It's never easy for a television show to deal with the sudden death of a beloved cast member. The Simpsons rose to the occasion last night with their subtle but sweet tribute to Marcia Wallace — better known as the voice of Edna Krabappel — who passed away last month from pneumonia complications. In the famous opening sequence of The Simpsons where Bart is in detention writing on a chalkboard, his face is noticeably sadder as he writes, "We'll really miss you Mrs. K."
While The Simpsons managed to pack the perfect emotional punch in just a few seconds, others devoted entire shows and more to their departed stars. Here are four of the most touching tributes:
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In 2003, after John Ritter died suddenly of a heart attack in the middle of filming the second season of his successful ABC sitcom, the writers and producers decided to include the three episodes he had already completed with a special one-hour episode, "Goodbye." In it, the family is told that Paul has died of a sudden heart attack after going out to buy milk. It was the only episode filmed without a laugh track, "the network sitcom equivalent of boots reversed in the stirrups of a riderless horse," wrote Alessandra Stanley at the New York Times.
Leo McGarry on The West Wing
Beloved cast member John Spencer died suddenly of a heart attack in 2005 at the age of 58, just a season after his character Leo McGarry suffered one on the Emmy-winning series. During the seventh season of The West Wing, the former chief of staff to President Bartlett was the Democratic vice presidential candidate in a hotly contested election that was to be a major plotline. While the writers originally planned to have the Republican ticket win, they feared the double loss to Democratic presidential candidate Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) of an election and a running mate was too much for audiences. They won and McGarry posthumously became vice president. In one of the season's final episodes, he is given an emotional funeral at Washington National Cathedral.
Livia Soprano on The Sopranos
David Chase and his team received some major heat for the technical flaws in their handling of the death of Nancy Marchand, the actress behind Tony Soprano's monstrous mother Livia. Although the actress was battling lung cancer and emphysema in real life, Chase planned for a major storyline for her in the third season, having her testify against her son in court. But Marchand passed away before the scenes could ever be filmed, leading to the stilted CGI-generated image of Livia Soprano spouting dialogue spliced from previous episodes. Yet, while this final interaction with Tony is "passable at best," wrote Todd VanDerrWerff at the A.V. Club, the episode itself becomes "a haunting, vaguely unsettling episode about the absence left when someone close to you and important to you passes on."
Mr. Hooper on Sesame Street
When Will Lee, the actor behind the beloved Mr. Harold Hooper, passed away in 1982, it was extra difficult to work his death into the series because the audience was almost exclusively young children. But in 1983, Sesame Street aired "Farewell, Mr. Hooper" on Thanksgiving so that children could watch it with their parents. The most famous scene is of Big Bird realizing what it means for Mr. Hooper to be dead. Try not bawling your eyes out when Big Bird worries "who's going to make my birdseed milkshakes and tell me stories?" The episode won both an Emmy and a Peabody award. The show has never been rerun.
