Harry Shearer Leaving The Simpsons

It was quite a shocker yesterday morning to read that Harry Shearer was apparently leaving The Simpsons. There have been some struggles between the voice actors and production team before, but from what I've read it seems all the cast have been together for it then. Now it's just Shearer that's leaving, which is weird. Show runner Al Jean told The Hollywood Reporter that even he has no idea why Shearer doesn't want to do the show anymore. Shearer seems to have said that he wants the freedom to do other projects, which sounds odd since all of the voice cast has a lot of freedom. The production team seems to be willing to try to work with him to make him stay, except that he should have the same deal as the rest of the cast, money-wise. And I guess he could want a bigger salary, but to walk away from an over 25 years legacy just to get even more money (more than $14 million over two years) rings a bit false. What would he do that'd pay more in that case?

The last reason I can think of would be that he's simply tired of it. That he doesn't think it's fun to do any longer, and think that 25 years is enough. Anyone could get tired of doing the same thing for over 25 years, but if that is the case I feel he would've told the rest of the cast and production team already, and prepared them for it. His leaving is very sudden and mysterious so I don't think the reason is as simple as getting tired of it.

I honestly can't think of any good reason why he would leave, but I hope he changes his mind and come back and see it to an end. Mr. Burns, Smithers, Skinner and especially Ned Flanders, are such major characters and I can't see the show going on without them or with someone else voicing them.

Edit: Just after I posted this Al Jean tweeted out a link to this article, which indicates that not all hope is lost yet. We will just have to wait and see.

Image from here.