Everything’s not coming up Milhouse, it seems.
Pamela Hayden, who has voiced iconic Simpsons characters including Milhouse and Jimbo Jones, is retiring from the show after 35 years.
Hayden will voice her last episode – Treehouse of Horror Presents: Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes – on Sunday November 24.
In addition to Bart’s best friend Milhouse Van Houten and bully Jimbo Jones, over the years, Hayden has voiced secondary characters including Ned Flanders’ son Rod, Chief Wiggum’s wife and Ralph Wiggum’s mother Sarah and Lisa Simpson’s friend Janey Powell.
The Simpsons, which launched on Fox in December 1989, will now start casting for her characters.
Hayden said, “The time has come for me to hang up my microphone, but how do I say goodbye to The Simpsons?……not easily. It’s been an honor and a joy to have worked on such a funny, witty, and groundbreaking show, and to give voice to Milhouse and Jimbo Jones, Rod Flanders, Janey, Malibu Stacy, and many others.”
Milhouse, who first appeared in a Butterfinger commercial in 1989, was named after the former U.S. president Richard Milhous Nixon
“Bart needed someone to talk to in the school cafeteria. We named him Milhouse because that was the most unfortunate name a kid could have,” The Simpsons creator Matt Groening said. “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,”
Exec producer Al Jean joked that Milhouse was a writers’ room favorite because “most of the writers are more like Milhouse than Bart.”
Executive Producer James L Brooks added, “She is a model for having a great spirit for every cast she has been a part of. We will miss her.”
“I’ll always have a special place in my heart for that blue-haired 10-year-old boy with glasses,” Hayden concluded.
The Simpsons is produced by Gracie Films in association with 20th Television Animation. It was created by Matt Groening, developed by James L. Brooks, Matt Groening and Sam Simon and exec produced by Brooks, Groening, Jean and Matt Selman
