The show is completely unwatchable now.

Then don't watch it.

Some of the ugliest animation I've ever seen. I just hate the way the people look on the Simpsons. And I feel the same about human faces in anime. Maybe I'm more of a Smurfs guy.

[quote] It was a great show for most of its run

It would have been a great show for most of it's run, if it had ended 15 years ago. At this point, there are actually far more bad seasons than good.

Just to clarify: @R19, the target of my Old Yeller reference was The Simpsons. I am not calling for someone to euthanise Harry Shearer.

It’s well past time to retire the Simpsons.

Harry Shearer is incredibly talented but he has no love for The Simpsons and has been open about it for years. This is a clip from a 2010 Howard Stern interview where he talks about feeling cheated by the show and the network and that he's not close with the cast. Very interesting info even though he says he can't discuss a lot of things because of nondisclosure. Shearer has always been open about challenging the powers that be (he had two contentious runs on SNL, first under Lorne Michaels and then a few seasons later when Dick Ebersol was producing) and even admits he's known in Hollywood as 'the turd in the punch bowl' for shaking things up.

Never cared for the show.

I’ve been playing it to sleep/nap. I think I’m on the last season on Disney plus and I don’t think they sound bad.

It always boggles my mind that this show started when I was a senior in high school. I remember people thinking at the time it was way too racy. Married with Children, Roseanne, Simpsons - they all kind of changed television. I guess shows like Soap helped the shift a bit.

[quote] It would have been a great show for most of it's run, if it had ended 15 years ago

15?! Try 24!

Julie Kavner phones it in too and has done that for over 2 decades now. She doesn’t even do the table read in person. She won’t do Marge’s voice in front of people. She’s a bit of a weirdo.

I watched some of the recent episodes last month as I was feeling depressed and didn't want to watch anything too dark or requiring much brain power. The newer ones are obviously nowhere near as clever as the show was in the 90s...but there is still something comforting about the familiar characters and bright primary colors. A few little gags which made me smile, if not laugh out loud. Well, if Wheel of Fortune can go on forever, or Sunday comics, why not the Simpsons. It's still better than the Family Guy (which is also inexplicably still on).

Thankless bitches, we taught them how to voice primetime animated series characters!

The Simpsons is like America’s Coronation Street.

[quote] Dan Castellaneta looked like he could throw a hot fuck back in the day.

Now he just rolls them slowly by nudging then with his foot.

I own seasons 4 through 8 and that's all I need. They've been bad since George W Bush was sworn in. If you're still wasting your time on new episodes of The Simpsons then that's on you.

Even Yeardley is starting to sound old. Not as bad as Kavner and Shearer, but there's definitely a timbre change.

R30, she says she won't do Marge's voice in public so she doesn't spoil the illusion. Frank Oz is the same with Yoda.

Harry Shearer has rejoined Spinal Tap for the sequel, which is filming now. He's too busy.

Burns's original voice actor was actually the late Chris Collins, who also voiced Moe. He was sacked after a few episodes for being "difficult to work with". He must have been kicking himself after the show became a hit and the cast started making a fortune.

Hank Azaria was great.

I don't get how the show is still profitable enough to make, the cast are some of the highest paid in animation and its had falling ratings for years. Sure at one point merch sales more than covered it but who buys Simpsons merch anymore? Given its got 762 episodes Fox could air a rerun episode a day and it'd still take 2 years to get through them for significantly less cost than it costs to make.

This is one of those rare instances where sophisticated AI programs could be used for good instead of evil: train it to emulate these voice actors doing their characters at their peak, pay out the voice cast for doing so, and keep making the show for however long they want.

Granted, I’m firmly in the camp that believes The Simpsons peaked in seasons 3-7, and stopped being essential viewing by around season 10 or 11. But if they use AI for the voices, at least the characters won’t sound like shit going forward.

I don't think they need AI, r42. Ricky and Morty replaced their main voice actor. It was a big undertaking but the characters sound the same.

Maybe so, but the new Kermit the Frog is terrible. It's a risk.