0317 - Maude Flanders

TWO major characters in a row? It almost feels silly establishing Larry as a major character when Maude was just around the corner. This episode features the Flanders family quite heavily - more heavily than any prior episode - so it makes sense that we complete their little quartet.

Like many Springfieldian wives, Maude is established mainly by her relationship to her husband, but her basic personality could be described by most casual Simpsons viewers. She's a devout Christian, very loyal to Ned, and willing to speak up about issues that she finds harmful to society. Unlike Helen Lovejoy, she's not really portrayed as nosy or self-righteous, not necessarily unpleasant or judgemental in her religious beliefs. Your mileage may vary on how irritating you find that particular aspect.

She's presented in "Dead Putting Society" as an aspiration, as something for Homer to be jealous of, which continues a little later as Homer lusts after her.

Beyond that, there's little about her as a person to comment on - she's intentionally bland and unknowable, with her favourite flavour of non-fat ice-milk being "unflavoured". This is not a character the writers are interested in defining.

But of course, most people will know the most significant part of Maude's time on the show.

Maude's death in season 11's "Alone Again, Natura-Diddly" is a controversial moment in the show's history. Some consider it to be very mean spirited to kill off a character like this, especially considering the somewhat ugly behind-the-scenes drama (the main reason for her death is a pay dispute between the producers and Maggie Roswell, Maude's main voice actor.) It was a moment that would be difficult to undo, even when Roswell rejoined the show later. Roswell's other characters, such as Luann Van Houten, Helen Lovejoy and Ms Hoover could continue to live in Springfield, but it was too late to save Maude.

"Alone Again, Natura-Diddly" even takes a moment to mock the idea that Maude's death could be that devastating to anyone in the first place, being referred to as a "supporting character" in her own eulogy. It's a weird in between space that by season 11 a character could be big enough that their demise was shocking but not so important that it was significantly impactful.

For my own part, I remember thinking Maude's death was a big deal. To a 12 year old, the fact that a cartoon character could permanently die is a strange thing to wrap your head around. The episode was heavily advertised as having a major death, and Maude seemed major enough to me to justify the hullaballoo. I'm not sure how I feel about it now, over 20 years later. Killing off a character mainly to spite an actor (whose demands did not seem that unreasonable; she mainly wanted a raise to cover travel costs) seems nasty, but the loss of Maude is not a grand loss to the show - it is mainly to propel Ned's character for a while.

I'd say "we hardly knew ye", but Maude has appeared several times since Roswell's reintegration into the show, sometimes in non-canon sections as a ghost and sometimes in flashbacks. Most confusingly, she appears in the future of season 6's "Lisa's Wedding", perhaps accidentally confirming that this future is a lie told by a fortune teller.

Of course, the future shown in "Lisa's Wedding" also happened over a decade ago and therefore is no longer the future, so who knows? Not me.

This post is part of my "Every Simpsons Character Ever" series. For a list of my rules in this project, click here.