The latest episode of The Simpsons has provided a fitting farewell to one of the unsung heroes of the show.
The new instalment, titled 'Dairy Queen', served as a proper goodbye to both Edna Krabappel and the voice actor who brought her script to life, the late Marcia Wallace.
Bart discovers his late teacher's diary and finds that she truly did believe in him, despite his disruptive nature and tendency to cause chaos in the classroom.
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Wallace died suddenly in 2013 at the age of 70 and producers of the animated series cleverly used previous scripts to help bring her back to life for the episode.
"This will be her last appearance," Executive producer Al Jean said. "We just wanted to sort of send the character off properly, in a way that I think isn't trying to be exploitive."
He added that while the character's death had been referenced in the show, they chose not to reveal any cause of death for Mrs Krabappel.
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"Sadly, it was very surprising passing," Jean told Variety Wallace's death.
"I didn't know she was that ill until very close to when it happened. So we never got the chance to give sort of a proper goodbye to her in the show, and this is a small attempt to do that.
"And, you know, she was so beloved by everybody that worked on The Simpsons, that we just sort of wanted to give her one last moment on the show in her memory. It's just that, it's nothing more, but, we thought she was the best."
The final episode that Wallace voiced was in 2014's The Man Who Grew Too Much, in which unlucky-in-love Ned Flanders became a widower for the second time following Ms. K's death.
"When we made them a couple, to me it was an interesting opposites attract move, which people often find confusing in television but it happens forever in real life," Jean said.
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"People like Krabappel and Flanders really do become couples. It was not the intention to make Flanders such a tragic character.
"However, since that's the case, I think it's kind of deepened his character unintentionally - where he's somebody who's had his faith really tested, who has been a really good person and some very difficult things have happened to him."
Featured Image Credit: FOXTopics: TV and Film