Shearer, eh? We'll remember that name.
It's all so Simpsons-esque, in its quick and cutting efficiency. A lawyer holding a briefcase and a terminated contract shows up, utters a few bureaucratic words, and suddenly, half of a community disappears.
After tomorrow's season finale in the United States, barring a reprieve from a real-life Judge Roy Snyder, much of Springfield becomes a ghost town. That's because Harry Shearer, the man of so many voices (including Snyder's), is reportedly not being brought back for Fox's historically long-running The Simpsons, which last week was renewed for Seasons 27 and 28.
Shearer, who has been there since the post-"Tracey Ullman" beginning, says that squabbles with his Simpsons employment overlords are not about his pay - reportedly US$300,000 ($401,485) an episode - but about his freedom to do outside work, from radio to the stage, a liberty he said he's enjoyed for decades.
Either way, this announcement tolls as not merely a power tactic amid contract negotiations, as has happened in the show's past with the main players. In this case, Simpsons honchos have separated Shearer from the herd and cut him loose. As showrunner Al Jean told CNN Money yesterday about the coming two seasons: "Harry Shearer will not be within the show." But what about the virtual herd of characters that Shearer so prominently voices? "We do not plan to 'kill off' his characters," Jean told CNN in an email, "but replace them with the most talented members of the voice-over community."