The Simpsons; pay tribute to late actress Marcia Wallace

USPA News - The popular animated television series `The Simpsons` on Sunday night paid tribute to American actress Marcia Wallace, who died at her home in California last month and was known as the voice of Bart Simpson`s grumpy 4th grade teacher. To pay tribute to Wallace, the U.S. TV channel Fox canceled a rerun of `American Dad!` and replaced it with a rerun of `The Simpsons.` The network and the show`s producers had initially planned to broadcast a 1992 episode for which Wallace won an Emmy Award, but "technical issues" forced them to choose an episode from 2011 in which her character is suspended from school.

The rerun was followed by an all-new episode of "The Simpsons," which opens with a sad-looking Bart who looks up at his classroom blackboard, on which is written: "We`ll really miss you Mrs. K." The episode later closed with a photo of Wallace`s character sitting in her classroom, accompanied by the message: "In loving memory of Marcia Wallace." Wallace, 70, died at her home in Los Angeles on October 25 as a result of complications from pneumonia. She was in recent years best known as the voice of Edna Krabappel, the teacher of Bart Simpson`s 4th grade class at Springfield Elementary School and in later seasons the wife of character Ned Flanders. She appeared in a total of 178 episodes. "I was tremendously saddened to learn this morning of the passing of the brilliant and gracious Marcia Wallace," Al Jean, executive producer of `The Simpsons,` wrote in a statement last month. "She was beloved by all at `The Simpsons` and we intend to retire her irreplaceable character." Weeks earlier, Jean had told reporters on a conference call that the production crew was working on a script for the season ahead in which a major character would pass away. But speaking after Wallace`s death, Jean said it was a coincidence and that the potential storyline did not involve the death of Krabappel. Prior to her role on `The Simpsons,` Wallace was best known as receptionist Carol Kester on the CBS sitcom `The Bob Newhart Show` that centered around the professional and personal misadventures of a psychologist. She reprised that role in 1994 when she guest starred on the sitcom `Murphy Brown,` an appearance for which she received an Emmy nomination.